After the first experiment with LateX, we are setting up a way to produce PDF files from xsl-fo which is more flexible then LateX for report generation.

To use xsl-fo rendering, you create a zafu template starting with a fop tag. You can then write zafu to produce valid xml. The stylesheet must be stored at the same place as the zafu template and should produce valid xsl-fo.

This is an example of a template:

<r:fop stylesheet='print.xslt'>
<report>
  <title do='[v_title]'/>
  <entries do='pages'>
    <entry do='each'>...</entry>
  </entries>
</report>
</r:fop>

And the corresponding “print.xslt” stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<xsl:template match="/">
	<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
	  <fo:layout-master-set>
	    <fo:simple-page-master master-name="my-page">
	      <fo:region-body margin="1in"/>
	    </fo:simple-page-master>
	  </fo:layout-master-set>

	  <fo:page-sequence master-reference="my-page">
	    <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
				<fo:block text-align="right" font-family="Helvectica, Arial, sans-serif" font-size="18pt">
					<xsl:value-of select="report/title" />
				</fo:block>
	      <xsl:apply-templates select='report/entries'/>
	    </fo:flow>
	  </fo:page-sequence>
	</fo:root>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="entries">
    <fo:block font-family="Helvectica, Arial, sans-serif" font-size="32pt">entries</fo:block>
    <xsl:apply-templates select="entry" />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="entry">
    <fo:block><xsl:value-of select='date'></fo:block>
    <fo:block><xsl:value-of select='action'></fo:block>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

This should give you a basic hint on how to get started with zafu-fo.