At a Glance
XF Desktop Edition comes with the same capabilities as our server version, including:
- Supports XML, XSL-FO, HTML, WordML, DOCX, SVG as input formats.
- Generates documents in PDF, POSTSCRIPT, TIFF, Word, PowerPoint and other formats.
- Has full support for compression, font embedding, hyperlinks, bookmarks (outlines), encryption, document security, etc.
- Has comprehensive support for paginated documents.
- Can send output directly to a printer.
- Has a small memory footprint.
- Compatible with the ClickOnce technology which enables installing applications over the Web.
In addition, it provides two .NET Controls: the XSL-FO Viewer Control and the XSL-FO Editor Control.
Both controls provide out-of-the box features that you can use to easily enhance your desktop applications.
XSL-FO Viewer Control
The viewer .NET control provides rich functionality for desktop applications, including:
- The ability to preview your documents.
- Print directly to a local or network printer.
- Generate PDF and Word documents
- Send PDF documents as attachments by email
- Zoom and navigate the document.
XFViewerCtrlSample.exe and the complete source code is included in the OEM zip file.
XSL-FO Editor Control
The editor .NET control provides added ability to editing your documents and provides the same support like a rich text editor.
This includes support for:
- Making small changes and corrections to your templates and XSL-FO documents.
- Changing fonts and colors.
- Insert images, tables and hyperlinks.
- Print directly to a local or network printer.
- Generate PDF and Word documents.
- Send PDF documents as attachments by email.
- Zoom and navigate the document.
- Spell check your documents in 19 languages.
ClickOnce deployments
XF Desktop Edition is compliant with the ClickOnce deployment technology from Microsoft.
ClickOnce enables the user to install and run a Windows application by clicking a link in a web page. The basic ideea behind this technology is to simplify the deployment of rich desktop applications.
In addition, ClickOnce aims to solve three other problems with conventional deployment models:
- the difficulty in updating a deployed application
- the impact of an application to the user's computer
- the need for administrator permissions to install applications.
ClickOnce-deployed applications are considered 'low impact', in that they are installed per-user, not per-machine. No administrator privileges are required to install one of these applications and each ClickOnce application is isolated from the other. This means one ClickOnce application is not able to 'break' another.
To download and execute from a web page you application you must use Internet Explorer or Firefox with the FFClickOnce add-on.
Open Standards
XF Rendering Server can format any XML document by applying document layouts described in XSL, which is an open standard developed by by W3C consortium, the same organization that standardizes HTML and virtually all major XML languages. XF Rendering Server is compliant with the XSL-FO 1.1 specifications.
Another XML technology standardized by W3C and used by Ecrion XF Rendering Server is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). SVG can describe vectorial images (maps, charts, various graphics) that can scale without quality loss.