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Publish Berkeley DB data to PDF with xtopdf (Python recipe) by Vasudev Ram
ActiveState Code (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/578814/)

This recipe shows how to convert the data stored in a Berkeley DB database to PDF, using the xtopdf toolkit for PDF creation. It should work on either Linux/Unix or Windows.

Python, 47 lines
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# BSDDBToPDF.py

# Program to convert Berkeley DB (BSD DB) data to PDF.
# Uses Python's bsdd library (deprecated in Python 3),
# and xtopdf.
# Author: Vasudev Ram - http://www.dancingbison.com

import sys
import bsddb
from PDFWriter import PDFWriter

try:
    # Flag 'c' opens the DB read/write and doesn't delete it if it exists.
    fruits_db = bsddb.btopen('fruits.db', 'c')
    fruits = [
            ('apple', 'The apple is a red fruit.'),
            ('banana', 'The banana is a yellow fruit.'),
            ('cherry', 'The cherry is a red fruit.'),
            ('durian', 'The durian is a yellow fruit.')
            ]
    # Add the key/value fruit records to the DB.
    for fruit in fruits:
        fruits_db[fruit[0]] = fruit[1]
    fruits_db.close()

    # Read the key/value fruit records from the DB and write them to PDF.
    with PDFWriter("fruits.pdf") as pw:
        pw.setFont("Courier", 12)
        pw.setHeader("BSDDBToPDF demo: fruits.db to fruits.pdf")
        pw.setFooter("Generated by xtopdf")
        fruits_db = bsddb.btopen('fruits.db', 'c')
        print "FRUITS"
        print
        pw.writeLine("FRUITS")
        pw.writeLine(" ")
        for key in fruits_db.keys():
            print key
            print fruits_db[key]
            print
            pw.writeLine(key)
            pw.writeLine(fruits_db[key])
            pw.writeLine(" ")
        fruits_db.close()

except Exception, e:
    sys.stderr.write("ERROR: Caught exception: " + repr(e) + "\n")
    sys.exit(1)

To run the program, you need Python >= 2.5, Reportlab 1.21, bsddb that comes with the Python standard library.

The program is a demo; it creates a Berkeley DB database called fruits.db, populates it with a few sample records, and then reads back those records and writes them to a PDF file, using the xtopdf toolkit,

Tags: bsddb, database, pdf, python, xtopdf

1 comment

Vasudev Ram (author) 10 years, 3 months ago  # | flag

More details are available at this blog post, along with some background about Berkeley DB, and a screenshot of the output PDF created:

http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2014/01/publish-berkeley-db-data-to-pdf-with.html