This is a significant release that includes major improvements in three main areas - Page headers and footers, Tabular output, and Templates. This includes a number of changes to the configuration screens.

Existing views should be compatible, but at a minimum, the view configuration page should be opened, the settings reviewed, and the configuration saved. For a view in tabular mode, some adjustment of margins and spacing parameters may be required to achieve the same output as before.

The new and changed features are described below. This information is also in the README.txt file (available via module help).

Page headers and footers

There are additional settings for the header and footer styling under PDF Header & Footer. These allow the default font and alignment parameters to be defined separately for the header & footer. The Header Margin and Footer Spacing values define the vertical placement of the header and footer. For the header it's the distance from the edge of the page, for the footer it's the distance from the start of the bottom margin.

You can embed the page number in a header or footer by using the marker !page. This is mainly for use in table mode, as you can't place fields in the header or footer so the page number field can't be used. Note that other variable substitutions can be achieved using the token-filter module, with a text format in which it's enabled.

Tabular output

In PDF Table mode there are additional layout settings, for the column data and for the column headings. In each case you can set specific text and alignment parameters. You can set defaults that apply to all columns, and also override with specifics for individual columns. Any value not given a default or specific value will fall back to the PDF document settings.

Cell padding and borders can be specified for both headers and rows. Padding applies above and below the text in a cell. A border surrounds any padding and can be specified either using "1" for a border on all sides, or a combination of the letters L, R, T, B to selectively add a border to any of the four sides ("LRTB" is the same as "1").

You can also set a width for each column. Columns without a set width are divided evenly into the remaining space. The table will be sized to fit within the page margins, unless you set a width for every column, and the total is less than the width between margins.

Column headings are optional, if specified you can define a header spacing to create a gap between the header and the first line.

Row Height is optional, the default row height will be big enough to accommodate one line of the largest column font. An entered Row Height smaller than this will be overridden. If a larger Row Height is entered then all rows will be made this height. This can be used to allow column data to wrap onto multiple lines - as many lines as will fit within the height will be displayed. Data that won't fit is truncated.

Each page will be filled with as many rows as will fit before reaching the bottom margin. You can, however, use the PDF page-break field. The field will not appear in the list of columns, but will still force a break after the set number of rows.

Note that all rows will be the same height, even if the extra space is not filled - variable height rows are not supported.

Row data is never rendered as HTML, as it's impossible to control row height if HTML is used. This is important to ensure correct breaking across multiple pages.

Templates

Templates are external PDF files that can be used as a background for the output, as well as be printed before and/or after the generated output. To make a PDF available as a template you must first upload it. In the main Views list page, there is an additional tab "PDF Templates". Use this to manage your template files - you can upload, view, and delete templates.

Once you have uploaded one or more templates, use PDF Template Settings in the view's configuration to select templates in any combination for leading, background, or trailing position. For leading and trailing templates you can select whether to print page headers and/or footers on the template.

Label formatting

[#3147142]
In unformatted mode, Customize label HTML settings now work (they were previously ignored).

VCS Label
7.x-3.0
Core compatibility
Release type
Short description
Major improvements to tabular output, headers/footers, and templates
Packaged Git sha1
3193142597988ad1e934e22b9253e4b50e65302c
Release files
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Release file SHA-1 hash
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Release file SHA-256 hash
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Release file SHA-1 hash
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Release file SHA-256 hash
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