PHP - Mail Merge type functionality
Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:16 pm
Hello,
Any help on the following would be greatly appreciated.
Problem: We have many templates of Letters, Statements, Invoices, etc. that are in either MS Word or PDF format. We need the ability to dynamically merge data into these templates. The merged data could vary in size, so the document would need to adjust dynamically based on the merged data. The volume can be anywhere from 1 - 15,000 documents (1 - 500,000 pages). Our operating system is IBM i/OS and we use PHP as our front-end programming language. It seems that we are limited in some of the 3rd party products that may be able to handle this requirement due to the operating system and/or use of PHP. Have tried FDPF and TCPDF but doesn't have all of the functionality we need. Read that PDFLib can do what we need, however it's not supported for IBM i/OS and PHP.
Real World Example: A Bank has 100,000 customers. Each customer gets a monthly statement showing them their transactions for the month and additional dynamic information relating to their account. The bank prints and mails these statements, emails a PDF copy, and allows the customer to access their statement online via a web page. What technology does the bank use to handle all of the above quickly, efficiently, and in high quality output?
The solution must be able to do the following (not in any specific order)
1) Run on IBM i/OS
2) Easily integrate with PHP
3) Handle high volume processing
4) Have similar functionality to MS Mail Merge (allow varying size of dynamic data)
5) Templates can be in MS Word or PDF format
6) High Quality output
7) Easily printable by either sending directly to a printer queue or easily printable from opening PDF
8 ) Run "On-demand" or in batch processing
Thanks very much for any help or advice.
Mike
Any help on the following would be greatly appreciated.
Problem: We have many templates of Letters, Statements, Invoices, etc. that are in either MS Word or PDF format. We need the ability to dynamically merge data into these templates. The merged data could vary in size, so the document would need to adjust dynamically based on the merged data. The volume can be anywhere from 1 - 15,000 documents (1 - 500,000 pages). Our operating system is IBM i/OS and we use PHP as our front-end programming language. It seems that we are limited in some of the 3rd party products that may be able to handle this requirement due to the operating system and/or use of PHP. Have tried FDPF and TCPDF but doesn't have all of the functionality we need. Read that PDFLib can do what we need, however it's not supported for IBM i/OS and PHP.
Real World Example: A Bank has 100,000 customers. Each customer gets a monthly statement showing them their transactions for the month and additional dynamic information relating to their account. The bank prints and mails these statements, emails a PDF copy, and allows the customer to access their statement online via a web page. What technology does the bank use to handle all of the above quickly, efficiently, and in high quality output?
The solution must be able to do the following (not in any specific order)
1) Run on IBM i/OS
2) Easily integrate with PHP
3) Handle high volume processing
4) Have similar functionality to MS Mail Merge (allow varying size of dynamic data)
5) Templates can be in MS Word or PDF format
6) High Quality output
7) Easily printable by either sending directly to a printer queue or easily printable from opening PDF
8 ) Run "On-demand" or in batch processing
Thanks very much for any help or advice.
Mike