iText - Preview of things to come .. someday (RTF to PDF)

Update November 19, 2009: Unfortunately, it looks like RTF will be abandoned and moved to an incubator project.
http://www.mail-archive.com/itext-questions%40lists.sourceforge.net/msg47892.html

So I have been searching around for non-commercial tools for converting rtf/word documents to pdf. (Yes, I know some of you are chuckling as you read this). The search has been interesting, and though I have not found the magic bullet yet, I did learn about some neat tools along the way, which I may write about later.

While commericial tools are probably still the best option at this point, I did come across some promising updates on the iText site. They mentioned expanding the rtf functionality to include partial support for

• reading rtf files
  
• converting rtf to pdf format.

Of course it is still under development right now. But I am looking forward to the first official release. I played around with version 2.1.5 a bit, and surprisingly I was actually able to convert an rtf file to pdf. Now since the feature is not finished, I was pleased to get any output at all. Mind you some of the rtfs I tested worked a bit better than others. A few were a bit garbled, but I am impressed. It is definitely coming along nicely. I do not know where the developers find the time ..

Now, examples for the new RTF jars are understandably a little sparse at this point. (The code has undergone some drastic changes). But for the curious, here is the code I came up with. Keep in mind I am still learning from the api. So do not take this as a model for correct code usage ;)

Java Example

import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;
import com.lowagie.text.rtf.parser.RtfParser;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

public class ConvertRTFToPDF {


public static void main(String[] args) {
 String inputFile = "sample.rtf";
 String outputFile = "sample_converted.pdf";

 // create a new document
 Document document = new Document();

 try {
     // create a PDF writer to save the new document to disk
     PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(outputFile));
     // open the document for modifications
     document.open();

     // create a new parser to load the RTF file
     RtfParser parser = new RtfParser(null);
     // read the rtf file into a compatible document
     parser.convertRtfDocument(new FileInputStream(inputFile), document);

     // save the pdf to disk
     document.close();

     System.out.println("Finished");

 } catch (DocumentException e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
 } catch (IOException e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
 }
}

}

ColdFusion
Requirements: iText 2.1.5 and JavaLoader

Instructions for installing a newer version of iText without breaking ColdFusion

<h1>Convert RTF to PDF Example</h1>
As of 04/24/2009, the feature is <b>not</b> fully implemented
in iText. (In other words, do not expect it to work perfectly at this
time)<br><hr>

<cfscript>
    savedErrorMessage = "";

    // get a reference to the javaLoader
    javaLoader = server[application.myJavaLoaderKey];

    // initliaze file paths
    pathToInputFile = ExpandPath("./sample.rtf");
    pathToOutputFile = ExpandPath("./sample.pdf");

    // create a new document
     document = javaLoader.create("com.lowagie.text.Document").init();

    try {
        // create a PDF writer to save the new document to disk
        outStream = createObject("java", "java.io.FileOutputStream").init( pathToOutputFile );
        PdfWriter = javaLoader.create("com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter");
        writer = PdfWriter.getInstance( document, outStream );

        // open the document for modifications first
        document.open();

        // create a new parser to load the RTF file
        parser = javaLoader.create("com.lowagie.text.rtf.parser.RtfParser").init( javacast("null", "") );

        // read the rtf file into the document
        inStream = createObject("java", "java.io.FileInputStream").init( pathToInputFile );
        parser.convertRtfDocument( inStream, document );

         // save the converted document (ie pdf) to disk
        document.close();

        WriteOutput("Finished! File saved: "& pathToOutputFile);

    }
    catch (Exception e) {
        savedErrorMessage = e;
    }

    // always close the streams
    if ( isDefined("inStream") )
    {
        inStream.close();
    }
    if ( isDefined("outStream") )
    {
        outStream.close();
    }
   </cfscript>

   <!--- show any errors --->
   <cfif len(savedErrorMessage) gt 0>
       Error - unable to create document
       <cfdump var="#savedErrorMessage#">
   </cfif>