HTML/XHTML Remote Print Server Demo

HTML/XHTML Remote Print Server Demo
Powered by Mozilla Gecko and Dynalivery Saffron
Demo v0.983 - December 12, 2006

This demo invokes the Mozilla Gecko renderer as a concurrent, headless server over the Internet. Gecko transforms the relative positions of HTML/XHTML into the absolute coordinates of PostScript, closely reflecting the Print Preview¹^,² display in Firefox. This PostScript is read by Dynalivery's Saffron and transformed into PDF, JPEG, AFP, SVG or PS (Microsoft).

To appreciate our solution, look at a few web pages in the Print Preview display of both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Notice the subtle and not-so subtle differences. These differences may be further magnified by server applications printing via yet another layer of HTML or XML renderings.

Normally we would think of browsers as a strictly single user, graphical application. The magic of concurrent Gecko comes from executing it within a framework that Dynalivery has used since 1998 to transform desktop Crystal Reports into a server.

We welcome your feedback and questions at techsupport@dynalivery.com. Partnership inquiries are invited.

Demo instructions:

Select a URL from the drop-down list or enter your own
Select the desired output type and scale from the drop-down lists.
Change orientation to landscape if desired.
Choose any or all the options provided, namely, to include background color/images, disable print stylesheets or to include hyper links in the outputs.
Please note that as of this version hyperlinks are supported only for PDF outputs.
Enter a personalized footer to appear on each page
Click submit, and wait a few moments for the results.

Select URL :
      -or-
Enter your favorite URL :
      -or-
Enter your Word Document URL :
      (Experimental - Microsoft Word 97 .doc or Higher)

Select Saffron Output Type :

Select Scale :

Orientation option :
Portrait Landscape

Background Color & Images option:
Print Background Colors
Print Background Images
Disable Print Stylesheet
Enable Hyper Links
Enable Javascript

Enter Personalized footer :

What is the key issue that your document raises or answers?

One of the first packagings of this solution will be the Saffron print server appliance, available in Spring 2006 for USD 12,000. It will use the Microsoft Windows XP Embedded version and the Intel Pentium D (dual core) processor.

Potential uses of the Saffron appliance include:

Printing to PDF (or "ink on paper" printers) for custom application developers who use software tools from ActiveState (sample), Altova XMLSpy (sample), Oxygen (sample), Progress/DataDirect Stylus (sample) and others. Users of these tools commonly generate HTML/XHTML for viewing screens and another technology, XSL-FO for printing. With Saffron, HTML/XHTML will become more generally viable for both viewing screens and printing.
Alternative to the full-use Adobe Acrobat for users with thin-clients.
Rendering of Microsoft Word documents on a royalty-free server.

The Saffron appliance will work in a cluster configuration with both load balancing and failover capabilities. It will be integratable with J2EE applications with a Java library and Microsoft market applications with COM and .NET libraries. Dynalivery is evaluating several options for making it available as a public web service.

This demo runs on a dual 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon with Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Saffron runs under Sun JRE 1.5.0.04 and the Mozilla 1.8 release.
As a demo, this system may be unavailable at times.
If you encounter any problems, please try again later.

			IBM AFP Viewer plug-in for Windows

Mozilla and Firefox are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation. Crystal Reports is a registered trademark of Business Objects. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, the Acrobat logo, and PostScript are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.