How the servlet utilities came to be

The Ohio Department of Transportation has the need to dynamically generate and retain PDF files across the Internet using Java and not dependent on MS Windows. It was my duty to investigate this need (more generally stated as a requirement to preview and print high-quality documents) and to produce a prototype to validate this ability. After several weeks of reviewing various Java printing packages (commercial and Open Source), it became increasingly evident that their were many aspects of this need were not met by any single package.

Because of the nature of the documents required, they didn't fit the "report writer" category of products and also didn't fit the "OLAP" category either. There are a several commercial products that came close in their functionality, but carried unbearable price tags in the form of kludgey operational implementation and/or reliance on proprietary tools and formats (not to mention the original license fee and support fees).

So, the decision was made to write our own. Thanks to Laura Baxter, (the project manager) the requirements were pruned to a finite set of needs that were easy to implement.

Upon stabilization of the first version, it became evident that these utilities could be of wider general use inside and outside of ODOT. Angelo Serra took the steps necessary to release this code under the GNU Public License, and set up a web site on the ODOT bastion server to enable distribution. Angelo granted me permission to set up a mirror site on my own server.

I am an employee of Compuware, on assignment to ODOT in Columbus, OH.

Contents

Introduction

How the servlet utilities came to be

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