COLDFUSION: cfdocument and forcing a pagebreak

Question

I am creating a dynamic PDF in ColdFusion and having an issue with "pagebreak". The page in question could have 1 record, or up to 60+ records. Each record is displayed in 2 rows of a table. Some of the returned records are being split between pages (first row is at the end of page one, the second row is the top row of the next).

A sample record in displayed HTML:

<tr>
  <td>Title</td><td>Price</td>
  <td colspan="2">Description</td>
</tr>

Per client request, I am trying to display =< 9 records per page.

Here is a dumbed down sample of something I have tried:

<cfdocument format="PDF">
<cfoutput query = "sqllookup">
<cfset loopcount = loopcount + 1>
<cfif loopcount EQ '9'>
 <cfdocumentitem type="pagebreak" />
<cfelse>
<tr>
  <td>#Title#</td><td>#Price#</td>
  <td colspan="2">#Description#</td>
</tr>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>

This does not work, (it only hides the 9th record). I have tried several different ideas, and I am currently stumped. Am I over looking something?

Thanks in advance.

ColdFusion MX 7. (I also ran the hot fix for text cut-off issue. http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402093.html)

Answer 1

You are hiding the 9th record because you are choosing between displaying it and showing it:

if 9th record
    break page
else
    show record
end if

What you want is more like:

<cfoutput query = "sqllookup">
    <!--- this is the 9th row, because 9 mod 9 is 0 --->
    <cfif not sqllookup.currentrow mod 9>
        <cfdocumentitem type="pagebreak" />
    </cfif>
    <tr>
        <td>#Title#</td><td>#Price#</td>
        <td colspan="2">#Description#</td>
    </tr>
</cfoutput>

Answer 2

After wrestling with this issue on and off for several months, I've discovered that wrapping the contents of a td with a div (ie.<tr><td><div>Cell Contents</div></td></tr>) will prevent a page-break inside the row. With this setup, a page-break that would normally split the row between pages will instead fall before the row, creating a little extra whitespace at the end of the first page and placing the row at the beginning of the next page.

Note about rows with multiple cells: A single td-nested div is sufficient to cause the above behavior for the whole row.

<tr>
    <td>Blah blah blah blah blah</td>
    <td>Gnar gnar gnar gnar gnar</td>
    <td><div>Soda POP soda POP soda POP</div></td>    <!--- the fix --->
    <td>Stellar!</td>
</tr>