SPUG: help with dynamic pdf forms

Ashok Misra ashok_palihill at hotmail.com
Tue Jul 15 11:55:01 CDT 2003


i apologize if this sounds totally ridiculous but if the structure of the 
document is not very complex could you plonk the form on the file system 
using sgml tags so it becomes an sgml document.
then you could use jade to compile the sgml into pdf. a trigger could be 
devised to fire the compiler.
using the freeware jade compiler is very straightforward.

best regards
Ashok Misra
206 427 5232





>From: Alan <alan at ufies.org>
>To: spug-list at pm.org
>Subject: Re: SPUG: help with dynamic pdf forms
>Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 09:12:55 -0700
>
>I can't go into the details too much due to NDA, but they are wanting to
>produce print quality items with user input in them.  I have talked to
>some other people and they suggested using FDF files which may solve the
>problem (from what I understand it's a text file with form field
>contents and a link to the pdf itself, and that is displayed onscreen
>with the fields filled out), but it does not allow people to save the
>"final" pdf (with user input).  The design is all in PDF form (as artsy
>types like) but I'll take a look at pdf->ps->[fill in fields]->pdf.  The
>project is just in the planning research stage right now anyway.
>
>Thanks for the idea though.
>
>alan
>
>On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 08:52:51AM -0700, Jay Scherrer wrote:
> > Alan,
> > This is exactly how we produce our tax forms using Practical Tax.
> > Can you use PostScript?
> > We had found that if we were to convert the form from PDF to PostScript 
>and
> > anded our variables ($var) into the form entry point. If you play around 
>with
> > your PostScript you'll find that your entries will be contained within  
>a set
> > of parenthisis "( )". Create a template that contains your variables 
>within
> > those parenthisis. Then all you have to do is assign values to those 
>$vars
> > and have Perl print the file.
> > This enabled us to parse print the .ps page through Perl. Basicly 
>replacing
> > any ($var) with your inputed value. We had to extend it a little by 
>creating
> > an XML file for our records allowing us to traverse the hash and 
>replacing
> > the tagged entry with the matched $variable.
> >
> > Jay
> > On Monday 14 July 2003 12:08 pm, Alan wrote:
> > > Howdy folks.  I have a project coming up involving filling data into 
>PDF
> > > forms created by a design firm.  I'm pretty sure that this can be 
>done,
> > > and hopefully relatively easily.
> > >
> > > Basically what I need to do is take user input and insert it into a
> > > pre-set position / form field in an already created static PDF.  I'm 
>not
> > > all that familiar with acrobat, but it has a "form field" tool that
> > > allows creation of text fields, checkboxes, etc.  All I need to do is
> > > take user input and stick it into those form fields (I only care about
> > > the text fields).
> > >
> > > Obviously creating the pdfs from scratch via PDF-Lib isn't an option.
> > > Can anyone point me at whatever the in vogue tool / library for this 
>is?
> > >
> > > Regards and thanks from up north
> > >
> > > alan
> >
> > --
> > Personalized e-mail and domain names:
> > <http://netidentity.com/BI3CCYFM
>
>--
>Alan <alan at ufies.org> - http://arcterex.net
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
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