General Discussion - Evaluation Help

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Evaluation Help

Printed From: Debenu Quick PDF Library - PDF SDK Community Forum
Category: For Users of the Library
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: Discussion board for Debenu Quick PDF Library and Debenu PDF Viewer SDK
URL: http://www.quickpdf.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1374
Printed Date: 17 May 24 at 6:13AM
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Evaluation Help

Posted By: rchrystie
Subject: Evaluation Help
Date Posted: 19 Mar 10 at 8:50PM

I am currently reviewing the QuickPDF Library but am uncertain if it will accomodate our needs. I need to be able to load a PDF form in an ActiveX control on a form created in Visual Foxpro, load data from our database into the form, allow the user to interact and save the data back to the database. We have 10+ years of experience with Visual Foxpro, so I am certain we can manage that side of the equation.

I just need to make sure we can accomplish these goals with this product before proceeding. Our future depends on a full featured robust solution.

Regards!

Replies:

Posted By: Shotgun Tom
Date Posted: 20 Mar 10 at 2:58AM

If your question is can you Get, Set, Create, Interact, etc., PDF Forms (Acroforms and some XFA Forms) the answer is yes. How you would accomplish that in VFP is beyond me.

For a descriptions of form functions available in QuickPDF look here:

http://www.quickpdflibrary.com/help/quickpdf/FormFields.php - http://www.quickpdflibrary.com/help/quickpdf/FormFields.php

Welcome to the Forum!

Tom

Posted By: rchrystie
Date Posted: 01 Apr 10 at 4:48PM

I have done lots of reading and digging in the Help & this forum. I see the specific functions and have a somewhat working mockup. What I am still missing is the middle steps to provide the ability to present a PDF for users to edit.

I need to:

1) Init and load a PDF (template if you will - designed using Acrobat with form fields) from disk

2) Load the data from our database into the form fields

Problem is here:

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3) Display the PDF with any previously entered data and allow the users to edit

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4) Save the data from the form fields back into our database

I can handle (I think) steps 1,2 & 4 but I've not yet seen anything to manage viewing & editing a PDF on the screen. I did try RenderPageToDC() and the PDF shows up but it not editable.

From what I have observed, many of the responses are breif and somewhat cryptic as an outsider/newby. Any help is very appreciated!!

Posted By: Jack
Date Posted: 01 Apr 10 at 5:09PM

I have thought about whether this could be done in the past. It has not been a big enough need for me to go through the time and effort to get it to work. It seems like it would be a big job. My approach would be to render the PDF to an image, display that image in a control onscreen and then for each field on the form, get its position and size from the functions available in QPL. Then I would create edit controls for each field and hope that I could put the edit controls on top of the image in the right places. I think I would have a chance of making that work in Delphi. I don't know if you could in VFP.

Posted By: Rowan
Date Posted: 01 Apr 10 at 5:17PM

That's spot on Jack. It's not a 5 minute job, but it's possible. It might take a day to get the basics working (get co-ordinates, form field types, data, place on image, etc), but there are other difficulties such as using the correct font and size in the text form fields, etc, to make it look good, that would add more time onto the project.

Posted By: rchrystie
Date Posted: 01 Apr 10 at 5:50PM

Hum...I guess I must have missed something way early on. The PDF's we use already have Adobe form fields on them - but it sounds like we can't use them and have to programatically build input controls on the fly to overlay the place on the PDF once we convert it to an image?

Sorry but that pretty much negates the whole idea of using the existing interactive PDFs. It would be easier for us to create a custom UI natively. I had understood this toolkit allows you to leverage the benefits of PDFs and add custom handling. It looks like this is re-inventing the proverbial wheel.

Regardless - thanks a ton for your help & quick responce.

-Rod

Posted By: Ingo
Date Posted: 01 Apr 10 at 5:59PM

Hi Rod!

Like Rowan said already... It's possible but it will last.
It's not done in a day or two ;-)
Not working directly on the pdf-form but offering the form-fields via edit-controls and then setting the values into the pdf-fields later should be the best.
Please keep in mind that there are acrobat-forms which check itself if they are modified by third party tools and if it's so then you can't show the pdf via adobe reader!
Please read my blog regarding this fact:
http://pdfcomments.blogspot.com/2009/06/pdf-and-forms.html

Cheers and welcome here, Ingo

Posted By: ixm7
Date Posted: 26 Apr 10 at 11:31PM

Hi Rod,

In my application, I already implemented your steps 1, 2 & 3. To save the completed form to disk, I suggest my users open the pdf in the free "pdf Xchange Viewer" because it allows them to save the completed form information. I understand foxit does the same thing.

All of that is possible with the current and even older versions of the library.

I'm now in touch with Rowan, requesting that a SubmitFormAction be added to the library as a new option. He indicated this would require a significant amount of work. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Makes it difficult to use the keyboard though... :o)

Cheers,
- Ido