----- Original Message ----- From: "Leonard Rosenthol" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Post all your questions about iText here" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, 29 April, 2007 6:12 PM Subject: Re: [iText-questions] Formular Submit from PDF
> On Apr 29, 2007, at 4:13 PM, William Alexander Segraves wrote: > > I've > > read that Adobe views iText as a competitive threat; but hope that > > view has > > changed. Clearly, iText has significant value to Adobe, else it > > wouldn't be > > distributed with any Adobe products. > > > > I don't know where you read that, but I would say that it is > completely UNTRUE! Perhaps I misinterpreted what I read. Regardless, I'd prefer not to attribute the untruth to someone whom I might have misinterpreted. Thank you for the clarification. > As you point out, Adobe ships iText with some of > it's server products (two, I believe - LiveCycle PDF Generator and > ColdFusion, IIRC). I have also recommend it's use in other projects > as well. If anything, we are committed to HELPING iText... > Good. I'm glad to hear that from someone directly connected with Adobe. > > > Indeed. The only concern I had about the EULA was that the Reader > > EULA for > > Reader 7 (and up, I presume), prohibits the use of Reader on the same > > computer or network with software that makes it possible to save a > > filled > > PDF (thereby circumventing the need for Reader Extensions). > > Same computer, yes. Same network, no. > So I'm O.K. if I do the server-side goodies (providing a filled PDF that is savable) on another computer (server) on my network, e.g., the computer in my WRT54G wireless router, or any other computer on my LAN. > > > I understand. So, it's O.K. for the "localhost" server-side > > software to save > > the form data, as long as the server-side process does not save a > > copy of > > the filled PDF. > > Correct. > > The localhost server can save the data to it's own data-store all it > wants - no problems! It is the creation of a filled-in PDF via the > server process that creates the violation. > So, if a Java-iText class is provided that does the merging on the client-side of the transaction, separately from the interaction between the client browser and the "localhost" server, this would be O.K. Right? > > > Is it also O.K. for the "localhost" server-side process to "emit" a > > filled > > PDF, e.g., a dynamically-filled PDF via an iText class? > > > > No, it is not. That is what we wish to prevent, since that's > functionality equivalent to "Save As". > I understand. > > >> We already offer dynamic forms support via XFA forms. They are VERY > >> powerful including both single field dynamism as well as entire "sub > >> forms" that can grow and shrink. Try it - you'll like it! > >> > > > > Perhaps there's a potential solution here for the problems I've > > described. I > > look forward to trying it. Do all these capabilities exist with the > > free > > Reader, or ar Reader Extensions required to play nicely with them? > > > > Yes, all this works quite nicely in Reader! If you want to be able > to save a copy locally, then you also need Reader Extensions. You mean a copy of the filled PDF. Naturally, there's no violation of any aspect of the Reader EULA if a localhost-based process provided a savable fory of the form data, e.g., FDF, XFDF, URL-encoded name=value pairs. > But if > you only want to work with the form and then submit data to a server, > you need only Reader. > And, in this case, it doen't matter where the server is located, including on the same computer that initiates the "submit" action. > > > O.K. One thing comes to mind. It seems that Reader 7 does not > > support an > > "Import Form Data" action, a capability that WAS provided in all prior > > versions of Reader that I've tested, i.e., v. 3 through 5 (I > > haven't tested > > this assertion with v. 6). > > > > I'd need to check to be certain, but I am pretty sure that this > works just fine with Reader 8. Thanks. I'll try it myself next time I'm on a computer with Reader 8. Best regards, -- Bill Segraves ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://itext.ugent.be/itext-in-action/
