-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Peter Demling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Thanks very much for the replies, Bill & Bruno (I'm not above > doubling-down on the ice-cream offer!). > > Bruno, your suggestion of removing the XFA before filling the form (with the > questions.forms.RemoveXfa code) is a good one: unfortunately, our workflow > requires that the form is user-enabled before it's populated by iText. I just > ran RemoveXfa to confirmed the expected behavior: removing the XFA breaks > pre-existing user-enabling (because the PDFStamper constructor does not > append); but removing the XFA with append=true in the PDFStamper constructor > prevents any value from being set. >
Peter, I think the way to do this is to remove the XFA before using Acrobat to Reader-Enable the form, i.e. Reader-Enabling the form must be the last step after all other changes to the form. You shold then be able to use PdfStamper to populate the fields, with append parameter = true. Please try this and let us know what happens. > FYI, user-enabling the form before pre-filling is required because our > workflow > goes something like this: > I don't have a copy of Acrobat Pro 8 with which to Reader-Enable forms. I do, however, have a couple of Reader-Enabled AcroForms, one of which is The Rotary Foundation's Global Contribution Form, a copy of which I can provide for your experimentation (and use to make a contibution, if you wish). > 1. User requests download of user-enabled pdf form > 2. Servlet pre-populates form with some of the values (header-type info) > 3. Servlet downloads pre-populated, user-enabled form to user > 4. User edits and saves, edits and saves offline (<500 users) > 5. User uploads form to processing servlet > The other AcroForm that I had mentioned previously is in a sandbox on my Tripod site. I can move a copy of it into the directory there for you, temporarily, if you'd like to see how the use of it online or offline does not break the Reader-Enabled feature. Neither of the above-cited PDFs started out as an XFA form, IIRC. > So since this is an on-demand servlet download, we can't stop between steps 2 > and 3 to add user rights to the form. As to the other options: > IMO, you shouldn't have to do this if the AcroForm (with XFA removed) is Reader-Enabled before you deploy it. > - I looked at LiveCycle ES, but it's not implementable for us at this late > date; > > - A different PDF client that can read and save forms locally is something I > hadn't thought of. From this suggestion, I just saw a list of these options > at > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software . Realistically though, > Adobe > Reader is the universal cross-OS pdf client on our intranet devices, so at > this > date, I'm more inclined to pursue some flavor of the following: > A while back, I built a demo that worked with the AcroForm displayed in one frame in the browser, an automatically-generated HTML form alongside that was equivalent to the AcroForm, and a third frame on the bottom to display the FDF/XFDF generated by a server-side script. It worked like a charm, but would not be practicable, IMO, because of the restrictions of the Reader EULA. Note: my demo used Reader 4, which did not have the same EULA as more recent versions. > - Generate a non-XFA, pure AcroForm instead. To skip to the end of the > story, a > couple of the old XFA->Acro conversion hacks no longer work in Acrobat 8, but > I > did achieve partial success last night: if you do a File->Print of the XFA > Form > and send it to AdobePDF (which is available as a "Printer" when you install > AcrobatPro), it will create a flattened PDF file that looks exactly like the > old > XFA form (come to think of it, I could have just used iText to flatten it, > eh?). > Yes. > From there, I used the tools at "Tools->Forms" to manually add an input text > Field, then Reader-Enabled the AcroForm, > and presto: pure AcroForm that works with multiple offline saves. Now > all I have to do is sit with my designer co-worker and re-create all of the > form > fields in this way (I really must be missing something in the tool though, > because I'm finding this manner of Acrobat form creation to be quite crude – > did > people really used to design forms this way?). > It seems Acrobat 8 Pro might have a rudimentary tool for automating the generation of form fields, as the Reader-Enabled PDF form at http://www.sar.org/membership/application.html appears to have been done with this tool. The staff person who generated the AcroForm, for some reason, didn't want anyone to know who actually Reader-Enabled the AcroForm, but I do know that the blank PDF form starts with the master that is used by the Society's commercial printer for the printing of pre-printed paper application forms. The one that you see that has my name attached to it has not been Reader-Enabled, although if you were to do that for me and send it to me as an attachment to a private email, I would be grateful. > So I'm also going to try and quickly evaluate the > JPedal/Scribus/RenderX/Open Office tools you mentioned to make this conversion > easier. I also read a claim last night that Acrobat9 can do XFA->Acro > conversion, but this is yet to be confirmed (Bill, it sounded like you create > AcroForms directly - any suggestions?). > Yes, in some cases. In the case of the NSSAR application form on my Tripod site, http://segraves.tripod.com, I built the entire AcroForm with a modified version of the TextFields example from the book, using a build-a-little, test-a-little, incremental process. I used Acrobat 3 as the viewer and gVim (with the Pdftk plugin), as both an inspector and as the editor. I can give you the userpw, if it would be helpful for you to get a look at it. Just fill out the registration form on my Tripod site, submit it, and send me the FDF (as an email attachment) that is generated by the server-side script. BTW, it would be interesting to see if the password-protected AcroForm could be successfully Reader-Enabled with Acrobat 8. I expect it can, as the AcroForm that I did for the General Society of the War of 1812 was successfully Reader-Enabled after I did my modifications to give it "actions". > Thanks you again for your assistance. I'll post a follow-up if I'm able to > successfully complete the XFA form conversion to Acro > (or if I'm not successful!). > > Regards, > -Peter Demling > Lexington, MA You're very welcome. I hope you are able to get past the problems you're having with your PDF form. Best regards, Bill Segraves ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW! 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