Here's an option that I have not fully implemented yet, but had started to research... In my case, I wanted to programmatically generate course completion certificates for corporate training classes. I had all the registration info in the database, and in theory, the instructor would go into a form after the class, marked who attended and this would make the certificate available to the students. What I did was create a PDF using Adobe Acrobat that had form fields on it. (If you have the complex form in Word, you might be able to convert it to PDF and lay Acrobat form fields in the correct places...) Then I saved the form with security to prevent changes to the PDF, selecting text and graphics, and adding or changing of form fields -- make sure to save to a new file name and preserve the unsecured version because I do not believe you can un-secure a secured PDF. In addition, I used the File | Export | Form Data menu to create a corresponding fdf file making sure that I put a value in each field prior to export so that placeholders would be generated for each field. If you open the FDF file in WordPad, you'll see it is nothing more than a text file that contains a value "/V (somevalue)" for each field "/T (fieldname)". In addition there is a /F parameter that contains the location of the PDF. So in theory if I were to complete my project, I'd use ASP to generate the FDF files, send them to the client and then when the client opened the file, if would pull the corresponding PDF from the server to display the page...
In your scenario, you could publish the PDF to a publicly available location and then generate and email the FDF files to the people. If there is no publicly available location, you can omit the path on the /F parameter and the fdf will look in the same directory for the PDF, but in this case, you'd have to deal with users opening the PDF and getting a blank form, not detaching the files, so the PDF is not found, etc... Like I said previously, I have not completely implemented the above, but I have enough for a rough proof of concept. The major issue in my part was how different browsers inconsistently deal with the fdf file (spawn new window, etc.) If you'd like me to email my test pdf and fdf to play with, please email me you address off the list and I'll email them to you as attachments are not allowed on the list... As for part b???? Your on your own here, I have nothing to add here... -Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Jorge Biquez Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 10:40 AM To: NT 2000 Discussions Subject: PDF's and advice on fee pls. Hello all. I have two question for you. Thanks in advance. a) A prospect of client is asking me to develop an application that validate users against a database, after validation they could fill some forms, depending on status , group and data returned by the validation. After they fill the form a PDF has to be created on the fly and sent by email to the client and his/her sale advisor. Any tips on where to start? I mean the PDF part. Tools, language to use? The client don't care the language or platform to use. He can change to whatever gave him the solution. Oh, the PDF is kind of complex as well as the form to fill. b) I have not been working on my own on projects like this for a while. How much would you say this project is worth? How would you charge it? per hours? per project?. The project includes to configure and setup the platform and software chosen for the project. As always thanks in advance for all your help. Jorge Biquez ------ You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ------ You are subscribed as [email protected] Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
