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-------- Origineel bericht --------
Onderwerp: RE: [iText-questions] Multipage pdf form with iTextSharp
Datum: Wed, 8 Aug 2012 09:21:38 +0000
Van: David Horák <[email protected]>
Aan:
Here are answers to your additional questions:
1/ The form template has indeed been created with Adobe LiveCycle
Designer in the form of a dynamic XFA. However, it still does not work.
In essence, the template is used to generate a letter. A user directly
inputs the content of the subject and main body text fields, while other
fields, such as the recipient or the sender, are populated from the
database.
Whilst making the form template, I created a fixed layout with textboxes
positioned appropriately as to satisfy the layout of a letter. The
approx outline is as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
RECIPIENT DETAILS
DATE, PLACE
SUBJECT
MESSAGE ( of dynamic length)
SENDER DETAILS (to be appended after the end of message - if multiple
pages, show only on the last page).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When I produce my template with Adobe LiveCycle Designer, it is a one
page document. If the message textbox could stretch over more pages, all
would be fine. However, if the text for message field is longer, it just
overflows underneath the sender details and off the page.
2/ The PDF is being flattened, as no edits are permitted once generated.
Thanks
David
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* iText Info [[email protected]]
*Sent:* 08 August 2012 10:10
*To:* Post all your questions about iText here
*Subject:* Re: [iText-questions] Multipage pdf form with iTextSharp
Op 8/08/2012 9:18, David Horák schreef:
Hello everyone!
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You are receiving this mail only because your address was added in Bcc:
The reason I am writing to you regards the creation of pdf forms with
the iTextSharp library. Despite having read many articles about this
matter, as well as consulted several developers, I have not been able
to resolve my issue. I hope some of you could at least point me in the
right direction.
To get to the point - my website collects user input from various
textboxes. One of them, however, can be up to 60000 characters in
length. All the user input compiles in the pdf to constitute a letter,
with the abovementioned textbox being the main body of the letter.
The pdf template has been created with Acrobat.
Are you sure? Which version of Acrobat?
This is important because there are two flavors of forms.
Forms created using Adobe Acrobat are based on AcroForm technology. They
are static. A text field that measures 7 by 3 inches will remain 7 by 3
inches no matter how much or how little content you're adding. There is
nothing you can do about that. If you want the form to expand based on
the data, you've created the wrong type of form.
Forms created by Adobe LiveCycle Designer (this tool comes for free with
Adobe Acrobat) are based on the XML Forms Architecture (XFA). There are
static XFA forms and dynamic XFA forms. In the case of dynamic XFA, the
PDF format is used as a container for XML. You can design the form in
such a way that it adapts to its content. I think that's what you want
to do.
All fields are set to extend vertically to fit in text, but this is
sadly not the case. If more characters are entered by the user in the
main body of the letter (one of the textboxes), only so much of the
text is visible, since only one page is created. At the bottom of the
letter, however, there has to be the sender's address (obtained from
another textbox), and this should only be on the last page of the pdf
file.
The issue now is how to produce such a multipage document based on the
length of the main body textbox if different template should be used
for the last than for other pages.
I am trying not to hardcode all the possible textbox lengths in code
behind, as this would be very inefficient.
What method would you recommend? I'm perhaps thinking of splitting the
main body textbox string in substrings, and then based on the number
of substrings, where each would fill out one page, generating a new
page in pdf.
What does the end result have to look like?
Does it still have to be an interactive form? If so, please throw away
your current form and create a dynamic XFA form. You can fill out this
form using iText like this: http://itextpdf.com/examples/iia.php?id=165
Can it be a flattened PDF (all interactivity is lost)? Then you have
several options. You can create an XFA form, and use XFA Worker to
flatten it. The first version of XFA Worker will be released in a couple
of weeks. You can already test it here:
http://demo.itextsupport.com/xfademo/
Another option is to forget all about creating a template, and create
the PDF from scratch (maybe use a single PDF as 'stationery' in the
background).
Or you could opt for a solution somewhere in between, for instance by
creating the template in HTML and convert that HTML to PDF using XML Worker.
Before asking any further questions, please take a look at this video:
http://itextpdf.com/summit.php#talk3
It will be so much easier to discuss the different options if you fully
understand what is explained in that talk.
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