ouch: the beginning of the end

[Bob Sneidar]

err... are the forms already created? Or are you trying to create the forms from scratch programaticaly? If the former, I wrote an application that does just that. I first create a fillable form, then (for OS other than OS X) I create an FDF file using a simple one liner Javascript command and then add an Open File action that imports data from that fdf file. Otherwise (for OS X using Acrobat) I use Applescript to tell Javascript to fill the form. 

The app is capable of importing any fillable PDF form, and then creating links between the fillable form controls, and SQL database table.columns. It can even use Livecode Expressions to fill the forms. Once the associations are made, I save the binary of the PDF form and the associations (as an array) in my SQL database. To recreate a form, I simply write the binary of the blank form out to any file system, then run a script to populate it. I use it every day to fill out service invoices, install forms, site surveys etc. 

If however you are trying to create a PDF from scratch, I have great compassion for you. When researching if I would be able to write this app, I determined that if I had to go that route, I would not even begin. I think that elephant is much too big to eat. Even one byte at a time. 

Contact me off list if you want to do a remote session so you can see what I am talking about. 

Bob S


> On Mar 3, 2017, at 11:26 , Dr. Hawkins via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Well, yes, but the whole point of this is for me to be able to ship a
> program that generates filled forms (bankruptcy petitions, schedules, etc.).