xml and pdf

[vivek]

Hey guys,
does any one know how we can fill a pdf form with the data from a xml file?
thanks in advance

vivek

 

[Ray at]

Acrobat reader supports DDE for accepting data to fill a form, but that
would be more of a client-side solution, I'd say. I think that you'd want
to use a server component to create PDFs on the fly with the data in them.
Check out www.activepdf.com for one.

Ray at work

 

[vivek]

Actually ray,
I am looking at a client side solution, do you have any suggestions

vivek

 

[Ray at]

No, I really don't. I've never attempted to programatically manipulate pdf
files either server- or client-side. I just know that I use one system that
does this and it uses DDE. I have a feeling there is a more modern way to
do this though. (e-mail address removed) may offer some insite.

Ray at work

 

[Boris Nikolaevich]

Filling a form from XML (and let's say that it's XML generated by
server-side classic ASP script, so that it has something to do with this
newsgroup) is actually very easy.

The newer (5.0 and later) versions of Acrobat can read an XFDF file to load
the correct PDF form and populate its fields. The XFDF file is simply an
XML document which specifies fields values and the location of the PDF form
that goes with it.

Version 6.0 has a newer specification, Adobe XML Forms 2.0, which has
additional forms template options.

You can find out more about both schemas and specs at
http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/pdf/xmlformspec.jsp.

But in the end, the process can be as easy as generating a well-formed XML
document with nodes matching the fields in your PDF form.

--Boris