I think we are using 1.0 They notified us about 2.0 but we haven't tested it yet.


>I've emailed them about getting Fox sample code but haven't heard back yet. I've poked around on PlanetPDF some. What version of PDFToolKit are you using? I think they have version 2.0 out.
>
>I'll email Gnostice back about possibility of doing what I want.
>
>Later...
>Ken
>
>>I would go to Gnostice's website and get their contact number and call them. It's possible that the capability you need is available now, but we don't do it that way. They have a newer version of the pdftoolkit and I haven't had the time to research and test it yet. If not, check other pdf tools available out there. Have you looked at Planet PDF?
>>
>>http://www.planetpdf.com/find_software.asp
>>
>>http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpageid=615&SearchType=Product&SearchString=activex&SearchPlatform=-1&SearchCategory=-1&CompanyID=&SearchApplicationType=-1&SearchLicenseType=-1
>>
>>
>>>Drats! My hopes are dashed... will have to take a different tack.
>>>
>>>>No because the webbrowser control simply displays a webpage. We display the pdf form in the webbrowser control after it has been saved to the hard drive in the vfp form when the user clicks on the print button. Once the form that displays the pdf form is released, the pdf form is physically deleted from the hard disk. It only exists during the display of the form in the webbrowser control.
>>>>
>>>>>So in your app the user enters data in the VFP form and you update the PDF in memory. Do you then save it to hard disk and subsequently display it in the webbrowser control? Are you saying there is no way to directly link the PDF that appears in the browser control and the Gnostice Activex object on the form?
>>>>>
>>>>>Ken
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>If you want to pull the user entered data from the form fields on the pdf file itself, then you will have to save the pdf file to hard disk and use the toolkit to open it and step through each field on the form. I don't know if it can be done in memory or not - in the previous version definitely not but maybe the new version they just released will allow for that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Tracy,
>>>>>>> I've downloaded the trial version and have the activex control on a test form. I'm playing around with it some. It sounds like you're doing what I want to do but I want to be able to use the PDF form for my input instead of a VFP form. I don't need to capture all of the fields on a form to database fields (maybe 6 to 8 per form). The rest could be kept in xml in a memo field like you're doing. Our customers are public school districts and we're looking at potentially 40 to 60 PDF forms per state. We plan to scan in a state's forms, add appropriate fields that tie to our database, and create a repository of data on each child. OBTW, we're not talking about all the data on all students just those in Special Education.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Do you have to save the PDF to disk at any point in order to update or extract data or... can all the data manipulation be done in memory.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> From looking at Gnostice object model it appears I might also be able to create PDF forms on the fly if I start from a template PDF of some sort. If I get that to work, I'll definitely post my results on UT for the crew.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I will email Gnostice to see what VFP examples they can send me. If you would be so kind as to email me a zip with some sample code that you found valuable, I would be most appreciative. My head is shaved so I can't say I'm pulling hair out over this but I think you understand the situation.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>>>Ken
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Gnostice has a trial version you can download and try it out with. I recommend it. That is what we did before we decided to purchase it. They have VFP code they can give you for your trial too - I know because I had to modify it for them when we tried it ourselves. Also, once you have the tool to work with, I can send some examples of our code. It is pretty easy though so I think you can do it on your own using Gnostice's example code. Here is an overview of our steps:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>1. We create the fillable fields on the pdf form using Acrobat 6.
>>>>>>>>2. We store the pdf form in a memo field in a table of forms. The pdf form is created on the fly later when we need it.
>>>>>>>>3. We create a vfp form for data entry that contains all of the fillable fields on the pdf form.
>>>>>>>>4. On each field on the vfp form, we set the control's TAG property to be same as the field name on the pdf (e.g. INSURED.ADDR1, CARRIER.POLICYNO, etc - Note it is case sensitive in Adobe)
>>>>>>>>5. We have a vfp form with the webbrowser control on it to view the pdf form from within VFP.
>>>>>>>>6. When the user opens a vfp form to edit the fields and populate the pdf form fields, in the init of the form we step through the form table and create a cursor from the form's xml file (inside the memo field of the table) if one exists. We then loop through all the controls on the vfp form and capture the TAG value. Once we have the tag value we search for it in the xmlcursor and if found, set the vfp form control value. This populates each field with the last saved value for the form itself. If the data is stored in our app, we set the value based upon the controlsource value.
>>>>>>>>7. The form data typically saved to vfp tables in our app if it is data we maintain and massage but in some cases it is saved only to an xml file stored in a memo field of a separate form data table.
>>>>>>>>8. When the user clicks on Print on the vfp form, we locate the record in the xml table for that form and create a cursor from the xml file on the fly. This cursor contains the last values entered for every field on that form. We create the pdftoolkit object in a prg and load the pdf file into memory. We then use the pdftoolkit class to step through every form field in the actual pdf form we created on the fly and set each value to what we want. The pdftoolkit allows us to step through every field on the pdf form and set its value and change its properties, etc. We are actually manipulating the pdf form at this time.
>>>>>>>>9. We then display the pdf form in the vfp form inside the webbrowser control and print the form from there via a print button on a toolbar (we use the DBI Tech ctToolbar).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Tracy,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Working with existing PDFs is not a problem on one project. That's exactly what we want. I have a test screen running with a PDF showing in the _webbrowser object. How does Gnostice interact with the form? Is the PDF an object within the VFP form? Are there any examples out there?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Re: Rich Simpson's tool - Were you referring to his MindsEye Report Engine? I'm not sure it creates editable PDFs.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>As far as I know the Gnostice pdftoolkit only works with existing pdf files. You can create new pdf files from existing ones and add text, images, watermarks, etc but a pdf document must exist to begin with. It sounds like you may be better off with Rich Simpsons tool?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Here's why I ask. I have a couple of projects where I might be able to use it. The first involves reading and filling in a PDF form within a VFP app. I would like to host the PDF form in Acrobat. There may be only 6 to 8 fields on each of 50 to 60 forms that I really need to capture in a database. The rest of the fields could be saved as XML (for example) in a memo field and used to repopulate the form as needed. Ideally I would like to get the PDF form to send my VFP app data in XML (i.e. an xfdf format). However, it appears I can only get that if Adobe (the full product) saves it to a file and not via direct interapp communication.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>The second project involves actually creating an editable PDF on the fly based on data stored in a VFP or SQL 2000 database. I want to be able to place images on the form along with text boxes, check boxes, etc. I would then like to retrieve the edited data from the form as in the first project.
>>>>>>>>>>>