Hi Rich,

> I am looking for a rapidly available solution here.
> TIF support in volume is a must for this thing.

I've got a few things on my list for this weekend but will take a look at my TIFF code again and see how long it will take to do. I almost of the Encryption code done as well. I just got to final testing and went back to improving the VFP Report Writer support which isn't trivial. <g>

> Below is the solution i found, it perfectly fits the functional needs
> (dynamically building a secure encrypted document from an arbitrary
> list of base resources (mono and multipage documents, jpeg and tiffs)
> stored in the blobs of a db engine).

> The thing is not free. Not royalty-free as well. Which means that
> i'll still be looking for a product with a royalty-free license
> scheme.

> The code is very dry and pretty effective.

My control is Royalty Free as long as it is not redistributed to other developers. So, you should be in luck there.

** from a collection of TIFFs into a secure PDF
** trivial solution with ACTIVEpdf from with VFP
** still looking for a royalty-free solution...
oTK = CREATEOBJECT("APToolkit.Object")
oTK.OpenOutputFile ("output.pdf")
iBookPage = 1
iPageCount = 0
cfileName = GETFILE("tif")
IF EMPTY(cfileName)
	RETURN
ENDIF
iDocument = 1
DO WHILE .T.
	oTK.TIFFToPDF(cfileName,"temp.pdf")
	iPageCount = iPageCount + oTK.NumPages("temp.pdf")
	oTK.MergeFile("c:\hroffice\temp.pdf",0,0)
	oTK.AddInternalLinkBookmark("Document "+TRANSFORM(iDocument)+" "+;
	JUSTSTEM(cfileName),iBookPage,0,0)
	iBookPage = iPageCount+1
	cfileName = GETFILE("tif")
	IF EMPTY(cfileName)
		EXIT
	ENDIF
	iDocument = iDocument+1
ENDDO

oTK.SetInfo("HR management","Full HR File","HR","CV, payroll, contract")
oTK.CloseOutputFile()
oTK.EncryptFile128("output.pdf",;
	"c:\hroffice\encrypt128output.pdf","John","Jim",1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
oTK = NULL

Your code looks simple and straight forward and would not be hard to duplicate with the Methods and Properties in my control. Are any of the TIFF files that you are adding in Multi-image TIFF files? If so, does the TIFFtoPDF() Method automatically separate those images and place them on separate pages? Also, how do you set the placement position on the page for those images? I think that's about all I would need to know to duplicate the above. I'm also understanding that the TIFFtoPDF() Method is making a single PDF document and then you continue to merge multiples of the same document into the TEMP.PDF using the MergeFile() Method. I have thought about creating some more PDF manipulation methods in my engine. I have already spent a good deal of time working on the ability to read in a PDF document and load it into my engine which would then allow you to come back and overlay more data onto a page that was loaded from a PDF File and then save it back out to a new PDF. I envision this as being useful for loading up a preprinted TAX Form and then overlaying text onto the that form using my AddText() Method and then Printing it or Saving it back to a different PDF. This would also allow for preview pre-printed forms in my tool and then when printing it would not print the PDF Overlay Layer only the data filled in. This is all some future ideas for the product I have in my design spec.



Thank for your offer. I'l send you a report on your product once i have
tested it. It might replace the stuff that i currently do with VPE.
Their pricing for the full product is just not for me(:

Kind regards for your time

François


Just let me know how things work or don't work for you with my tool and I will see what I can do to help you out with improvements to the product. I learned about VPE after I got Cathy's book last year. Their product is also written in Delphi. I made my interface a lot more like VFP, since I was mostly trying to help out VFP Developers (being one myself <bg>). I did notice sometime this year or late last year that VPE began offering a PDF engine to go along with their product. I also noticed that it was pretty expensive just for the PDF add on. I believe it was around $1400 at the time. I agree that a VPE to PDF solution appears to be expensive when you first have to purchase VFP itself, which starts around ~ $800 and runs up to around $1300 depending on the version without the PDF Export capability.