I need to generate a pdf based on a template form.
In that form there is a table that needs to be populated.
Since the table can have a unknown amount of rows, what I was thinking was drawing the table and then adding it to a space on the form.
As in, the form would have a acrofield to receive the table itself.
I already managed to create the table and put it inside a pdf, but I'm having issues puting that table into a acrofield.
As far as I can understand a form only appears to accept these: button, text, choice, or signature.
I'm using Apache pdfbox and easyTable to manipulate the form and create the table.
Is it possible what I want to do? If so, where can I find more information about this topic?
Edit: This answer seems to be what I want to do.
Related
I have question about Lotus Note. I have form: http://i.stack.imgur.com/YWii6.jpg
In this form I need create bottom. With this buttom user can add new row with input field in this row to existing table. I find that kind of lotusscript from:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSVRGU_9.0.1/com.ibm.designer.domino.main.doc/H_EXAMPLES_ADDROW_METHOD_RTTABLE.html
But when I this script copied to this form, I get error "Object variable no set"
Then I tried this solotion:
LotusNotes 8.5 - Adding a row to a table with a button
And I again get the same error.
Can anybody tell me please, how I can create new row and input field in this row, when I pressed buttom "Add row"?
You can't make a table with a dynamic amount of rows in a Lotus Notes Form. There are two common ways to solve this:
Use child-documents; one document for each row; and show these documents using an embedded view. This is the most elegant imho.
Create a large, fixed-elements table, and hide the rows that are not needed (for instance, by checking the presence of an input in the preceding row. This is OK for small amounts of row, but performance starts getting bad if you have too many rows.
It seems you are a bit confused as to the difference between a form (your picture) and a document (the code you link). Also, you definitely need to understand the meaning of "Object variable not set", which is the most common error when you use Lotusscript.
Anyhow, where to go from here depends on how you plan using the data once it is input. Will it be edited ? Will each row need to be handled as a separate record ?
I have a form and it's record source is a table. I created the form separately and added the control sources to the different fields in the form and also changed it's record source. I imported values from an excel sheet into the table and when I open the form, I do not see the tabe values being displayed in the form. Any idea what I should do to see the table records in the form?
In form design mode, check the form's DataEntry property. It sounds like yours is set to Yes, which hides existing records and only allows new entries. Change it to No and you will see the existing records.
Another possibility is that a filter is active and no records match that filter.
Use a form wizard to generate a working form based on your table. Then once you can see the data being displayed in the form, customise as needed.
I'm interested in creating a fill-in-the-blank story generator for kids. I want to create a form where they can put in the names of characters and other things and have that data populate a pre made story. After they hit SUBMIT they would be taken to a follow up page with their input and the story in plain text. I'm pretty new to this but very eager to learn. What would be the best way to go about creating this form that generates stories?
It seems you would need two database tables - one for storing the original story templates and another one for storing the generated texts.
The challenging part with the template database is signifying the parts where there can be user input. One idea - place a special format code inside the text in the following manner:
Once upon a time, in a forest far away, lived ::00001::.
Assuming you are loading that template as it is in an element inside a form (I would avoid textfields for this purpose and just place the text).
After the text is loaded into the web page (javascript onload), replace your markers with input fields (I'd use jquery for that). You can use jquery to search an elements text/innerHtml and replace it with another html element. Here is an idea how to do that. The replacement of markers with inputs can be done in a javascript while loop, as long as there is "::" in the text of the element.
Then your ::00001:: could be replaced for example with:
< input type='text' id='input00001' name='input[00001]'/>
Then, when the user submits the form, you can get the values for each field and store them to a second database with the given ids. This way, you will be able to reload them later (same process, only instead of inputs, you would replace the codes with their corresponding values).
This way, in the second database table you only save the input values and not the whole text, to save up memory. Probably in the second table you would like to store the id of the field, the value, perhaps a template id (so that you know for which story template it corresponds) and a user id or at least a timestamp, in case you can have many generated stories for the same template.
Hope this helps!
Basically, I want to insert rows in the form InventJournalTransfer. I added a menuitem button that calls a class which opens a dialog where I fill a WMSLocationId, then I loop on Inventsum table to get all ItemIds with Available qty for this WMSLocationId and insert them into InventJournalTrans Table.
The code I wrote seems to be working as I have correct records inserted in my table(visible in Table browser, correct journalId, linenum itemId, qty etc...) BUT the records inserted do not appear in my form. I tried to refresh my form with or without code, but my grid's still empty.
I had a look at the class InventCountCreate that does what I want to do in a different journal type, but as I'm quite a newbie it is difficult for me to understand exactly how this class works.
Could anyone explain to me how to display my inserted rows in my form or give other leads?
The InventJournalTrans is table is inner joined to two InventDim, one related via the InventDimId field, the other via ToInventDimId.
Both fields must be filled with a valid InventDimId to an existing InventDim record for the form to show the record.
Have you tried right-clicking on your form's node in the AOT and clicking "Restore"? Perhaps your form is still using cached data.
I am writing code that generates both PDF and RTF documents, depending on the user's selection. The information in both documents is the same.
Until now, we were using classes like Table, Cell, HeaderFooter, etc., which are rendered into the correct form by the documentwriter (either PdfWriter or RtfWriter2).
However, the further I get into trying to make changes (mostly because the upgrade to iText 2.1 left the spacing a little quirky), the more I'm being told to "use PdfpTable", or "Use pageEvents to set headers". It seems like a lot of the generic classes are being deprecated.
I am thinking of revamping the code to separate out the table creations for PDF and RTF. However, all the iText tutorial stuff seems to actually recommend using Table in an instance where both PDF and RTF documents are needed.
Additionally, it appears that while there is a PdfpTable class, there is nothing similar for RTF, so I would be using Table anyway, which would leave me vulnerable to all the quirks that come along with the now unsupported Table class.
Basically, what are the benefits/downsides of separating the code into two sections -- one to create PDF documents, and one to create the same documents in an RTF format, if that was selected? And where does SimpleTable come in to all of this? Will it give me the flexibility that I need?
Thanks!
From the book iText In Action, end of chapter 6:
If you look at the iText API, you’ll also find some other table classes. com.lowagie.text.Table is the original table class; it dates from the early iText days. It uses class com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfTable internally to render a table to PDF (don’t confuse this class with PdfPTable).
There’s also the newer SimpleTable class, which tries to form a link between
PdfPTable and Table. It’s able to translate itself to a PdfPTable if you add it to a
document that writes PDF or to a Table if you’re producing HTML or RTF. [...]
The major disadvantage of the Table class is that it’s no longer supported. Different
people have fixed most of the known issues, but today not a single person
understands if and how all the Table-methods work. If you decide to use this class,
you’re more or less on your own, and you’ll encounter lots of quirky layout issues
based on historical design decisions. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t make
good use of the Table class.
Advantages of the Table class
With the Table class, you can generate a table structure that can be rendered in
PDF, RTF, and HTML. If you compare the results, you’ll see there are small differences
in the way the table is rendered. This is normal; not every table feature is
supported in every document format.
You can generate a table in PDF, HTML, or RTF using the same code.
You can set padding and spacing the way it’s done in HTML.
You can use the row span without having to resort to nested table.
You can change the number of columns even after you’ve added cells.
You can add cells at specific positions (the number of rows is augmented
dynamically).
You can delete a column before adding the table to the document.
You can let iText add the Table as if it was a PdfPTable.
You get a PdfPTable object based on the Table object.
As opposed to PdfPTable, you can add cells to a Table in a random order, and add
or delete columns if needed. You can even translate a Table to a PdfPTable if you
didn’t use setRowspan().
There’s also the SimpleTable, class, which is a simplified version of (PdfP)-Table. When adding a SimpleTable to a PDF document, iText first attempts to add
the table as a PdfPTable; if this fails, it’s added as a Table. When adding a SimpleTable to an RTF or HTML document, it’s added as a Table. SimpleTable differs
from the Table and PdfPTable in the sense that it reintroduces the concept of rows.
This can be handy if you’re parsing an XML file that has a table-row-cell structure.
If the tag corresponding with the rows has attributes, you don’t have to define this
property for each cell in the row separately; you can set the property for the entire
row at once.
Summary
PdfPTable should be your first choice; but depending on the requirements defined for your project, there can be good reasons to opt for Table or SimpleTable.