[thelist] create PDF "template" and insert vars

Joshua Olson joshua at waetech.com
Wed Jan 5 10:05:33 CST 2005


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Beam
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 9:08 AM
> 
> We have what seems like a fairly simple and common 
> requirement - create 
> a PDF template that has some tokens in it, replace those 
> tokens on the 
> fly with values from a DB and return a new file. This is for 
> a shipping 
> label - so the template looks something like this, only nicer:

Sam,

I've had good luck with the activePDF Toolkit from ActivePDF.

http://www.activepdf.com/products/serverproducts/toolkit/index.cfm

The basic solution is this:

1.  You create your PDF using Acrobat and include fill-out form fields in
all the places you want the "tokens"
2.  Save the PDF to the server somewhere.
3.  Use the toolkit to "fill in" the fields and create a final PDF file.
4.  Issue the completed PDF to the client.

At $399 this toolkit is a bit expensive, imo, but it's simple to work with.
I'm sure there are other solutions out there for less money.  I'd suggest a
quick scan of sourceforge.net now that you know some of the terminology.

<><><><><><><><><><>
Joshua Olson
Web Application Engineer
WAE Tech Inc.
http://www.waetech.com/service_areas/
706.210.0168 




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