FormFields

Hi,

I use PDF-template with form fields and fill them with values from SQL query fields with the same name. If I need more than one page, all fields we be flatten, the page will be saved and added to a mergelist, and the new template will be loaded.

This is the loop:

for i := ffc downto 1 do
begin
Name := PDFLibrary.GetFormFieldTitle(i);
   if qArchiv.FindField(Name) <> Nil then
      PDFLibrary.SetFormFieldValue
         (i, VarToStr(qArchiv.FieldByName(Name).Value));
   PDFLibrary.FlattenFormField(i);
end; 

The problem is, that it happens that values will be placed somewhere on the page or the values of one field will be placed in another field too. For a given set of data the behaviour is repeatable. But I cannot find any reason for this. A page more or less and the situation is quiet different.

Has anybody any idea what is going wrong and how to debug this?

Detlev

Hi Jack,

in my case all form fields have unique names (I did it like you: blabla_01 ...). Some have names all uppercase (these can directly been filled with database field values), others mixed-case (these with a special preprocessing). The problem is with uppercase fields, thats true. I give it a chance with renamed fields.

But what about text, which stands at a position where never any form field has been defined? These imaginary positions have some kind of intrinsic systematic: if this problem occur, the text is placed at 1 out of 3 senseless positions.

This is my workflow:

• Given a PDF file (template) with form fields with known names (designed with Acrobat)
• Reading in the template and doing the loop from my first post
• Saving
• Creating a new empty page and doing some GDI operations
• Merging the two, capture page 1 and draw captured page on the page left
• Saving and delivering via HTTP ResponseInfo.WriteContent

Meanwhile I think it has to do with CapturePage and DrawCapturedPage. If I flatten form fields before CapturePage the assigned text appears in the resulting PDF as expected, with the exception of the wrong placed once. If I don't flatten before CapturePage, all fields are empty on the final PDF. The PDF reader (Acrobat, Foxit, it doesn't matter) indicates existence of form fields (they aren't flattened), but they won't be shown. A really inconsistent state.

Sorry, once again. In a few days I have a presentation, and my form field error still exists. This is one of the strings, which caused SetFormFieldValueByTitle to fail (keep in mind: only in ONE PDF formular, the same form field copied and pasted in another PDF works fine, copied and pasted back also works, but than the NEXT field fails ???).

AUP 2002/2003 des Kreises Aachen, Grube Diepenlinchen Industriestr. 15

Geotechnischer Bericht über Baugrund und Gründung, Stich, Eschweiler

In the first line I replaced the dot with the german "aße", and it works. In the second lines removing the comma and the umlaut "ü" doesn't help.

This string don't fail:

Gutachten zur Untersuchung der Bebaubarkeit des Grundstücks in Stolberg, Flur 68, "In der Dell"

Sometimes  

ffName := PDFLibrary.GetFormFieldTitle(i);

results to "." and the program fails. For a given dataset and a given PDF with form fields this behaviour is reproducable. Under different conditions something different happens. I tried the DLL version 7.17, 7.18 and the Delphi version 7.18.

Please, has anybody any idea, what could be the reason for these unexpected results?