Send data to PDF with Delphi - delphi

Question

Is there a way I can send data to my PDF file, (fill in the fields/blanks), either manually or by a third party component, the PDF files have certain fields that can be modified by user, entering numbers.. checkboxes etc etc
how can I achieve this goal, an if it will require some third party component, which is the best, and what are the prices?
our Development IDE is delphi 2010 / Delphi 2011 XE
thanks :)

Answer 1

I guess you want your application to create some PDF content from User Interface field.
You can do this easily from code, using a report generator from code, then a PDF engine.
We propose an Open Source solution just for doing this, from Delphi 6 up to XE.
Here is a code extract from one demo, which create a reports, using some User Interface fields as source (e.g. edt1.Text or mmo1.Text):
procedure TForm1.btn1Click(Sender: TObject);
(...)
with TGDIPages.Create(self) do
try
// the name of the report is taken from main Window's caption
Caption := self.Caption;
// now we add some content to the report
BeginDoc;
(...)
// main content (automaticaly split on next pages)
NewHalfLine;
TextAlign := taJustified;
s := 'This is some big text which must be justified on multiple lines. ';
DrawText(s+s+s+s);
NewLine;
TextAlign := taLeft;
DrawTitle(edt1.Text,true);
for i := 1 to 10 do
DrawText('This is some text '+IntToStr(i));
NewLine;
DrawBMP(Bmp,maxInt,50,'Some bitmap in the report');
AddBookMark('bookmarkname');
WordWrapLeftCols := true;
AddColumns([10,20,50]);
AddColumnHeaders(['#','Two','Three'],true,true);
for i := 1 to 100 do
DrawTextAcrossCols([IntToStr(i),'Column '+IntToStr(i),'Some text here. '+s]);
NewLine;
DrawBMP(Bmp,maxInt,50,'Some bitmap in the report (twice)');
DrawTitle('This is your text',false,0,'','bookmarkname');
DrawText(mmo1.Text);
EndDoc;
// set optional PDF export options
// ExportPDFForceJPEGCompression := 80;
// ExportPDFEmbeddedTTF := true;
// ExportPDFUseUniscribe := true;
// ExportPDFA1 := true;
// show a preview form, and allow basic actions via the right click menu
// ShowPreviewForm;
// export as PDF
ExportPDF('test.pdf',false);
finally
Free;
end;
There are other solutions around, but this one is Open Source, and you can even draw whatever you want to the report (using a "standard" TCanvas property - you can even directly any graphical component using the PaintTo method), not only dedicated report generated methods like DrawTitle() or DrawText().
EDIT:
If your question was about creating PDF files with forms, this library won't work.
You should use some closed-source libraries like VeryPdf or QuickPdf. Google is your friend.