[TYPO3-dev] Filling PDF Forms in TYPO3

[Kay Strobach]

Hello Guys,

I'm working on an extension which extends powermail to add modifyable
files as attachment (docx, xlsx, odt, txt, html, pdf, ...)
http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/powermail2document/current/

Most plain text fileformats work mostly (even the xml ones ;)

The greatest problem is the pdf support - i can't find a just php
library which supports changing pdf form values :(

Requirements:
=============
  - can fill pdf forms
  - done in php
  - license is gpl compatible


What i found so far is:
==========================
http://www.setasign.de/products/pdf-php-solutions/setapdf-formfiller/
  - expensive
  - can't be included in opensource version :(
  - works perfect with demo documents
  - working, but no code - closed source - not gpl compatible.

pdftk - needs binaries - http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/
  > header('Content-type: application/pdf');
  > header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Download.pdf"');
  > passthru("pdftk file.pdf fill_form data.fdf output - ");

pdflib - http://www.pdflib.com/
  - need to modify files (with acrobat and pdflib plugin)
  - block can't be edited
  - needs external lib
  - no solution

fpdf.org
  - can't import pdf -> fpdi -> no chance to prefill form
  - no solution

http://www.tcpdf.org/
  - can't do it
  - no solution

http://de.php.net/fdf
  - creates correct fdf files as other libs to - but there is no real
    merge - the fdf file just gets some params to post load the pdf
  - no solution

http://www.webdesign-informatik.de/php/pdf-formular-ausfullen-mit-php/
http://www.wegmann-it.de/index.html?php_pdf_form_filler.html
  - both are more a hack, than a solution
  - replace values with string comparisions
  - doesn't work stable
  - form fields need to be prefilled with senseless information or stars
  - fix length replacement
  - no solution

PDFHacks by Sid Steward
  - http://www.pdfhacks.com/
  - no solution -> points to java or pdftk

If there is a nifty small php lib, which allows something similar to
setapdf-formfiller and which has a GPL compatible license
-> PLEASE Tell ME.

I drives me nuts, that there seems to be no way to fix that problem.

Thanks in advice.
Many thanks
Kay
-- 
http://www.kay-strobach.de - Open Source Rocks