Create PDF / FDF in Lotus Notes using LS

I had task where I should create PDF file from template and fill fields by values from documents

So what did I do?

I spoke with my colleagues :-) they recommended to use FDF Toolkit For Windows, instead of iText approach that I used before, and I have to say that it is very cool approach, it is much better at least for me. Instead of generation new PDF file we just export data to FDF file and link it with PDF template and that's all, so our FDF will show data using PDF form/template. -> No Java required and now no non-supported libraries.

Here is an instruction how to do this:

• register FDFACX.DLL (in order to do that, I copied FdfTk.dll and FDFACX.DLL to windows\system32, but I believe there is better way)

 regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\system32\FDFACX.dll  

• example of code now (it is from Adobe)

Using the FDF tooklit in LotusScript

 Sub Initialize  
 '  
 ' Set up for using the FDF Toolkit for ActiveX  
 '  
 Dim FdfAcX As Variant  
 Dim outputFDF As Variant  
 Dim sPdfFileName As String, sFdfFileName As String, sFilePath As String  
 Set FdfAcX = CreateObject("FdfApp.FdfApp")  
 Set outputFDF = FdfAcX.FDFCreate()  
 '  
 ' % REM  
 '  
 ' Change these paths to reflect your server environment  
 ' Ideally, you could use a Lotus Notes profile document to store this  
 ' information.  
 '  
 ' Below are the three options for storing the PDF that was discussed in  
 ' the documentation for this application.  
 '  
 ' Option 1 : UNC Directory Share  
 ' This option oddly asks if you would like to save on close.  
 '  
 ' sPdfFileName = "\\Mage\domdata\domino\html\pdf\panarama.pdf"  
 '  
 ' Option 2 : Store in a Lotus Notes Page element  
 '  
 sPdfFileName = "http://mage/pdf/panarama.nsf/PDFs/$file/panarama.pdf"  
 '  
 ' Option 3 : Store in the Domino HTML directory  
 '  
 ' REM %  
 '  
 ' sPdfFileName = "http://mage/pdf/panarama.pdf"  
 sFilePath = "d:\domdata\domino\html\pdf\tmp\"  
 '  
 ' Set up for getting Lotus Notes information  
 '  
 Dim session As New NotesSession  
 Dim contextDoc As NotesDocument  
 Dim dateTime As NotesDateTime  
 Dim tempNumber As Single  
 Dim rounded As Integer  
 Dim fileName As String  
 Set contextDoc = session.documentContext  
 '  
 8 Integrating Adobe Acrobat FDF  
 with Lotus Domino  
 ' This will create a random number between 0 and 100.  
 ' The number will give  
 ' us a good chance of not temporarily having the same file name in the tmp  
 ' directory at the same time. The file will briefly be in the tmp  
 ' directory,  
 ' attached to the Notes document and then deleted.  
 '  
 Randomize  
 temp = Rnd  
 rounded = Round((temp * 100), 0)  
 fileName = Cstr(rounded)  
 sFdfFileName = sFilePath & fileName & ".fdf"  
 '  
 ' FDFSetValue will set the value you pass it. See page 139 of the  
 ' FDF Toolkit Overview and Reference.  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "FirstName", contextDoc.FirstName(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MidInit", contextDoc.MidInit(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "LastName", contextDoc.LastName(0), False  
 '  
 ' Get the value of the date fields. The DateOnly property  
 ' returns a string.  
 '  
 Set dateTime = New NotesDateTime( contextDoc.HireDate(0) )  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "HireDate", dateTime.DateOnly, False  
 Set dateTime = New NotesDateTime( contextDoc.ModDate(0) )  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "ModDate", dateTime.DateOnly, False  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Address1", contextDoc.Address1(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Address2", contextDoc.Address2(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "City", contextDoc.City(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "State", contextDoc.State(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "ZipCode", contextDoc.ZipCode(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Country", contextDoc.Country(0), False  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MAddress1", contextDoc.MAddress1(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MAddress2", contextDoc.MAddress2(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MCity", contextDoc.MCity(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MState", contextDoc.MState(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "MZipCode", contextDoc.MZipCode(0), False  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "HomePhone", contextDoc.HomePhone(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "WorkPhone", contextDoc.WorkPhone(0), False  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Emer1Contact", contextDoc.Emer1Contact(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Emer1Phone", contextDoc.Emer1Phone(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Emer2Contact", contextDoc.Emer2Contact(0), False  
 outputFDF.FDFSetValue "Emer2Phone", contextDoc.Emer2Phone(0), False  
 '  
 ' Tell it which file we're writing to and do a save.  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFSetFile sPdfFileName  
 outputFDF.FDFSaveToFile sFdfFileName  
 '  
 ' Always close your open FDF files.  
 '  
 outputFDF.FDFClose  
 ADOBE FDF TOOLKIT  
 User Guide  
 9  
 '  
 ' This will attach the FDF file we just closed to our Notes document  
 ' and then delete it from the tmp directory.  
 '  
 Call MoveFdfToAttachment(contextDoc, sFdfFileName)  
 End Sub  
 Public Function MoveFdfToAttachment(doc As NotesDocument, fileName As  
 String) As Integer  
 '// move each attachment to a rich text field.  
 Dim attachItem As New NotesRichTextItem(doc, "fdfAttachment")  
 Dim attachObj As notesEmbeddedObject, newObjName As String  
 Call attachItem.EmbedObject(EMBED_ATTACHMENT, "", fileName, "")  
 Kill fileName  
 MoveFdfToAttachment = True  
 End Function  

Related articles about creating PDF files

• Create PDF / FDF in Lotus Notes using LS
• DXL + XSL -> XFDF -> PDF
• Use XFDF approach insted of FDF when create PDF file
• How to create PDF from Lotus Notes