[Scribus] PDF forms with Scribus

[Peter Linnell]

On Tue, 2003-10-21 at 05:47, MaHan wrote: 
>  -- Peter Linnell
> <scribusdocs at atlantictechsolutions.com> schrieb: > On
> Sat, 2003-10-18 at 14:08, Maciej Hanski wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > I wonder, how much of the "Acrobat JavaScript
> > Object Specification"
> >
> http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/pdfs/tn/5186AcroJS.pdf
> > is supported by Scribus. I've been playing around
> > with setting a form field to a specific value, using
> > Field Object Methods and Properties which are
> > described the specification mentioned above, but I
> > haven't succeeded so far. E.g. neither doing this to
> > set a form field value:
> > > 
> > > 	this.getField("field1").value="Bla bla bla";
> > > 
> > > nor this:
> > > 
> > > 	var f = this.getField("field1");
> > > 	f.defaultValue = "Bla bla bla"; 
> > > 
> > > works on the form field level (in Field Properties
> > -> Calculate -> Custom Calculation Script) or within
> > a Global Script (Edit -> Javascripts). I inserted in
> > both scripts app.beep(0); and app.alert('Thank you
> > for being so kind!'); to check, if they are executed
> > at all, and yes, they beep and alert me every time.
> > Am I doing something wrong or are these things still
> > work in progress?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > A little OT now. I remember Paul considering once
> > a new command line option "scribus --to-pdf
> > <scribus.file> <output.pdf>". Since having this
> > option would be simply brilliant  and  almost every
> > person whom I told about the PDF form capabilities
> > of Scribus asked for it in the first place, I'd like
> > to know, how realistic it is to expect this feature
> > in the future?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Very OT now: I saw the new SuSE 9.0 Professional a
> > few hours ago, their description on the box side
> > features "DTP with Scribus 1.0" just below "Gimp".
> > It looks to me like Scribus was becoming one of
> > their key applications. Have a look at their site
> > about graphics in SuSE:
> >
> http://www.suse.com/en/private/products/suse_linux/i386/graphics.html
> > :-))
> > > 
> > > best regards
> > > Maciej
> > > 
> > >
> >
> ______________________________________________________________________
> > Hello  Maciej,
> > 
> > That looks to me like valid scripting from what I
> > know of Acrobat
> > fields. Mind you it is up to the Reader to interpret
> > this correctly.
> > 
> > Could you send a PDF page with this example? Note:
> > issues like this is
> > where we find bugs in Acro Reader Linux where they
> > work properly in
> > MacOS or Win32.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Peter
> > 
> 
> Hi Peter, hi everybody,
> I discovered a rather funny thing today while looking
> into a Scribus-made PDF form with Acrobat. First I
> created with Scribus a form with 2 fields and set
> their values in Field Properties -> Calculate ->
> Custom Script. Then I exported it to PDF. As many
> times before, after opening it with Acrobat Reader the
> fields were empty. Then I reopened the Scribus-made
> PDF form with Acrobat 5 and checked the scripts in
> Acrobat's Field Properties -> Calculate. I couldn't
> see any difference apart that there was a square
> instead of a line break in the 2nd field's JavaScript.
> Then (in Acrobat) I simply cut out the 1st field's
> script, inserted the same script again to where it had
> been before and saved the changes. After opening it
> with Acrobat Reader the fields weren't empty any
> more!!! 
> 
> Scribus file:
> http://linux.hanski.info/static/form_with_default_value_scribus_calculate.sla.gz
> 
> Scribus PDF form:
> http://linux.hanski.info/static/form_with_default_value_calculate_scribus.pdf
> 
> The same Scribus PDF form after the Acrobat
> "treatment", which I described before: 
> http://linux.hanski.info/static/form_with_default_value_calculate_scribus_acr.pdf
> 
> Best regards
> Maciej

Thanks for the update. 

Could this be a font or locale issue? I have seen the same type of thing
happen with some TT fonts when opening on a Windows or Mac with files
created on Linux. 

Certain characters or glyphs display incorrectly. This is not so much a
Linux or Scribus issue, but the the way certain glyphs names in TT fonts
do not follow the Latin-1 spec. 

I found out about this when I first started using Linux and Star Office
5.2. 

Just a thought.

Thanks again,
Peter