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Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

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Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#31

Post by phonon »

pheasantquiff wrote: post #23
turtlebits wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like PDF forms, they're just hard to create. You don't need a specialized app like Libreoffice to open and fill out a PDF form, just use any modern browser.

Editing in PDF sounds like a good idea. I just tried it in Firefox (latest/postmodern, Linux) and none (not a single one) of the form's fields are editable. It's an even worse experience than Libreoffice.

Pdf.js (which Firefox uses) does support filling out Acrobat Forms (acroforms as well as XFA). Possibly the PDF you have is corrupted?

You can read more about PDF.js support for forms here.[0]

Libreoffice also supports creating Acrobat Forms.[1]

[0] https://blog.mozilla.org/attack-and-defense/2021/10/14/imple...

[1] https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/02/how-to-create-fillable...

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#32

Post by phonon »

pheasantquiff wrote: post #28
ab_testing wrote: post #19

How to add dates, times, drop-downs and multi-select ?

My first paying customer! Happy Day! Srsly tho. at the moment I don't have those features, but neither did the PDF form experience I'm trying to beat. It's a low bar, but we are still expected to fill out PDF forms today, in the future year of 2022.

Acrobat Forms support multiple widget types, as well as validation.

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#33

Post by mpweiher »

pheasantquiff wrote: post #14
kevmo314 wrote: post #8

Is no code a marketing term for code? Looks like code to me.

> Is no code a marketing term for code Yes. I could have said "low-code" and probably have been able to look at myself in the mirror. Now I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.

"Since FORTRAN should virtually eliminate coding and debugging..."

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#35

Post by loloquwowndueo »

I hate pdf forms but old-fashioned organizations love them - so I have to deal with them. The worst is when they scan a paper form and send it as pdf - second worst is pdf form with non-fillable fields. I use xournal as a “typewriter” to fill out these monstrosities. I can even add a scanned signature to avoid having to print, sign and re scan the thing.

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#37

Post by wildrhythms »

This is really cool! One suggestion - don't expose when 'identical form exists' on duplicate creator names. This can be de-anonymizing, because I can put some (fictitious) 'target's name into that box and see if they made a form using your service. Also it's not clear to me why it's necessary to have a creator name in the first place.

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#38

Post by pheasantquiff »

wildrhythms wrote: post #37

This is really cool! One suggestion - don't expose when 'identical form exists' on duplicate creator names. This can be de-anonymizing, because I can put some (fictitious) 'target's name into that box and see if they made a form using your service. Also it's not clear to me why it's necessary to have a creator name in the first place.

The de-anonymizing attack is very interesting. Thank you for highlighting it.

The creator name is 'feature creep' about a future use scenario. People were trying to add uniqueness by changing the creator name, so I added it to the key generation hash.

Instead I should have removed the creator name field from the interface.

Re: Hate PDF Forms? Check Out My No Code Solution

#39

Post by pheasantquiff »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #35

I hate pdf forms but old-fashioned organizations love them - so I have to deal with them. The worst is when they scan a paper form and send it as pdf - second worst is pdf form with non-fillable fields. I use xournal as a “typewriter” to fill out these monstrosities. I can even add a scanned signature to avoid having to print, sign and re scan the thing.

This!

I too, have resorted to the same techniques, making me feel like a "master forger" at his painstaking art.

I was imagining a tool which would just let me create an interactive overlay on a PDF. It sounds like Xournal might be just the thing I need. So, thanks for the tip.

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