Paper form VCL Controls for Delphi

Question

I need to develop an application for paper based data entry forms. Are there any VCL based controls that support this?

I need something that:

• Includes some type of form designer for creating the form definition
• Supports updating of fields on the form as other fields are updated. For example the field has a + b = c. As the user enters the values for a and b, c should be updated. The library just needs to give me a way to write my own functions behind the form.
• Supports transferring common values between pages in the report.
• is wysiwyg
• support graphics
• supports PDF generation
• shows the entire report as one complete document. Clicking on a menu to show one page one page at a time will not work.

I have a set of a couple hundred forms. The user can pick individual forms and add them to the current document in any order.

I'm just looking for a base to get me started. There will be a lot of work to integrate my business logic. Normal Delphi forms will not work because there are way to many controls for a standard report if normal text edit controls are created.

There are some bigger enterprise type frameworks out there - i.e. Microsoft InfoPath and Adobe LifeCycle Forms. I'm looking for something that would be deployed with a stand alone Delphi application.

I'm expecting it to be commercial (paid) component and would prefer something that is active and well supported, hopefully with source.

Answer 1

I believe PDFinaBox supports what your looking for. I used it previously for dynamic PDF generation, but I believe there was support also for PDF forms and the ability to handle edit validation.

(correction, further research showed that the library can only be used for creating PDF files/forms and is a code only approach. I will leave the answer here for reference purposes since it does answer the pdf generation portion of your question).

Answer 2

Hi,

Take a look at WPTools at http://www.wpcubed.com/products/wptools/index.htm. It may be able to answer the things you are looking for. Hope this helps.