In search of pdf form module

ksublondie has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase, but I'm on the quest for a module that will let me create from scratch a dynamic adobe reader viewable (pdf/ps/whatever) fillable form on the fly. Since these files will be accessed through a web browser, I want to be able to output the data as a string without having to save the file.

I've used the PDF::API2 module in the past, but it doesn't look like it allows for form fields. There are lots of html to pdf modules, but I haven't found any yet that have form support. Is there something out there that does what I'm wanting to do?

Thanks in advance.

Comment on In search of pdf form module

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Re: In search of pdf form module by jakeease (Friar) on Apr 26, 2013 at 06:02 UTC
PDF::API2::Resource::XObject::Form or PDF::Reuse	[reply]
Re^2: In search of pdf form module by ksublondie (Friar) on Apr 26, 2013 at 14:07 UTC
Thanks for the response. PDF::Reuse: "...This module could be used when you want to mass produce similar (but not identical) PDF documents and reuse templates..." Unfortunately, these pdf's aren't going to be similar or massed produced. I need to develop each one from scratch, not from templates. I suppose I could develop templates on the fly, but I don't want to mess with files, just string data. PDF::API2::Resource::XObject::Form: I'd seen that one, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it does or how it works! I'm needing to create fillable forms with radio buttons, text fields, dropdown boxes, checkboxes, etc and this module only has 4 methods, 2 of which are constructors. I'm not sure what "forms" it handles, but if it does what I'm wanting to do can you enlighten me?	[reply]
Re: In search of pdf form module by rpnoble419 (Pilgrim) on Apr 26, 2013 at 14:01 UTC
I use CAM-PDF. It works quite well for this task. You need to be careful that the PDF form is designed to handle amount of text data that may be input via the program, otherwise the PDF form will not display all of the text.	[reply]
Re^2: In search of pdf form module by ksublondie (Friar) on Apr 26, 2013 at 17:18 UTC
Unless I'm not understanding the documentation correctly, it doesn't look like it allows for creation of pdf's from scratch. Although, it looks perfect for manipulation existing forms. Am I missing something?	[reply]
Re^3: In search of pdf form module by rpnoble419 (Pilgrim) on Apr 27, 2013 at 03:51 UTC
That is correct. Don't create the PDF file in PDF::API2. I have not been able to get that to work with CAM::PDF...	[reply]
Re: In search of pdf form module by jakeease (Friar) on Apr 26, 2013 at 18:15 UTC
It's messier than I thought.Take a look at Filling out PDF forms with data from DBI? where merlyn asked this question a few years back.CAM-PDF appears to be the way to go, as rpnoble419 has said here.	[reply]