possible to save pdf with .net from populated form by .fdf

Question

I have a process that creates form data in the form of an .fdf file that then has a reference to the .pdf document that is its "parent".

is it possible with any .NET process to save that .pdf file (populated with the data that came in from the .fdf)?

I need this because I need to email the fully populated .pdf documents out.

I've been just sending the .fdfs with fully qualified links to the pdfs, but some people are having problems with it and I'd rather just go full-blown pdf if I can do it.

FYI, my server does have a licensed copy of Acrobat installed if that matters....

Answer 1

I would look closely at modifying your process that creates .FDF files to instead generate PDFs directly using iTextSharp.

Here are a couple resources on using iTextSharp (there are tons more of course):

iTextSharp Tutorial
mikesdotnetting.com

iTextSharp is open source and you could potentially eliminate the need to use .FDF files at all.

You can also fill out preexisting forms using iTextSharp through explicitly referencing fields by name. Here's a sample:

Programmatically Complete PDF Form Fields using Visual Basic and the iTextSharp DLL

It's VB.NET