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Apps Help with First APP! (FnG)

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AronAtVW

Newbie
Hey guys, good morning. I am just learning android app development and am so new I've had a hard time knowing what to search for, for my requirements.

What I am trying to do:

Input data from user, I can do this no problem. Where it gets tricky is I want to be able to import/ overlay this data into an existing pdf. or document of some sort and then email it. Can I do all of this within the phone or do I need to send the data to some sort of server side software?

Thanks in advance for helping me start my adventure into android development!
 
Welcome to Android Forums AronAtVW.:)

While Google is a great way of finding things, I'm sure you've tried that and that's why you are here. Thankfully, pre-searching is not required here at AF. It's even spelled out in the rules. We are a site focused on members helping members.

I haven't written a line of code in over 8 years, and have zero Android experience. I do remember enough to know that Android if java based. After a little hunting, I found a java api that seems to allow modfications to PDF's. In this case the example image they use is an IRS form, which an educated guess is what you are trying to do, fill in a standardized form.

Anyway, as I said, I'm no longer into coding so I can't tell if this will fully work, but hopefully point you in the right direction.

Modify existing PDF document using iText - Overlay images and Text
 
doodsme said:
Try to Google it. Most of my questions were answered that way.
Click to expand...

With all due respect you think I used Google to find an android development forum before using it to solve my issue? Some times people new to things don't know certain keywords and such to find what they are looking for. I was finding a lot of already made apps that converted pdf s which doesn't help me.
 
AronAtVW said:
With all due respect you think I used Google to find an android development forum before using it to solve my issue? Some times people new to things don't know certain keywords and such to find what they are looking for. I was finding a lot of already made apps that converted pdf s which doesn't help me.
Click to expand...

I understand your reply fully and I based my advice on my experience. In my early days as a developer I would search once or two phrases and then ask other people. And then they would give me the advice to search it in Google. The reply pissed me off to be honest but it also challenged me personally.

I think the answer to your question is in your reply. So please take this as a friendly advice as it really is. You mentioned about not knowing certain keywords when doing a search. So the solution is to think of synonyms.

If I wanted to overlay some data into a PDF file using my Android codes I would start with the first programming principle: divide and conquer. This means that I need to know how to create a PDF file first. And so this is the search phrase I used: create PDF in Android. The first result gave me this link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2499960/how-to-create-pdfs-in-android-sdk

Which lead me to this tutorial

http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/JavaPDF/article.html

And once I know how to create a PDF file can do other searches later on how to "edit a PDF file in android".

And remember the KISS principle in programming applies to search. Avoid using big words such as "overlay". Just keep it simple first.

Hope this helps.
 
It was very helpful, I wasn't thinking about creating pdfs but altering existing ones, besides I have learned in my time coding that most of the time you need to start from the beginning. Thanks for the links, this would have been more helpful then the first comment you wrote.
 
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