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@waylan
Last active January 11, 2024 19:16
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A PDF fillable textfield which flows with text on a page using Reportlab.
from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Flowable, Paragraph
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet
style = getSampleStyleSheet()['BodyText']
class TextField(Flowable):
def __init__(self, **options):
Flowable.__init__(self)
self.options = options
# Use Reportlab's default size if not user provided
self.width = options.get('width', 120)
self.height = options.get('height', 36)
def draw(self):
self.canv.saveState()
form = self.canv.acroForm
form.textfieldRelative(**self.options)
self.canv.restoreState()
class ChoiceField(Flowable):
def __init__(self, **options):
Flowable.__init__(self)
options['relative'] = True
self.options = options
# Use Reportlab's default size if not user provided
self.width = options.get('width', 120)
self.height = options.get('height', 36)
def draw(self):
self.canv.saveState()
form = self.canv.acroForm
form.choice(**self.options)
self.canv.restoreState()
doc = SimpleDocTemplate('textfield.pdf')
Story = [
Paragraph('First Name', style=style),
TextField(name='first_name', value='John', tooltip='First name', height=18),
Paragraph('Last Name', style=style),
TextField(name='last_name', value='Doe', tooltip='Last name', height=18),
Paragraph('Gender', style=style),
ChoiceField(name='gender', tooltip='Gender', value='male', options=['', 'male', 'female'], height=18)
]
doc.build(Story)
@Ray-Mangan
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Ray-Mangan commented Sep 18, 2023

Thank you all for the above! FYI, I found that you can control the x position of the form item in the frame by using an indenter flowable which indents otherflowables after it's used. You add the indenter to the story before your flowables you want to indent, then add a indenter at the end with a negative value to dedent.

from reportlab.platypus import Indenter
indent18 = Indenter(left = 18)
dedent18 = Indenter(left = -18)

self.story = [
            p2,
            indent18,
            p2,
            q1,
            p2,
            dedent18,
            ]


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