Reading Data into a PDF form with cfpdfform and cfpdfformparam

Question

I have been trying to read data from a query into a PDF form. I have the application setup to generate a new pdf file for every record in the database table which is working perfectly, but when I try to have the application pre-populate the form fields in the pdf form they remain empty. I have included a snippet of the code that creates the PDF documents. I am using Adobe LiveCycle Designer 8.0 to create the PDF form.
Snippet Example:
<cfoutput query="renewals">
<cfset new_file = "#reportnumber#.pdf" />
<cfpdfform action = "populate" source = "beta.pdf" destination = "#new_file#">
  <cfpdfformparam name="Legal_Contact_Name" value="#LegalContactName#">
</cfpdfform>
<cfpdf action = "write" source = "#new_file#" destination = "#new_file#" flatten = "yes" overwrite  = "yes" />
</cfoutput>
All help is greatly appreciated...

Answer 1

I'm just glad I might be of any help.
First, make sure the image is embeded as a base64 encoded string in the xml structure you're working with on your form you've built in LiveCycle Designer.
I do this by reading the image file and outputing its content as a base64 string:
<cffile action="read" file="#expandPath('Path/to/your/image/file/BC.TIF')#" variable="imgObj" />
<img>#toBase64(imgObj)#</img>
Your PDF form should be bound to this 'img' field from your xml structure in LiveCycle Designer.
This works perfectly and the image from the xml is indeed displayed in the PDF form generated with cfpdf.
BUT, from the moment you convert the pdf form to static pdf document, the image will be gone - the dynamic text remains.
Note:  I never further investigated why the image disapears once the pdf form is converted to 'static' pdf.  Thinking about it now, it might have been an incoding issue.  The toBase64() function in ColdFusion has an optional "Encoding" argument, may be by playing with the encoding the image might finally 'survive' the conversion to static pdf.
Good luck.
note: this will populate the pdf form from your xml structure in ColdFusion.
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="/path/to/LiveCycle_generated_templateForm.pdf" xmldata="#your_xml_structure#" destination="/path/to/result.pdf" overwrite="yes" />