My blog has moved
Please update your bookmarks and feeds for my site.
I now have a Mango Blog at:
http://www.andyjarrett.com/blog
Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/andyjarrett
PDF Form filling with java and iText
I've been looking at PDF form filling with Java so I can use it with Railo and I came across iText, a Free Java-PDF Library.
I couldn't find a simple explanation of populating a PDF form in java so my below example assumes you have a PDF called "SimpleRegistrationForm.pdf" and it has 4 fields in it: name, address, postal_code, and email The completed form will be saved to a file called filledOutForm.pdf
/**
*
*/
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.AcroFields;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfStamper;
/**
* @author andyjarrett
*
*/
public class SimpleRegistrationForm {
/**
* @param args
* @throws IOException
* @throws DocumentException
*/
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, DocumentException {
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(
"/dir/to/pdf/SimpleRegistrationForm.pdf");
PdfStamper filledOutForm = new PdfStamper(reader, new FileOutputStream(
"/dir/to/pdf/filledOutForm.pdf"));
AcroFields form = filledOutForm.getAcroFields();
form.setField("name", "Andy Jarrett");
form.setField("address", "1 infinite road");
form.setField("postal_code", "1SW");
form.setField("email", "mail@example.com");
filledOutForm.close();
}
}
Scotch on the Road Facebook group
Just to let you all know a new Facebook group has been created for the Scotch on the road!
Make sure you register today!
Still not got a ticket for Scotch on the road. Can't convince your manager to part with the £49+vat. Don't worry, you can still win a ticket! Check out http://www.andyjarrett.com/andy/blog/index.cfm/2009/5/7/A-free-ticket-to-Scotch-up-for-grabs
Fridays Joke: A Good postman
Don't forget if you've got a corker of a joke sitting in your inbox to send it in and you'll be entered in to my Scotch on the road competition where you can win a free ticket to one of the 3 events being held up and down the country. Enjoy!
One Monday morning the Postman is riding through the neighbourhood on his usual route, delivering the mail. As he approaches one of the homes he noticed that both cars were still in the driveway. His wonder was cut short by Derek, the homeowner, coming out with a load of empty beer and liquor bottles for the recycling bin.
'Wow Derek, looks like you guys had one hell of a party last night,' the Postman comments.
A free ticket to Scotch up for grabs
For first prize in the the Fridays Joke: Scotch on the Road competition there is now 1 ticket for Scotch on the Road up for Grabs! You can use this ticket at ANY of the three venues, London, Manchester, or Edinburgh
Nick Tong from TalkWebSolutions.co.uk has sponsored my Fridays Joke: Scotch on the Road competition to offer this prize so get your entries in.
The prizes:
- 3rd place will get their joke posted on my blog on Monday, June 1st which is the first day, London, conference.
- 2nd place will get their joke posted on my blog on Wednesday, June 3rd which is the second day, Manchester, conference.
- 1st place will get 1 Ticket to Scotch on the Road and they will be the Fridays Joke on both my blog and the Scotch blog on the June 5th which coincides with the last day Edinburgh event. Plus there is a bottle of whisky i'm giving away that I was fortunate enough to win at a previous Scotch event
Fridays Joke: Scotch on the Road competition.
Update: First Prize now includes a Free ticket to Scotch on the Road. Nick Tong from TalkWebSolutions.co.uk has sponsored my Fridays Joke: Scotch on the Road competition so get your entries in.
I'm running a "send in a joke" competition for the Scotch on the Road conference and it's simple, all you have to do is send a joke!
The prizes:
- 3rd place will get their joke posted on my blog on Monday, June 1st which is the first day, London, conference.
- 2nd place will get their joke posted on my blog on Wednesday, June 3rd which is the second day, Manchester, conference.
- 1st place will get 1 Ticket to Scotch on the Road and they will be the Fridays Joke on both my blog and the Scotch blog on the June 5th which coincides with the last day Edinburgh event. Plus there is a bottle of whisky i'm giving away that I was fortunate enough to win at a previous Scotch event
Scotch On The Road management information
If the low low price of £49+vat (which is at a low of 15%) for a ticket to Scotch on the Road wasn't enough the guys have put together a Managers Information Pack for download.
Designed to give you're boss a little extra incentive for convincing that, "conferences are good; benefit you and your company ... and you get a ton of freebies too."
Check out: http://www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk/blog/index.cfm/2009/4/20/SOTR-Managers-Information-Pack
Slicehost VPS
As you can probably tell from the recent posts I have moved my host over to a linux VPS, at Slicehost.com. Without sounding to tacky it was built by developers, for developers. No overly complicated control panels it just works. On top of that they have some excellent documentation on there site for helping you setup your box with only the basic Linux knowledge.
From the site:
Sick of oversold, underperforming, ancient hosting companies. We took matters into our own hands. We built a hosting company for people who know their stuff. Give us a box, give us bandwidth, give us performance and we get to work. Fast machines, RAID-10 drives, Tier-1 bandwidth and root access. Managed with a customized Xen VPS backend to ensure that your resources are protected and guarante
Check out their questions and community sections. Even if you're not setting up a VPS just yet their articles cover setting up a linux server so well, including SSH users, iptables etc.
If you do sign up with Slicehost.com, please feel free to use my referal link https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/new?referrer=5326d19c676e950dfab1fc8aaa724b6c :)
Checking propagating of domain name
When you move servers one of the annoying parts can be waiting for the domain to propagate when you change name servers. There is a terminal tool though for checking the settings, dig(domain information groper) is a tool for interrogating DNS name servers.
You'll need to install the dnsutils package
$ sudo apt-get install dnsutils
After that It's pretty easy, simply put in the terminal:
$ dig google.com
Obviously swap google for your domain name that your are checking.
Read more here
Fridays Joke: A little extra effort
Another one sent in. Enjoy!
I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist when early in the morning I received a call from his office: I had been rescheduled for early that morning at 9:30AM.
I had just packed everyone off to work and school and it was around 8:45.
The trip to his office usually took about 35 minutes so I didn't have any time to spare.
As most women do, I'm sure, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So I rushed upstairs, threw off my dressing gown, wet the washcloth and gave myself a wash in "that area" in front of the sink, taking extra care to make sure that I was presentable.
I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment.
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