Birt and digital signature

<p>Hello Michael,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>thanks for your reply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yes, that is exactly the post i was relating to.</p>
<p>So if there haven't been any changes to the emitter, do you know if there is might something planned in future releases?</p>

<p>Hello again,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i would like to have another take on this one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To be clearer what i want to do: I would like to put a field on the pdf, which meets the requirements of being able to put an electronical signature (hand-written and signed, like signing an insurance-contract) on the document. does <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://en.signotec.com/'>signotec </a>mean anything to do? That seems to be  the software or standard for electronical standard on the one side. Preparing the pdf at first is what i would have to do, to be able to be used from that software.</p>
<p>Therefore it would be sweet, if i could put an report item in my report template, that meets that kind of requirement.</p>
<p>In iText there is a possibility to do this. Michael, your recent link to this one post seems to be specific about digital signature (heck, i can't keep these meanings apart...).</p>
<p>So this is what i would be doing right now in iText (found this somewhere in the net):</p>
<pre class="_prettyXprint">
package foo;

import java.awt.Color;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.Paragraph;
import com.lowagie.text.Rectangle;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfAnnotation;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfAppearance;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfFormField;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class Test {

/** Path to the resulting PDF file. */
public static final String RESULT = "test.pdf";

public static void main(String[] args) throws DocumentException, IOException {
new Test().createPdf(RESULT);
}

public void createPdf(String filename) throws DocumentException, IOException {
// step 1
Document document = new Document();
// step 2
PdfWriter pdfWriter = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(filename));
pdfWriter.getAcroForm().setNeedAppearances(false);
// step 3
document.open();
// step 4
document.add(new Paragraph("Electronical Signature Test"));

PdfFormField field = PdfFormField.createSignature(pdfWriter);
field.setWidget(new Rectangle(100, 732, 300, 780), PdfAnnotation.HIGHLIGHT_INVERT);
field.setFieldName("Signatur");
field.setFlags(PdfAnnotation.FLAGS_PRINT);
field.setPage();
field.setMKBorderColor(Color.BLACK);
field.setMKBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE);

PdfAppearance tp = PdfAppearance.createAppearance(pdfWriter, 72, 48);
tp.rectangle(0.5f, 0.5f, 71.5f, 47.5f);
tp.stroke();
field.setAppearance(PdfAnnotation.APPEARANCE_NORMAL, tp);

pdfWriter.addAnnotation(field);

// step 5
document.close();
}
}

</pre>
<p>Advantage of having a report item is, that i can place whereever i want to on my birt template. Since my report is dynamic, the iText-solution would complicate everything, because i would have to find one spot, where i could place that signature field, which limits the possibilites in an dynamic report.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So I was thinking i could write an extension in birt, which allows to put an report item in the template which has these features i would need. Since Birt is based on iText, i was thinking this should be possible. So i started playing around trying to get used to how to write an extension. But it seems there is no up-to-date documentation of what to do. The <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.eclipse.org/articles/article.php?file=Article-BIRT-ExtensionTutorial1/index.html'>rotated text item - tutorial</a> is marked as deprecated and tested with version up to 2.3.1. But i am using already version 4.4.2 and i am not able to run the sample from the tutorial.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Furthermore i wasn't able to find any existing requests for this In Bugzilla.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So i hope i was able to clarify a bit better what i would like to do. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Now i have the kind request for some help on this (again).</p>
<p>is there any up-to-date info on how to write an extension or what else i could try to do?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Best Regards</p>
<p>Marco</p>