How to: Create an Interactive Form

• May 14, 2019
• 3 minutes to read

Important

You require a license to the DevExpress Office File API or DevExpress Universal Subscription to use these examples in production code. Refer to the DevExpress Subscription page for pricing information.

This example shows how to add interactive form fields (e.g., text box and radio button group fields) to a PDF document using a PdfGraphics object.

To access the PdfGraphics, you need to reference the DevExpress.Pdf.Drawing assembly.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/how-to-create-an-interactive-form-t494635

Program.vb

Imports DevExpress.Pdf
Imports System.Drawing

Namespace AddFormFieldsToNewDocument
    Friend Class Program
        Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
            Using processor As New PdfDocumentProcessor()

                ' Create an empty document. 
                processor.CreateEmptyDocument("..\..\Result.pdf")

                ' Create graphics and draw form fields.
                Using graphics As PdfGraphics = processor.CreateGraphics()
                    DrawFormFields(graphics)

                    ' Render a page with graphics.
                    processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graphics)
                End Using
            End Using
        End Sub

        Private Shared Sub DrawFormFields(ByVal graphics As PdfGraphics)

            ' Create a text box field and specify its location on the page.
            Dim textBox As New PdfGraphicsAcroFormTextBoxField("text box", New RectangleF(30, 10, 200, 30))

            ' Specify text box text, and appearance.
            textBox.Text = "Text Box"
            textBox.Appearance.FontSize = 12
            textBox.Appearance.BackgroundColor = Color.AliceBlue

            ' Add the text box field to graphics.
            graphics.AddFormField(textBox)

            ' Create a radio group field.
            Dim radioGroup As New PdfGraphicsAcroFormRadioGroupField("First Group")

            ' Add the first radio button to the group and specify its location using a RectangleF object.
            radioGroup.AddButton("button1", New RectangleF(30, 60, 20, 20))

            ' Add the second radio button to the group.
            radioGroup.AddButton("button2", New RectangleF(30, 90, 20, 20))

            ' Specify radio group selected index, and appearance. 
            radioGroup.SelectedIndex = 0
            radioGroup.Appearance.BorderAppearance = New PdfGraphicsAcroFormBorderAppearance() With {.Color = Color.Red, .Width = 3}

            ' Add the radio group field to graphics.
            graphics.AddFormField(radioGroup)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Program.cs

using DevExpress.Pdf;
using System.Drawing;

namespace AddFormFieldsToNewDocument {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            using (PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor()) {

                // Create an empty document. 
                processor.CreateEmptyDocument("..\\..\\Result.pdf");

                // Create graphics and draw form fields.
                using (PdfGraphics graphics = processor.CreateGraphics()) {
                    DrawFormFields(graphics);

                    // Render a page with graphics.
                    processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graphics);
                }
            }
        }

        static void DrawFormFields(PdfGraphics graphics) {

            // Create a text box field and specify its location on the page.
            PdfGraphicsAcroFormTextBoxField textBox = new PdfGraphicsAcroFormTextBoxField("text box", new RectangleF(30, 10, 200, 30));

            // Specify text box text, and appearance.
            textBox.Text = "Text Box";
            textBox.Appearance.FontSize = 12;
            textBox.Appearance.BackgroundColor = Color.AliceBlue;

            // Add the text box field to graphics.
            graphics.AddFormField(textBox);

            // Create a radio group field.
            PdfGraphicsAcroFormRadioGroupField radioGroup = new PdfGraphicsAcroFormRadioGroupField("First Group");

            // Add the first radio button to the group and specify its location using a RectangleF object.
            radioGroup.AddButton("button1", new RectangleF(30, 60, 20, 20));

            // Add the second radio button to the group.
            radioGroup.AddButton("button2", new RectangleF(30, 90, 20, 20));

            // Specify radio group selected index, and appearance. 
            radioGroup.SelectedIndex = 0;
            radioGroup.Appearance.BorderAppearance = new PdfGraphicsAcroFormBorderAppearance() { Color = Color.Red, Width = 3 };

            // Add the radio group field to graphics.
            graphics.AddFormField(radioGroup);
        }
    }
}