(PDF Doodle) App Developer needed! - Willing to Pay!

[marlarmsecurity]

Hello Crackberry Community,

Okay, so first off, I work at an Alarm Company. Here, we have 5 or 6 field technicians that handle all of the service work for the company. That being said:

basically I am in need of an Application that allows Blackberry Torch users to "Doodle" on top of an Adobe PDF document. This application must integrate the touch sensitivity into some sort of pen or marker that places a layer on top of the open PDF document.

As of right now, our field techs are using tablet PCs to receive Service Tickets, as well as Contracts (in PDF format) to which they are able to fill out directly using the tablet pen (including Signatures). Once we receive the PDF files back at the office, we do what is necessary in order to attach the ticket or contract to the correct customer within our database.

We attempted to use third party software such as Actsoft, but they simply cannot provide what we need. That being said, we are willing to negotiate on a price to have this development done, and if it's any constellation, we will pay you for what the job is worth, we are not looking to low ball any developer. If you are interested, please email me at it@marlarm.com. Thanks in advance.

[FuzzyB]

Any update on this? I too need an app to be able to endorse PDF files with my signature. Anyone have a solution?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[marlarmsecurity]

I had one developer who replied to me, though he said he couldnt help me with editing a PDF file. Hopefully someone else will come along and help us out.

[AmigaDude]

Well, I started to give you some technical mumbo-jumbo about PDF files, etc.. and how this would be very time consuming. Instead I think you would be better served by something I was taught early in my computing career - Do not just automate a manual process.

Not to be insulting, but a "doodle" on top of a PDF image is not using the abilities of anything. You would be better served by listing WHAT you need, forgetting the HOW for the moment.

I'm going to guess at a few things for you to give you some ideas (since I have a minute and this relates to something else that I'm doing right now).

Ability to Read a service ticket's data (name, location, trouble, etc..)
Ability to Create and/or Update a contract (Equipment, Monitoring fees, etc..)
Ability to Capture a Signature (on what?) and upload

Hope this makes sense ...

[marlarmsecurity]

All i really need to be able to do is manipulate and edit my own pdf files with a stylus. The files are generated and automatically sent out to the techs phones and laptops through my company's billing program. Now if i was able to get my hands on an application such as this, it would eliminate their laptops all together.

Office ticket emailed to tech --> tech opens and fills out what they did --> customer (if applicable) signs --> saves ticket and e-mails back to office.

I do not need a dictionary definition "Signature Capture" i just need the customer to be able to take the service mans stylus and sign the bottom of the ticket stating what work was done.

Does this help to clarify what it is that I am looking for?

[BillFoust]

Implied in this requirement though is the ability to save the file back into the original PDF. Correct?

[marlarmsecurity]

Preferably, just for ease of use.

[IonBulwark]

Honestly, as someone who has a lot of experience working with custom PDFs, you're asking a bit much of a mobile device.

Reading a PDF is easy enough on a mobile device, but actually manipulating a PDF is pretty difficult. Unless there's a port of a PDF library like iText to J2ME out there, what you're asking for would be a heck of a challenge.


What I'd recommend (and it's easy enough to do this) is to create an application that displays all of the terms and conditions on a form that approximates the layout of your PDF (in a mobile friendly fashion). Once you've captured a signature (with a special stylus, as a regular stylus won't work on a capacitive screen), you could then have the program either upload the signature, or email it, to HQ. There you could have a small program which takes the signature, applies it to the form, and prints it out.