[reportlab-users] adding a digital signature when generating a pdf

[Andy Robinson]

On 18/04/07, Jorge Godoy <jgodoy at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Andy Robinson" <andy at reportlab.com> writes:

>

> > The reason there are no free solutions is that (a) it's a lot of work,

> > and (b) if it's free then there is no return on the time invested!

>

> Oh well...  The last reason isn't true...  Take a look at how much was

> invested in Linux, OpenOffice.org, KDE, Gnome, Python, Perl, R, etc.


My point is that there would be no return to ReportLab on ReportLab's
investment in time adding those features, so we won't be doing it
ourselves.   We have 7 years experience of this.

There might well be a utility to someone else who needs it.  Unlike
the above projects, there are very few people who actively contribute
major new features to ReportLab.



> > Last time I looked, we estimated it would take a few months work and

> > would involve dealing with a number of different signature systems

> > from different vendors, many of whom charge money for the

> > specifications.  It's also much harder doing the first open source

> > implementation, as there are no working references to, er, study.

>

> With this I agree.  I'd start with the most common and free specs, as an

> initial release and then let other people / companies add the paid

> "specs" or simply say: "do you want it?  if you buy the spec then we can

> start with it, you'll also have to wait X days/months."


I'll tell you what:  if you can identify the right specs, decide
whether they are complete enough to be implemented, find example files
which are signed etc. and post this info to us, we'll take another
look.  Last time I looked at this was years ago.


> > As always, if someone wants this badly and is willing to implement it,

> > we would happily work with them and include the feature; and if an

> > organisation needs it for a project, we could quote for that work.

>

> I hope some organization needs it and allows it being released as open

> source. ;-)


Me too, but I am not holding my breath.  One of the rules of open
source is that if you want it, you have to take steps yourself, and
encourage others to join in.  This doesn't have to be coding -
analysis of the problem is a good start.

- Andy (getting old and cynical...)