App for signing PDF's and categorizing them on a webserver

I've been researching the best way to implement an application for my brother's business, and have been pretty stumped in terms of how to structure my application. The application will be run on iPad 2's deployed in the field, sometimes without readily available network access (due to spotty cell coverage in the area).

Here is the abstract on what it needs to do:

1) Load a template PDF file (its a contract to sign up for what is basically cable service) that has editable fields, such as:

a) Name b) Street address c) Dates

2) be able to collect a drawn signature (very similar to any credit card app, such as Square, etc), which is then overlaid onto the PDF.

3) Save the PDF, containing drawn signature and other edited fields, as a new file. Then, upload it to a backend server, using the name of the individual and date/time as meta data for sorting 开发者_开发问答into specific folders.

Without this third aspect, an employee would have to spend 30 minutes to 2 hours a day categorizing all of the app submissions, so step number 3 is a pretty important aspect to the development, even though most of the work is outside the realm of objective C. Still, i need to send the PDF file off with as much information attached to it as I can...

I'd appreciate any guidance related to the best course of action in developing this. Are there any open source applications that you guys know of that I can reference to? I have searched Apple's Developer member center and Google to no avail.

How could i implement iText properly here? Is that even the best option?? It does digital signatures as opposed to those drawn with UI Kit...

Sounds like you should have a web service with a database for storing the meta information and the path to the generated PDF with the signature and other entries.

Your app would essentially generate the PDF, make a web service call and insert information such as the client's name, date/time, whatever else you want, and then the name or path of the PDF file. The PDF file would subsequently be uploaded to a designated location with a unique file name to prevent overwriting another PDF. You could formulate the name of the file off of the corresponding Key/Id of the record in the database or you could use a GUID as the filename and for good measure concatenate the EPOCH timestamp when the file was generated. Both approaches should guarantee filename uniqueness. Another possible file name scheme Device UUID+epoch timestamp, many options available.

If you have to actually edit the PDFs, it sounds like a pretty hard requirement. Another approach would be to show the user what they need to see (ie what they have to sign) and then generate the PDF with the signature and fields populated. Since you want to upload it anyway you would probably save yourself headaches if you offload this from the iPad and do it using a remote server (as Chris suggested) generating the PDF as you need it. I've been involved in helping out an iPad app development doing property inspections - it used Docmosis to do the document generation in preview and then in submitted forms. Hope that helps even though it's a few months down the track.