Expose FillPDF metadata to Views

Hi there! File usage is primarily used to tag a particular file as being in use by a specific module, particularly to avoid file deletions with unforseen consequences. But it has the added benefit of providing a field to the views API, so you could make a file view and filter on file usage = "fillpdf".

See: http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes!file.inc/function/file_usage_add/7

Would just be a question of adding something like this somewhere around the file save function:

file_usage_add($file, 'fillpdf', 'fillpdf_form', $fid);

I've never created a new custom entity type, but as I understand it, deeper views integration should in fact be free with it. But maybe there is an easier solution - making forms be either a custom file entity bundle using the file_entity module, or even a predefined node type!

Another idea - a sort of middle way. There could be a PDF filefield widget, which creates a reference from another node type to a pdf form already added to the FillPDF system. This could be a second optional module included in the package, that left the basic functionality alone but provided the option to create a new content type around the PDf forms. It would need to include a formatter to create fillpdf links based on the fid of the filefield value, and an arbitrary nid - (say, from a views argument!).

The schedule for this project is actually uncertain at this point, but will likely allow me to build this within budget at some point this year and contribute back to the project. Will let you know!

Will do! Keeping it postponed for now, I'd say there's about a 50/50 chance this will happen.

So, the idea I'm leaning toward right now is to create a fillpdf_field module (which would hopefully still be part of this same project). I still think it would be more drupalistically correct to build fillPDF forms out as entities, but that's less crucial to getting this all working

The field options would be:

1. FillPDF file - select or autocomplete field of all pdf forms in the fillpdf system.
2. Data node - chose between the current node and any nodereference fields on the current node.
3. Link text

The field would then display a link built from the fid and nid supplied, using the link text. This would really make both views and the display of links on node pages easy to manage. Thoughts?