I use ITextSharp to create a PDF with form data based on another PDF.
The problem is the file generated is not editable (the form on it).
If I use ITextSharp in append mode, I get the form editable but most of the form data is not preserved. I want the user to see the resulted PDF with the PDF Form data preserved.
I understand there is NOTHING I can do. The only way for the user to edit the resulted PDF is to use a paid Acrobat version on it. This is because I CHANGE the PDF file by entering form data and setting fonts on it.
Is there something I can do?
Paul
Your question isn't very clear, but here are some answers to similar questions that have been asked before:
End users can't edit a form locally unless the form is "reader-enabled". Making a form reader-enabled is only possible when you use Adobe software: "Adding Enable for commenting Adobe Reader" using Acrobat
You need to fill out reader-enabled forms in append mode if you don't want to break the reader-enabling: Pdf with Acroform editing using iText
This doesn't mean you can't ask people to fill out a PDF form to gather data. See
Edit pdf embedded in the browser and save the pdf directly to server
You can capture that data, and fill out the form without flattening if you want to serve this form (including the data) to the end user: How to fill out a pdf file programmatically?
I'm pretty sure one of these question is a duplicate of what you're asking, but since your question isn't clear, it's hard to mark your question as an exact duplicate of one of them.
Short answer: No
Pdf file are likely to be secure (read only) and this is why everyone is using it. Most of the time, we convert a file into a pdf so maybe if you can get the 'file' and not the pdf will be a good move there.
From my experience in the past, I can confirm with you that iTextSharp may not convert all your data properly and this can make your generated file unusable. If not, you might have some weird line or some changes in the document behavior (ex. fields are not editable anymore).
If you really want to work with pdf file as input and do your stuff with it, you will need to understand the inner structure of it:
[PDF file format]
http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/pdf-file-format-basic-structure/
This can be a hell of a ride. You might need to re-consider the use of a pdf as input. If you can't change that, you might need to use some sort of adobe pluging to do so. Alot of third party pdf library is doing that.
Good luck
Related
How to embed a word document into another word document via OpenXML SDK, but showing content, not an icon of word? Such, as we do it manually in word: Insert object from file -> WITHOUT checking "Dispaly as icon"?
I've found this article, but it uses an icon. I've also tried to use OpenXML SDK Productivity Tool, but shows only generated binary data.
EDITED:
I use the following code:
DrawAspect = OleDrawAspectValues.Content
and then i add image part:
var imagePart = mainDocumentPart.AddNewPart<ImagePart>("image/x-emf", imagePartId);
GenerateImagePart(imagePart);
But my image part - is just an array of bytes of word's icon.
So, in this case happens the following: when i open generated document, it shows embedded document as an icon, but when i double click this embedded document, edit it and save changes, the embedded document is shown as a content, so maybe it's possible in some way to show this content without editing embedded document? Should i use instead of array of bytes of word's icon an array of bytes of doc's screenshot?
Not sure i described it clear, so please ask
I'm afraid what you are asking for is almost impossible.
The only difference as far as the word file is concerned between the icon and the embedded file, is the image.
When you don't use a icon Word pretty much just take a screenshot of the document you are embedding and inserts that in place of the Icon graphic.
I've uploaded an example I grabbed from a Word file I made. Found this little gem in the /media folder inside the .docx file.
So basicly, your only choice in resolving this if you can't live with the Icon is to somehow grab a picture of the word-file you want to embed and insert that instead of the Icon image.
How you'd go about that can't be pretty. First of all the open xml sdk contains no such functionality. I tried playing a bit around with office interop as well, but no luck.
I only see two possible ways to achieve this.
First one is via Interop. You'll need to install a "pretend printer" like the ones that print to PDF instead of sending it to a printer. This one however needs to print to an image format. The format of the file in the Media folder was .emf but I'm not positive thats a requirement.
Anyways, should the above somehow be possible you could embed that picture, pretty much using the example you link from Microsoft, and just change this size of the "icon" which now would be an image of the document.
Second possibility would be to open the word document as a process, set the document size to 72% (or whatever makes the document be the only one on screen on your desktop) and the grab a print screen and cut it down to just the document and the use that as your image for the embedding.
For the record, I don't recommend you do any of the above, but thoose are the only options I see.
Should someone have a better solution to this I'm all ears.
Finally, should you decide that you want to push on with this, I'll be happy to code up an example of option number 2 if you reply and tell me you'd like that.
Kaspar
There is a nice wrapper API (Document Builder 2.2) around open xml specially designed to merge documents, with flexibility of choosing the paragraphs to merge etc. You can download it from here.
Using this tool you can embed a paragraph of another word document or entire word document as per your requirement.
The documentation and screen casts on how to use it are here.
Hope this helps.
I am working on an application that has a requirement for me to create a document, populated with data captured in my WPF application, for attaching to an email and sending to insurance company.
My client has been performing this by sending an editable PDF document to clients then proof reading upon receipt of completed form and manually attaching to email.
I initially thought of creating a word document laid out same format as existing and automating word using find/replace on placeholders such as etc...
However it would be great if I could populate the existing PDF docs wouldn't it.... Anyone know if possible?
Thanks.
You can use PDFsharp/MigraDoc to edit pdf-files. Parsing the existing document and inserting text/images is simple enough, but I don't know if there is any support for actual placeholders.
EDIT: Found this approach, using iTextSharp and form fields: Using itextsharp (or any c# pdf library), how to open a PDF, replace some text, and save it again?
if I have some report and i wanna before the user download this report through (Export to pdf file)to make a specific action (like add a watermark to this pdf).
How to handle the export button?
note : i wanna some generic way cause i have a lot of reports , and i don't want to repeat the code . i wanna just to execute specific behavior to the pdf file before downloading it.
Assuming you have the original PDF without a watermark already accessible:
Implement something like this;
How can I insert an image with iTextSharp in an existing PDF?
Redirect or binary download watermarked file.
Done.
Simplest way would be a static class with a method that takesa pdf file and and perhaps the watermark image, sorts it out and passes it back.
If you want something more generic, e.g. you wanted to say password protect and or watermark a pdf, or you had non pdf reports you wanted to do something with.
Then Interface IPrepareForExport and implement it on the various types of "report", or perhaps use a decorator pattern and some attibutes.
Now this is not a easy solution to implement. But it is totally generic.
You should implement a Custom Report Renderer.
By creating a renderer for Reporting Services, you can render reports into the format of your choice.
It will be available whereever you have a report export.
Take a look at this blog: PDF watermark/background Rendering Extension for SSRS
He has already made an extention for what you want to do.
You can then remove the existing rendering option that you don't wish to support by editing the RSReportServer.Config file.
Your number of reports don't matter, because this is a one place configuration change.
This question has been asked several times but my situation is a little different.
I have a web application written in C# where I get a string value passed to this page I'm working on. This string value represents a filename of a PDF file I need to display on this page. I'm supposed to have a left panel where I have some information displayed, and a right panel showing the contents of a PDF file. I'm using a simple table here to separate the panels. All PCs should already have Acrobat Reader installed.
My question is simple. How can I display the contents of the PDF file within this table? I don't need anything fancy. It has to be free and simple enough for a newbie like me to set up. It could even be written in jQuery/AJAX, if there even is a way.
I've looked at a Webbrowser control within an ASP.NET page, but it looks way too complicated for a simple viewer. I looked at Webparts, but I'm not sure if that's doable in a non-Sharepoint environment. Suggestions?
Have you tried the object tag? More ideas are here Make PDF display inline instead of separate Acrobat Reader window
I'm using itextsharp to generate the PDFs, but I need to change some text dynamically.
I know that it's possible to change if there's any AcroField, but my PDF doen's have any of it. It just has some pure texts and I need to change some of them.
Does anyone know how to do it?
Actually, I have a blog post on how to do it! But like IanGilham said, it depends on whether you have control over the original PDF. The basic idea is you setup a form on the page and replace the form fields with the text you want. (You can style the form so it doesn't look like a form)
If you don't have control over the PDF, let me know how to do it!
Here is a link to the full post:
Using a template to programmatically create PDFs with C# and iTextSharp
I haven't used itextsharp, but I have been using PDFNet SDK to explore the content of a large pile of PDFs for localisation over the last few weeks.
I would say that what you require is absolutely achievable, but how difficult it is will depend entirely on how much control you have over the quality of the files. In my case, the files can be constructed from any combination of images, text in any random order, tables, forms, paths, single pixel graphics and scanned pages, some of which are composed from hundreds of smaller images. Let's just say we're having fun with it.
In the PDFTron way of doing things, you would have to implement a viewer (sample available), and add some code over a text selection. Given the complexities of the format, it may be necessary to implement a simple editor in a secondary dialog with the ability to expand the selection to the next line (or whatever other fundamental object is used to make up text). The string could then be edited and applied by copying the entire page of the document into a new page, replacing the selected elements with your new string. You would probably have to do some mathematics to get this to work well though, as just about everything in PDF is located on the page by means of an affine transform.
Good luck. I'm sure there are people on here with some experience of itextsharp and PDF in general.
This question comes up from time to time on the mailing list. The same answer is given time and time again - NO. See this thread for the official answer from the person who created iText.
This question should be a FAQ on the itextsharp tag wiki.