CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javapdf-generationpdfbox
Nirav Patel
Nirav Patel

Reputation: 1304

Saved Text Field value is not displayed properly in PDF generated using PDFBOX

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.swing.text.BadLocationException;

import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSArray;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSDictionary;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSFloat;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSName;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSString;
import org.apache.pdfbox.exceptions.COSVisitorException;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDPage;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.action.PDAnnotationAdditionalActions;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.action.type.PDActionJavaScript;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAcroForm;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDTextbox;
import org.junit.Test;

public class TestPDTextbox {
    @Test
    public void Sample1 () throws IOException, COSVisitorException, BadLocationException {


        PDDocument doc = new PDDocument();
        PDPage page = new PDPage();
        doc.addPage(page);   

        COSDictionary acroFormDict = new COSDictionary(); 
//        acroFormDict.setBoolean(COSName.getPDFName("NeedAppearances"), true);
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.getPDFName("Fields"), new COSArray());

        PDAcroForm acroForm = new PDAcroForm(doc, acroFormDict);
        doc.getDocumentCatalog().setAcroForm(acroForm);

        COSDictionary cosDict1 = new COSDictionary();
        COSArray rect1 = new COSArray();
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(100));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(700));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(200));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(750));

        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.RECT, rect1);
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.FT, COSName.getPDFName("Tx")); // Field Type
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.TYPE, COSName.ANNOT);
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.SUBTYPE, COSName.getPDFName("Widget"));
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.T, new COSString("tx1"));
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.DA, new COSString("/Helv 7 Tf 0 g"));
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.V, new COSString("Test Value1"));

        PDTextbox textbox = new PDTextbox(doc.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm(), cosDict1);

//      textbox.setValue("Test Value");

        page.getAnnotations().add(textbox.getWidget());
        acroForm.getFields().add(textbox);

         doc.save("C:\\PDF\\SampleTextbox.pdf");
         doc.close();
    }
}

Issue#1 I have created one text field as shown in above code and tried to set value using textbox.setValue("Test Value"); method but it is giving error as shown below : 

java.io.IOException: Error: Don't know how to calculate the position for non-simple fonts
    at org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAppearance.getTextPosition(PDAppearance.java:1037)
    at org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAppearance.insertGeneratedAppearance(PDAppearance.java:558)
    at org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAppearance.setAppearanceValue(PDAppearance.java:338)
    at org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDVariableText.setValue(PDVariableText.java:131)
    at sample.pdfbox.example.TestPDTextbox.Sample1(TestPDTextbox.java:54)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

Issue#2

In order to fix issue#1, If I set value of textBox using cosDictionary property i.e. cosDict1.setItem(COSName.V, new COSString("Test Value1"));

Then in Adobe Reader, value of textBox is not populated properly. I have to click on textbox and then only value appears, and once I move out from the field, value again gets invisible.

Issue#3

In order to fix issue#2, I need to set needAppearances flag to true as shown below, and after that field value is displayed properly in PDF. But after this solution, I`m not able to extract/parse PDF field back once user changes field value and we again parse this PDF.

Note:- This issue exists in Adobe Reader, here while opening PDF it gives some message too like fixing form fields up. And once I save PDF and tried to parse acroform fields, all fields are found to be reset or null. None of the field name or field values can be extracted.

So using acroFormDict.setBoolean(COSName.getPDFName("NeedAppearances"), true); in code seems risky and it creates other issue in PDF parsing so it cannot be used.

COSDictionary acroFormDict = new COSDictionary(); 
        acroFormDict.setBoolean(COSName.getPDFName("NeedAppearances"), true);
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.getPDFName("Fields"), new COSArray());

        PDAcroForm acroForm = new PDAcroForm(doc, acroFormDict);
        doc.getDocumentCatalog().setAcroForm(acroForm);

I think, I need to set PDAppearanceDictionary for text fields but I don`t know to do that and whether I need to set for each field or at acroform level.

Please help me with this issue how should I resolve. I`m using PDFBOX version 1.8.10.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4174

Answers (1)

Nirav Patel
Nirav Patel

Reputation: 1304

In above question, I fixed Issue#1 by adding page resources to acroform and used proper Default Appearance string for text. Now I don`t event require to set needsAppearance flag to true.

        PDFont font = PDType1Font.HELVETICA;
        PDResources res = new PDResources();
        String fontName = res.addFont(font);
        String defaultAppearance = "/"+fontName+" 7 Tf 0 g";

        COSDictionary acroFormDict = new COSDictionary(); 
        acroFormDict.setBoolean(COSName.getPDFName("NeedAppearances"), false);
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.getPDFName("Fields"), new COSArray());
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.DA, new COSString(defaultAppearance));

        PDAcroForm acroForm = new PDAcroForm(doc, acroFormDict);
        acroForm.setDefaultResources(res);

Check entire corrected code below: 

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.swing.text.BadLocationException;

import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSArray;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSDictionary;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSFloat;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSName;
import org.apache.pdfbox.cos.COSString;
import org.apache.pdfbox.exceptions.COSVisitorException;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDPage;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDResources;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.font.PDFont;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.font.PDType1Font;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAcroForm;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDTextbox;
import org.junit.Test;

public class TestPDTextbox {
    @Test
    public void Sample1 () throws IOException, COSVisitorException, BadLocationException {


        PDDocument doc = new PDDocument();
        PDPage page = new PDPage();
        doc.addPage(page);   

        PDFont font = PDType1Font.HELVETICA;
        PDResources res = new PDResources();
        String fontName = res.addFont(font);
        String defaultAppearance = "/"+fontName+" 7 Tf 0 g";

        COSDictionary acroFormDict = new COSDictionary(); 
        acroFormDict.setBoolean(COSName.getPDFName("NeedAppearances"), false);
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.getPDFName("Fields"), new COSArray());
        acroFormDict.setItem(COSName.DA, new COSString(defaultAppearance));

        PDAcroForm acroForm = new PDAcroForm(doc, acroFormDict);
        acroForm.setDefaultResources(res);

        doc.getDocumentCatalog().setAcroForm(acroForm);

        COSDictionary cosDict1 = new COSDictionary();
        COSArray rect1 = new COSArray();
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(100));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(700));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(200));
        rect1.add(new COSFloat(750));

        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.RECT, rect1);
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.FT, COSName.getPDFName("Tx")); // Field Type
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.TYPE, COSName.ANNOT);
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.SUBTYPE, COSName.getPDFName("Widget"));
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.T, new COSString("tx1"));
        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.DA, new COSString(defaultAppearance));
//        cosDict1.setItem(COSName.V, new COSString("Test Value1"));

        PDTextbox textbox = new PDTextbox(doc.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm(), cosDict1);

      textbox.setValue("Test Value");

        page.getAnnotations().add(textbox.getWidget());
        acroForm.getFields().add(textbox);

         doc.save("C:\\PDF\\SampleTextbox.pdf");
         doc.close();
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

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