Issue when filling an empty PDF about fillpdf

[aakashrs]

+1

Also to add to what @nahuel062 has mentioned here:

Flattening the PDF is not always an option - sometimes the text fields are large - that we need them to be scrollable, and when we flatten the pdf, it becomes an image so there is no scrolling possible.

[t-houssian]

@aakashrs @nahuel062 Thanks for the feedback. I wonder if this is an Adobe Acrobat Reader, or specific issue or the specific pdf your working with. I tried to replicate this issue and couldn't seem to get the same problem (I don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader). I believe the fields should be saved when write_fillable_pdf is run and when you use get_form_fields on the new file you should see the fields filled. Here are some screen shots. Perhaps I might not be understanding the problem correctly? Let me know! Also, maybe send me the code your using or a file to try to replicate the error.

[nahuel062]

Thanks for the reply @t-houssian !

Yes, you understand the problem correctly, and I think it has to do with the pdf files that I'm using.
What I tried to do was save an empty pdf template, and try to populate the fields in that one, and it works.

It's a shame that I can't figure it out what is the problem that I'm having with the rest of the pdf files.

What I do, is fill the pdf files using an excel file as an input.
For example, if I populate the file "Ambroa, Nahuel.pdf" with this input:

Then I open the new file with Acrobat Reader, and the fields are filled correctly, apparently:

But when I close the file, it pops up the window to save the file, as I previously told you.

Now, if I open the same new file with a browser, like Google Chrome, it seems that the fields wasn't filled.

The same happens when I open the file with another pdf reader, like Wondershare PDFelement.

I'm still investigating what could be the problem here, because otherwise I would have to migrate all the files to new ones haha

[nahuel062]

It's interesting that if I saw the file with a notepad, the values seems fine.
"1-Place_1" and "1-RV_1" are the names of the acro fields that I use like a dictionary key to save the values. (in this example, 9 and 3)

I wonder what could be the visualization problem, and the thing that keeps me trying to save every time I open the file.

At the start of the file, it says "PDF 1.3", and when I save it, it changes to "PDF 1.6". Maybe it just an "old version" problem

[tdbs]

I also have the same issue, using Adobe Acrobat always asks me to save the file.

EDIT: After further inspection it seems I'm using the same files @nahuel062 is using and it seems to me that this issue stems from the fact the pdf we are using has a script that uses the content of some forms cells to fill others (namely calculating totals and averages).

When I use the Preview mac app instead of Adobe Acrobat the script doesn't work so it won't bug me to save the result, and I have to manually fill the totals and averages cells myself instead of relying on the script) but when Adobe Acrobat opens the file the script runs and overwrites the totals and averages and since the file was "changed" (even though it changed into the same value) saving is now needed.

[Micboule]

Hi, thanks for sharing that nice little code.

In my case, when I take a template pdf, it is Version PDF: 1.6 (Acrobat 7.x) and when it is transformed into new.pdf, the version isn't the same anymore Version PDF: 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x)

[t-houssian]

@nahuel062 Partially fixed I believe now with the latest release. I still need to look into why it is changing the pdf version when the function is run.