eForm FDF Example

This example shows how to extract Unicode annotation values from an eForm FDF file.

First we create an ABCpdf Doc object and read in our FDF file.

[C#]
Doc theFDF = new Doc();
theFDF.Read(Server.MapPath("../Rez/form.fdf"));

[Visual Basic]
Dim theFDF As Doc = New Doc()
theFDF.Read(Server.MapPath("../Rez/form.fdf"))


We find out how many items there are in the FDF file and prepare to iterate through them.

[C#]
string theValues = "";
int theLastID = Convert.ToInt32(theFDF.GetInfo(0, "Count"));

[Visual Basic]
Dim theValues As String = ""
Dim theLastID As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(theFDF.GetInfo(0, "Count"))

We go through each item. We check to see if it is an annotation. If it is we check to see if the annotation type is text. If we have found a text annotation we extract the content and add the value to our list.

[C#]
// extract annotation values (for insertion into PDF)
for (int i = 0; i <= theLastID; i++) {
  string theType = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "Type");
  if (theType == "anno") {
    if (theFDF.GetInfo(i, "SubType") == "Text") {
      string theCont;
      theCont = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "Contents");
      theValues = theValues + theCont + "\r\n\r\n";
    }
  }
}
// extract field values (for demonstration purposes)
for (int i = 0; i <= theLastID; i++) {
  int theN = theFDF.GetInfoInt(i, "/FDF*/Fields*:Count");
  for (int j = 0; j < theN; j++) {
    string theName = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "/FDF*/Fields*[" + j + "]*/T:Text");
    string theValue = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "/FDF*/Fields*[" + j + "]*/V:Text");
    // here we would do something with the field value we've found
  }
}

[Visual Basic]
For i As Integer = 0 To theLastID
  Dim theType As String
  theType = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "Type")
  If theType = "anno" Then
    If theFDF.GetInfo(i, "SubType") = "Text" Then
      Dim theCont As String
      theCont = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "Contents")
      theValues = theValues + theCont + vbCrLf + vbCrLf
    End If
  End If
Next
' extract field values (for demonstration purposes)
For i As Integer = 0 To theLastID
  Dim theN As Integer
  theN = theFDF.GetInfoInt(i, "/FDF*/Fields*:Count")
  Dim j As Integer
  For j = 0 To [theN] - 1
    Dim theName As String = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "/FDF*/Fields*[" + j + "]*/T:Text")
    Dim theValue As String = theFDF.GetInfo(i, "/FDF*/Fields*[" + j + "]*/V:Text")
    ' here we would do something with the field value we've found
  Next j
Next i

Finally we add the Unicode text to a new document and save it.

[C#]
Doc theDoc = new Doc();
theDoc.Font = theDoc.EmbedFont("Arial", LanguageType.Unicode, false, true);
theDoc.FontSize = 96;
theDoc.Rect.Inset(10, 10);
theDoc.AddText(theValues);
theDoc.Save(Server.MapPath("fdf.pdf"));

[Visual Basic]
Dim theDoc As Doc = New Doc()
theDoc.Font = theDoc.EmbedFont("Arial", LanguageType.Unicode, False, True)
theDoc.FontSize = 96
theDoc.Rect.Inset(10, 10)
theDoc.AddText(theValues)
theDoc.Save(Server.MapPath("fdf.pdf"))

This is the kind of PDF you might expect to produce.

fdf.pdf