Question

Programmatically Edit PDF Content in Asp.net

Asked by: dbruzzone79

I need to be able to edit the text inside a pdf document.  For example, a document will have the following text:  Hi, my name is <first name>.  

I need to be able to replace the <first name> with the currently logged in user's first name.  All the pdf api's i have researched are about adding pages or updating fields (Text Boxes and such).

It would be like converting a pdf into a word document and then changing the text.  We have an application that does that, but the performance is really bad, since it needs to convert to a word doc, then edit the word doc, and convert back to pdf.

Your help is very appreciated.
Thanks,

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Asked On
2009-02-07 at 15:38:04ID24122909
Tags

edit pdf c# vb.net

Topics

Programming for ASP.NET

,

Web Development Software

,

Adobe Acrobat

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Answers

 

by: aibusinesssolutionsPosted on 2009-02-07 at 17:59:38ID: 23581604

Have you looked in to using XFDF files with the PDF?  You can use an XML writer to write the file, which calls the PDF file.  You have to add form fields to the PDF though, so you would add a form field to the PDF named FirstName, and then do something like this.

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
   Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.adobe.xfdf"
   Dim ws As New Xml.XmlWriterSettings
   ws.CheckCharacters = True
   ws.CloseOutput = True
   ws.Indent = True
   
   Dim xw As Xml.XmlWriter = Xml.XmlWriter.Create(Response.OutputStream, ws)
   xw.WriteStartDocument()
   xw.WriteStartElement("xfdf", "http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/")
   xw.WriteAttributeString("xml", "space", Nothing, "preserve")
   xw.WriteStartElement("fields")
   WriteField("FirstName", sFirstName, xw)
   xw.WriteEndElement()
   xw.WriteStartElement("f")
   xw.WriteAttributeString("href", "URL-TO-PDF-FILE")
   xw.WriteEndDocument()
   xw.Close()
End Sub
 
Public Sub WriteField(ByVal sName As String, ByVal sValue As String, ByRef xw As Xml.XmlWriter)
   xw.WriteStartElement("field")
   xw.WriteAttributeString("name", sName)
   xw.WriteElementString("value", sValue)
   xw.WriteEndElement()
End Sub

                                              
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by: dbruzzone79Posted on 2009-02-09 at 10:43:22ID: 23592951

Hi aibusinesssolutions,

Thanks for your response but I have found api's that will do what you suggest and this solution is not good enough.  I need the updated text to be part of the flow of a sentence and therefore cannot use form fields.  

Thanks

 

by: SoftlyTeamPosted on 2009-06-02 at 07:54:07ID: 24527561

Hi all,
I have the same problem! Can you tell me what api's you found?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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