Exporting data using iTextSharp cuts off text fields.

Hi Crystal,

I think I responded to this question but it seems ... I am getting old n missing out stuff :P or maybe my laptop crashed in between.

Is it possible for you to share a sample template and code that you are using. No need to send everything, just post the relevant code and I will try to figure it out.

This generally happens when the engine is not able to figure out some aspects of the font/s used. I would also suggest to copy the comments and put them in a texblock (and remove the field entirely) before you flatten the PDF.

Regards,
Chinmay.

Thanks for any help or tips or suggestions!  I've attached a sample form with most of the data removed except for the Comments Field.

Here is more of the code for the pdf.cs

using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;

namespace master.MYSITE.Models
{
    public class PDF
    {
        private myDB myDB = new myDB();

        public PDF(int id)
        {
            request = (from x in myDB.tbl_Request
                       where x.ID == id
                       select x).Single();
        }

        private tbl_Request request { get; set; }

        public MemoryStream form()
        {
            using (PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/mypath/Form.pdf")))
            {
                using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
                {
                    using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, ms))
                    {
                        stamper.AcroFields.SetField("Title", request.Title);
                        stamper.AcroFields.SetFieldProperty("Title", "textsize", 8f, null);
                                               
                         StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

                        foreach (tbl_Note note in request.tbl_Note.OrderByDescending(x => x.OriginationDate))
                        {
                            sb.Append(note.OriginatorString() + " ");
                            sb.Append(note.dateString() + " - ");
                            sb.Append(note.Content + "\n" + "\n");
                        }

                        stamper.AcroFields.SetField("Comments", sb.ToString());
                        stamper.AcroFields.SetFieldProperty("Comments", "textsize", 6f, null);
                                                                    
                        stamper.FormFlattening = true;

                        return ms;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public MemoryStream fullPDF()
        {
            var final = new MemoryStream();

            MemoryStream formMS = new MemoryStream(form().ToArray());
          
            var copy = new PdfCopyFields(final);

            formMS.Position = 0;
            copy.AddDocument(new PdfReader(formMS));
            formMS.Dispose();

            copy.AddDocument(new PdfReader());

            copy.Close();

            return final;
        }

        }
    }
}

My Controller:

[HttpGet]
		public FileStreamResult DownloadPDF(int id)
		{
			tbl_Request cr = (from x in myDB.tbl_Request
									where x.ID == id
									select x).Single();

			PDF pdf = new PDF(id);

			MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(pdf.fullPDF().ToArray());
            string pdfTitle = PDF_NAME + ".pdf";
            return File(stream, "application/pdf", pdfTitle);
		}

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Here is the attached sample form.
Form.pdf

Hi Crystal,

I tried with your code - got rid of lot of stuff as I was doing it from a WPF app.

Here is my code and I could reproduce what you are facing but I am not sure if we have a way out.

using (PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(@"Form.pdf"))
            {
                using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, new FileStream("Test.pdf", FileMode.Create)))
                {
                    stamper.AcroFields.SetField("Title", "Title");
                    stamper.AcroFields.SetFieldProperty("Title", "textsize", 8f, null);

                    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

                    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
                    {
                        sb.Append("Line 1");
                    }
                    sb.Append("Line 2" + Environment.NewLine);
                    sb.Append("Line 3" + Environment.NewLine);
                    sb.Append("Line 4" + Environment.NewLine);

                    stamper.AcroFields.SetField("Comments", sb.ToString());
                    stamper.AcroFields.SetFieldProperty("Comments", "textsize", 0f, null);
                    stamper.AcroFields.GetFieldItem("Comments");

                    stamper.FormFlattening = true;
                }
            }

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1. Do you think the generated PDFs will be needed for something else? I mean even when you flatten the field, it is still a field so be design, Acrobat locks it out.
2. If you don't flatten the file, you can see how it works.

Now, the easy way out is to create a text block, draw a  border around it - copy content of the Comments field and remove the field.

Is that something that will work for you? Otherwise I think it will be better to raise it to their support page.  Another thing you could try is to resize the field before flattening.

Regards,
Chinmay.

Thanks I appreciate this!  I'm still working on it and it may be awhile since it's not a high priority task for me right now. I'm basically researching to see if I can do anything about it.  I'll close this question for now and may re-open another one later if your suggestions don't work for me.

Thanks again!

Fair enough. The textblock will definitely work - I assure you. I am just not sure if there is any other processing that needs to be done after the flattening of the fields. If that is the case, then we might have to come up with something clever.

Thanks!  I'll let you know what I figure out.  Hoping to get to work on this again soon.