Retreiving and setting fields from pdf

Question

Hi Everyone,
I hope that you may be able to help. I'm working on putting together an extention to my program to allow users to load a pdf file from a database, and also save what the user has entered into the pdf, into a database. I started out using the ActiveView sample app and have gotten it to load a seleted pdf into my app. I am currently trying to get the fields from the pdf. I am using the FormsAutomation sample as a reference. Here is some code :
This funtion is used to open the pdf (just like in the ActiveView sample)
    Public Sub OpenChartFile(ByRef Filename As String, PatientId As String, ChartId As Integer, isNew As Boolean )
        Dim ok As Integer
        Dim fIndex As Short
        ' change mousepointer to an hourglass
        System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.WaitCursor
        ' change form's caption and display new text
        fIndex = FindFreeIndex()
        Document(fIndex) = New frmPDFView
        Document(fIndex).PatientId = PatientId
        Document(fIndex).ChartFileId = ChartId
        Document(fIndex).ChartFileName = Filename
        Document(fIndex).isNew = isNew
        Document(fIndex).Tag = fIndex
        Document(fIndex).Show()
        Document(fIndex).Text = UCase(Filename)
        Document(fIndex).MdiParent = gShell
        ' open the selected file
        AcroExchAVDoc(fIndex) = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")
        ok = AcroExchAVDoc(fIndex).OpenInWindowEx(Filename, Document(fIndex).Handle.ToInt32, AV_DOC_VIEW, True, 0, PDUseBookmarks, AVZoomFitWidth, 0, 0, 0)
        ' See IAC.bas and the Acrobat Viewer IAC Overview for information on the
        ' OpenInWindowEx open modes
        If Not ok Then
            MsgBox("Can't open file: " + Filename)
            Document(fIndex).Close()
            System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Default
            Exit Sub
        End If
        FState(fIndex).Dirty = False
        Document(fIndex).Show()
        Document(fIndex).FillChart() 'Used to fill the pdf from the DB
        ' reset mouse pointer
        System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Default
    End Sub
Here is were I try and get the fields which is located in the PDFView form
    Public Sub FillChart()
        If Not pisNew then
            formApp = CreateObject("AFormAut.App")
            acroForm = formApp.Fields  '<-----******Errors here, "No document is currently open in the Acrobat Viewer"
            FillChartData( pPatientId,acroForm,pChartFileId, Me.tag )
        End If
    End Sub
Here is where I plan to fill the pdf file (Located in a module file): I
Public Sub FillChartData(PatientId As string, acroForm As AFORMAUTLib.Fields, ChartFileId As Integer, FormIndex As integer )
    Dim field As AFORMAUTLib.Field
Try
    field = acroForm.Item("PatientName")
Catch ex As Exception
    MsgBox(ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.Critical, "ModChartSupport.FillChartData")
End Try
End Sub
Is it possible to get the list of fields in the current setup using the ActiveView forms? If so, what am I missing? In the FormAutomation sample it seems to get the fields this way:
        avDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")
        Dim file As String = System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath & "\..\..\..\..\TestFiles\FormsAutomation.pdf"
        bOK = avDoc.Open(file, "Forms Automation Demo")
        'If everything was OK opening the PDF, we now instantiate the Forms Automation object.
        If (bOK) Then
            formApp = CreateObject("AFormAut.App")
            acroForm = formApp.Fields
        Else
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(avDoc)
            avDoc = Nothing
            MsgBox("Failed to open PDF Document. Aborting...")
            End
        End If
The OpenChartFile function has already created the avDoc object for the form, so I think I'm alright there. What am I missing? Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

So let's say you have the following fields in your file:
Incident_Report
ClientsName
Date
You can then add this code to the file's WillSave action (under Tools - JavaScript - Set Document Actions):
var newFileName = this.getField("Incident_Report").valueAsString + "_" + this.getField("ClientsName").valueAsString + "_" + this.getField("Date").valueAsString + ".pdf";
app.response("Please copy the text below and use it as the new file-name:","", newFileName)
Of course, you can adjust the message to the user, and even the format of the file-name, although I've used the format you specified.