Usage

The Ortus PDF extension will give you the following available tags:

• cfpdfform

• cfpdfformparam

cfpdfform/cfpdfformparam

This tag allows you to manipulate existing PDF forms, usually edited in Adobe Acrobat or LiveCycle Designer. You will be able to do the following:

• Embed a form with pre-filled FORM data and deliver it via cfcontent or cfpdf or cfdocument tags

• Render out a pre-filled FORM to disk with overwrite and flattening capabilities.

• Extract values from a PDF form as:

  • CFML Structure

  • XML string

  • XML file

  • FDF file

Basic Usage

<cfpdfform
    action = "populate"
    source = "PDF file pathname|byte array"
    destination = "output file pathname"
    overwrite = "yes|no"
    overwriteData = "yes|no"
    xmlData = "XML object|XML string|XML data filename"
    structData = "CFML Struct">
    
    <cfpdfformparam name="" value="" index="" />

</cfpdfform>

<cfpdfform
    action = "read"
    source = "pathname|byte array"
    result = "structure containing form field values"
    overwrite = "yes|no"
    xmlData = "variable containing xml values or an XML file path"
    fdfData = "The absolute file path to export the data as FDF"> 
</cfpdfform>

The cfpdfform tag can have nested cfpdfformparam tags in order to populate forms inside PDF documents.

cfpdfform attributes

Parameter	Required	Action	Default	Description
action	Yes	---	read	Action to perform: populate or read
destination	Yes	populate	---	Pathname for the output file. You can specify an absolute pathname or a pathname relative to the context root. The file extension must be PDF. Do not specify the destination when you embed a form in a PDF document.
overwrite	No	populate, read	No	Specifies whether to overwrite the destination file (if action="populate") or the data file (if action="read"):
overwriteData	No	populate	No	If enabled it will overwrite form field values, else it will only override them if the value is empty.
result	No	read	pdfdata	ColdFusion structure that contains the form field values. If not used, the tag will create a variable called pdfdata for you in the caller scope.
source	Yes	populate, read	---	Pathname of the source PDF (absolute on-disk or in-memory path, or path relative to the context root) or byte array representing a PDF.
flatten	No	populate	true	Will flatten the populated PDF so the form is sealed in the container PDF.
structData	No	populate	---	Instead of using nested cfpdfformparam tags, you can pass a struct of name-value pairs to populate a PDF form with.
jsonData	No	populate,read	---	Populate: Instead of using nested cfpdfformparam tags, you can pass a JSON object of name-value pairs to populate a PDF form with. Read : If a string, this will be the name of the variable in the caller's variables scope that will contain the form data as a JSON string.
xmlData	No	read, populate	---	Read : If a string, this will be the name of the variable in the caller's variables scope that will contain the Form data as an XML packet value. If this is a file path ending in .xml then the tag will export the XMl of the Form data to that file. Populate : The XML object, XML string or XML data filename to use when populating the PDF form instead of sub cfpdfformparam tags.

cfpdfformparam attributes

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
name	Yes	---	The name of the PDF form entry
value	Yes	---	The value of the PDF form entry
index	---	---	''Not implemented by Ortus PDF''

Examples

Populating a PDF Form with sub params

<cfpdfform 
    action="populate" 
    source="#datapath#/report.pdf" 
    destination="#workpath#/report-out.pdf" 
    overwrite="true"
    overwriteData="true"
    result="myresult"
    flatten="true">
    <cfpdfformparam name="full_name" value="Ortus Rocks" />
    <cfpdfformparam name="exam_date" value="#dateFormat( now(), "mmmm dd, yyyy")# #timeFormat( now(), "medium")#" />
    <cfpdfformparam name="strategy_overview" value="Drink a lot of water!" />
    <cfpdfformparam name="strategy_tips" value="Eat a lot of cheese!" />
</cfpdfform>

<!-- Deliver the file -->
<cfcontent file="#workpath#/report-out.pdf" type="application/pdf" reset="true" />

Populating a PDF Form with a struct

<cfset data = {
    "full_name" 		= "Ortus Rocks",
    "exam_date" 		= "#dateFormat( now(), "mmmm dd, yyyy")# #timeFormat( now(), "medium")#",
    "strategy_overview" = "Drink a lot of water!",
    "strategy_tips" 	= "Eat a lot of cheese!"
}>
<cfpdfform 
    action="populate" 
    source="#datapath#/report.pdf" 
    overwrite="true"
    overwriteData="true"
    structData=data
    flatten="true">
</cfpdfform>

Populating a PDF Form with a JSON object

<cfset jsonData = '{
    "full_name" 		: "Ortus Rocks",
    "exam_date" 		: "#dateFormat( now(), "mmmm dd, yyyy")# #timeFormat( now(), "medium")#",
    "strategy_overview" : "Drink a lot of water!",
    "strategy_tips" 	: "Eat a lot of cheese!"
}'>
<cfpdfform 
    action="populate" 
    source="#datapath#/report.pdf" 
    overwrite="true"
    overwriteData="true"
    jsonData="#jsonData#"
    flatten="true">
</cfpdfform>

Populating a PDF Form from and XML file and stream to browser

<cfpdfform 
    action="populate" 
    source="#datapath#/report.pdf" 
    overwrite="true"
    overwriteData="true"
    xmlData="c:\temp\data.xml"
    flatten="true">
</cfpdfform>

Reading a PDF Form

<cfpdfform 
    action="read"
    source="#dataPath#/report.pdf"
    result="formData">

<cfdump var="#formData#">

Reading a PDF Form as JSON Data

<cfpdfform 
    action="read"
    source="#dataPath#/report.pdf"
    jsonData="formData">

<cfdump var="#isJSON( formData )#">
<cfdump var="#formData#">

Reading a PDF Form as XML Data

<cfpdfform 
    action="read"
    source="#dataPath#/report.pdf"
    xmlData="formData">

<cfdump var="#isXML( formData )#">
<cfdump var="#formData#">

Reading a PDF Form as XML Data into an XML output file

<cfpdfform 
    action="read"
    source="#dataPath#/report.pdf"
    xmlData="c:\temp\export.xml">

Reading a PDF Form in FDF format and outputting to a file

<cfpdfform 
    action="read"
    source="#dataPath#/report.pdf"
    fdfData="c:\temp\export.fdf">

XML Data

If you will be populating forms or extracting forms, the format in XML will be the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<fields
><exam_date
>October 31, 2013 10:00am</exam_date
><full_name
>Populated by XML</full_name
><keystrengths
>After training, the dimensions of Radical Innovation upon which 
you performed highest were RECEPTIVITY and SELF-INQUIRY.</keystrengths
></fields>