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bogdanm78147864
bogdanm78147864
Known Participant
January 18, 2019
Question

Developing Plug In for Adobe Reader

  • January 18, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 3504 views

I want to develop a plug in for Adobe Reader in which the documents will be signed and the certificates will be stored in the cloud. What are the steps that i must take in order to accomplish this?

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3 replies

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
January 24, 2019

The plug-in would be free. Every user of the plug-in would pay, of course.

    bogdanm78147864
    bogdanm78147864Author
    Known Participant
    January 24, 2019

    Perfect. So now i must download the SDK and open it in visual studio right? Any recommendation of the version of visual studio ? And what version of Acrobat should i use to develop this? Thanks.

    lrosenth
    Adobe Employee
    lrosenth
    Adobe Employee
    January 24, 2019

    Acrobat DC is the only supported version of Acrobat.

    The SDK will tell you what version of Visual Studio is required.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      January 19, 2019

      If you want a Reader plug-in license, apply in PLENTY of time.

      Thom Parker
      Community Expert
      Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 19, 2019

      Which is why I've pretty much ignored Reader development. Good Luck.

      Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
      bogdanm78147864
      bogdanm78147864Author
      Known Participant
      January 24, 2019

      Ok. I can also create this plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, would that be free?

      Thom Parker
      Community Expert
      Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 19, 2019

      Read this:

      Acrobat DC SDK Documentation

      And download the SDK

      Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
        bogdanm78147864
        bogdanm78147864Author
        Known Participant
        January 19, 2019

        Thank you very much! I have some more questions if you can help me:

        1.Is this plugin possible to implement?(its a project for my school)?

        2.Is it free?

        3.Can you give me the link to the sdk?

        4.What programming language will i use to develop this?

        5.What platform do you recommend me to use in order to write the code (Visual Studio or something else?).

        Thom Parker
        Community Expert
        Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        January 19, 2019

        All of those answers are of course easy to find on the internet

        Hmm, Reader is heavily sandboxed for security reasons, but an Acrobat script can sign a document if it is Reader enabled for such, so perhaps a plug-in can as well. I also think you can pull data from the internet, such as your signature files, as long as you follow the access rules.  You might be able to do this with JavaScript, but an acrobat script can only do something in Reader, in a document context if the document is Reader enabled for that operation. So you'll have to check it out.

        Plug-ins are developed in C++, and you'll need the correct version of VS for it. There is an add-in wizard to VS for creating a plug-in project. However, there is a lot you'll have to learn, especially because you want this to work in Reader. The SDK is free, but I'm not sure you'll be able to create a plug-in for Reader for free. Adobe likes to keep a handle on what's developed for it.

        Again, read the documentation.

        Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
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