Get selected field(s)

[cschmelter]

When in "Prepare Form" mode in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, is there a way to get the selected field name(s) via JavaScript? I would like the user to be able to select a field (or multiple fields), and then click a custom button under "Add-ons" so that I can bring up my own custom dialog. I don't want to write a C++ plugin. Thanks in advance.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

No, can't be done.

[cschmelter]

Thanks for the reply. Is there any work around for this? Or do I need to create a generic dialog that gives them a field selection list where once they select a field I programmatically modify some of the properties I'm allowing them to change? In this case metadata...

Also, can this be done in C++? Also wondering if I could add a context menu item via C++ and have it call a JavaScript function passing the field name in context or is there no way to bridge the two programming languages?

[try67]

If that's what you want to do then yes, you would need to display a list of the field names and have the user select from it (or have them enter the field's name into a text field, or something like that).

I don't know about whether it can be done using C++. Try the Acrobat SDK forum. I doubt it, though.

[cschmelter]

Ok thanks. And just to confirm, there's no way to add to the "Field Properties" UI is there?

[try67]

Not with JS.

[Thom Parker]

You cannot modify anything in the Prepare Form tools from the standard API/SDK (JS or C++).  Unless of course you are working with MS Windows and you know how to subclass windows and hijack messages, then of course, you can create a plug-in that gets in there. But it won't do you much good.

What exactly do you want to do? There is probably another way.

[cschmelter]

Thanks for the reply. I would like to either:

1. Be able to add an item to the context menu that shows up when you right click on a field when preparing the form so that I can bring up a dialog to edit metadata associated with the selected field.
2. Be able to select a field, then click a custom button under add-on tools which would run JavaScript and ideally get a reference to the selected field so that when the metadata dialog comes up I already have the metadata for the selected field loaded rather than them having to always select the field they want to change the metadata for in the dialog each time.

[Thom Parker]

What field metadata are you referring too?

[cschmelter]

I'm just storing arbitrary metadata for some of the form fields under document.info.

[Thom Parker]

the "info" object contains document metadata, not field metadata.

[cschmelter]

Right, it's document metadata which I'm using to store metadata about certain fields since I'm not aware of any other place to store metadata associated with fields?

[Thom Parker]

If you look down the list of field properties you'll find only a single one that can contain arbitrary text and not screw up the field, "userName" .  This is the popup text displayed when the mouse hovers over the field.  So you're correct.

[cschmelter]

Ok, thanks for the help!

[Thom Parker]

But you can do this as I pointed out earlier, you just can't detect which fields are selected.

[Thom Parker]

See this article:

Alerts, Popups, and Other Devices for Interacting with the User

[Thom Parker]

You can create toolbar buttons with either a plug-in or JavaScript, but neither has the ability to detect a selected field. However, you could provide the user with a list of fields that are visible on the page.And then set you metadata from there.

But what metadata are you talking about? 

[cschmelter]

Yep, ok, that's the route I was thinking I'd need to go.