• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Programmatic use of Adobe Reader to display and save updated content

New Here ,
Nov 16, 2018 Nov 16, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am interested in automating a process that involves using Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill a form. This process involves the user doing the following steps:

  1. Retrieve the PDF file from the application
  2. Open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader
  3. Fill the available form fields (no automation required)
  4. Save the PDF file from Adobe Acrobat Reader
  5. Add the updated PDF file back to the application

I would like to automate this process from the application in the following way:

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat Reader
  2. Send the PDF content to Adobe Acrobat Reader
  3. Wait for the user to fill the form
  4. Retrieve the PDF content from Adobe Acrobat Reader

I am working with C# under Windows and I have the following questions:

  1. Do I need to install Adobe Acrobat (Standard or Pro) on my development machine to create applications that integrate with Adobe Acrobat Reader?
  2. If answer to question 1 is no, what is the API that I need to reference in my project? So far, I know about the following COM references: "Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Browser Control ...", "Adobe Reader File Preview ...", "AFormAut ...". The "Acrobat" reference from "FillFormCS" SDK sample does not resolve on my machine.
  3. Is it possible to have a version independent implementation, as long as Adobe Acrobat Reader supports the file?
  4. If answer to question 3 is no, how can I implement for Adobe Acrobat Reader DC?

Thank you for taking your time to read.

TOPICS
Acrobat SDK and JavaScript

Views

2.2K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Nov 16, 2018 Nov 16, 2018

You can certainly write a plugin (in C/C++) for Adobe Reader that will give you much more control and information. However, that will require that you purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro for doing the development, as well as obtaining a Reader Integration Key from Adobe.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Adobe Employee ,
Nov 16, 2018 Nov 16, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

1 – for this particular use, no you do not.

2 – You can’t use COM to communicate with Reader, it has no COM APIs. The APIs are quite limited from C# with Reader. For your needs, however, the only thing you need to do with Reader is a ShellExec() on the PDF to have it open. I would use file system watchers to detect change.

3 – Yes, given how little you are doing.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 16, 2018 Nov 16, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you for answering all of my questions. The information is very helpful.

The difficult parts in your approach are knowing when the user is done (save multiple times) and getting the result (save elsewhere or with a different name). Regarding the "is done" part, I thought about handling the Reader process exit. This does not work if the user has multiple documents opened and just closes one tab.

In case any of these two parts can be improved by using other languages, such as C/C++ (better API), please let me know. I was thinking about opening the document in a separate instance without tabs or controlling the save process from within the application (overwrite the file or retrieve the new file path).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
Nov 16, 2018 Nov 16, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You can certainly write a plugin (in C/C++) for Adobe Reader that will give you much more control and information. However, that will require that you purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro for doing the development, as well as obtaining a Reader Integration Key from Adobe.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jan 17, 2020 Jan 17, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hello Folks,


I am trying to save pdf file from IE in adobe reader programmatically.The PDF file is having content and comments,now I want to download this file from the IE browser.How can I save this file on the local machine.

 

Please let me know if anyone have any comment/solutions.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jul 10, 2021 Jul 10, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Excited to Create My ID Button!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Jul 11, 2021 Jul 11, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

HallieBeary, I do not understanad your questions at all. What Create My ID button? Why are you excited? 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jul 10, 2021 Jul 10, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The suspicion is killing me!!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jul 10, 2021 Jul 10, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Do we have to take and pass a test to get an ID?  I am about to drink a bottle of wine which will render me useless....so come on now and quit teasing!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines