Is Acrobat DC Pro required to use AFORMAUTLib in Excel VBA

[mbb88]

Good afternoon!

The code below compiles just fine and I have no missing references, but when I reach the For Each block, there are no FormField items to process (and the loop is not entered).

Here are the references:

I'm using Adobe Acrobat Standard DC, 2015 Release (Classic) | Version 2015.006.30434. Do I need the Professional version for this code to work?

I've spent the better part of the day trying to figure out what I thought would be a pretty simple task. What I want to do is loop through a list of several hundred PDF files, open them, find a specific text string, modify it, slightly expand the width of the text box that contains it, then save/close.

I've found code to find and select the string (AVDoc.FindText), but nothing that allows me to change it (e.g. A300-000A-T-1 to A300-000A-T-101).

There are some relatively cryptic (cryptic to me anyway) posts out there regarding JSO, but I'm not having much luck with that so far. Most of them talk about adding items to the form, not changing existing ones.

Anyway, I'm surprised that there is not something like "AVDoc.ReplaceText" in the reference document:

https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/iac_api_reference.pdf

That would solve everything.

Thanks in advance!

Public Sub ListPDF_Fields()

    Dim AcroExchAVDoc As CAcroAVDoc

    Dim AcroExchApp As CAcroApp

    Dim AFORMAUT As AFORMAUTLib.AFormApp

    Dim FormField As AFORMAUTLib.Field

    Dim FormFields As AFORMAUTLib.Fields

    Dim bOK As Boolean

    Dim sFields As String

    Dim sTypes As String

    Dim sFieldName As String, PDFPath As String

    ' For this procedure to work, computer must have a full version

    ' of Adobe Acrobat installed. Also, a reference to the following

    ' Type Libraries must be made:

    '     AFormAut 1.0

    '     Adobe Acrobat 7.0 (or newer)

    On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

    PDFPath = Range("B" & ActiveCell.Row)

    Set AcroExchApp = CreateObject("AcroExch.App")

    Set AcroExchAVDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")

    bOK = AcroExchAVDoc.Open(PDFPath, "")    '**************File open is successful

    AcroExchAVDoc.BringToFront

    AcroExchApp.Hide

    If (bOK) Then

        Set AFORMAUT = CreateObject("AFormAut.App")

        Set FormFields = AFORMAUT.Fields

        For Each FormField In FormFields '***************No FormField objects exist for processing!

            With FormField

                sFieldName = .Name

                If .IsTerminal Then

                    If sFields = "" Then

                        sFields = .Name

                        sTypes = .Type

                    Else

                        sFields = sFields + "," + .Name

                        sTypes = sTypes + "," + .Type

                    End If

                End If

            End With

        Next FormField

        AcroExchAVDoc.Close True

    End If

    Debug.Print sFields

    Debug.Print sTypes

    Set AcroExchAVDoc = Nothing

    Set AcroExchApp = Nothing

    Set AFORMAUT = Nothing

    Set FormField = Nothing

    Exit Sub

ErrorHandler:

    MsgBox "FieldList Error: " + Str(Err.Number) + " " + Err.Description + " " + Err.Source

End Sub

[lrosenth]

Probably because there aren’t any form fields on the PDF that you are working with. It’s probably a static PDF file with no interactive fields (which is what you are trying to obtain).

The JavaScript and VB APIs do not have any access to the actual content of a PDF. You will need to use our plugin APIs (via C/C++) instead to accomplish search & replace.

[mbb88]

Thanks for the quick response, lrosenth!

You're right, there are no interactive fields in these PDFs (just text fields and a few images). These are datasheets describing package contents. This explains why no FormFields were found, because there aren't any.

Please confirm that even though my file is editable using Standard DC and that the text of interest can be found and highlighted using AVDoc,FindText that it is not possible to edit the content of these files using vba or js.

Please provide a link to a reference describing your plug-in APIs that provide search & replace functionality. Will these plug-ins require a Pro installation? I checked with our IT manager and all we have here is Standard.

I should also mention that I have some basic skills in Python. Would the PDF tools provided in that realm allow me to accomplish this task, or are the plug-ins the only option?

Thanks again for your help.

[lrosenth]

That is correct – it is NOT possible to edit using VBA & JS. Only with the Plugin API.

Standard is just fine – Pro is not required. As to the Search/Replace, you would need to use low level APIs, specifically of the PDEdit variety.

PlugIns are the only option for Acrobat. If you want to go a completely different route, Adobe offers a PDF library (though Datalogics – www.datalogics.com<http://www.datalogics.com>) that has VB and Python bindings.

[mbb88]

If the Plugin for editing is the one called "Edit PDF"...the pink one with the two rectangles and the three lines in the icon, I already have this component. The search/replace feature works fine manually file-by-file, but this won't help me in the effort to update hundreds of files. Please confirm that the Plug-in to which you refer above is called "Edit PDF" and that it can't be scripted in some way with the tools that I currently possess to process a large number of files.

I checked out Datalogics (https://www.datalogics.com/products/pdf/pdflibrary/)​ and I am unalbe to find anything there regarding VB or Python. Could you point me to a page that describes the VB and Python bindings to which you refer?

I'll start a conversation on this topic with Datalogics as well...thank you for the lead.

[lrosenth · Accepted solution]

No, I am saying you need to write a COMPLETELY NEW plugin (in C/C++) to do what you wish.

https://www.datalogics.com/products/pdf/pdflibrary/

Sorry, Java and .NET – no Python.

[mbb88]

Ok, well at least I now have a justifiable reason to learn C++. In the meantime, I guess we'll be opening these files and manually editing them one at a time. Fortunately, we don't have to have them all at once...just as needed.

I really appreciate your help with this.