PDF Embed API: Annotations API, ANNOTATION_ADDED event not triggering for notes

[Facundo - Fabian MoonDesk]

Hello,

I am encountering an issue with the Annotations API. When adding a message to the document with the subtype "note," the ANNOTATION_ADDED event is not being triggered. It does work as expected for other subtypes such as "strikeout," "highlight," "underline," and "shape.". This was working fine a few days ago.

This issue can be tested with the Angular demo (/annotationAPIs/UIConfigurations). 

Here, you can observe two events (related to drawing and highlighting marks), but none for note-type marks:

Thanks!

[Jere- Lucho MoonDesk]

Hi! First of all, sorry for bother you tagging in this post @Joel Geraci We have seen that you are an expert in the community, we want to know if you can give us some help trying to contact some adobe developers for a answer about this major bug.

Regards!

[Raymond Camden]

I am not Joel, but as I said above, the bug is filed. Nothing else can be done now. I can say engineering didn't agree it was a bug, I explained how it _was_ absolutely a bug, but for now it's recorded. That's it. I'm sorry to be blunt, but nothing else can do be done now.

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

Didn't agree it was a bug 😮 😮 ??

This is one of the clearest examples of a bug I've ever seen. If they need a demo of a real application experiencing this bug. Please let me know.

I have a separate workaround that works for the "Add comments" toolbar. Described below

globalAnnotationManager.registerEventListener(async function (event) {

    /*if (event.createdBy != createdBy) {
        globalAnnotationManager.unselectAnnotation(event.data.id);
        return;
    }*/
    if (event.type === "ANNOTATION_MODE_STARTED") {
        if (event.data == "note" || event.data == "freetext") {
            // HANDLE however you want, completely blocking the normal input
            return;
        }
        return;
    } 

     // Handle regular annotations

}, eventOptions);

Again, this will not work if you right click on the document and press "Add comments". It will also not work if you click on an annotation and press "Add comments"

[Raymond Camden]

As I said - I responded back and explained the situation. 

[DSI24313706xtb4]

We do all agree that it is clearly a BUG that prevent from catching event upon note creation.

[Joel Geraci]

We haven't even been able to convince certain parties that adding a sticky note should trigger the event or that it even counts as an annotation on its own because it can be associated with the markup annotations.

We're making our case but it could take a while.

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

It's a wildly simple scenario TBH.

Right click > Add comment (COMMENTS PANEL ENABLED) = fires event, cancels if no input

Right click > Add comment (COMMENTS PANEL DISABLED) =

- No ANNOTATION_ADDED event, No ANNOTATION_MODE_STARTED event

- Comments panel disabled so nowhere to type

- Nowhere to intercept event

= BUG

So basically, unless you use the default comments panel from Adobe, its completely broken.

[Joel Geraci]

I may not have been clear. Currently, it's performing as designed. You think it's a bug. I say it's designed wrong. Ray and I are trying to convince the powers that be that either way, the current behavior is suboptimal. But because it's working as designed, it's going to take time to change the specification and then get the change prioritized.  If it were a bug, it'd go into the queue to get fixed. But it's not.

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

I apoligize for pushing this, but I respectfully disagree with your sentiment about "working as designed"

The design of the system is in the Annotation Manager config, you can choose "showCommentsPanel":false

var annotationManagerConfig = {
    showToolbar: true,
    showCommentsPanel: false,
    showToolsOnTextSelection: false,
    downloadWithAnnotations: false,
};

As such, one would expect that all annotation tools work correctly with both options (true and false).

If all annotation tools do not work correctly with both options, it is not the design of the system that is flawed. It's the implementation of the system which is flawed.. AKA a bug.

In the scope of this ticket, there is nothing that needs to be changed with the design of the system. The implementation of the system, needs to satisfy the design of the system, and in my opinion that is the clear definition of a bug.

I do appreciate you explaining this, but if it's not getting prioritized due to it's classification, I feel obligated to share my opinion.

[Joel Geraci]

It's not my sentiment. Ray and I agree with you. I'm telling you that it's working as designed. AKA not a bug. Getting the design to be changed is going to be a challenge. You have advocates here but the process takes time.

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

Oh.... haha. I get it now.. sorry

Anything I can do to help, let me know.

[DSI24313706xtb4]

At least we can say it is a regression since it was working before and the last version broke our development.... So the feature request is to reimplement a behaviour that was available in the previous version.

[Joel Geraci]

That's been one of my main talking points.

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

Any movement?

[Facundo - Fabian MoonDesk]

Hello,

Any progress on this matter? Or is it at least on the roadmap? The visualization of PDF files and collaborative participation are crucial functionalities of our application. The inability to utilize "note" comments poses a significant inconvenience. While I understand that there may be other priorities, I need to ascertain whether this issue will be addressed at some point, so we can plan accordingly, whether it involves awaiting a solution or considering other alternatives/custom implementations.

Thank you!

[Garrett28259082qfbf]

Any update here @Joel Geraci @Raymond Camden 🙂

[Raymond Camden]

No, there was a release May 9th (https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/overview/pdf-embed-api/releasenotes/#may-9-2024) but I don't believe this was addressed.

[Lively_Elixir1339]

I am facing the same issue with regards to the ANNOTATION_ADDED event not being triggered for "note" annotation types. This is hindering my ability to implement stick notes into my custom comments sidebar. As mentioned before, this would be fixed with triggering the ANNOTATION_ADDED event when a sticky note is placed on pdf page as opposed to waiting for text to be added.

Any update here @Joel_Geraci @Raymond Camden on whether this will eventually be brought back? Thanks!

[Joel Geraci]

No update at this time. Trust me, it's frustrating me as well.