Assigning a unique ID for each annotation in JS

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I made a JS code to export all the annotations in a .pdf file to a .csv file and it works fine. I also need to assign a unique ID number for each row similar to a database table but couldn't figure a way out.

The issue is that if a user deletes an annotation, ID numbers of annotations after the deleted annotation will change if I use value of "i" in the "for" loop. Somehow I need to store the ID numbers in each annotation.

Let's say I have 3 annotations in a .pdf file, and run the code below;

this.syncAnnotScan();  
var annots = this.getAnnots()  
for ( var i= 0; i< annots.length; i++) {  
    console.println(i+1);  
    console.println("Type:"+annots.type);  
    console.println("Text:"+annots.contents);      
    console.println("-----");  
} 

Results are ;

1
Type:Text
Text:Comment-1
-----
2
Type:Text
Text:Comment-2
-----
3
Type:Text
Text:Comment-3
-----

If I delete the annotation-2, then the results will be;

1
Type:Text
Text:Comment-1
-----
2
Type:Text
Text:Comment-3
-----

I'm trying to keep the ID number "3" for the comment-3 even if I delete the comment-2. Is there a simple way to do that? Any kind of help is appreciated.

Regards.

[try67]

Use the name property of each annotation... It's a unique identifier.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Actually, the name may not be unique, but the combination of name and page number will be unique: When you copy and paste an annotation to a different page, the name of the original annotation is used for the copy as well, but when you paste on the same page, the new annotation will have a different name.

[Guest]

Thanks try67 for the reply. Name property is unique but it's a long identifier. I'm looking for an integer. Is it possible to create an unique integer that corresponds to the name property of each annotation?

[try67]

You can write a simple function that converts the letters to numbers, by replacing "a" with "1", b with "2", etc.