org.faceless.pdf2
Class FDF

java.lang.Object
  org.faceless.pdf2.FDF

public final class FDF
extends Object

A class representing an FDF object. "FDF" stands for "Forms Data Format", and is Adobes format for submitting form data from a PDF to a server, and generating a response. XFDF, an XML representation of FDF, can be handled the same way.

This class supports both loading an existing FDF file which can be imported into a PDF via the PDF.importFDF() method, and creating a new FDF from a PDF which can then be rendered via the render(java.io.OutputStream) method.

Here's a simple example showing how to complete a PDF form with an FDF and save the completed PDF to an OutputStream.

 PDF pdf = new PDF(new PDFReader(new FileInputStream("blankform.pdf")));
 FDF fdf = new FDF(new InputStream("data.fdf"));
 pdf.importFDF(fdf);
 pdf.render(outputstream);
 

And here's an example showing how to create an FDF and an XFDF file of all the fields in a PDF's Form

 FDF fdf = new FDF(pdf);
 fdf.setFields(pdf.getForm().getElements().values());
 fdf.render(new FileOutputStream("out.fdf"));
 Document xfdf = fdf.getXFDF();
 OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("out.xfdf");
 Transformer tr = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();
 tr.transform(new DOMSource(xfdf), new StreamResult(out));
 

Since:

1.2.1

See Also:

PDF.importFDF(org.faceless.pdf2.FDF), Form

ALLANNOTATIONS

public static final Collection ALLANNOTATIONS

Special value that can be passed to setAnnotations(java.util.Collection) to include all annotations in the PDF

Since:

2.11.7

FDF

public FDF(InputStream fdfstream)
    throws IOException

Create a new FDF from the specified InputStream. The InputStream must be formatted as an FDF file, or since 2.2.4 an XFDF file (although this requires a SAX implementation to run). Note the InputStream is not closed by this method, and should be closed by the user.

Parameters:

fdfstream - an InputStream containing the form data.

Throws:

IOException

FDF

public FDF(PDF pdf)

Create a new FDF from the specified PDF. This FDF may eventually be rendered using the render(java.io.OutputStream) method.

Since:

2.8.3

setFields

public void setFields(Collection fields)

Set the fields that are to be included in this FDF. Can only be called if the FDF was created using the FDF(PDF) constructor.

Parameters:

fields - the fields to include - eg. pdf.getForm().getElements().values() or PDFAction.getFormSubmitFields()

Since:

2.8.3

setAnnotations

public void setAnnotations(Collection annots)

Add the specified annotations to the FDF. Passing in ALLANNOTATIONS will add every annotation in the PDF. Since 2.11.7

getFields

public Map getFields()

Return a read-only map of all the field values in the FDF. Note this is just the field values - if the FDF contains other details, like annotations and the like, these will not be included.

Since:

2.10

setFile

public void setFile(String file)

Set the filename associated with this FDF (the "F" entry).

Parameters:

file - the Filename, or null to clear it

Since:

2.11.6

getFile

public String getFile()

Return the file associated with this FDF (the "F" entry), or null if not set.

Since:

2.2.2

getDocumentID

public String getDocumentID(boolean primary)

Return the document ID that this FDF belongs to. This method functions exactly the same as the PDF.getDocumentID(boolean) method, but returns the ID of the document associated with this FDF (or null if this is not specified)

Parameters:

primary - whether to return the primary or secondary ID

Returns:

a 32-character String representing the ID, or null if no ID is set

Since:

2.2.2

setIgnoreErrors

public void setIgnoreErrors(boolean ignore)

Whether to ignore errors when importing this FDF. The default value is false, which means trying to set a field to an illegal value will throw an Exception. By setting this value to true, a warning will be displayed instead and the import will continue

Since:

2.2.6

setIncludeEmptyFields

public void setIncludeEmptyFields(boolean includeempty)

Set whether to include empty fields when creating a new FDF or XFDF file.

Since:

2.11.7

setCanonicalDates

public void setCanonicalDates(boolean canonicaldates)

Set whether to format dates as canonical dates when creating a new FDF or XFDF file.

Since:

2.11.7

render

public void render(OutputStream out)
            throws IOException

Throws:

IOException

getXFDF

public Document getXFDF()

Get the FDF object as an XFDF Document. This can be then be written to an OutputStream using the usual DOM serialization routine, eg:

 DOMSource source = new DOMSource(fdf.getXFDF());
 Transformer tr = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();
 tr.transform(source), new StreamResult(System.out));
 

Since:

2.11.6