Fill Pdf Form in Ruby using pdf-form gem

Question

I want to programmatically fill a pdf using pdf-form gem

I was able to read the fields using the following code:

require 'pdf_forms'
pdftk = PdfForms.new('/usr/local/bin/pdftk')
fields = pdftk.get_fields('*/Desktop/sample_pdf.pdf')
for f in fields
  print f.to_s
end

But when I tried to fill the Pdf with the provide synthax, I created only an empty, not openable pdf.

pdftk.fill_form '/path/to/form.pdf', 'target.pdf', ['Value Name'] => 'Value to be inserted'

Does anybody know a working solution?

Thanks in advance!!!

Additional Information:

the fields of the pdf are the following: Name, Address, Dropdown1, Dropdown2, Dropdown3, Check Box4, Check Box1, Check Box3, Check Box2, Text5, Button7, Text6, Group6, %
I tried it with filling just one field:

pdftk.fill_form 'sample_pdf.pdf', 'sample_pdf_filled.pdf', {["Name"]=>"Value to be inserted"}

The result: I have an pdf "sample_pdf_filled.pdf", which I cannot open, because it's empty. I thought my problem is the form-filling, but it seems, that the pdf is not created correctly.

Note: I am working on a mac (unix)

Has anybody a solution?

Maybe try `:'value name'` ? – DiodonHystrix Mar 28 '17 at 15:32 — DiodonHystrix, Mar 28 '17 at 15:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '17 at 15:37

1

Method #fill_form is defined like this:

 def fill_form(template, destination, data = {}, fill_options = {})

You example would produce something like this:

irb(main):001:0> { ['Value Name'] => 'Value to be inserted' }                                                                                   
=> {["Value Name"]=>"Value to be inserted"}

The data is supposed to be a Hash. If you want to specify a key with a space you can use it like this: :'Value Name'.

irb(main):002:0> { :'Value Name' => 'Value to be inserted' }                                                                                    
=> {:"Value Name"=>"Value to be inserted"}

answered Mar 28 '17 at 15:37

DiodonHystrix

424
3
7

Hey DiodonHystrix, thanks for your answer. I thing the problem is more in the correct pdf creation, could you guess why? – Andres_oo Mar 28 '17 at 18:09
Did you try `pdftk.fill_form 'sample_pdf.pdf', 'sample_pdf_filled.pdf', {["Name"]=>"Value to be inserted"}` without `[]`? – DiodonHystrix Mar 28 '17 at 18:23
Yes, tried it, but had the same result. It seems like the script is not finishing – Andres_oo Mar 28 '17 at 18:30
Sorry, Did you try `:Name` ? Could you try looking into this [topic?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32505951/pdftk-server-on-os-x-10-11) – DiodonHystrix Mar 28 '17 at 19:06
Ok. One more thing, could you show the output of `pdftk.get_field_names 'sample_pdf.pdf'`? – DiodonHystrix Mar 28 '17 at 19:26
of course, it's: ["Name", "Address", "Dropdown1", "Dropdown2", "Dropdown3", "Check Box4", "Check Box1", "Check Box3", "Check Box2", "Text5", "Button7", "Text6", "Group6"]% – Andres_oo Mar 29 '17 at 04:40
Would you mind uploading the pdf form you are using? – DiodonHystrix Mar 29 '17 at 07:41
No problem, its [link](https://1drv.ms/b/s!ApPuG86T8sTFgXtwX-SydJmLrTXY) – Andres_oo Mar 29 '17 at 13:23
I downloaded your file. Did this: `pdftk.fill_form 'sample_pdf.pdf', 'target.pdf', { Name: 'baaa1', Address: 'dfsdf' }` and it worked :( Not sure what else we can check... – DiodonHystrix Mar 29 '17 at 14:11
on which system did you run it? (osx, linux, windows) – Andres_oo Mar 29 '17 at 15:04
I tried it with your code, but it seems like the script got stuck somewhere.. so seems to be another issue - nevertheless thanks a lot for helping me, at least I know that the script is correct – Andres_oo Mar 29 '17 at 15:18
I am using Ubuntu 16.04. Do you have to interrupt your console or does it finish the process? – DiodonHystrix Mar 29 '17 at 17:06
Yes, I had to interrupt. A following print-statement was not executed. – Andres_oo Mar 30 '17 at 05:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

0

I found a solution - for all MAC OS X 10.11 El Capitan User:

PDFtk Server on OS X 10.11

edited May 23 '17 at 11:33

Community

1
1

answered Mar 30 '17 at 11:13

Andres_oo

17
6

Fill Pdf Form in Ruby using pdf-form gem

2 Answers2