pdf-fill-form-latin1

PDF Fill Form (pdf-fill-form) is Node.js native C++ library for filling PDF forms. Created PDF file is returned back as Node.js Buffer object for further processing or saving - whole process is done in memory. Library offers methods to return filled PDF also as PDF file where pages are converted to images.

Libary uses internally Poppler QT4 for PDF form reading and filling. Cairo is used for PDF creation from page images (when parameter { "save": "imgpdf" } is used).

Features

• Supports reading and writing the following PDF form field types: TextField and Checkbox
• You can write following files:
  • PDF
  • PDF where pages are converted to images
• All the work is done in memory - no temporary files created
• Results are returned in Node.js Buffer -object
• Not using the PDFtk -executable - instead we use the Poppler library

Examples

Using promises

var pdfFillForm = require('pdf-fill-form');
 
pdfFillForm.read('test.pdf')
.then(function(result) {
    console.log(result);
}, function(err) {
    console.log(err);
});

var pdfFillForm = require('pdf-fill-form');
var fs = require('fs');
 
pdfFillForm.write('test.pdf', { "myField": "myField fill value" }, { "save": "pdf" } )
.then(function(result) {
    fs.writeFile("test123.pdf", result, function(err) {
        if(err) {
       		return console.log(err);
       	}
       	console.log("The file was saved!");
    }); 
}, function(err) {
  	console.log(err);
});
 

Using callbacks

To read all form fields:

var pdfFillForm = require('pdf-fill-form');
 
var pdfFields = pdfFillForm.readSync('test.pdf');
console.log(pdfFields);

To write form fields (synchronous) to PDF:

var pdfFillForm = require('pdf-fill-form');
var fs = require('fs');
 
// Use here the field names you got from read
var pdf = pdfFillForm.writeSync('test.pdf', 
    { "myField": "myField fill value" }, { "save": "pdf" } );
fs.writeFileSync('filled_test.pdf', pdf);

To write form fields (aynchronous) to PDF:

var pdfFillForm = require('pdf-fill-form');
var fs = require('fs');
 
// Use here the field names you got from read
pdfFillForm.writeAsync('test.pdf', 
    { "myField": "myField fill value" }, { "save": "pdf" }, 
    function(err, pdf) {
        fs.writeFile("filled_test.pdf", pdf, function(err){});
    }
);

To write form fields to PDF where pages are converted to images:

Use parameter { "save": "imgpdf" }

Installation

OS X

Preferable method to install library dependencies is via Homebrew

$ brew install qt4 cairo poppler --with-qt4

After dependencies are successfully installed, you can install the library:

$ npm install pdf-fill-form

Homebrew users who get error regarding xcb-shm
The fix is to add this to your bash profile / environment: export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/X11/lib/pkgconfig

Linux - Ubuntu (trusty)

$ sudo apt-get install libpoppler-qt4-dev libcairo2-dev
$ npm install pdf-fill-form

Linux - Debian (wheezy)

We need newer Poppler library than the current in Wheezy distribution:

$ sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy-backports main"     
$ sudo apt-get update

Then install packages

$ sudo apt-get install libcairo2-dev
$ sudo apt-get -t wheezy-backports install libpoppler-qt4-dev 
$ npm install pdf-fill-form

Todo

• Tests
• Refactoring
• Support for other form field types than CheckBox and TextField

Authors

• Tommi Pisto

Contibutors

• Ethan Goldblum
• Tyler Iguchi

License

MIT

NOTE ABOUT LIBRARY DEPENDENCIES!
Poppler has GPL license. Cairo has LGPL.