How to update a PDF without creating a new PDF?
I am required to replace a word in an existing PDF AcroField with another word. I am using PDFStamper of iTEXTSHARP to do the same and it is working fine. But, in doing so it is required to create a new PDF and i would like the change to be reflected in the existing PDF itself. If I am setting the destination filename same as the original filename then no change is being reflected.I am new to iTextSharp , is there anything I am doing wrong? Please help.. I am providing the piece of code I am using
private void ListFieldNames(string s)
{
try
{
string pdfTemplate = @"z:\TEMP\PDF\PassportApplicationForm_Main_English_V1.0.pdf";
string newFile = @"z:\TEMP\PDF\PassportApplicationForm_Main_English_V1.0.pdf";
PdfReader pdfReader = new PdfReader(pdfTemplate);
for (int page = 1; page <= pdfReader.NumberOfPages; page++)
{
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader((string)pdfTemplate);
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, new FileStream(newFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite)))
{
AcroFields form = stamper.AcroFields;
var fieldKeys = form.Fields.Keys;
foreach (string fieldKey in fieldKeys)
{
//Replace Address Form field with my custom data
if (fieldKey.Contains("Address"))
{
form.SetField(fieldKey, s);
}
}
stamper.FormFlattening = true;
stamper.Close();
}
}
}
Solution 1:
As documented in my book iText in Action, you can't read a file and write to it simultaneously. Think of how Word works: you can't open a Word document and write directly to it. Word always creates a temporary file, writes the changes to it, then replaces the original file with it and then throws away the temporary file.
You can do that too:
- read the original file with
PdfReader
, - create a temporary file for
PdfStamper
, and when you're done, - replace the original file with the temporary file.
Or:
- read the original file into a
byte[]
, - create
PdfReader
with thisbyte[]
, and - use the path to the original file for
PdfStamper
.
This second option is more dangerous, as you'll lose the original file if you do something that causes an exception in PdfStamper
.