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Home » Newsletter » January 2010

By V. Subhash

PDFOne .NET supports barcode fonts. Barcode fonts can be used to render PDF page elements such as text and form fields.

Many barcode-based applications used an asterisk (*) as the start and stop character of the barcode. If you are displaying barcodes in PDF forms, then entering the asterisks can be a hassle. Fortunately, you can use JavaScript commands to the document so that viewer applications, such as Adobe Reader, will automatically add and remove the asterisks.

In the following code snippet, a text form field is created. Two JavaScript actions are added to the text field. These JavaScript actions are represented by JavaScript scripts. These scripts will be executed by a viewer application when the user navigates in and out of the form field.

// Create a PDF document
PDFDocument pdfDocument1 
    = new PDFDocument("your license key");

// Create a barcode PDF font
PDFFont fontBarCode
    = new PDFFont(new Font("IDAutomationHC39M", 18, FontStyle.Regular),
                  PDFFontEmbedType.Full);

String sNL = "\r\n";
pdfDocument1.WriteText("Bar Code", 2.0f, 1.8f);

// Create a text form field
PDFFormTextField PDFFormTextField1 = new PDFFormTextField();
PDFFormTextField1.FieldName = "textfield1";
PDFFormTextField1.Font = fontBarCode;
PDFFormTextField1.Rectangle = new Rectangle(2, 2, 4, 1);
PDFFormTextField1.BorderWidth = 1;
PDFFormTextField1.BorderColor = Color.LightGray;
PDFFormTextField1.BackgroundColor = Color.White;
PDFFormTextField1.NameAsUnicode = false;

// JavaScript script for the "on gain focus" 
// event of the text form field
String sGotFocusJS
  = "var box = this.getField(\"textfield1\");" + sNL +
    "box.textFont=\"CourierNew\";" + sNL +
    "if (box.valueAsString.length) {" + sNL +
    "  if (box.valueAsString.substr(0, 1) == \"*\") {" + sNL +
    "     box.value = box.valueAsString.substr(1,box.valueAsString.length-1);" + sNL +
    "  }" + sNL +
    "  if (box.valueAsString.substr(box.valueAsString.length-1, 1) == \"*\") {" + sNL +
    "    box.value = box.valueAsString.substr(0,box.valueAsString.length-1);" + sNL +
    "  }" + sNL +
    "}" + sNL;

// JavaScript script for the "on lose focus" 
// event of the text form field
String sLostFocusJS
  = "var box = this.getField(\"textfield1\");" + sNL +
    "if (box.valueAsString.length) {" + sNL +
    "  if (box.valueAsString.substr(0, 1) != \"*\") {" + sNL +
    "    box.value = \"*\" + box.valueAsString;" + sNL +
    "  }" + sNL +
    "  if (box.valueAsString.substr(box.valueAsString.length-1, 1) != \"*\") {" + sNL +
    "    box.value = box.valueAsString + \"*\";" + sNL +
    "  }" + sNL +
    "}" + sNL +
    "box.textFont=\"IDAutomationHC39M\";";

// Add JavaScript scripts as JavaScript actions for the text form field
PDFFormTextField1.AddAction(PDFFormFieldAction.GotFocus, sGotFocusJS);
PDFFormTextField1.AddAction(PDFFormFieldAction.LostFocus, sLostFocusJS);

// Add text form field to document
pdfDocument1.AddFormField(PDFFormTextField1);

// Create a submit push button form field
PDFFormPushButton PDFFormPushButton1 = new PDFFormPushButton();
PDFFormPushButton1.Rectangle = new RectangleF(2f, 3f, 4f, 0.2f);
PDFFormPushButton1.BorderWidth = 1;
PDFFormPushButton1.FieldName = "submit";
PDFFormPushButton1.ActionType = PDFFormFieldActionType.Submit_Action;
PDFFormPushButton1.SubmitActionType = PDFSubmitActionType.HTTP_Post;
PDFFormPushButton1.SubmitUrl
    = "http://www.gnostice.com/newsletters/demos/200804/forms_test.asp";
PDFFormPushButton1.NormalCaption = "Submit";
// Add push button to document
pdfDocument1.AddFormField(PDFFormPushButton1);

// Save document to a file
pdfDocument1.ApplyFormAppearances = true;
pdfDocument1.Save("barcode_js_example.pdf");
pdfDocument1.Close();
pdfDocument1.Dispose();

Here are some notes about the above code.

• A font named "IDAutomationHC39M" (IDAutomationHC39M_FREE.otf*) provided free (with some restrictions) by IDAutomation.com has been used. (Please check the font license before using a font in your application.)
• In the JavaScript:
  • The form field object is accessed by this.getField(formFieldName) where formFieldName represents a string containing the name of the form field and this represents the PDF document.
  • The form field's value is accessed by formfieldObject.value where the formFieldObject is the object returned by the getField method.
  • For accurate parsing of the form field's value, the formfieldObject.valueAsString. (Otherwise, say, a value of "020" will be parsed as "20".)
  • For setting the font with which the form field value is displayed, the formfieldObject.textFont is used.
  • Font names have to specified using a special name - "CourierNew" for using "Courier New." There is no straightforward way to find this name. The roundabout way is to create a form field with the required font and then add a JavaScript action with the command app.alert(box.textFont); where box is the textfield JavaScript object.
• Line breaks in the JavaScript scripts should be specified by newline and carriage return values.

When the user enters data, the viewer application removes the asterisks. The viewer application will also use a regular font to display the form field value.

// Access the form field
var box = this.getField("textfield1");
// Set form field font to a regular font
box.textFont = "CourierNew";
// Strip any asterisk padding
if (box.valueAsString.length) {
  if (box.valueAsString.substr(0, 1) == "*") {
     box.value = box.valueAsString.substr(1,box.valueAsString.length-1);
  }
  if (box.valueAsString.substr(box.valueAsString.length-1, 1) == "*") {
    box.value = box.valueAsString.substr(0,box.valueAsString.length-1);
  }
}

When the user exits form field, the viewer application adds the asterisks and also changes the form field font.

// Access the form field
var box = this.getField("textfield1");
// Add asterisks padding
if (box.valueAsString.length) {
  if (box.valueAsString.substr(0, 1) != "*") {
    box.value = "*" + box.valueAsString;
  }
  if (box.valueAsString.substr(box.valueAsString.length-1, 1) != "*") {
    box.value = box.valueAsString + "*";
  }
}
// Set form field font to a barcode font
box.textFont="IDAutomationHC39M";

For more information on using JavaScript in your PDF documents, download:

• Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Reference
• Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Guide

* - With the TTF version of the font, there were some problems with Adobe Reader 6. Adobe Reader 9 handles the font well.