javapdffdf

Best way to update an existing FDF (Form Data Format) file


I've a need to update an existing FDF file, progamatically from server side. For this I'm looking for a Java library which we can manupuate an existing FDF file. I've tried out libraries from iText and Adobe so far. It seems like iText's FDFWriter will allow you just to create a new FDF file and will not help you to update an existing one. With Adobe's FDFDoc class I somehow managed to update a FDF file, but this API seems to be very old and looks ugly (Method names and field names are not very much elegant and does not follow the camel notation.). My questions is whether there is a known better library?
P.S. : FDF is a data format to collect input data from editable PDF forms


Solution

  • FDF is a simple structured text file, which means that you should be able to do simple text manipulation to modify it. You may actually even be able to create an XSLT (even if FDF it is not XML).

    Adobe has the FDFToolkit, which is quite old, but there have been no changes in the FDF format for a long time. Although the FDFToolkit reads and writes FDF, it brings advantages only for reading; writing is sol basic that you don't really need a specific library…