I am having trouble using PDF_FillInFields_Merge() in web app

[Jay Talbott]

Using the "old" control panel Xbasic code tab, I am able to successfully create and merge a "fillable" pdf file, and save the output file to my local hard drive.

I am having trouble, however, getting this to work in the browser.
This is the error I am getting.


pdfMergeError.png
I have tried saving the pdfs folder I created:

fnOut = "pdfs\f941Out.pdf"

as well as directly to the pdfs folder in the LivePreview folder in the A5Webroot:

fnOut = "C:\A5Webroot\LivePreview\pdfs\f941Out.pdf"

The documentation talks about saving to Amazon S3, so it should be web enabled without an issue.
Here is the Alpha documentation:

https://documentation.alphasoftware....20Function.xml

As a follow up, I tried using the AmazonS3 method, and am still running into the same issue, as evidenced here:
AmazonFilepdfMerge.png
which makes me wonder if the pdfToolKit file is not working correctly.
The .fdf file mentioned in the error message is apparently like an overlay file that is used to merge into the fillable pdf to create the end product. I located the file mentioned in the error message, and when I clicked on it, Adobe asked for the related fillable pdf file. When I selected that, the fillable pdf opened with data in it, so apparently the .fdf is not finding the correct source file ???????


And as an additional follow up, because I could not leave well enough alone, I tried running this at the windows command prompt:

pdftk C:\A5Webroot\LivePreview\pdfs\f941.pdf fill_form C:\Users\jat\AppData\Local\Temp\temp_data1607635661062wrijr.fdf output c:\a5webroot\LivePreview\pdfs\f941Out.pdf flatten

and sure enough it created the file in the appropriate folder.

I don't know if this helps or not, but it may be another piece of the puzzle.


I would appreciate any help you have to offer.
Thanks,
Jay

[peteconway]

Have you seen this..

https://documentation.alphasoftware....20Function.xml

[Jay Talbott]

Yes, I referenced it in my original post.
Jay

[Jay Talbott]

I resolved this problem. The issue was that there was invalid json in the data. What took so long to resolve was that pdf_FillInFields_Merge() worked from the interactive window and from the Windows command prompt. I finally pasted the jsonData into a json validator ( I used https://jsonlint.com/ ) and found that one of the source fields had -- My Company Name-- with double hyphens on both sides of it. Once I removed the hyphens, the problem was solved.

Jay

[peteconway]

Good to know.