Automatic PDF to XDP conversion

[Former Community Member]

Hello,



Is there a way I can programatically generate an XDP from a PDF using livecycle or any other tool? I have looked at the XPAAJ library but was VERY disappointed with the XDP file it exports. Not only is it all encoded in a binary "chunk", but it doens't even load in lifecycle.



I essentially want to convert my PDF to readable XDP, identical to what happens when you use "Save as XDP" in lifecycle designer. The only problem is that I need to do this automatically, without manually opening livecycle etc.



Thanks for any help,

Evan

[Former Community Member]

Hi Evan,

Not sure if i understood your requirement - Do you want to generate the XDP data file ? If so, then you need nothing but a java program which can generate a XML file .



PDF template + XDP (data binds to fields in PDF template during runtime)= Data filled PDF file.



Open the PDF template in Acrobat livecycle Designer adn enter some sample test data in the file. Do a save as of the sample data as XDP.



Using this XDP file as a boiler plate template generate XDP fiile using a java program ( just the way you wud generate a XML file ).



Hope this helps



Regards

Samant

[Former Community Member]

I think you misunderstood what I am asking for. XDP is short for Xml Data Package and is adobe's xml representation for a PDF form. There exists a "Save as XDP" in lifecycle designer, but this is a manual step. I have the need to generate XDP for thousands of PDFs, and hence manual conversion isn't a scalable option.



Your reply talks about saving data, I think you are thinking of XFDF which is an XML format for saving data in a PDF.



Thanks for trying to help,

Evan Worley

[neptas]

Hi,



I think you could try some API from Adobe or a 3 party API as itext. I think itext can extract the xdp structure of the PDF. Not sure, however.

[Former Community Member]

Hello,



I actually have the reverse problem. I have completed XDP forms that I need to programatically convert to static or flattened (in the case of a Dynamic XDP Form) PDF files.



Any ideas?



Thanks,

Bob

[Former Community Member]

Did anyone ever find a solution for extracting the XDP structure from a PDF? I need to be able to read the schema embedded within the file (ideally a C# solution).