FillMyPDF

FillMyPDF is a simple Windows program written in c++11 which fills PDF fields with custom data.
This project is composed of a library which contains all the logic of reading/writing to PDF file.
A command-line executable: FillMyPDF.exe will also be provided and uses this library.

The PoDoFo library will be used to to parse a PDF file and modify its contents into memory. PoDoFo is a free portable c++ library which includes very simple classes to edit PDF files.

Implemented in c++17 and use vcpkg/cmake for the build-system.
It uses the winpp header-only library from: https://github.com/strinque/winpp.

Features

• use nlohmann/json header-only library for json parsing
• use c++ PoDoFo library to manipulate PDF files
• implement a standalone c++ class: FillMyPDF to provide filling functionnalities
• implement a simple c++ command-line program that uses this library and demonstrate usage

Usage

The following command-line fills a PDF file: forms.pdf with json data: data.json and generates a PDF file: output.pdf:

FillMyPDF.exe --pdf-input forms.pdf \
              --pdf-output output.pdf \
              --json-data data.json

Format of json data file (with utf8 values for test):

{
  "text": [
    {
      "name": "Given Name Text Box",
      "value": "Inès Düpond"
    },
    {
      "name": "Family Name Text Box",
      "value": "Jaouîsê"
    },
    {
      "name": "Address 1 Text Box",
      "value": "148 park avênue"
    },
    {
      "name": "Postcode Text Box",
      "value": "56000"
    },
    {
      "name": "City Text Box",
      "value": "Best City"
    }
  ],
  "checkbox": [
    {
      "name": "Driving License Check Box",
      "value": true
    }
  ]
}

Requirements

This project uses vcpkg, a free C/C++ package manager for acquiring and managing libraries to build all the required libraries.
It also needs the installation of the winpp, a private header-only library, inside vcpkg.

Install vcpkg

The install procedure can be found in: https://vcpkg.io/en/getting-started.html.
The following procedure installs vcpkg and integrates it in Visual Studio.

Open PowerShell:

cd c:\
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
.\vcpkg.exe integrate install

Create a x64-windows-static-md triplet file used to build the program in shared-mode for Windows CRT libraries but static-mode for third-party libraries:

$VCPKG_DIR = Get-Content "$Env:LocalAppData/vcpkg/vcpkg.path.txt" -Raw 

Set-Content "$VCPKG_DIR/triplets/community/x64-windows-static-md.cmake" 'set(VCPKG_TARGET_ARCHITECTURE x64)
set(VCPKG_CRT_LINKAGE dynamic)
set(VCPKG_LIBRARY_LINKAGE static)
set(VCPKG_BUILD_TYPE release)'

Install winpp ports-files

Copy the vcpkg ports files from winpp header-only library repository to the vcpkg directory.

$VCPKG_DIR = Get-Content "$Env:LocalAppData/vcpkg/vcpkg.path.txt" -Raw 

mkdir $VCPKG_DIR/ports/winpp
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/strinque/winpp/master/vcpkg/ports/winpp/portfile.cmake" -OutFile "$VCPKG_DIR/ports/winpp/portfile.cmake"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/strinque/winpp/master/vcpkg/ports/winpp/vcpkg.json" -OutFile "$VCPKG_DIR/ports/winpp/vcpkg.json"

Build

Build using cmake

To build the program with vcpkg and cmake, follow these steps:

$VCPKG_DIR = Get-Content "$Env:LocalAppData/vcpkg/vcpkg.path.txt" -Raw 

git clone https://github.com/strinque/FillMyPDF
cd FillMyPDF
mkdir build; cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="MinSizeRel" `
      -DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-windows-static-md" `
      -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="$VCPKG_DIR/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" `
      ../
cmake --build . --config MinSizeRel

The program executable should be compiled in: FillMyPDF\build\src\MinSizeRel\FillMyPDF.exe.

Build with Visual Studio

Microsoft Visual Studio can automatically install required vcpkg libraries and build the program thanks to the pre-configured files:

• CMakeSettings.json: debug and release settings
• vcpkg.json: libraries dependencies

The following steps needs to be executed in order to build/debug the program:

File => Open => Folder...
  Choose FillMyPDF root directory
Solution Explorer => Switch between solutions and available views => CMake Targets View
Select x64-release or x64-debug
Select the src\FillMyPDF.exe (not bin\FillMyPDF.exe)

To add command-line arguments for debugging the program:

Solution Explorer => Project => (executable) => Debug and Launch Settings => src\program.exe

  "args": [
    "--pdf-input ${projectDir}\\pdf\\forms.pdf",
    "--pdf-output ${projectDir}\\pdf\\output.pdf",
    "--json-data ${projectDir}\\pdf\\data.json"
  ]