Import rows of data into individual PDFs

README.md

Import rows of data into individual PDFs

How to get data like this...

Name	Age	Street Address	City	State	Zip
Tami	23	123 Main St	Anytown	Anystate	11111
John	54	456 Second Ave	Anytown	Anystate	22222
Troy	39	789 Last Cir	Anytown	Anystate	99999

into a set of PDFs like this...

Using this Gist

All the files necessary to test this process are included below, except the empty form PDF which I don't think I can upload/include, even in a comment, so I'll at least show a picture of the PDF in Prepare Form mode:

Process

Using JavaScript

You'll need some familiarity with running JavaScript in Acrobat. Search around for "Run Javascript in Acrobat debugger/console". This is a pretty good starting place, even for Mac, The Acrobat JavaScript Console (Your best friend for developing Acrobat JavaScript). It's pretty easy to open Debugger, copy-paste your code into View → Console, then Cmd/Ctrl-A to select-all, and finally Cmd/Ctrl-Enter to "run selected".

If you're running directly in the debugger, you'll be in a Privileged mode and that'll be that, but if you want to run from a button in a PDF, you'll need to read up on security, functions, automation, etc...:

• Using Trusted Functions
• Instructions for Installing Folder Level Scripts (Automation Tools) and Plug-ins

The documentation for Javascript in Acrobat:

• Acrobat DC SDK Documentation
• Doc methods

From that Doc methods page, search for importTextData which is the backbone of this script/automation.

Making the data

The easiest way to make sure you have the correct fields in your data TSV/TXT file is just open your form in Prepare Form mode and export the form. This will give you an empty TXT file with the columns/header your input data file will need:

awesome_data.txt

Name	Age	Street Address	City	State	Zip
Tami	23	123 Main St	Anytown	Anystate	11111
John	54	456 Second Ave	Anytown	Anystate	22222
Troy	39	789 Last Cir	Anytown	Anystate	99999

import.js

/* globals app */

// Define root path: where you've put input TXT data, the input form, and where the output forms will be created
var rootPath = "/Users/zyoung/Downloads/Awesome_Form/";

var emptyForm = "Page-1_SECURED.pdf";

// Tab-separated value (TSV) "txt" file.  The data must have a header row so
// Acrobat can match up your data/cell values to the fields in your form
var data = "Page_1_data_filled.txt";

// We don't know ahead of time how many rows there will be, so keep incrementing
// `dataRowNumber` till it passes the last row, then we'll break out of the loop (below)

// After reading the header row, Acrobat starts counting data rows from 0
var dataRowNumber = 0;

do {
    // Open the empty form
    var doc = app.openDoc(rootPath + emptyForm);

    // Try to import a row
    var returnCode = doc.importTextData(rootPath + data, dataRowNumber);

    // Normal: there are no more rows, close form and break out of do-loop
    if (returnCode === -3) {
        doc.closeDoc();
        break;
    }

    // One of the errors we know about
    if (returnCode === 3) {
        app.alert("Error: Invalid Row - some number of column headers in " + data + " do not exactly match the field names in your form");
        break;
    }

    // Any other error we don't know about
    if (returnCode !== 0) {
        app.alert("Error: was not able to import data for row " + (dataRowNumber + 1) + "; return code is " + returnCode);
        break;
    }

    // Finally, save the filled-in form
    var saveName = emptyForm.replace(".pdf", "");
    var savePath = rootPath + saveName + "_" + (dataRowNumber + 1) + ".pdf";
    try {
        doc.saveAs(savePath);
        doc.closeDoc();
    } catch (e) {
        app.alert("Encountered expection while trying to save then close " + savePath + "...");
        app.alert(e);
        break;
    }

    // Increment row number by 1 to try and look up the next row (if there is one)
    dataRowNumber += 1;

} while (true); // keeps the do-loop running until *we decide* to break out