Okular 0.16 loses form data: Where can I find other versions?

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1

Hello again! Does anyone know how to get around the Okular 0.16.2 bug?

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.kde.devel.okular/14128 –

[okular] [Bug 319163] New: pdf form data saved but not printable nor viewable except in forms mode"

Reported by Mohammed Arafa, 01 May 2013

I enter form data, but the data disappears when the form is “hidden”, printed or exported. Okular has access to the data, but no one else does.

The zypper info tells me that I have version 4.10.5-1.92.1 – the version that came with my OpenSuSE 12.3 32bit DVD. The Okular About menu tells me that my version is 0.16.5 with KDE Development Platform 4.10.5 “release 1”.

The Okular site – News - Okular – indicates that later versions are available. Version 0.18 was released on 12 Dec 2013. But I can’t find a repository at the Okular site.

The Okular download page – Download - Okular – advises me to let the package manager deal with it. But zypper shows only the version I have already, even when I add in the “KDE Extra” repository.

How can I get the 0.18 version of Okular? Or, failing that, how can I regress to a version that did not have this bug? I know that Okular was working properly with my old 11.2 system. Would that version run on 12.3? Is it still available?

2

Okular 0.18 is included in KDE 4.12.
To install that you can add the KDE:Release:412 repo to your system, see here:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:KDE_repositories

But be aware that you have to upgrade your whole KDE to 4.12! It’s best to change all packages to the versions from that repo as is explained here:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Vendor_change_update#Full_repository_Vendor_change

And you should change the URL of your KDE:Extra Repo accordingly as well.

3

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I’ve done more research. I followed the link on the bug report cited above and it took me here: 319163 – pdf form data saved but not printable nor viewable except in forms mode .

Fabio D’Urso (2013-05-17 12:51:12 UTC) reports:

I confirm the bug exists with Poppler 0.20.
The Poppler patches that fix it were pushed to the poppler-0.20 branch, but they were never actually released as part of the 0.20 series (poppler-0.20.5 doesn’t include them).
Poppler 0.22 has it fixed.

So I explored further with zypper:


# zypper se poppler

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name                     | Summary                                               | Type   
--+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------
  | libpoppler-cpp0          | PDF Rendering Library                                 | package
  | libpoppler-devel         | PDF rendering library                                 | package
  | libpoppler-glib-devel    | PDF rendering library - GLib Wrapper                  | package
i | libpoppler-glib8         | PDF Rendering Library - GLib Wrapper                  | package
i | libpoppler-qt4-4         | PDF Rendering Library - Qt4 Wrapper                   | package
  | libpoppler-qt4-devel     | PDF rendering library - Qt4 Wrapper                   | package
i | libpoppler34             | PDF Rendering Library                                 | package
i | poppler-data             | Encoding Files for use with libpoppler                | package
i | poppler-tools            | PDF Rendering Library Tools                           | package
  | python-poppler           | Python bindings for the Poppler PDF rendering library | package
  | typelib-1_0-Poppler-0_18 | PDF Rendering Library - Introspection bindings        | package

# zypper info libpoppler34

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...


Information for package libpoppler34:
-------------------------------------
Repository: openSUSE-12.3-Oss
Name: libpoppler34
Version: 0.22.1-1.1.1
Arch: i586
Vendor: openSUSE
Installed: Yes
Status: up-to-date
Installed Size: 3.6 MiB
Summary: PDF Rendering Library
Description: 
Poppler is a PDF rendering library, forked from the xpdf PDF viewer
developed by Derek Noonburg of Glyph and Cog, LLC.

Since I have 0.22 already, the bug should be gone, right? – unless there is a later 0.22 release or patch for libpoppler34.

I scanned the Okular in-house forum and found no mention of the bug – which is surprising, since pdf forms are now common and the bug is obvious. Even if I replace all of KDE – which seems like a rash move to me – I still have no assurance that the bug is gone in Okular 0.18! I have a feeling I can’t move backwards and can’t move forwards.

I’m wondering whether another utility can give me a filled-in form. I have pdfmod, but it can only edit the general attributes, not the fields.

4

Yes, you have 0.22.1 actually. So it should work, unless poppler-0.22.1 or okular-0.16 would have a bug.

I scanned the Okular in-house forum and found no mention of the bug – which is surprising, since pdf forms are now common and the bug is obvious. Even if I replace all of KDE – which seems like a rash move to me – I still have no assurance that the bug is gone in Okular 0.18! I have a feeling I can’t move backwards and can’t move forwards.

Well, there are many other bugs fixed as well in KDE 4.12.

I just tried with this example form: Weiterleitungshinweis

Okular printed and saved the filled-in form without problem. (I opened the saved form with gimp and Adobe Reader on Windows to check)

This was with KDE 4.11.4 (okular 0.17.4) on openSUSE 13.1 (poppler 0.24.3).

I’m wondering whether another utility can give me a filled-in form. I have pdfmod, but it can only edit the general attributes, not the fields.

You can of course always use Adobe Reader. It is even in the standard repos (non-oss) on 12.3. Just search for “acroread” in YaST->Software Management.

5

I just tried that with okular 0.16.5 on openSUSE 12.3 and it worked there as well (printing and saving).

Please note, that you have to select “Save As…” from the “File” menu to save the filled-in form. If you choose “Save copy as…” the original document (without changes) will be saved.

6

Now that’s interesting! Okular works fine with the form you supplied. So maybe I was too quick to blame Okular – maybe it’s a problem with the form. I will try to install acroread and see what that does with the unfillable form.

7

If the form needs f.e. Javascript, poppler might not support that.

In that case, you have to resort to acroread.

Unfortunately Adobe has dropped Linux support for acroread a while ago, therefore it’s not included in the distribution anymore starting with 13.1.
You can still download and install it from Adobe’s homepage though, but there won’t be any updates anymore.

8

I installed acroread-9.5.5-8.1 from openSUSE-12.3-Update-Non-Oss. Then I opened the problem form, filled in a few fields, then switched highlighting off. The form retained my entries. Then I printed the form to a postscript file and used Okular to import the file. Found my entries present in the report! So acroread handles the pdf properly.

Here is the pdf that causes problems for okular:

http://medicorcancer.com/wp-content/uploads/New-Patient-Package_Office.pdf

I scroll down four pages to the “Medical Questionaire”, click “Show forms”, and enter data. Then I click “Hide forms”. The data I entered should then appear, properly formatted for printing. Instead, the data fields are blank. Only the checkbox entries are shown. When I save the filled-in pdf to a print file, the entries are missing. When I save the pdf, close okular, open okular and reload, the fields are blank. Okular does retrieve the data when I click “Show forms”, but that doesn’t help the recipient of the filled-in pdf!

Here are the pdf attributes, according to acroread and okular

PDF Producer: Nuance PDF Create 8
PDF Version: 1.5 Acrobat 6.x)
Tagged PDF: No
Fast Web View: No
Doc assembly, commenting, signing, templating: Not allowed

The PDF includes the following suggestion:

To complete on the computer: please use free Nuance PDF Viewer in order to fill and
save: http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-product/pdf/pdfreader/index.htm

Nuance does not offer a Linux version, however.

Thanks for your help. I hope my information can be of use to the okular people, in turn. With acroread no longer supported, Linux alternatives are badly needed.

9

Now that I’ve installed Acroread – all 134.7 Mib – I have a new appreciation for Okular.

Yes, Acroread does handle the PDF and my entries get printed. But Acroread gives me no way to save my entries: If I make a mistake or omit something from the printed copy, I have to re-enter everything. Okular does save what I have entered, so I can close the file and reopen it and make corrections. The entries are saved in Okular’s configuration directory.

Second, Okular gives me the ability to turn a postscript print-out file back into a PDF. Once I get my entries to appear in the print-out, I can use Okular to create a new and permanent PDF with the entries included.

10

On 2014-02-03 05:46, Iconoclasmic wrote:
> Second, Okular gives me the ability to turn a postscript print-out file
> back into a PDF. Once I get my entries to appear in the print-out, I
> can use Okular to create a new and permanent PDF with the entries
> included.

Or use “ps2pdf”.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)