PDF Document XFA forms are unsupported!

English Applications
21

=====================================
Regarding images
Why can you post your images ?
It is very simple to post images.
==>When you have the right screen just hit “print screen” button on your keyboard. I think ksnapshot(not 100% sure as i am a GNOME user) or something would pop up
==>and you can save the images in a folder .
==>Then you upload saved images to SUSE Paste .
>Click on “image” link in that page .
>Don’t forget to set “Delete After” date to appropriate date or “don’t expire”
>Upload the image from saved folder
>After upload you get a page like this SUSE Paste
>Right click on image and use menu “view image” and you will get image url http://paste.opensuse.org/images/12401238.png
==>Finally use the image button in post editor and add the image url http://paste.opensuse.org/images/12401238.png

Regrading your repos
do post output of

zypper lr -d

within code tags(use # button in post editor)
you can run the command

zypper ref -f

to force refresh repo metadata and check in YaST whether evince exists.

Regarding nautilus-evince
you don’t need nautilus for evince to work (not 100% sure though)

Regarding saving of stored data
i think it is getting stored inside pdf
Reason:- size of this pdf (Seguridad Social: Internet) when i downloaded was 1.2 MB
But when i filled up a few pages with data and saved it its size increased to 1.3 MB

22

On 2013-06-07 05:26, vazhavandan wrote:

> I can save in evince and here is nautilus “preview” of the saved pdf
>
>
> [image: http://paste.opensuse.org/images/12401238.png]

it /appears/ to work, but does not so completely >:-)

I have one opened with evince right now. There is a button on it, press to delete - it deletes
nothing. So, the code in the form is not running. Dangerous, you can fill data that might not be
validated by the code.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from oS 12.3 “Dartmouth” GM (rescate 1))

23

On 2013-06-07 07:46, heboland wrote:
>
> Thanks again for your time and comments guys!
>
> robin_listas, what seems to be emerging here is that the PDF form
> information is stored separately in a text file. Is that text file
> visible? How is it liked with the form?

It is not linked. You can save the text file for your reference, and perhaps the people asking for
the form can accept that text file for remote processing. I just tried it, but I can not see the
file. Maybe there is an error in my form and it doesn’t save.

> Since I thought this thread was over, I deleted the birth certificate
> file. For this latest surge, I downloaded it again. I noticed when I
> reopened it, it had the form information I had entered before it was
> deleted.

Yes, of course.

> vazhavandan, thanks for posting images of your yast > SW manager. You
> have me at a disadvantage since I can’t post images of mine. My display
> format is slightly different from yours, but only the unchecked (not
> installe) evince-lang comes up. If I search my rpms for evince nothing
> comes up. Since you don’t have the -lang rpm installed, I was right not
> to install that.

susepaste

> Also I’ve learned here that a completed pdf form doesn’t get saved as
> such. The form information is stored separately.

Yes, but it can not be loaded either. You have to fill the form in one session.

Full save/load is only available in the purchased adobe software, IIRC (which is not supplied for
Linux). It works against an adobe server, I think.

> Are we done with this thread now or do I still have more to learn from
> this? Heboland.

It is always possible to learn more :wink:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from oS 12.3 “Dartmouth” GM (rescate 1))

24

I have received a PDF with form. I was able to read it, and make entries in the forms, using “okular”.

I then saved the result. I sent the saved pdf back to the bank, but they were unable to read it. However, I could reopen in “okular” and print to a pdf file, with a result that the bank could read.

As other have suggested, try the adobe software from the repo. Maybe that will work in a way that is compatible with adobe for Windows.

25

Yep .Buttons like “reset” and “print” don’t work but when i try to print using “evince” menu i don’t see the buttons in print preview which is relief.

26

Thanks again for the comments guys!

vazhavandan, without running your zypper commands, I wanted to get a before and after image. This time when I searched for evince, the nautisus-evince plugin showed up as uninstalled. I installed it. In lxde evince doesn’t rate a menu entry, but I can invoke it from a terminal. The evince gui displays, but complains as follows:

frank[5018] evince

** (evince:1530): WARNING **: Error retrieving accessibility bus address: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.a11y.Bus was not provided by any .service files

** (evince:1530): CRITICAL **: atk_bridge_adaptor_cleanup: assertion `inited' failed
frank[5018]

Ignoring the warning, evince will open the birthcertificate pdf, but it won’t open the insurance form that so far only adobe reader will open. evince is not as capable as okular, but if will open TIFs in addition to PDFs. Neither will do a file conversion like gimp.

Several responders suggested the susepaste. Thanks for that suggestion. Now that I know how, I don’t have anything to paste! What I would like to share is the insurance pdf.

robin_listas, yes it is possible to learn more and I’m all for it. Yours and the other responders time is worth more here than mine, in my opinion. At least one of my previous posts could have used this kind of attention, but I’m grateful for it.

I may have misunderstood your comments about the evince print button. My attempt to print the BCpdf with evince worked for me. I printed it to a pdf, so that may have made the print function a trivial operation.

nrickert, the community repository adobe reader solved this thread at least a page ago. This thread may set a record for posts following the solution! I’m happy for the attention!

Mostly the follow-on has been teaching me some details about how XFA Form PDFs are handled. Another lesson imparted was how to upload a highlighted image.

The functionality that would wrap this thread up is a way to upload the PDF that triggered this post.

Let’s see if this thread has moved any closer to closure! Heboland.

27

On 2013-06-09 04:06, heboland wrote:

> The evince gui displays, but complains as follows:

Ignore that completely.

All GUI apps, when called from a terminal, can print there debug
messages that are only useful to the programmer, not us users - except
when looking for the cause of problems.

> Ignoring the warning, evince will open the birthcertificate pdf, but it
> won’t open the insurance form that so far only adobe reader will open.
> evince is not as capable as okular, but if will open TIFs in addition to
> PDFs. Neither will do a file conversion like gimp.

Capabilities of both depends on installed plugins and compile options.
Gimp does conversion because it is a graphics editor, the other two are
just document viewers.

Another powerful tool to display images and such is “display” from the
ImageMagick package. Yes, it handles PDF too, and does conversions. No,
I have not tried forms with it.

:slight_smile:

> I may have misunderstood your comments about the evince print button.
> My attempt to print the BCpdf with evince worked for me. I printed it to
> a pdf, so that may have made the print function a trivial operation.

Maybe you misunderstood. I mean a print button /inside/ the PDF form,
not one in the menu. AFAIK, it only works in Adobe.

> nrickert, the community repository adobe reader solved this thread at
> least a page ago. This thread may set a record for posts following the
> solution! I’m happy for the attention!

No, it is typical, threads have a life of their own; new people find
them, ask new (related) questions, some offer totally new solutions
after the OP thought it was solved.

Threads are not closed here after solved :wink:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

28

a11y module is the accessibility module on GNOME. Since you are not running GNOME it is giving you a warning that some functionality may not work :slight_smile:

29

Thanks once more guys!

robin_listas thanks for the ImageMagick tip. I had it installed. For the rest of the list the executable for it is: mogrify. It’s a command line tool that may be an easier pdf to tiff converter than gimp.

For the record, okular doesn’t allow printing the birthcertificate pdf from the pdf form button either.

Thanks to both of you for the interpretation of the evince warnings. I didn’t know what to make of all the “bus” related references.

I sense we’ve come to the end of this tread. I’ve learned a bunch more. My thanks to all the responders. Somewhere back in the middle of this thread, I marked it solved. Heboland.

30

On 2013-06-09 20:06, heboland wrote:
> Somewhere back in the middle of this
> thread, I marked it solved.

Remember that people like me can not see those marks :wink:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

31

vazhavandan wrote:

>
> tried this sample form with “evince” and it works
> http://tinyurl.com/k7lgckx
>
Tested, Okular says unsupported, Adobe reader works, Seamonkey opens but
some fields do no work. Good sample for testing.


rpl7:~> rpm -qa |grep okular
okular-4.10.4-78.1.x86_64

and
rpl7:~> rpm -qa |grep acroread
acroread-9.5.5-4.1.i586

Thanks for posting your list. Have used Okular almost exclusively.
Russ

–
openSUSE 12.3(Linux 3.7.10-1.11-desktop x86_64)|KDE 4.10.4
“release 569”|Intel core2duo 2.5 MHZ,|8GB DDR3|GeForce
8400GS(NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.17)

32

upscope, I don’t understand why your okular doesn’t open the birth certificate pdf. Mine opens it fine.

frank[5003] rpm -qa | grep -i okular   
okular-4.10.3-1.28.1.x86_64
frank[5004] rpm -qa | grep -i acr   
libproxy1-pacrunner-webkit-0.4.11-2.1.1.x86_64
acroread-browser-plugin-9.5.5-4.1.i586
acroread-9.5.5-4.1.i586
frank[5005]

I don’t want to touch off another mailstorm with this post. Mostly I wanted to add something more to this thread.

acroread will print to a file. The only file type choice is PS, but it allows printing as an image and it allows page selection. My okular opens the PS image file as a PDF. gimp will also open the PS image and allow format conversion to PDF or TIF.

Do I get the last word on this thread? Heboland.

33

On 06/16/2013 03:56 AM, heboland wrote:
> Do I get the last word on this thread?

are you looking for a prize?

–
dd

34

How can SeaMonkey open pdf ? Isn’t it a browser ? Do you have this pdf js (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/pdfjs/) addon installed ?

35

On 2013-06-16 03:56, heboland wrote:

> acroread will print to a file. The only file type choice is PS, but it
> allows printing as an image and it allows page selection. My okular
> opens the PS image file as a PDF. gimp will also open the PS image and
> allow format conversion to PDF or TIF.

It is not the same PDF. Can you open the original PDF with okular and
fill the form data and work the buttons? Can you press the “print”
button inside the form, and does it print? Does the reset button inside
the form reset the data? Don’t you see a warning at the top that XFA
forms are currently unsuported?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

36

robin_listas, sorry if I mislead you on this!

I meant to tell upscope that my okular would open this pdf: http://tinyurl.com/k7lgckx.

With okular the “Show Forms” button works, but the “Print” and “Reset” buttons don’t work. My okular has a “File” > “Save as” entry that does allow saving a copy with the form information. Unfortunately that same form information also displays in the original after the copy has been saved and the form can’t be reset.

What I wanted to add to this thread is that my acroreader can save a filled out XFA form to a file. Post Script is the only file format allowed In the Advanced tab there’s an option to print an image file. Gimp thinks the PS image file is a PS file, but okular treats the PS image as a PDF.

Gimp will also open the image PS and export it to various file types including PDF and TIF. To me this functionality is very close to being able to save a filled out XFA form PDF. Heboland.

37

On 2013-06-17 08:46, heboland wrote:
>
> robin_listas, sorry if I mislead you on this!
>
> I meant to tell upscope that my okular would open this pdf:
> http://tinyurl.com/k7lgckx.
>
> With okular the “Show Forms” button works, but the “Print” and “Reset”
> buttons don’t work.

So, okular does not work, period.

Either it works completely, or it is invalid. Be aware that these forms
are special, they contain code. This code can be used to do
calculations between the fields, like in a calc sheet; or entry
validation; or queries against a server. many things. They “appear” to
work with evince or okular, but they do not, in fact.

Don’t risk it, fill those forms with the approved viewer, lest the form
fails after submission and you have to fill again after the official
people reject it with a big gruff.

> What I wanted to add to this thread is that my acroreader can save a
> filled out XFA form to a file. Post Script is the only file format
> allowed In the Advanced tab there’s an option to print an image file.
> Gimp thinks the PS image file is a PS file, but okular treats the PS
> image as a PDF.

That’s print, not save. Print to a file, but print.

> Gimp will also open the image PS and export it to various file types
> including PDF and TIF. To me this functionality is very close to being
> able to save a filled out XFA form PDF. Heboland.

Visually, yes. Really, no, the resulting PDF is no longer a fillable form.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

38

Thanks robin_listas!

I see where you are coming from. What you wrote is correct, but in my view a lower level of application performance is acceptable. Now that I have acroread I will use it, but either acroread or okular will allow me to save a tax form to a pdf rather than having to save it as a hard copy.

okular may be vulnerable to having the saved pdf copy changed by modifying the original, but the acroread XFA form pdf printed to a file should be a fixed snapshot. To me there is value in that.

I have not attempted to modify US federal tax forms after saving the filled out forms which they allow. It would not surprise me if they were similar to the acroread forms saved to a file. If so, IMHO that is still to be preferred over printing them to a hard copy and scaning them back to a file.

robin_listas, you may be correct that internal manipulations in the form may be botched by okular, but acroread should handle them correctly. To be able to get a pdf file copy of the result has value to me even if the copy is no longer editable. Heboland.

39

Adobe changed how they handle permissions. You can make forms like these savable, you just have to have access to Adobe Acrobat to do it. Open the form in Acrobat the File > Save as Other > Reader Extended PDf > Enable More Tools (includes form fill-in and save) Personally I save this version as something with a slightly different name just to avoid confusion but you don’t have to. Once it’s been saved as an extended reader format it can be edited and the filled out form can be saved. Acrobat isn’t open source or free (although I believe there is a free trial version) so it isn’t an ideal solution but it does work. Good luck!

JC Hammond, Freelance Tech Writer

40

On 2013-11-08 18:26, BizWriter wrote:

> Acrobat isn’t open source or free (although I believe there is a free
> trial version) so it isn’t an ideal solution but it does work. Good
> luck!

Acrobat will be removed from the distro, since 13.1. And openSUSE is not
open to discuss it. :frowning:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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