Adobe acrobat x pro javascript tutorial free

It is now available for a number of different environments. Any JavaScript implementation consists of two parts:. All JavaScript implementations have the first part in common, and as long as we ignore changes over time in that core language part, any script written with just these core language elements should run in any JavaScript environment.

On top of this core language, to actually interact with the application that is hosting the JavaScript environment web browser, Adobe Acrobat, Node. And this is where things differ completely between different JavaScript environments.

JavaScript running in the browser knows about web pages, and elements on a web page, HTML connections, and more web specific things, whereas the Acrobat environment does not care about these things, but knows about PDF documents, annotations, form fields and more things that are important in the world of PDF. So, to learn JavaScript for Acrobat, you just take any introductory JavaScript book, class or tutorial and just read and learn the parts about the core language, and ignore the rest.

This can be simple things like how the script is stored: When you write for the browser, chances are that your script actually lives in an HTML document. There is nothing wrong to just take a JavaScript book, start on page 1 and work through the book, following all examples, and actually using the browser to experiment and develop. The problem comes when you then have to unlearn the things you just worked so hard to learn in order to switch to the Acrobat environment.

I am only aware of a couple of resources that provide a fairly clean breakdown of just the core language that does not mean that there are not more, but I have not seen them. If you know of one, please post in the comments :. For a programmer with a good foundation in any other programming language, this would be a great resource.

You can run all the examples from both books in Acrobat if you keep a few simple rules in mind:. Instead of console. The multimedia object must be added to the file before you can specify an action for it. Launches and opens a file. If you are distributing a PDF file with a link to another file, the reader needs the native application of that linked file to open it successfully. You may need to add opening preferences for the target file.

Open A Web Link. Jumps to the specified destination on the Internet. You can use http, ftp, and mailto protocols to define your link. Play A Sound. Plays the specified sound file. The sound is embedded into the PDF document in a cross-platform format. Play Media Acrobat 5 Compatible. The specified movie must be embedded in a PDF document.

Plays a specified movie that was created as Acrobat 6-compatible. Read An Article. Reset A Form. Clears previously entered data in a form. You can control the fields that are reset with the Select Fields dialog box. Run A JavaScript. Set Layer Visibility. Determines which layer settings are active. Before you add this action, specify the appropriate layer settings.

Toggles between showing and hiding a field in a PDF document. This option is especially useful in form fields. For example, if you want an object to pop up whenever the pointer is over a button, you can set an action that shows a field on the Mouse Enter trigger and hides a field on Mouse Exit.

Submit A Form. Triggers determine how actions are activated in media clips, pages, and form fields. For example, you can specify a movie or sound clip to play when a page is opened or closed. The available options depend on the specified page element. Now we have a clean work area and are set up and ready to start using the Console Window. JavaScript code can be executed directly from the Console Window.

This ability is a huge time saver since it provides a fast and easy way to test out code before it’s placed into a scripting location where it will be more difficult to debug.

To run the code, make sure the cursor is on the same line as the text. You can place it anywhere on the line as long as nothing is selected. Either of the two following actions will cause Acrobat to run the code. Acrobat always attempts to convert the result of an execution into text so that it can be displayed.

Sometimes the result of an operation is not as clean or obvious as a number. Let’s try something that doesn’t have such a well-defined result. Enter the following line in the Console Window and run it:. This calculation has an obvious mathematical error, but Acrobat JavaScript doesn’t display an error message. Instead, as shown in Figure 5 , it displays the word “Infinity. It is much easier to find this kind of issue by executing individual lines in the Console Window where you can see the results immediately, than it is to debug it from a field-calculation script.

The next line of example code is something that might be used in a real script. It assigns a simple addition to a variable named ‘sum’. As shown in Figure 6, the return value from this line of code is “undefined. The calculation is executed and applied to the declared variable, sum. However, the first and primary operation on the line is the variable declaration, so this is the operation that returns a value to the Console Window.

Unfortunately, variable declarations do not return a value. To overcome this small issue, the Console widow displays “undefined. Anything that doesn’t exist to the JavaScript environment is “undefined. This action executes just the selected text. This technique of selecting parts of the code for execution is also useful for executing multiple lines of code. So far we’ve talked about executing code in the Console Window for testing and debugging, but there is no reason to restrict our usage to this limited theme.

Immediate Mode means that anything entered into this window is executed directly by the JavaScript engine. We can use it anytime we want to execute code for any purpose. Two uses for the Console Window besides code testing that immediately come to mind are automation and analysis. There are several functions in Acrobat for manipulating and for acquiring information from PDFs and Acrobat. For operations with a user interface button or menu item, the main advantage of using JavaScript is greater flexibility, since JavaScript functions typically provide more options than the user interface equivalent.

For example, suppose you wanted to know the exact border color of a text field so you could use the same color in another location. Assuming the current document has a field with the correct name on it, the following code displays the raw color value in the Console Window:. The result of this operation is a color array. Remember, Acrobat attempts to convert all results into text. Arrays are converted to text by converting each individual array element into a text string, so the result would look something like the following line when it is displayed in the Console Window.

This is an example of document analysis with JavaScript. We’ve just found out something that would have taken us just a little more effort to find out using the Acrobat property dialogs, and the information is in a very usable format. We can easily copy and paste this information to accomplish some other purpose, for example applying the color to another field with this line of code:.

Suppose a document needs to be checked for branding purposes, i. The following code uses a simple loop to display this color info in the Console Window for manual inspection:.

Because of the loop, this code cannot be executed one line at a time. It has to be done all at once. Notice that in the loop there is a function called console. It’s in the fourth line. This function writes text to the Console Window and it will be discussed in the next section. Here’s an example of a function that does not have an easy equivalent on the regular Acrobat menus and toolbars. Both of these situations would have been displayed in the Console Window.

The path property is exactly what you might think it should be. It’s the folder path of the current document. Since the current document was just created with app. The result will look something like this:. Of course, this information is easily available in the Document Properties dialog.

The advantage to using the Console Window is to make this information available to copy to the system clipboard for use with another script in Acrobat or for something else.

Besides testing code, the Console Window has one other important role in debugging JavaScript. It is the standard location for displaying status and error messages. The Acrobat JavaScript environment has a built-in error handling system.

When something goes wrong, this error-handling system usually displays some helpful message sometimes in the Console Window, so this is the first place to look when things aren’t working. In addition, you can create your own status and error messages to display here. As an example, let’s execute something that will cause an error.

Enter and run the following line of code in the Console Window:. This line of code instructs Acrobat to open a file xx. Acrobat responds by generating an error, which is displayed by the Console Window, shown in Figure 8. This message is critical to understanding why the code failed, especially if the function call is buried in several lines of code inside another script. Always check the Console Window first when something goes wrong. Note that the second message on the line indicates a security error.

For our purposes, this is an erroneous and unhelpful message. There was no real security error, and while it may then seem that Adobe is deliberately trying to either terrify or confuse us, there is a reason the message is being displayed.

In fact, the message is not related to the JavaScript engine at all. It is the result of the Acrobat security model, which was made much more robust in versions 9, X, and XI by adding a security layer. This layer blocks operations that don’t fit with Acrobat’s sense of rightness. JavaScript operations or errors that relate to external resources on the web or local file system tend to spook this security layer, which then throws out miscellaneous security errors.

If you work with Acrobat JavaScript for any length of time, you’ll find all sorts of operations that have nothing to do with security, but nonetheless generate security errors.

We can also create our own messages for display in the Console Window. This object provides a few functions for manipulating and accessing the Console Window, but for our purposes here the console. This function displays a single line of text on the next available line in the Console Window. The following line of code displays the words “Hello Acrobat. The console. Just place a few console. It is up to the developer to decide what information to display.

This information should be relevant to the state of the script. For example, the following line helps us understand how JavaScript events work in Acrobat. The code can be placed in any script location in a PDF file. It is a good practice to use this code or something like it whenever you start a new document scripting project to get a feel for how the different scripts will interact.

Watch the Console Window to monitor the sequence of scripts that are executed as you open and close the document, navigate between pages, move the mouse around the document or perform other actions. If you are developing scripts that will be used in Adobe Reader, then it is a good idea to be able to test and debug them in Reader. Adobe added Console Window support to Reader in version 7.

However, setting up Reader to actually display the Console Window was very difficult. It required installing special scripts and manually changing Acrobat settings in either the Windows Registry or the Macintosh settings files. It has become much easier in Reader XI. There is only one thing you need to be able to do to use the Console Window, and that is to display it. Displaying the Console Window in Reader is a bit more difficult than one might think it should.

Adobe acrobat x pro javascript tutorial free

 
Jan 31,  · Klaus, you can store the value in the document’s meta data (e.g. in a custom meta data field). This will work as long as you are using Adobe Acrobat to stamp the document. The free Adobe Reader cannot create custom meta data fields. A data object in the stamped document would also work, but is a lot more work. Apr 04,  · Adobe Acrobat is the original standard program for creating, editing, and viewing PDF files. It’s commonly used in business, and is bundled with Adobe Creative Suite and the full version of Creative Cloud, so there’s a good chance your business computer already has it installed—or you can install it for free from your Creative Cloud subscription. Adobe ColdFusion is a commercial rapid web-application development computing platform created by J. J. Allaire in (The programming language used with that platform is also commonly called ColdFusion, though is more accurately known as CFML.)ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a version .

Adobe acrobat x pro javascript tutorial free

 
 
A good JavaScript editor will have advanced features that make code manipulation and navigation easier when you are editing document code. Actions are set in the Properties dialog box. The reason for not enabling the debugger is because it has a significant negative impact on Acrobat performance, and can even cause Acrobat to crash.