CIB pdf toolbox technical guide (EN)

4. Possibilities of form use

4.2. How does the CIB pdf toolbox behave with multiple forms?

If you want to process multiple PDF forms with one CIB pdf toolbox function, there may be restrictions depending on the selected processing step. In this case the following rules apply:

CIB pdf join

When merging multiple PDF forms, it may happen that there are form fields with the same name appearing in several of the source forms. The following rules apply to the generated PDF target form:

  • The form fields with the same name have to be of the same field type, otherwise the “join process” terminates unsuccessfully.
  • Global properties of a form field (the properties that al fields with the same name have in common) are normally copied from the first document.

Exceptions:

  • The property „hide text“ (as in password fields) has priority over the described principle.
  • The elements of a list box are extended by the elements of the second document. The same behavior applies to combo boxes.
  • Local properties of form fields are maintained.
  • Hierarchical refinements of an existing field name are not allowed.

Example: If a document has a form field with the name "Mammal.Whale" and another document a form field with the name "Mammal.Whale.Dolphin" the "join process" of the two documents would be aborted. The reason is that that the most common PDF readers are not designed for this situation.


Important Note:

Basically, the calling application also has the option of prefixing the form fields of each individual form so that when several forms are merged into one large PDF form, so that all fields have a unique field name. See Property: FormfieldNamePrefix