PDFBox Example
PdfBox-Android Library Tutorial and Example.
This is an android PDFBox Tutorial.
PdfBox-Android is a port of Apache's PdfBox library to be usable on Android.
Majority of the features available in the parent libray are implemented already in PdfBox-Android.
PdfBox-Android requires Android API 19 and greater for full functionality.
Why PDFBox
This library is important as rendering of PDF documents is important as a capability in many apps. These days there are many documents which get rendered in form a PDF file. PDF documents have the advantage of portability and are concrete and not fragile for editability. You need special softwares to edit them. However their disadvantage is that you also need special PDF readers to read them.
So that's where libraries like PDFBox come in place. They allow us easily read these documents within our application. Thus we don't have to ask users to search for third party PDF reader.
What is PDF?
PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format. It's a format for presenting documents in way that makes them poratble yet easily preserving the appearance of those documents.
Long long ago, in the early 1990's PDF documents had to be viewed using expensive software. Yet they still had a ton of limitations like not being able to include embedded links. They were also too large.
However these days PDF documents are lightweight, portable and have a ton of features.
What We Learn
We will look at a simple example of how to render PDF documents using PDfBox librray. Those PDF documents will be stored in the Assets Folder.
We also learn:
- How to Install PDFBox.
- Some important PDFBox APIs.
- Full Example.
Let's start by looking at installation.
Installation
We can install PdfBox-Android via Gradle or Maven. If you are using Android Studio probably you'll use gradle.
So go over to your app level build.gradle file and add the the implementation statememt:
You can check the latest version here.
If you are using Maven then add the following in your pom.xml file:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.tom_roush</groupId>
<artifactId>pdfbox-android</artifactId>
<version>1.8.10.0</version>
<type>pom</type>
</dependency>
[notice] Before calls to PDFBox are made it is highly recommended to initialize the library's resource loader. Add the following line before calling PDFBox methods:
[/notice]
Important PdfBox-Android Classes
(a). PDDocument
PDDocument is the in-memory representation of the PDF document. This class is implementing the Closeable interface. It's close() method must be called once the document is no longer needed. Here's one of the ways we can instantiate.
(b). PDPage
This class represents a page in a PDF document.
Let's say we want to create a PDPage and add to the PDDocument:
(c). PDFont
This is the base class for all PDF fonts.
(d). PDPageContentStream
Provides the ability to write to a page content stream.
try {
// Define a content stream for adding to the PDF
PDPageContentStream contentStream = new PDPageContentStream(document, page);
}catch(IOException ie){}
Full PdfBox-Android Examples
(1). Example 1.
Let's start by looking at various files:
(a). AndroidManifest.xml
Here we will need to add permission for external storage usage.
(b). build.gradle
In your app level build.gradle add depenedencies:
dependencies {
implementation 'com.tom_roush:pdfbox-android:1.8.10.0'
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.3'
}
(c). Assets
Create an assets folder and add your PDF documents there.
(b). activity_main.xml
Here we add several buttons for creating PDF, rendering it, filling form, stripping text etc. Then we add the ImageView that will render the PDF document.
<RelativeLayout
android_layout_width="match_parent"
android_layout_height="match_parent"
android_paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android_paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android_paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android_paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools_context=".MainActivity" >
<Button
android_id="@+id/buttonCreate"
android_layout_width="match_parent"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_text="Create PDF"
android_layout_alignParentTop="true"
android_layout_marginTop="10dp"
android_onClick="createPdf" />
<Button
android_id="@+id/buttonRender"
android_layout_width="match_parent"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_text="Render PDF to Image"
android_layout_below="@+id/buttonCreate"
android_layout_marginTop="10dp"
android_onClick="renderFile" />
<Button
android_id="@+id/buttonFillForm"
android_layout_width="match_parent"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_text="Fill PDF Form"
android_layout_below="@+id/buttonRender"
android_layout_marginTop="10dp"
android_onClick="fillForm" />
<Button
android_id="@+id/buttonStripText"
android_layout_width="match_parent"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_text="Strip Text From PDF"
android_layout_below="@+id/buttonFillForm"
android_layout_marginTop="10dp"
android_onClick="stripText" />
<TextView
android_id="@+id/statusTextView"
android_layout_width="wrap_content"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_layout_below="@+id/buttonStripText"
android_text="@string/hello_world"
android_background="#EEE"/>
<ImageView
android_id="@+id/renderedImageView"
android_layout_width="wrap_content"
android_layout_height="wrap_content"
android_layout_alignLeft="@+id/statusTextView"
android_layout_below="@+id/statusTextView" />
</RelativeLayout>
(d). MainActivity.java
Here's the full code for the example.
package com.tom_roush.pdfbox.sample;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.res.AssetManager;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocumentCatalog;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDPage;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDPageContentStream;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.encryption.AccessPermission;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.encryption.StandardProtectionPolicy;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.font.PDFont;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.font.PDType1Font;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.graphics.image.JPEGFactory;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.graphics.image.LosslessFactory;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.graphics.image.PDImageXObject;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDAcroForm;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDCheckbox;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDComboBox;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDField;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDListBox;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDRadioButton;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.form.PDTextField;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.rendering.PDFRenderer;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.text.PDFTextStripper;
import com.tom_roush.pdfbox.util.PDFBoxResourceLoader;
import org.spongycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.security.Security;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
File root;
AssetManager assetManager;
Bitmap pageImage;
TextView tv;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
@Override
protected void onStart() {
super.onStart();
setup();
}
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
return true;
}
/**
* Initializes variables used for convenience
*/
private void setup() {
// Enable Android-style asset loading (highly recommended)
PDFBoxResourceLoader.init(getApplicationContext());
// Find the root of the external storage.
root = android.os.Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
assetManager = getAssets();
tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.statusTextView);
}
/**
* Creates a new PDF from scratch and saves it to a file
*/
public void createPdf(View v) {
PDDocument document = new PDDocument();
PDPage page = new PDPage();
document.addPage(page);
// Create a new font object selecting one of the PDF base fonts
PDFont font = PDType1Font.HELVETICA;
// Or a custom font
// try {
// PDType0Font font = PDType0Font.load(document, assetManager.open("MyFontFile.TTF"));
// } catch(IOException e) {
// e.printStackTrace();
// }
PDPageContentStream contentStream;
try {
// Define a content stream for adding to the PDF
contentStream = new PDPageContentStream(document, page);
// Write Hello World in blue text
contentStream.beginText();
contentStream.setNonStrokingColor(15, 38, 192);
contentStream.setFont(font, 12);
contentStream.newLineAtOffset(100, 700);
contentStream.showText("Hello World");
contentStream.endText();
// Load in the images
InputStream in = assetManager.open("falcon.jpg");
InputStream alpha = assetManager.open("trans.png");
// Draw a green rectangle
contentStream.addRect(5, 500, 100, 100);
contentStream.setNonStrokingColor(0, 255, 125);
contentStream.fill();
// Draw the falcon base image
PDImageXObject ximage = JPEGFactory.createFromStream(document, in);
contentStream.drawImage(ximage, 20, 20);
// Draw the red overlay image
Bitmap alphaImage = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(alpha);
PDImageXObject alphaXimage = LosslessFactory.createFromImage(document, alphaImage);
contentStream.drawImage(alphaXimage, 20, 20 );
// Make sure that the content stream is closed:
contentStream.close();
// Save the final pdf document to a file
String path = root.getAbsolutePath() + "/Download/Created.pdf";
document.save(path);
document.close();
tv.setText("Successfully wrote PDF to " + path);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Loads an existing PDF and renders it to a Bitmap
*/
public void renderFile(View v) {
// Render the page and save it to an image file
try {
// Load in an already created PDF
PDDocument document = PDDocument.load(assetManager.open("Created.pdf"));
// Create a renderer for the document
PDFRenderer renderer = new PDFRenderer(document);
// Render the image to an RGB Bitmap
pageImage = renderer.renderImage(0, 1, Bitmap.Config.RGB_565);
// Save the render result to an image
String path = root.getAbsolutePath() + "/Download/render.jpg";
File renderFile = new File(path);
FileOutputStream fileOut = new FileOutputStream(renderFile);
pageImage.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, fileOut);
fileOut.close();
tv.setText("Successfully rendered image to " + path);
// Optional: display the render result on screen
displayRenderedImage();
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Fills in a PDF form and saves the result
*/
public void fillForm(View v) {
try {
// Load the document and get the AcroForm
PDDocument document = PDDocument.load(assetManager.open("FormTest.pdf"));
PDDocumentCatalog docCatalog = document.getDocumentCatalog();
PDAcroForm acroForm = docCatalog.getAcroForm();
// Fill the text field
PDTextField field = (PDTextField) acroForm.getField("TextField");
field.setValue("Filled Text Field");
// Optional: don't allow this field to be edited
field.setReadOnly(true);
PDField checkbox = acroForm.getField("Checkbox");
((PDCheckbox) checkbox).check();
PDField radio = acroForm.getField("Radio");
((PDRadioButton)radio).setValue("Second");
PDField listbox = acroForm.getField("ListBox");
List<Integer> listValues = new ArrayList<>();
listValues.add(1);
listValues.add(2);
((PDListBox) listbox).setSelectedOptionsIndex(listValues);
PDField dropdown = acroForm.getField("Dropdown");
((PDComboBox) dropdown).setValue("Hello");
String path = root.getAbsolutePath() + "/Download/FilledForm.pdf";
tv.setText("Saved filled form to " + path);
document.save(path);
document.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Strips the text from a PDF and displays the text on screen
*/
public void stripText(View v) {
String parsedText = null;
PDDocument document = null;
try {
document = PDDocument.load(assetManager.open("Hello.pdf"));
} catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
try {
PDFTextStripper pdfStripper = new PDFTextStripper();
pdfStripper.setStartPage(0);
pdfStripper.setEndPage(1);
parsedText = "Parsed text: " + pdfStripper.getText(document);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
if (document != null) document.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
tv.setText(parsedText);
}
/**
* Creates a simple pdf and encrypts
*/
public void createEncryptedPdf()
{
String path = root.getAbsolutePath() + "/Download/crypt.pdf";
int keyLength = 128; // 128 bit is the highest currently supported
// Limit permissions of those without the password
AccessPermission ap = new AccessPermission();
ap.setCanPrint(false);
// Sets the owner password and user password
StandardProtectionPolicy spp = new StandardProtectionPolicy("12345", "hi", ap);
// Setups up the encryption parameters
spp.setEncryptionKeyLength(keyLength);
spp.setPermissions(ap);
BouncyCastleProvider provider = new BouncyCastleProvider();
Security.addProvider(provider);
PDFont font = PDType1Font.HELVETICA;
PDDocument document = new PDDocument();
PDPage page = new PDPage();
document.addPage(page);
try
{
PDPageContentStream contentStream = new PDPageContentStream(document, page);
// Write Hello World in blue text
contentStream.beginText();
contentStream.setNonStrokingColor(15, 38, 192);
contentStream.setFont(font, 12);
contentStream.newLineAtOffset(100, 700);
contentStream.showText("Hello World");
contentStream.endText();
contentStream.close();
// Save the final pdf document to a file
document.protect(spp); // Apply the protections to the PDF
document.save(path);
document.close();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* Helper method for drawing the result of renderFile() on screen
*/
private void displayRenderedImage() {
new Thread() {
public void run() {
runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
ImageView imageView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.renderedImageView);
imageView.setImageBitmap(pageImage);
}
});
}
}.start();
}
}
Download
Get PdfBox-Android below:
| No. | Location | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | GitHub | Direct Download |
| 2. | GitHub | Browse Sample |