Adobe Acrobat Automation With VB and Windows API

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic 6 Visual Basic.NET

More information : Have you anytime capital to accommodate Acrobat in your VB application? That is, run Acrobat aural a VB anatomy or component? Then this is for you. I capital to allotment this because Acrobat automation requires some actual ancient and anarchistic coding, if all you apperceive is Visual Basic. This is a one anatomy application. I leave it to your abilities to accommodate the cipher into a component.

Instructions : Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.


Declarations:

Structure Rect
Dim Left As Integer
Dim Top As Integer
Dim Right As Integer
Dim Bottom As Integer
End Structure

Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal wCmd As Integer) As Integer
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Integer, ByVal x As Integer, _
ByVal Y As Integer, ByVal cx As Integer, ByVal cy As Integer, ByVal wFlags As Integer) As Integer
Declare Function GetClientRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByRef lpRect As Rect) As Integer
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32" (ByVal hWndChild As Integer, ByVal hWndNewParent As Integer) As Integer
Private Declare Function GetWindowRect Lib "user32" (ByVal Hwnd As Integer, ByRef lpRect As Form1.Rect) As Integer
Private Declare Function GetSystemMetrics Lib "user32" (ByVal nIndex As Integer) As Integer
Private Declare Function MoveWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal Hwnd As Integer, ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer, _
ByVal nWidth As Integer, ByVal nHeight As Integer, ByVal bRepaint As Integer) As Integer

Private AcroHandle As Integer
Private AcroXApp As Acrobat.CAcroApp
Private AcroXAVDoc As Acrobat.CAcroAVDoc
Private AcroXPDDoc As Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc
Private FormApp As AFORMAUTLib.AFormApp
Private AcroForm As AFORMAUTLib.Fields
Private Field As AFORMAUTLib.Field


Code:

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Dim FileName As String
AcroXApp = CType(CreateObject("AcroExch.App"), Acrobat.CAcroApp)
'Removing toolbar buttons from the user interface
With AcroXApp
.ToolButtonRemove("Save")
.ToolButtonRemove("Open")
.ToolButtonRemove("AcroForm:WidgetTool")
End With
AcroXAVDoc = CType(CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc"), Acrobat.CAcroAVDoc)
FileName = "C:\'Your path and pdf file name'"
AcroXAVDoc.Open(FileName, "Acrobat")
AcroHandle = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Adobe Acrobat Professional - [Acrobat]")
SetParent(AcroHandle, Panel1.Handle.ToInt32) 'put Acrobat in winform panel. The panel is docked to all four sides of the form. In VB6 you need to resize the panel with the form
'Show in winform (not in a panel) alternative to above:
'AcroXAVDoc.OpenInWindowEx(FileName, Me.Panel1.Handle.ToInt32, 1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0)
'I've found this is not as flexible
'The following is to fill Acrobat fields with data
AcroXPDDoc = CType(AcroXAVDoc.GetPDDoc, Acrobat.CAcroPDDoc)
FormApp = CType(CreateObject("AFormAut.App"), AFORMAUTLib.AFormApp)
AcroForm = CType(FormApp.Fields, AFORMAUTLib.Fields)
For Each Field In AcroForm
Field.Value = "This is a test of how well this works, and if I have this right, I can be happy."
Next
AcroXPDDoc.ClearFlags(&H1) 'Keep Acrobat from querying a file save when component closes
SetAcroSize(AcroHandle, Panel1)
AcroXApp.Show()

End Sub

Private Sub SetAcroSize(ByRef lngHwnd As Integer, ByRef AcroPanel As System.Windows.Forms.Panel)

'Hide the title bar and menus from the user
'and resize Acrobat with the resizing of the form
Dim lngX As Integer 'acro left position
Dim lngY As Integer 'acro top position
Dim lngW As Integer 'acro width
Dim lngH As Integer 'acro height
Dim AppRect As Form1.Rect
GetWindowRect(AcroPanel.Handle.ToInt32, AppRect)
lngX = -GetSystemMetrics(32)
lngY = -GetSystemMetrics(33) - 37
lngW = AppRect.Right - AppRect.Left - lngX * 2
lngH = AppRect.Bottom - AppRect.Top - lngY * 2 - 37
MoveWindow(lngHwnd, lngX, lngY, lngW, lngH, 1)

End Sub

Private Sub Form1_Resize(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Resize

SetAcroSize(AcroHandle, Panel1)

End Sub

Private Sub Form1_Closed(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closed

'If acrobat is not properly closed, you end up with the acrobat.exe process continuing to run,
'but Acrobat will not be visible. This will baffle you to no end until you "end process"
'with Windows task manager while testing your app.
AcroXApp.Hide()
SetParent(AcroHandle, 0)
AcroXAVDoc.Close(0)
AcroXApp.CloseAllDocs()
AcroXApp.Exit()

End Sub