Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 103932
duplicated fields in PDF Export
Last modified: 2009-11-02 10:34:15 UTC
Hello, with writer we create forms and export them as PDF to, We then merge them with xfdf files at printing. In certain situation it is necessary to have the same field twice in a form or on different page. This does not work with ooo because when the pdf is created it attaches a _x (where x is a number generated by ooo) to the fieldname. When acrobat reader merges the xfdf with the pdf this fields remain empty. It should be possible to select as option to export fields that have the same name without the extension. Thanks Andreas
pl->fs: this would require non-unique field names; don't know if that is feasible in OOo.
I think this can indeed be done with an option only. The PDF spec allows for duplicate fully qualified names only in certain situations, which have no canonical match in a ODF document (its form controls, respectively). So, it is up to the document creator to decide whether names should be made unique. fs->pl: Sounds like yet another option to the PDF export dialog to me: "Make form control names unique (recommended)", or something like this.
If we make this configurable, it will have to wait for 3.3. However I also think changing the behavior unconditionally might be a bad idea.
pl->fs: I made the necessary changes in the pdf export filter and vcl in CWS vcl106; only to find that describePDFControl in toolkit already comes up with unique names. So please find out who makes those names unique. I'll attach a test doc with two controls having the same name as shown in the UI.
Created attachment 65512 [details] document containing two controls with the same name
fs->pl: as seen: PDFExtOutDevData::CreateControl is the place where there's still some "make control names unique" wizardry is applied ...
Ah, it seems I'm blind and dumb again ... thanks. So now in CWS vcl106 we you can emit duplicate field names; the default is still not to.
please verify in CWS vcl106
Verified with cws vcl106 = OK In default (disabled) mode, the controls will be named as (ControlA) and (ControlA_2) In enabled mode, both controls will be named as (ControlA)