Read

The Read function reads text, signatures, and form data from PDF documents.

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Properties

Input

The following properties specify the PDF document to be loaded and modified by the operation:

File path

Path to the PDF file.

Authentication type

PDF files can be protected using a password or a certificate. This field indicates which type of authentication to attempt when loading the PDF.

1. None The document is unprotected and can be opened immediately.

2. Password The document is protected by a password.

3. Certificate The document is protected by a certificate.

Password:

Only displayed when Authentication type is 'Password'.

• Password: Password required to access the PDF file.

Note: All passwords entered into this function's properties will be visible in plain text in the Linx solution file and in the compiled .NET assembly.

Certificate:

Only displayed when Authentication type is 'Certificate'.

Certificate source: Source to load the certificate from:

1. File - Load a certificate from a .pfx file.

2. Store - Load a certificate from the Windows certificate store.

File

Displayed when Certificate source is 'File'.

• Certificate file path: Path to a .pfx file containing a certificate.

• Certificate file password: Password needed to open the certificate file.

Store: Displayed when Certificate source is 'Store'.

• Certificate: Certificate in the Windows keystore.

Note: Certificate protected files are not supported by the "Fill form," "Sign," "Add watermark," and "Concatenate" operations. If you need to use the operations on a certificate-protected document, first remove the certificate protection using the "Change protection" operation. The certificate must include the private key in order to be able to load the document.

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Output

Read text

Reads the document text and returns it in an output parameter named "Text".

Read form data

Reads any form data present in the document.

Read signatures

Reads any signatures present in the document.

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Read form data Only displayed when the Read form data property is selected.

• Return form data as: Controls how the form data is returned.

  Options:

  1. Custom type - Form data is used to populate an existing Type.

  2. Infer type from a sample PDF - Return type is constructed based on a sample PDF document.

  3. List - Form data is returned as a list of entries.

Custom type

Displayed when 'Custom type' is selected for Read form data as.

• Form data type: The expected type for the document's form data.

• Property mapping: Specify the field names that the properties in the form data should map to.

Infer type from a sample PDF

Displayed when 'Infer type from a sample PDF' is selected for Read form data as.

• Sample PDF: A sample PDF containing the empty form.

• Property mapping: Specify the field names that the properties in the form data should map to.

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Read text: Only displayed when the Read text property is selected.

• Extraction strategy: Extraction strategy to use when reading the text from the document.

  Options:

  • Location

  • Simple

  • Top to bottom

• Split text: Controls how the document text is split.

  Options:

  • Never - Text is never split; all text in the document is returned as a single string value.

  • Per page - Text is split per page and returned in a list of strings with one entry per page.