Not working on a standalone windows box

[mutyii]

I'm using yii2 and xampp on a windows 7 home edition box and trying
to fill pdf form using your php-pdftk extension which I've installed using composer.
I've downloaded pdftk and installed it and the binaries libiconf2.dll and pdftk.exe are in C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk\bin\

Here is my code in controller (same as the sample you provided with your extension)

use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;

public function actionIndex()
{
// Fill form with data array
$pdf = new Pdf('form.pdf');
$pdf->fillForm(array('name'=>'John Doe'))
->needAppearances()
->saveAs('filled.pdf');
}

bu it does not work. Nothing happens, no errors, absolutely nothing!
form.pdf file is in the webroot directory C:\xampp\htdocs\MyWebsite\form.pdf

It seems, my php script cannot just find the pdftk binaries. I've tryed to put
them in the vendor\bin directory of my yii2 template without any success.
I don't know where to place the pdftk binaries for the extension to find then and/or whether there
are any other configurations steps ( in other words, basic things) I have to do.

You surely cannot have tested your extension in all possible environments but if you've
tested it in a windows environment, please help me.

Thanks in advance.

[mikehaertl]

Did you check for an error message? $pdf->getError()

You can set the command path like this:

$pdf = new Pdf('form.pdf', [
    'command' => '/path/to/pdftk',
]);

[mutyii]

Thanks for feedback. Among others , I've tryed this

    
   use mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf;
   public function actionIndex()
   {
      //Since path to pdftk.exe contains empty characters, escape it with quotes otherwise windows will  
      //try to execute C:\Program with arguments Files, (x86)\PDF,  Server\bin\pdftk.exe, …
      $pdf = new Pdf('form.pdf', ['command' => '"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PDFtk Server\\bin\\pdftk.exe"' ] );
      $e = $pdf->getError();
      echo $e; 
      /* and alternatively this:
       $pdf = new Pdf('form.pdf', ['command' => '"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PDFtk Server\\bin\\pdftk.exe"' ] );
       $pdf->fillForm(array('name'=>'John Doe'))
             ->needAppearances()
             ->saveAs('filled.pdf');    
       $e = $pdf->getError();
       echo $e; 
      */
    }

but still without success. Nothing happens and no message is shown.
This is weird because many devolopers still program their software on windows boxes though they do deploy them on unix systems.

[mikehaertl]

You could also try echo $pdf->getCommand() to get the actualy command line string. Then try if that executes. I recommend to also study my https://github.com/mikehaertl/php-shellcommand extension, which builds the basis for this command. That's what you get back from getCommand().

Personally I never use windows. If you have to develop there I'd recommend to have a look at Vagrant or maybe even docker. WAMP/XAMP/... is a dead end (to me ;) ).

[mikehaertl]

Probably related to this: mikehaertl/php-shellcommand#1

[developez]

I have got the same problem. This is my error log:

pdftk A="C:[mypath]\my-pdf-with-a-form.pdf" generate_fdf output "data.fdf"

The point is that I copy that line to execute it in the windows command line, it works and generates the "data.fdf".

Edit: There is not spaces in my path.
Edit 2: My code

$temp_file_uri = "C:\my-template.pdf"; // Or another path with no spaces
$pdf = new mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf($temp_file_uri)
$pdf->generateFdfFile('data.fdf');

[mikehaertl]

@developez Can you maybe help to debug this issue? As said before: I don't do any PHP development on Windows, so I can't help you on this.

What I would try:

1. Create a very simple PHP test script (without any of my libraries)
2. There you build a simple pdftk command string manually
3. Execute that command with the same core code of this library that you find here and here

So simplify as much as possible until you find the point where it works / does not work anymore. Then report back...

[developez]

Ok, but one question first.

I have to do this to use your code:

require_once 'php-tmpfile/File.php';
require_once 'php-shellcommand/Command.php';    
require_once 'php-pdftk/Command.php';    
require_once 'php-pdftk/Pdf.php';

Is that correct?

Edit:
Doing:
exec ("C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk ...") works!

[mikehaertl]

I have to do this to use your code:

No - please read about the composer autoloader: https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#autoloading

Doing "exec ("C:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk ...") works!

What about the other variant that uses proc_open()? And if exec() works, have you tried to use the useExec option?

$pdf = new Pdf($file, ['useExec' => true]);

[developez]

Ok, with useExec it works.

$pdf = new mikehaertl\pdftk\Pdf($filepath1, ['command' => '"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PDFtk    Server\\bin\\pdftk.exe"', 'useExec' => true ]);
$pdf->generateFdfFile($filepath2);

That generates the fdf file.

About the composer, I am learning the tool, the point is that I did "php composer.phar install" and as it downloaded my many files that I don't need, I took the php files in that folder distribution.

[mikehaertl]

You should not touch the files in /vendor. Just leave that folder as it is (even if not every file is used). And then include the autoloder from composer into your main script. That's really all there is to do to use composer packages.

So let's conclude for now: useExec fixes the problem?

[developez]

At this point the fdf is generated, so you library comunicates well with the pdftk.

off topic:
Is there a method to see the forms fields of a pdf with you library? I need to fill one pdf but I don't know which are the name of the fields.

[mikehaertl]

Try pdftk some.pdf dump_data_fields.