Fill PDF template acrofield with HTML formatted text using iTextSharp

Question

I am using iTextSharp to fill in a PDF template. The data I am using is kept in a database and is formatted HTML. My problem is that when I load the AcroField with this text I get it to do the line breaks, but no bold nor italics.

I have already attempted to use an HtmlWorker, but all the examples online show it being used to convert HTML to a PDF, but I am trying to set an AcroField in a PDF template.

Answer 1

After spending days looking through forums and iTextsharp source code I found a solution. Instead of fill the Acrofield with the HTML formatted text, I used a ColumnText. I parse the html text and load the IElements into a Paragraph. Then add the paragraph to the ColumnText. Then I overlaid the ColumnText on top of where the Acrofield should be, using the coordinates of the field.

    public void AddHTMLToContent(String htmlText,PdfContentByte contentBtye,IList<AcroFields.FieldPosition> pos) 
    {
        Paragraph par = new Paragraph();
        ColumnText c1 = new ColumnText(contentBtye);
        try
        {
            List<IElement> elements = HTMLWorker.ParseToList(new StringReader(htmlText),null);
            foreach (IElement element in elements) 
            {
               par.Add(element);
            }
            
            c1.AddElement(par);
            c1.SetSimpleColumn(pos[0].position.Left, pos[0].position.Bottom, pos[0].position.Right, pos[0].position.Top);
            c1.Go(); //very important!!!
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            
            throw;
        }
    }

Here is an example of a call to this function.

string htmlText ="<b>Hello</b><br /><i>World</i>";
IList<AcroFields.FieldPosition> pos = form.GetFieldPositions("Field1");
//Field1 is the name of the field in the PDF Template you are trying to fill/overlay
AddHTMLToContent(htmlText, stamp.GetOverContent(pos[0].page), pos);
//stamp is the PdfStamper in this example

One thing I did run into while doing this is the fact that my Acrofield did have a predefined font size. Since this functions set the ColumnText on top on the field, any font changes will have to be done in the function. Here is an example of changing the font size:

 public void AddHTMLToContent(String htmlText,PdfContentByte contentBtye,IList<AcroFields.FieldPosition> pos) 
    {
        Paragraph par = new Paragraph();
        ColumnText c1 = new ColumnText(contentBtye);
        try
        {
            List<IElement> elements = HTMLWorker.ParseToList(new StringReader(htmlText),null);
            foreach (IElement element in elements) 
            {
                foreach (Chunk chunk in element.Chunks) 
                {
                    chunk.Font.Size = 14;
                }
            }
            par.Add(elements[0]);
            c1.AddElement(par);
            c1.SetSimpleColumn(pos[0].position.Left, pos[0].position.Bottom, pos[0].position.Right, pos[0].position.Top);
            c1.Go();//very important!!!
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            
            throw;
        }
    }