Adobe Acrobat Automation With VB and Windows API

Category:

System/API

Type:

Applications

Difficulty:

Advanced

Author:

Anonymous

Version Compatibility: Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic.NET

More information:

Have you ever wanted to include Acrobat in your VB application? That is, run Acrobat within a VB form or component? Then this is for you. I wanted to share this because Acrobat automation requires some very archaic and unconventional coding, if all you know is Visual Basic. This is a one form application. I leave it to your skills to integrate the code 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