Perl Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Replace the Second (or Every) Occurrence of a Label in a PDF

See more PDF Text Replacement Examples

Demonstrates the "occurrence" member of a label entry. By default the first occurrence of a label, in reading order across the selected pages, is replaced; "occurrence" can be a number for the nth, or "all" for every occurrence. The invoice template has "Ref:" twice. Chilkat2 Perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Chilkat2;

# This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

# The PDF used in this example is available at invoice_template.pdf

my $pdf = Chilkat2::Pdf->new;
my $success = $pdf->LoadFile('qa_data/pdf/invoice_template.pdf');
if (!$success) {
    print $pdf->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

my $json = Chilkat2::JsonObject->new;
my $jsonOut = Chilkat2::JsonObject->new;

# This template's {{placeholders}} are not being filled here: "keep" leaves them as they are
# (the default, "error", would refuse to apply while a placeholder on the page has no value).
$json->UpdateString('unusedPlaceholders', 'keep');

# "Ref:" appears twice on the page (A-1 near the top, A-2 below the totals).
# The default replaces the first occurrence only.
$json->UpdateString('labels[0].label', 'Ref:');
$json->UpdateString('labels[0].value', 'B-7');
$success = $pdf->TextReplace('check', $json, $jsonOut);
if (!$success) {
    print $pdf->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'default: ', $jsonOut->IntOf('replacements[0].count'), " occurrence replaced\n";

# The second occurrence only.
$json->UpdateString('labels[0].occurrence', '2');
$success = $pdf->TextReplace('check', $json, $jsonOut);
if (!$success) {
    print $pdf->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'occurrence 2: ', $jsonOut->IntOf('replacements[0].count'), " occurrence replaced\n";

# Every occurrence.
$json->UpdateString('labels[0].occurrence', 'all');
$success = $pdf->TextReplace('apply', $json, $jsonOut);
if (!$success) {
    print $pdf->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'occurrence all: ', $jsonOut->IntOf('replacements[0].count'), " occurrences replaced\n";

$success = $pdf->WriteFile('qa_output/invoice_refs.pdf');
if (!$success) {
    print $pdf->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

# Sample output:

# default: 1 occurrence replaced
# occurrence 2: 1 occurrence replaced
# occurrence all: 2 occurrences replaced