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PHP Extension Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

What PDF Text Replacement Does Not Change: Metadata, Links, Form Fields

See more PDF Text Replacement Examples

TextReplace changes the page content only. A placeholder that also appears in the document's metadata (the Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator or Producer), in a link's target URL, or in a form field's value is left as it is and reported in "notReplaced" with "where" saying which. The invoice template's title is "Invoice for {{customer}}" and its "View this invoice online" link points at a URL that holds {{customer}}.

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PHP Extension
<?php

include("chilkat.php");

$success = false;

//  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

$pdf = new CkPdf();
$success = $pdf->LoadFile('qa_data/pdf/invoice_template.pdf');
if ($success == false) {
    print $pdf->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

$json = new CkJsonObject();
$json->UpdateString('placeholders.customer','Acme Corp');
//  (The other placeholders are left as they are for this example.)
$json->UpdateString('unusedPlaceholders','keep');

$jsonOut = new CkJsonObject();
$success = $pdf->TextReplace('apply',$json,$jsonOut);
if ($success == false) {
    print $pdf->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'In the page content, customer was replaced ' . $jsonOut->IntOf('replacements[0].count') . ' times.' . "\n";

//  Where else the placeholder occurs, untouched:
$i = 0;
$count_i = $jsonOut->SizeOfArray('notReplaced');
while ($i < $count_i) {
    $jsonOut->put_I($i);
    print 'not replaced: {{' . $jsonOut->stringOf('notReplaced[i].field') . '}} in ' . $jsonOut->stringOf('notReplaced[i].where') . "\n";
    $i = $i + 1;
}

$success = $pdf->WriteFile('qa_output/invoice_customer.pdf');
if ($success == false) {
    print $pdf->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  Sample output:

//  In the page content, customer was replaced 2 times.
//  not replaced: {{customer}} in metadata
//  not replaced: {{customer}} in linkTarget

?>