Add an image to an PDF with form fields - php

Question

I'm trying with PHP to fill form fields on an existing PDF and add an image to it.
I found the FPDM library to fill the form fields:
$formInputArray = ['field1' => 'test value', 'field2' => 'second value'];
$pdf = new FPDM('orginal-file.pdf');
$pdf->getEntries($templatePDF, 'PDF');
$pdf->Load($formInputArray);
$pdf->Merge();
$pdf->Output('F', 'form-filled-file.pdf');
That works so far.
In the next step i try to add an image with the Fpdi class to the edited document:
$pdf = new Fpdi();
$pdf->setSourceFile('form-filled-file.pdf');
$pageId = $pdf->importPage(1, \setasign\Fpdi\PdfReader\PageBoundaries::MEDIA_BOX);
$pdf->addPage();
$pdf->useTemplate($pageId);
$pdf->Image('test-image.jpg', 150*0.39, 150*0.39, 100*0.39);
$pdf->Output('F', 'finished-file.pdf');
The problem is, that Fpdi is converting the template pdf structure into an new pdf structure. So all given form fields are gone.
So the question is:
How can i add an image to an existing PDF with form fields?
I also looked at the iText / PDFtk (Serverside) and the mPDF PHP library, but they are not the right one because of the GPL license.
Is there an other way or an other library to fill form fields and add an image to an PDF in PHP?

Answer 1

We (Setasign - also author of FPDI) offer a commercial solution for both tasks: Filling PDF forms and fill fields with images in pure PHP.
If you'd used FPDM you was only able to fill in text fields. A replacement would be the SetaPDF-FormFiller Lite Component. The Full version would allow you to fill in also other field types such as checkboxes or radiobutton groups.
A simple example of filling a single text field and an additional field with an image would be:
<?php
require_once('library/SetaPDF/Autoload.php');
// or if you use composer require_once('vendor/autoload.php');
// create a file writer
$writer = new SetaPDF_Core_Writer_File('image-in-form-field.pdf');
// get the main document instance
$document = SetaPDF_Core_Document::loadByFilename($filename, $writer);
// now get an instance of the form filler
$formFiller = new SetaPDF_FormFiller($document);
// Get the form fields of the document
$fields = $formFiller->getFields();
// Let's fill a field
$fields['Text Field']->setValue("Some example text.");
// Now prepare an appearance for the Logo field
// First of all let's get the annotation of the form field
$annotation = $fields['Logo']->getAnnotation();
// Remember the width and height for further calculations
$width = $annotation->getWidth();
$height = $annotation->getHeight();
// Create a form xobject to which we are going to write the image.
// This form xobject will be the resulting appearance of our form field.
$xobject = SetaPDF_Core_XObject_Form::create($document, array(0, 0, $width, $height));
// Get the canvas for this xobject
$canvas = $xobject->getCanvas();
// Let's create an image xobject
$image = SetaPDF_Core_Image::getByPath('Logo.png')->toXObject($document);
// scale image into available space and align in the center
if ($image->getHeight($width) >= $height) {
$image->draw($canvas, $width / 2 - $image->getWidth($height) / 2, 0, null, $height);
} else {
$image->draw($canvas, 0, $height / 2 - $image->getHeight($width) / 2, $width);
}
// Now add the appearance to the annotation
$annotation->setAppearance($xobject);
// Flatten all appearances to the pages content stream
$fields->flatten();
// finish the document
$document->save()->finish();
This script is a short version of this demo.