[poppler] question / possible bounty - XFA support

[Leonard Rosenthol]

For a PDF 1.x, as defined by ISO 32000-1, XFA is as much as part of the standard as JPEG and TrueType.  

XFA, even though it is a publicly documented specification from Adobe, is just that – publicly documented!   You can find all the specs on our web site.  XFA support has been implemented by at least a half-dozen PDF vendors, so if someone wants to do it for poppler – it can be done!

Using AcroRead on Unix won’t necessarily help you either, as that version of Adobe Reader is quite dated and doesn't support the current XFA specification (which is most likely what the SAP tool is generating).  You should test that option out before you go down that path, as it might not work out anyway.

Leonard
PDF Architect, Adobe Systems

On 8/26/17, 7:31 AM, "poppler on behalf of Nikola Ciprich" <poppler-bounces at lists.freedesktop.org on behalf of nikola.ciprich at linuxbox.cz> wrote:

    Hello dear poppler developer(s),
    
    I'd like to ask question many times asked, but also possibly
    offering bounty for resolution..
    
    Our customer has issue displaying one particular PDF file generated by SAP
    HR portal they use. Changing it on SAP side is not possible in reasonable
    time and due to security, as well as stability reasons, I'd really hate
    to install adobe reader just to be able to view one particular file type..
    
    problem is, that under evince (or anything poppler based, or even other PDF
    viewers), I do not see file content properly, due to lack of XFA support.
    
    example file can be obtained here:
    
    https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnik.lbox.cz%2Fdownload%2Fodmeny.pdf&data=02%7C01%7C%7C472a5b9bdd0f424951d108d4ec760106%7Cfa7b1b5a7b34438794aed2c178decee1%7C0%7C1%7C636393438985378621&sdata=rfUaLLGvQwoTXDvCnd6VOLDgCIQZyFnO%2BISiN73YU4o%3D&reserved=0
    
    I also understand that XFA is not really standard and implementing support
    is certainly not easy, due to lack of documentation.
    
    My question is, can you estimate how hard it would be to implement at least
    subset of needed functionality to be able to display such files?
    
    If it would be possible at all, and with reasonable effort, would
    you be interested in doing it for a bounty? I mean adding support
    to poppler so it's working in evince at least then..
    
    Or has anyone any other tips on how to deal with such file under
    linux desktop, other then using acroread?
    
    thanks a lot in advance
    
    with best regards
    
    nikola ciprich
    
    
    
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