How to add a bookmark/outline/toc to a pdf

[klyphio]

Hi all,

Someone was asking how to add a bookmark/outline/toc to a PDF file, so I thought I'd give our what I did.

For my app, most of my reports are 2 or more individual reports (up to 8) that are returned to the user as a single PDF file. This way I can show them multiple views of the same data (financial totals with different groupings and sortings) in a single report. The problem I was having is that I needed a way to show the user how many reports were in their PDF file, and a simple way to navigate between the reports in the PDF. This is what I came up with.

First off, I wrote this a long time ago, and I believe (if I remember correctly) that I got most (if not all) of the code to do this from the iText documentation.

For me, it's a four step process.
1 - Use JFR to create the PDF file.
2 - Call my static method to add a bookmark/title/toc to the pdf report
3 - Repeate 1 & 2 till done
4 - Concatenate all the PDF files into a single PDF.

What's here is step #2 - a static method that is called after each individual report is generated and adds the bookmark. It takes the PDF file that JFR created, and a string name that you want to use as the bookmark. It then creates a new PDF file with the contents of the old PDF file but it has a bookmark/TOC/outline entry (using the passed name) pointing to the first page of the PDF.

There will be one spot where you need to make a code adjustment - the first line under the "try" statement where it creates a new File object. I've got a couple of my own static method calls that give the new PDF file a random name in a temporary (in the context of my app) directory. Once you fix that that, it should work fine.

This method also returns a pointer to the new (bookmarked) PDF, but it does nothing to the old (unbookmarked) PDF. I've got a thread process that deletes any old files in my app's temp directory, so I don't need to worry about deleting the original PDF file. Just so you know.

The final step that I do is I take the 2+ PDF's that are returned (now with bookmarks!) and concatenate them into one big PDF. The concatenation process maintains the bookmark order, and correctly points each bookmark to the right page. I then return the uber-PDF back the user and it's all good.

If you need/want the contcatenation code, let me know.

Good luck -
Jeff

// probably too many imports for just the bookmark part of the code
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfCopy;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfImportedPage;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.SimpleBookmark;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfDestination;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfOutline;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfAction;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;

	/** add a outline to the pdf, and mark the first page w/a bookmark link */
	static public File createTitleBookmark(File p_pdf, String p_title) {
		try {
			// create output file
			File m_newfile = new File(Finder.getTempPath(), Crypto.hash(Crypto.getRandomString(20)));
			String m_resultfile = m_newfile.getCanonicalPath();

			Document document = null;
			PdfCopy  writer = null;
			int pageOffset = 0;

			// we create a reader for a certain document
			PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(p_pdf.getCanonicalPath());
			reader.consolidateNamedDestinations();

			int n = reader.getNumberOfPages();

			// step 1: creation of a document-object
			document = new Document(reader.getPageSizeWithRotation(1));
			// step 2: we create a writer that listens to the document
			writer = new PdfCopy(document, new FileOutputStream(m_resultfile));
			writer.setViewerPreferences(writer.PageModeUseOutlines);
			// step 3: we open the document
			document.open();

			// step 4: we add content.  loop for each page
			PdfImportedPage page;
			for &#40;int i = 0; i < n; &#41; &#123;
				++i;
				page = writer.getImportedPage&#40;reader, i&#41;;
				writer.addPage&#40;page&#41;;
				System.out.println&#40;"Processed page " + i&#41;;
			&#125;
			
			// add the bookmark action
			PdfDestination d5 = new PdfDestination&#40;PdfDestination.FIT&#41;;
			PdfAction m_action = PdfAction.gotoLocalPage&#40;1, d5, writer&#41;;
			PdfOutline out1 = new PdfOutline&#40;writer.getDirectContent&#40;&#41;.getRootOutline&#40;&#41;, m_action, p_title&#41;;

			// step 5&#58; we close the document
			document.close&#40;&#41;;
			return new File&#40;m_resultfile&#41;;
		&#125; catch &#40;Exception e&#41; &#123;
			System.out.println&#40;e.getMessage&#40;&#41;&#41;;
		&#125;
		return null;
	&#125;

[Mimil]

Hi,

Thanks you, I am sure it will help some people.

[Anonymous]

Jeff,
Could you please post the concatenation code? Thanks!!

Hi all,

Someone was asking how to add a bookmark/outline/toc to a PDF file, so I thought I'd give our what I did.

For my app, most of my reports are 2 or more individual reports (up to 8) that are returned to the user as a single PDF file. This way I can show them multiple views of the same data (financial totals with different groupings and sortings) in a single report. The problem I was having is that I needed a way to show the user how many reports were in their PDF file, and a simple way to navigate between the reports in the PDF. This is what I came up with.

First off, I wrote this a long time ago, and I believe (if I remember correctly) that I got most (if not all) of the code to do this from the iText documentation.

For me, it's a four step process.
1 - Use JFR to create the PDF file.
2 - Call my static method to add a bookmark/title/toc to the pdf report
3 - Repeate 1 & 2 till done
4 - Concatenate all the PDF files into a single PDF.

What's here is step #2 - a static method that is called after each individual report is generated and adds the bookmark. It takes the PDF file that JFR created, and a string name that you want to use as the bookmark. It then creates a new PDF file with the contents of the old PDF file but it has a bookmark/TOC/outline entry (using the passed name) pointing to the first page of the PDF.

There will be one spot where you need to make a code adjustment - the first line under the "try" statement where it creates a new File object. I've got a couple of my own static method calls that give the new PDF file a random name in a temporary (in the context of my app) directory. Once you fix that that, it should work fine.

This method also returns a pointer to the new (bookmarked) PDF, but it does nothing to the old (unbookmarked) PDF. I've got a thread process that deletes any old files in my app's temp directory, so I don't need to worry about deleting the original PDF file. Just so you know.

The final step that I do is I take the 2+ PDF's that are returned (now with bookmarks!) and concatenate them into one big PDF. The concatenation process maintains the bookmark order, and correctly points each bookmark to the right page. I then return the uber-PDF back the user and it's all good.

If you need/want the contcatenation code, let me know.

Good luck -
Jeff

// probably too many imports for just the bookmark part of the code
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfCopy;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfImportedPage;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.SimpleBookmark;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfDestination;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfOutline;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfAction;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;

	/** add a outline to the pdf, and mark the first page w/a bookmark link */
	static public File createTitleBookmark(File p_pdf, String p_title) {
		try {
			// create output file
			File m_newfile = new File(Finder.getTempPath(), Crypto.hash(Crypto.getRandomString(20)));
			String m_resultfile = m_newfile.getCanonicalPath();

			Document document = null;
			PdfCopy  writer = null;
			int pageOffset = 0;

			// we create a reader for a certain document
			PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(p_pdf.getCanonicalPath());
			reader.consolidateNamedDestinations();

			int n = reader.getNumberOfPages();

			// step 1: creation of a document-object
			document = new Document(reader.getPageSizeWithRotation(1));
			// step 2: we create a writer that listens to the document
			writer = new PdfCopy(document, new FileOutputStream(m_resultfile));
			writer.setViewerPreferences(writer.PageModeUseOutlines);
			// step 3: we open the document
			document.open();

			// step 4: we add content.  loop for each page
			PdfImportedPage page;
			for &#40;int i = 0; i < n; &#41; &#123;
				++i;
				page = writer.getImportedPage&#40;reader, i&#41;;
				writer.addPage&#40;page&#41;;
				System.out.println&#40;"Processed page " + i&#41;;
			&#125;
			
			// add the bookmark action
			PdfDestination d5 = new PdfDestination&#40;PdfDestination.FIT&#41;;
			PdfAction m_action = PdfAction.gotoLocalPage&#40;1, d5, writer&#41;;
			PdfOutline out1 = new PdfOutline&#40;writer.getDirectContent&#40;&#41;.getRootOutline&#40;&#41;, m_action, p_title&#41;;

			// step 5&#58; we close the document
			document.close&#40;&#41;;
			return new File&#40;m_resultfile&#41;;
		&#125; catch &#40;Exception e&#41; &#123;
			System.out.println&#40;e.getMessage&#40;&#41;&#41;;
		&#125;
		return null;
	&#125;

[codek]

On the very offchance of getting a reply on this thread 4 years later, i'd quite like to see the concatenation code too!

I have a new requirement to concatenate multiple pdf's, some but not necessarily all of which are generated by jfree.

Thanks,
Dan

[Taqua]

If you are willing to do a bit of Java/JavaScript, then iText already comes with a concat tool.

String[] args = new String[] {
"/full/path/to/your/first-file.pdf"
"/full/path/to/your/second-file.pdf"
"/full/path/to/your/maybe-third.pdf"

"/full/path/to/your/target.pdf"
};

com.lowagie.tools.concat_pdf.main(args);

[codek]

yup, thats fine, thanks thats great - i had see a ref to itext concatenation elsewhere - and seems nice and clean to use the same tool the reporting engine uses.

Thanks!