Class AbstractPdfStamperView

All Implemented Interfaces:
Aware, BeanNameAware, InitializingBean, ApplicationContextAware, ServletContextAware, View

public abstract class AbstractPdfStamperView extends AbstractUrlBasedView
Abstract superclass for PDF views that operate on an existing document with an AcroForm. Application-specific view classes will extend this class to merge the PDF form with model data.

This view implementation uses Bruno Lowagie's iText API. Known to work with the original iText 2.1.7 as well as its fork OpenPDF. We strongly recommend OpenPDF since it is actively maintained and fixes an important vulnerability for untrusted PDF content.

Thanks to Bryant Larsen for the suggestion and the original prototype!

Since:
2.5.4
Author:
Juergen Hoeller
See Also:
  • Constructor Details

    • AbstractPdfStamperView

      public AbstractPdfStamperView()
  • Method Details

    • generatesDownloadContent

      protected boolean generatesDownloadContent()
      Description copied from class: AbstractView
      Return whether this view generates download content (typically binary content like PDF or Excel files).

      The default implementation returns false. Subclasses are encouraged to return true here if they know that they are generating download content that requires temporary caching on the client side, typically via the response OutputStream.

      Overrides:
      generatesDownloadContent in class AbstractView
      See Also:
    • renderMergedOutputModel

      protected final void renderMergedOutputModel(Map<String,Object> model, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception
      Description copied from class: AbstractView
      Subclasses must implement this method to actually render the view.

      The first step will be preparing the request: In the JSP case, this would mean setting model objects as request attributes. The second step will be the actual rendering of the view, for example including the JSP via a RequestDispatcher.

      Specified by:
      renderMergedOutputModel in class AbstractView
      Parameters:
      model - combined output Map (never null), with dynamic values taking precedence over static attributes
      request - current HTTP request
      response - current HTTP response
      Throws:
      Exception - if rendering failed
    • readPdfResource

      protected com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfReader readPdfResource() throws IOException
      Read the raw PDF resource into an iText PdfReader.

      The default implementation resolve the specified "url" property as ApplicationContext resource.

      Returns:
      the PdfReader instance
      Throws:
      IOException - if resource access failed
      See Also:
    • mergePdfDocument

      protected abstract void mergePdfDocument(Map<String,Object> model, com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfStamper stamper, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception
      Subclasses must implement this method to merge the PDF form with the given model data.

      This is where you are able to set values on the AcroForm. An example of what can be done at this level is:

       // get the form from the document
       AcroFields form = stamper.getAcroFields();
      
       // set some values on the form
       form.setField("field1", "value1");
       form.setField("field2", "Vvlue2");
      
       // set the disposition and filename
       response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; FILENAME=someName.pdf");

      Note that the passed-in HTTP response is just supposed to be used for setting cookies or other HTTP headers. The built PDF document itself will automatically get written to the response after this method returns.

      Parameters:
      model - the model Map
      stamper - the PdfStamper instance that will contain the AcroFields. You may also customize this PdfStamper instance according to your needs, e.g. setting the "formFlattening" property.
      request - in case we need locale etc. Shouldn't look at attributes.
      response - in case we need to set cookies. Shouldn't write to it.
      Throws:
      Exception - any exception that occurred during document building