Extract FDF data from a PDF on iOS

To extract data from PDF to FDF, then export FDF as XFDF

Obj-C

PTPDFDoc *doc = [[PTPDFDoc alloc] initWithFilepath: filename];

// Extract annotations to FDF.
// Optionally use e_ptboth to extract both forms and annotations
PTFDFDoc *doc_fields = [doc FDFExtract: e_ptannots_only]; //e_ptforms_only

// Export annotations from FDF to XFDF.
[doc_fields SaveAsXFDF: output_xfdf_filename];

// Optionally write XFDF to a string
NSString *XFDF_string = [doc_fields SaveAsXFDFToString];

Swift

let doc: PTPDFDoc = PTPDFDoc(filepath: filename)

// Extract annotations to FDF.
// Optionally use e_ptboth to extract both forms and annotations
let doc_fields: PTFDFDoc = doc.fdfExtract(e_ptannots_only) //e_ptforms_only

// Export annotations from FDF to XFDF.
doc_fields.save(asXFDF: output_xfdf_filename)

// Optionally write XFDF to a string
let XFDF_string: String = doc_fields.saveAsXFDFToString()

Disable annotation auto-save

Document changes by default will automatically save to the PDF. Set PTDocumentController's automaticallySavesDocument to false to disable auto-save.

PDF Form Fill and Form Data Extraction Full sample code which illustrates basic FDF merge/extract functionality and full support for FDF (Forms Data Format)