Excel values to PDF form fields - forms

Question

objJSO.GetField(strField).Value = (strFieldVal) - That is the line I'm recieving a 'type mismatch' error on.
I've found the code base from "My Engineering World". It is an old post.
I'm selecting a static PDF form and trying to write values from an excel doc to the PDF form which contains the same field names. The excel doc has the field names in column c20-149 with the values for those fields in d20-149. I'm trying to write the values for those fields into the selected PDF form.
Option Explicit
Sub btnToPDF_Click()
Dim objAcroApp As Object
Dim objAcroAVDoc As Object
Dim objAcroPDDoc As Object
Dim objJSO As Object
Dim fd As Office.FileDialog
Dim strFile As String
Dim strField As String
Dim strFieldVal As String 'Used to hold the field value
Dim r As Long 'Used to increase row number for strfield name
'Disable screen flickering.
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Choose the Onsite Survey form you want to fill
Set fd = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
With fd
.AllowMultiSelect = False
.Title = "Please select the On-site survey PDF."
.Filters.Clear
.Filters.Add "PDF", "*.PDF"
'.Filters.Add "All Files", "*.*"
'If the .Show method returns False, the user clicked Cancel.
If .Show = True Then
strFile = .SelectedItems(1)
MsgBox (strFile)
End If
End With
'Initialize Acrobat by creating the App object.
Set objAcroApp = CreateObject("AcroExch.App")
'Check if the object was created.
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Could not create the App object!", vbCritical, "Object error"
'Release the object and exit.
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
'Create the AVDoc object.
Set objAcroAVDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")
'Check if the object was created.
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Could not create the AVDoc object!", vbCritical, "Object error"
'Release the objects and exit.
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
On Error GoTo 0
'Open the PDF file.
If objAcroAVDoc.Open(strFile, "") = True Then
'Set the PDDoc object.
Set objAcroPDDoc = objAcroAVDoc.GetPDDoc
'Set the JS Object - Java Script Object.
Set objJSO = objAcroPDDoc.GetJSObject
On Error GoTo 0
'Fill the form fields.
For r = 20 To 149
strField = Cells(r, 3)
strFieldVal = Cells(r, 4)
objJSO.GetField(strField).Value = CStr(strFieldVal)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
'Close the form without saving the changes.
objAcroAVDoc.Close True
'Close the Acrobat application.
objAcroApp.Exit
'Inform the user about the error.
MsgBox "The field """ & strField & """ could not be found!", vbCritical, "Field error"
'Release the objects and exit.
Set objJSO = Nothing
Set objAcroPDDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
Next r
'Save the form
objAcroPDDoc.Save 1, strFile
'Close the form without saving the changes.
'objAcroAVDoc.Close True
'Close the Acrobat application.
objAcroApp.Exit
'Release the objects.
Set objJSO = Nothing
Set objAcroPDDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
'Enable the screen.
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
'Inform the user that forms were filled.
MsgBox "All forms were created successfully!", vbInformation, "Finished"
End If
MsgBox "Something bad happend :(...."
End Sub

Answer 1

OK... found my problem but I'm not sure how to trap the problem. I may not need to as I'm hoping I won't run into this problem. Hoping isn't the best strategy though... :)
My PDF form has fields of type numeric. All my test data in my value cells were alpha-numeric. Once I changed my quantity and cost cells to numeric values in my excel doc the form was written correctly.
Perhaps I can test for the PDF form field type. If it is numeric I'll log the field name and present a msgbox at the end of the operation that displays fields that could not be filled.
I did need to correct my objJSO line to '=strFieldVal'

Answer 2

I'm fairly certain you want...
strField = Cells(r, 3).Value
strFieldVal = Cells(r, 4).Value
objJSO.GetField(strField).Value = strFieldVal
...instead of the three corresponding lines you have.

Answer 3

Below is my final code. It includes basic error handling (more like logging). One problem I did have in this; If I was writing an alpha numeric string to the PDF field and the PDF field was numeric AND there wasn't a default value in the PDF field the PDF would throw and error that my code couldn't catch. As long as there was a default value in the PDF numeric field the error handler worked as planned. Feel free to make any comments. I'm guessing this looks like kindergarten work (maybe 1st grade??)
`Option Explicit
Sub btnToPDF_Click()
Dim objAcroApp As Object
Dim objAcroAVDoc As Object
Dim objAcroPDDoc As Object
Dim objJSO As Object
Dim fd As Office.FileDialog
Dim myWB As Workbook
Set myWB = ThisWorkbook
Dim ToPDFsh As Worksheet
Set ToPDFsh = myWB.Sheets("OSSDataDump")
Dim strFile As String
Dim strField As String
Dim strFieldVal As String 'Used to hold the field value
Dim msgFail As String
Dim colVal As Variant
Dim r As Integer 'Used to increase row number for strfield name
Dim e As Integer 'Used to track the number of errors
Dim colFail As Collection
Set colFail = New Collection
e = 0
'Disable screen flickering.
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Choose the Onsite Survey form you want to fill
Set fd = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
With fd
.AllowMultiSelect = False
.Title = "Please select the On-site survey PDF."
.Filters.Clear
.Filters.Add "PDF", "*.PDF"
'If the .Show method returns False, the user clicked Cancel.
If .Show = True Then
strFile = .SelectedItems(1)
End If
End With
'Initialize Acrobat by creating the App object.
Set objAcroApp = CreateObject("AcroExch.App")
'Check if the object was created.
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Could not create the App object!", vbCritical, "Object error"
'Release the object and exit.
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
'Create the AVDoc object.
Set objAcroAVDoc = CreateObject("AcroExch.AVDoc")
'Check if the object was created.
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Could not create the AVDoc object!", vbCritical, "Object error"
'Release the objects and exit.
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
Exit Sub
End If
'Open the PDF file.
If objAcroAVDoc.Open(strFile, "") = True Then
'Set the PDDoc object.
Set objAcroPDDoc = objAcroAVDoc.GetPDDoc
'Set the JS Object - Java Script Object.
Set objJSO = objAcroPDDoc.GetJSObject
'Fill the form fields.
For r = 20 To 149
strField = ToPDFsh.Cells(r, 3).Value
strFieldVal = ToPDFsh.Cells(r, 4).Value
If strFieldVal = "" Then GoTo BlankVal
objJSO.GetField(strField).Value = strFieldVal
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
BlankVal:
Next r
'Save the form
objAcroPDDoc.Save 1, strFile
'Close the form without saving the changes.
'objAcroAVDoc.Close True
'Close the Acrobat application.
objAcroApp.Exit
'Release the objects.
Set objJSO = Nothing
Set objAcroPDDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
'Enable the screen.
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
'Inform the user that forms were filled.
If e <> 0 Then
For Each colVal In colFail
msgFail = msgFail & colVal & vbNewLine
Next colVal
MsgBox "Not all fields were filled" & vbNewLine & "The follwoing fields failed:" & vbNewLine & msgFail, vbExclamation, "Finished"
Exit Sub
End If
MsgBox "On site survey was filled successfully!", vbInformation, "Finished"
End If
Exit Sub
ErrHandler:
e = e + 1
If e > 7 Then
MsgBox "Something Bad happend... :(" & vbNewLine & "Form not filled", vbCritical, "Failed"
GoTo ErrHandlerExit
End If
colFail.Add strField
Resume Next
Exit Sub
ErrHandlerExit:
'Close the form without saving the changes.
objAcroAVDoc.Close True
'Close the Acrobat application.
objAcroApp.Exit
'Release the objects and exit.
Set objJSO = Nothing
Set objAcroPDDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroAVDoc = Nothing
Set objAcroApp = Nothing
'Enable the screen.
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Exit Sub
End Sub`