Reason for Error "No form is open in Acrobat Viewer"

[Atin Wadehra]

Am trying to use the AcroForms plug-in using IAC in VC++ to populate fields by opening PDFs in memory. The method PDDoc->OpenAVDoc is bringing the Acrobat window in front. If I comment this method, am getting the error "No form is Open in Acrobat Viewer". Below is my code

// Create the Acro App object
pAcroApp = new CAcroApp;
pAcroApp->CreateDispatch("AcroExch.App", &OleExc)

// Create the PDDoc object
pAcroPDDoc = new CAcroPDDoc;
pAcroPDDoc->CreateDispatch("AcroExch.PDDoc", &OleExc)

// Open the PDF File
pAcroPDDoc->Open(cstrPdfFile)

// Create the AVDoc object
pAcroAVDoc = new CAcroAVDoc;
pAcroAVDoc->AttachDispatch(pAcroPDDoc->OpenAVDoc(cstrPdfFile), true);

// Create the Forms Automation object
pFormApp = new IAFormApp;
pFormApp->CreateDispatch("AFormAut.App", &OleExc)

// Get the collection of fields pFields = new IFields(pFormApp->GetFields());

The above line is producing the error mentioned above on commenting the OpenAVDoc method. Can someone provide help??

[Atin Wadehra]

The error also comes if I make a call to AcroApp.Hide method before calling the OpenAVDoc method.

[NiceNix@adobeforums.com]

You are getting this error message because your pFormApp object can't find a form to get the fields from. You have to open the form in the Viewer (via OpenAVDoc) first. The same is true for AcroApp.Hide. If you don't have a doc open, it has nothing to hide.

[Atin Wadehra]

Nix,

Am making the call to OpenAVDoc before creating the pFormApp object.

Also, am unable to find out any documentation specifying the reason for this error and when it'll occur. There is only a single line mentioned about this error in the IACReference.pdf

[Ivan_Pechorin@adobeforums.com]

I faced the same issue, and didn't find a way to get the collection of fields without showing Acrobat window.

So, currently I call CAcroApp::Show then CAcroApp::Minimize before trying to get fields.

By the way, which versions of Acrobat and Acrobat SDK do you use? Based on Acrobat 9 type library imported into VS2005 via class wizard:
1) IAFormApp is abstract class, so you can't instantiate it via "new IAFormApp", I use CAFormApp class instead;
2) I use method CAFormApp::get_Fields to get the collection of fields.

[Atin Wadehra]

Ivan,

Am currently using Acrobat 7 and 7 SDK and have a workaround to call CAcroApp::Minimize just after OpenAVDoc for not showing the viewer.

However this is not working in Acrobat 9. So, am waiting for a workaround in 9.0 before migrating.