PdfReader.get_form_text_fields() not returning dropdown fields

[akallai]

I have a pdf form with multiple Form-Fields in it. The function "getFormTextFields()" is only returning a dictionary without the dropdown-fields. The dictionary contains the information of all other fields, but the dropdown-fields are simply missing.

Minimal Example

from PyPDF2 import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader("sample-files/012-libreoffice-form/libreoffice-form.pdf")
reader.get_form_text_fields()

gives

{"First Name": "Alice", "Last Name": "", "Birthday": "", "First Name_2": "Bob"}

The "Nationality" part is missing.

On the other hand:

>>> reader.get_fields()
{'First Name': {'/FT': '/Tx', '/T': 'First Name', '/V': 'Alice', '/DV': 'Alice'},
 'Last Name': {'/FT': '/Tx', '/T': 'Last Name', '/V': '', '/DV': ''}, 
'female': {'/FT': '/Btn', '/Kids': [IndirectObject(7, 0), IndirectObject(9, 0)], '/T': 'female', '/Ff': 49152, '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off'},
 'Birthday': {'/FT': '/Tx', '/T': 'Birthday', '/V': '', '/DV': ''}, 
'gdpr': {'/FT': '/Btn', '/T': 'gdpr', '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off'}, 
'other': {'/FT': '/Btn', '/T': 'other', '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off'}, 
'First Name_2': {'/FT': '/Tx', '/T': 'First Name_2', '/Ff': 4096, '/V': 'Bob', '/DV': 'Bob'}, 
'Nationality': {'/FT': '/Ch', '/T': 'Nationality', '/Ff': 131072, '/V': '', '/DV': ''}}

[thenineteen]

if you want to get all the values, instead of .getFormTextFields() you can use the following method after opening the pdf file with PyPDF2.PdfFileReader() :

.getFields()

• getFormTextFields() works as pdf form reader but doesn't read the drop down menus or tick boxes
• whereas getFields() gets all the data but needs cleaning up

[dr-linetco]

According to the official documentation, getFormTextFields() can indeed be used to extract the contents of a drop down.

So I guess the documentation is just wrong on this.

Sorry for being the issue-necromancer here.

[MartinThoma]

I've just added https://github.com/py-pdf/sample-files/tree/main/012-libreoffice-form to confirm the issue

[MartinThoma]

@akallai I've added a minimal example to your question. Thank you for raising the issue!

[shanimuffin]

Hi

I'm running version 3.0.1 and still have the same issue when using get_form_text_fields(), not seeing dropdown data. Was this fix released then removed? Or am I missing something?

Thanks

Shani

[MartinThoma]

You need to use get_fields:

>>> from pypdf import PdfReader
>>> reader = PdfReader("sample-files/012-libreoffice-form/libreoffice-form.pdf")
>>> reader.get_form_text_fields()
{'First Name': 'Alice', 'Last Name': '', 'Birthday': '', 'First Name_2': 'Bob'}
>>> reader.get_fields()
{'First Name': {'/T': 'First Name', '/FT': '/Tx', '/V': 'Alice', '/DV': 'Alice'}, 'Last Name': {'/T': 'Last Name', '/FT': '/Tx', '/V': '', '/DV': ''}, 'female': {'/T': 'female', '/FT': '/Btn', '/Ff': 49152, '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off', '/Kids': [IndirectObject(7, 0, 139872300641424), IndirectObject(9, 0, 139872300641424)]}, 'Birthday': {'/T': 'Birthday', '/FT': '/Tx', '/V': '', '/DV': ''}, 'gdpr': {'/T': 'gdpr', '/FT': '/Btn', '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off'}, 'other': {'/T': 'other', '/FT': '/Btn', '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off'}, 'First Name_2': {'/T': 'First Name_2', '/FT': '/Tx', '/Ff': 4096, '/V': 'Bob', '/DV': 'Bob'}, 'Nationality': {'/T': 'Nationality', '/FT': '/Ch', '/Ff': 131072, '/V': '', '/DV': '', '/Opt': ['Unknown', 'German', 'Indonesian', 'US-American', 'French', 'Spanish', 'Italian']}}

[MartinThoma]

@shanimuffin You've discoverd a documentation issue. Would you mind to expand https://pypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/forms.html which such an example / explanation?