Support 'flat' form field names in PDF loading

[Brian Lewis]

Normally field names in hierarchical format e.g. Survey.SchoolName, Enrol.Data.R01.C02.M imply a “real” hiarchy in the PDF expressed as ‘parents’ and ‘kids’ ( in PDF parlance).

hyperref for LatEx does not observe this condition and creates “flat” fields with no parents and the name with embedded dots.

This creates a faulty Xfdf on export; the survey uploader ( and a model for any potential pdf processing) works by treating the hierarchical data under each direct child of the fields node as a coherent data set that can be updated with one stored procedure (see Process in PdfSurvey.cs)

We can support such faulty field collections by reformatting them to reclaim the parent/child relations based on the positions of dots.

This is a precondition to moving to generation of Pdf Surveys (and other tools) using LatEx

[Brian Lewis]

Here’s a mockup of a messay fiel that includes some real hierarchy and some implicit hierarchy:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xfdf xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/">
    <f href="d:\files\f2.pdf"/>
    <ids original="6A67AC7A35A2D8836DCBA62F266B85D0" modified="6A67AC7A35A2D8836DCBA62F266B85D0"/>
    <fields>
        <field name="me.name">
            <value>Foo</value>
        </field>
        <field name="me.father">
            <value>Father</value>
        </field>
        <field name="h.First"/>

        <field name="boggly">
            <value>BogglyValue</value>
        </field>
        <field name="TopNotch"></field>
        <field name="TopNotchEmptyValue">
            <value></value>
        </field>
        <field name="me.mother.given.middle">
            <value>Nais</value>
        </field>
        <field name="me.mother.given">
            <field name="Initial">
            <value>N</value>
            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol.Data.R08.C05.M">
            <value>15</value>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol.Data.R08.C05.F">
            <value>14</value>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol.Data.R07.C05.M">
            <value>15</value>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol.Data.R07.C06.F">
            <value>14</value>
        </field>

        <field name="Survey.SchoolName">
            <value>Oodnahdatta High School</value>
        </field>
        <field name="Survey.SchoolNo">
            <value>OOD119</value>
        </field>
        <field name="Survey">
            <field name="SurveyYear">
                <value>2024</value>
            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="disab">
            <field name="M">
                <value>17</value>
            </field>
            <field name="F">
                <value>20</value>
            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="disab.type.MIMS">
            <field name="Male">
                <value>17</value>
            </field>
            <field name="Female">
                <value>20</value>
            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol.Data">
            <field name="R03.C02.M">
                <value>15</value>
            </field>
        </field>.>
        <field name="Enrol.Data.R01.C01">
            <field name="F">
                <value>125</value>
            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="Enrol">
            <field name="Data.R02.C06">
                <field name="F">
                    <value>14</value>
                </field>

            </field>
        </field>
        <field name="h.Last"/>  
    </fields>
</xfdf>

‌

Desired result after loading is to have all the dots in field names replaced with nested fields:

<xfdf xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/">
  <fields>
    <field name="me">
      <field name="name">
        <value>Foo</value>
      </field>
      <field name="father">
        <value>Father</value>
      </field>
      <field name="mother">
        <field name="given">
          <field name="middle">
            <value>Nais</value>
          </field>
          <field name="Initial">
            <value>N</value>
          </field>
        </field>
      </field>
    </field>
    <field name="h">
      <field name="First" />
      <field name="Last" />
    </field>
    <field name="boggly">
      <value>BogglyValue</value>
    </field>
    <field name="TopNotch" />
    <field name="TopNotchEmptyValue" />
    <field name="Enrol">
      <field name="Data">
        <field name="R08">
          <field name="C05">
            <field name="M">
              <value>15</value>
            </field>
            <field name="F">
              <value>14</value>
            </field>
          </field>
        </field>
        <field name="R07">
          <field name="C05">
            <field name="M">
              <value>15</value>
            </field>
          </field>
          <field name="C06">
            <field name="F">
              <value>14</value>
            </field>
          </field>
        </field>
        <field name="R03">
          <field name="C02">
            <field name="M">
              <value>15</value>
            </field>
          </field>
        </field>
        <field name="R01">
          <field name="C01">
            <field name="F">
              <value>125</value>
            </field>
          </field>
        </field>
        <field name="R02">
          <field name="C06">
            <field name="F">
              <value>14</value>
            </field>
          </field>
        </field>
      </field>
    </field>
    <field name="Survey">
      <field name="SchoolName">
        <value>Oodnahdatta High School</value>
      </field>
      <field name="SchoolNo">
        <value>OOD119</value>
      </field>
      <field name="SurveyYear">
        <value>2024</value>
      </field>
    </field>
    <field name="disab">
      <field name="M">
        <value>17</value>
      </field>
      <field name="F">
        <value>20</value>
      </field>
      <field name="type">
        <field name="MIMS">
          <field name="Male">
            <value>17</value>
          </field>
          <field name="Female">
            <value>20</value>
          </field>
        </field>
      </field>
    </field>
  </fields>
</xfdf>

‌

[Brian Lewis]

In practice we won't have input as badly structured as above: either the editing tool will support hierarchy or it won’t. LatEx / hyperref does not; so all form fields will be represented by bottom level fields whose names are the full path.

[Brian Lewis]

task(pdf survey): Enhance loading of Pdf and Xfdf files to suppport 'flat' (ie dot-delimited) field names

Resolves #1391

→ <<cset d7ae89c2b011>>

[Brian Lewis]

feat(pdfsurvey): demonstration of simple working generate/prepopulate of form. Support for form name hierarchy based on ! delimiters, in both generate and upload

Resolves #1391, #1396

→ <<cset 1f0e8c1da142>>

[Brian Lewis]

task(pdfSurvey): add current javascript.js to assets

Resolves #1397 #1391

→ <<cset 9a5a63f0fa31>>