Is iText7 available in VB.Net or only C#

Question

I want to extract text fields content from pdf files which have text fields that I need to bring into my Winforms project. Searching I found reference to iTextSharp but then saw that it is replaced with iText7 but everything I read refers only to it being used in C#. My winforms project is vb. Any pointers as to what would be my best option to achieve getting that data into my project is much appreciated

Answer 1

To extract text from a PDF file using itext7, try the following:

Pre-requisite: Download/install NuGet package itext7

Add the following Imports statements:

Imports iText.Kernel.Pdf
Imports iText.Kernel.Pdf.Canvas.Parser.Listener
Imports iText.Kernel.Pdf.Canvas.Parser.PdfTextExtractor

GetTextFromPdf:

Public Function GetTextFromPdf(filename As String) As String
    Dim sb As System.Text.StringBuilder = New System.Text.StringBuilder()

    Using doc As PdfDocument = New PdfDocument(New PdfReader(filename))
        'Dim strategy As LocationTextExtractionStrategy = New LocationTextExtractionStrategy()

        For i As Integer = 1 To doc.GetNumberOfPages() Step 1
            Dim page = doc.GetPage(i)
            'Dim text = iText.Kernel.Pdf.Canvas.Parser.PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(page, strategy)
            Dim text = GetTextFromPage(page)
            sb.AppendLine(text)
        Next
    End Using

    Return sb.ToString()
End Function

The code for GetTextFromPdf is adapted from here.

Update:

The code below shows how to read the field names and field values from an AcroForm in a Pdf document:

Add the following Imports statements:

Imports iText.Forms
Imports iText.Kernel.Pdf

GetTextFromPdfFields

Public Function GetTextFromPdfFields(filename As String) As String
    Dim sb As System.Text.StringBuilder = New System.Text.StringBuilder()

    'create new instance
    Using doc As PdfDocument = New PdfDocument(New PdfReader(filename))

        'get AcroForm from document
        Dim form As PdfAcroForm = PdfAcroForm.GetAcroForm(doc, True)

        'get form fields
        Dim fieldDict As IDictionary(Of String, Fields.PdfFormField) = form.GetFormFields()

        'loop through form fields
        For Each kvp As KeyValuePair(Of String, Fields.PdfFormField) In fieldDict
            Dim type As PdfName = form.GetField(kvp.Key).GetFormType()
            Dim fieldName As PdfString = form.GetField(kvp.Key).GetFieldName()
            Dim fieldValue As String = form.GetField(kvp.Key).GetValueAsString()

            If fieldName IsNot Nothing Then
                'append data to instance of StringBuilder
                sb.AppendLine("Type: " & type.ToString() & " FieldName: " & fieldName.ToString() & " Value: " & fieldValue)
            End If
        Next
    End Using

    Return sb.ToString()
End Function

**Note: The code for GetTextFromPdfFields is adapted from here.