Bug 450098

Summary:	PDF Form Fields are not propagated to other (non editable fields) -
Product:	[Applications] okular	Reporter:	andreaswuest
Component:	PDF backend	Assignee:	Okular developers <okular-devel>
Status:	ASSIGNED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	christian.gonzalez, friedman.edo, ulterno
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Kubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	PDF Document with the form fields. second document with not working input field propagation. form with 2 same-named fields

Description andreaswuest 2022-02-12 20:49:41 UTC

Hi,

i have a PDF form for which you can edit the form fields on the first page. The page 1 reappears as page 3 (also in german) and again on page 5 (this time in french). So so basically enter the form values on page 1 and they should be propagated the the non editable ?form fields? on page 3 and page 5 - so you only have to enter them once. This is at least the way it works with Adobe Acrobat. Okular just does not do anything. No form fields are propagated.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open attached document. Enter values in the Form for fields e.g. with label "Name und Vorname oder Firma" or "Beruf / Rechtsform" 

OBSERVED RESULT

On page 3 and 5 we have the same labels (input fields - not editable) -  here the entered values from the first page are supposed to show up (works with Adobe Acrobat), but they do not. 

EXPECTED RESULT

Entered values from the first page (from the various input fields) - there is also a date field -  should be propagated to the corresponding fields on page 3 and 5. 

I am using okular 1.9.3 (as provided with Kubuntu 20.4) - but i also tested this with the latest Okular version from the windows store - it did not work there as well.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 20.4
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: Kubuntu 20.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68
Qt Version: 5.12.8

If you need more information - please tell me.

Comment 1 andreaswuest 2022-02-12 20:50:26 UTC

Created attachment 146638 [details]
PDF Document with the form fields.

Comment 2 andreaswuest 2022-02-17 21:31:36 UTC

I have also with the Okular Windows Version 21.12.2 - it did not work
there as well. I do not have an up to date Linux version - but i assume,
it does not work there as well.

Version 21.12.2
Using Poppler 22.02.0
KDE Frameworks Version 5.90.0
Qt Version 5.15.2 (built against 5.15.2)

Comment 3 andreaswuest 2022-02-26 20:50:18 UTC

Hi, 

i just encountered a new document which also does propagate the input field values to different form fields. On the very first page you can enter Nachname, Rufname and Geburtsdatum. When values are entered here, the values should be propagated to the page 4 and 5, which contain the same input fields (however this time the input fields are editable).

Comment 4 andreaswuest 2022-02-26 20:50:43 UTC

Created attachment 147154 [details]
second document with not working input field propagation.

Comment 5 andreaswuest 2023-10-05 19:02:49 UTC

Still broken with Okular 23.08.1 with Poppler 23.09.0 on Linux 

For the sake of completeness here my sponsored work bounty:
https://discuss.kde.org/t/bug-fix-okular-form-field-propagation-to-other-fields/5792

Comment 6 Edo Friedman 2023-10-13 18:36:03 UTC

Looks like it's a poppler (a library used by Okular) bug from 2018 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/poppler/poppler/-/issues/234

Comment 7 Christian González 2025-06-12 12:18:57 UTC

even simple forms should be editable. I created a simple form that has two editable fields with the same name. Both values should be synchronized - which they are when using Firefox and the included pdf viewer.
Okular just ignores the sync.

Comment 8 Christian González 2025-06-12 12:20:38 UTC

Created attachment 182225 [details]
form with 2 same-named fields

they should auto-sync

Comment 9 andreaswuest 2025-06-12 19:36:15 UTC

See also my Sponsored Work offer here - the offer is still valid, if somebody is interested....
https://discuss.kde.org/t/bug-fix-okular-form-field-propagation-to-other-fields/5792

Comment 10 Bug Janitor Service 2025-08-07 18:37:47 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/graphics/okular/-/merge_requests/1220

Comment 11 ulterno 2025-08-10 18:48:42 UTC

(In reply to Bug Janitor Service from comment #10)
> A possibly relevant merge request was started @
> https://invent.kde.org/graphics/okular/-/merge_requests/1220

This will only constitute as a partial fix, as the first example document given, doesn't seem to use propagation by name, as this MR implements.

Complete functionality will require further work.