I am working on a process where I need to extract some data from some pdfs. The issue is that the pdfs were created with Adobe Livecycle Forms 8.2 so they have interactive elements such as checkbox, textbox, etc.
Apparently Power Automate Desktop (PAD) has some kind of issue detecting those elements, because when I try to map them I can't. The only element that I can map is a "pane" which is like the top container of all the elements. This is the selector structure of that "pane"
> group[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"] > group[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"][Name="Panel de documentos"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"] > pane[Class="AVL_AVView"][Name="AVPageView"]
However I tried using another RPA tool (UiPath) and I was able to map all the elements correctly, but I have not been able to replicate those selectors in Power Automate Desktop. This is an example of the selector for a checkbox that I was able to map with UiPath:
<wnd app='acrobat.exe' cls='AcrobatSDIWindow' title='* - Adobe Acrobat Reader (64-bit)' /> <wnd aaname='Panel de documentos' cls='AVL_AVView' title='AVScrolledPageView' /> <wnd cls='AVL_AVView' title='AVPageView' /> <ctrl name='req_per_2_rdogrp' role='check box' />
So, my question is if is there a way to make Power Automate Desktop work with these type of documents? or Can I in some way use UiPath to get the selectors and replicate that in Power Automate (The structure of the selectors are not the same, so I would not know how to do it properly)?
Thanks.
I have tried opening the files in web browsers but it shows either this message:
*Please wait... If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download. For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.*
Or this:
*To view the full contents of this document, you need a later version of the PDF viewer. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html For further support, go to www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.htm*
So I also tried getting extensios or plugins for Adobe Acrobat for the browsers and it did not work (I tried with Chrome, Edge and Mozilla).
Then, I tried converting the pdfs to Word, Excel or Power Point, but the structure was not the same after the conversion and I was not able to detect each element (checkbox, textbox, etc.) properly as well.
I tried reading the pdfs with powershell using itextsharp.dll but I got the same message as in the browsers (But I did not look very much into this option).
As I mentioned it is working fine with UiPath, I am able to get the selectors and use them, but I don't know how can I replicate them in Power Automate (I need to use PAD for this).
I am also open to using scripts to get the data if that is possible.
