content from forms missing on pdf export

[avatar1024]

Hello,

Since recently (sorry I can't tell precisely when the changed occurred but the issue wasn't there in Feb 24), I have an issue with signed document that were made from pdf with embedded forms.

Any content added to the document

Within the Docuseal interface, the document template and the final signed document both have the content of the form filled in (as per the original pdf it's based on). However when I export the pdf (or the pdf that got sent around after signing), the content of the forms are blank. This didn't use to be the case a few month ago.

For clarity, any fields filled via Docuseal (text, dates, signatures, etc) are present as normal in the final PDF, only the content of the forms in the original PDF are now missing.

Also I haven't reloaded a new PDF or anything, I'm using the same template inside Docuseal I used a few month ago.

[omohokcoj]

@avatar1024 that's probably because we flatten PDF forms now - can you please share your filled PDF to investigate the issue?

[avatar1024]

RR_model_tenancy_1.2_shared_house_annonymous.pdf

Thank you for the reply and for looking into this. Here it is attached (well I've slightly modified it to anonymise it, hopefully that won;t change the outcome)

Using Docuseal 1.4.9 btw

[omohokcoj]

@avatar1024 i just tried it myself and it work - existing fields data is present on the page in the signed PDF

RR_model_tenancy_1.2_shared_house_annonymous (1).pdf

Are you referring to the form fields being missing but not the data? All PDF form fields are now removed from the signed PDF.

[avatar1024]

Wait, actually I've just tried to save a copy with PDF arranger, which doesn't support forms. The original document I used returns blank, the modified copy I sent you returns filled in.

Here is the original one...

RR_model_tenancy_1.2_shared_house.pdf

[omohokcoj]

@avatar1024 thanks for sharing this PDF - indeed there is an issue with it, we will investigate it further

[avatar1024]

To make the anonymised version I modified the fields using my PDF reader (Okular), and it seems like all fields modified with it now show up fine (I just tried one modifying only some of the fields, and only the modified fields show up, while the others remain blank).

I'll tried re-exporting the original .odt doc to PDF with LibreOffice and see what happens and get back to you (as those documents are old maybe the PDF export done back in the day now don't comply with more modern way to handle forms which make it fails with both Docuseal and PDF Arranger - even if odd as they use to work fine just a a bit ago).

[avatar1024]

Just tried to re-export the doc the PDF via Libreoffice. The forms show up with the right content in the created PDF, but when resaved with PDF Arranger the form are blank again. Although in the blank document, if I click "Show form" with PDF reader (Okular) in order to edit then all the content show up, but disappear again when I stop. Only if I modify a field then the content (only of the modified field) remains.

So it seems like the way LibreOffice and Okular record/save form content in PDFs is then handled differently with recent version of Docuseal (and PDF Arranger).

Hopefully those additional info might help the debugging.

[navdeepghai1]

@avatar1024 I guess its a common issue, It's happening with our pdfs also.
Docuseal somehow while flattening PDF forms removing all the fields from the signed document even tho PDF is set to readonly.

I guess flattening PDF Form shouldn't be applied on readonly fillable pdfs.

[omohokcoj]

@navdeepghai1 can you please share your PDF to investigate the issue ?

[navdeepghai1]

@omohokcoj
Original PDF:
original-pdf.pdf

Screenshot before signing the PDF:

PDF I received from Docuseal after signing the document:
BOR-93d15e8b1e.pdf

NOTE:
We're using pypdf's PDFWriter class to prefill the values from the backend then marking it as readonly and sending it to the docuseal to generate the signature.

[omohokcoj]

@navdeepghai1 the original original-pdf.pdf you shared doesn't contain values in the PDF form fields - can you please share a PDF with filled PDF fields which are removed after the document is signed via docuseal?

[omohokcoj]

@navdeepghai1 @avatar1024 in the new version we added a toggle to the /settings/esign to disable PDF from removed from the completed documents - so turning it off should preserve the fields with values in the PDF

[omohokcoj]

@navdeepghai1 @avatar1024 the bug has been fixed in the latest 1.5.8 version