com.snowtide.pdf.annot

Interface Annotation

All Superinterfaces:

Bounded, DocumentLocation

All Known Implementing Classes:

FileAttachmentAnnotation, FreeTextAnnotation, LinkAnnotation, TextAnnotation

public interface Annotation
extends DocumentLocation

All PDF annotations define a range of base attributes, which are accessible using the functions this interface specifies. It should be noted that none of the attributes that are potentially available through the functions defined in this interface are required to be present for any particular annotation type.

Different types of annotations also carry specialized attributes; PDFxStream currently supports richer access to these annotation types:

• Text - simple notes attached to parts of a PDF document, implemented by TextAnnotation
• FreeText - richly-styled notes that can become seamless parts of a PDF document's content, implemented by FreeTextAnnotation
• Link - hyperlink annotations that, when activated, indicate that the user's view should jump to another location in the PDF document, or that the user should be directed to an external URI. Implemented by LinkAnnotation.
• Attachment - contains a reference to a file, the contents of which are usually embedded within the PDF document. Implemented by FileAttachmentAnnotation

Annotation types not listed above (which are primarily graphical in nature) are represented by PDFxStream using a basic Annotation implementation that allows access to those annotations' textual attributes.

Since:

v1.3.5

Version:

©2004-2014 Snowtide

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Page	getAppearance() Returns a Page containing this annotation's rendered "appearance stream", if it explicitly defines one, null otherwise.
String	getContents() Returns the text content of this annotation.
String	getModificationDate() Returns the date, in PDF date format, when this annotation was last modified.
String	getName() Returns the optional name for this annotation, which should uniquely identify it within a page.
String	getTypeCd() Returns a String indicating what type of annotation this this.

Methods inherited from interface com.snowtide.pdf.DocumentLocation

pageNumber

Methods inherited from interface com.snowtide.pdf.layout.Bounded

bounds

Method Detail

getContents

String getContents()

Returns the text content of this annotation. Some annotation types do not encode any text content; in such cases, those annotation type implementations will either return null from this function, or return an alternative descriptive text string that may be used to indicate the value or nature of this annotation.

getName

String getName()

Returns the optional name for this annotation, which should uniquely identify it within a page.

getModificationDate

String getModificationDate()

Returns the date, in PDF date format, when this annotation was last modified. This date string may be parsed using the PDFDateParser class. This function may return null if no modification date is present in the annotation data.

getTypeCd

String getTypeCd()

Returns a String indicating what type of annotation this this. These types are defined in Section 8.4.5 of the PDF Format Reference, and are returned with a leading forward slash.

getAppearance

Page getAppearance()

Returns a Page containing this annotation's rendered "appearance stream", if it explicitly defines one, null otherwise. (If an annotation does not define its own appearance explicitly, it is assumed that a PDF reader / consumer will provide a default rendering based on the annotation's type and associated data.) The contents of the page can be accessed and manipulated just like any "regular" page obtained from e.g. Document.getPage(int).

Since:

3.2.0