Make pdf-lib more graceful like other pdf software

[emilsedgh]

Some broken fields may include annotations in their Kids array that couldn't be found on any pages. Up until now we've been throwing an exception when dealing with such fields. But it appears that other PDF software are more resilient to this and gracefully ignore them.

This commit ensures we'll do the same.

Fixes #967,#1281,#1349

What?

PDF Fields can have Kids in them, each Kid being a WidgetAnnotation. In some rare cases (probably due to bad pdf generators) there are cases that there is a PDFField with a an annotation in it Kids but that annotation doesn't exist on any page. Therefore we don't know on which page it must be rendered.

Why?

PDFForm.findPageForAnnotationRe is responsible for finding the page for a given annotation. Up until now it'd throw an exception if it couldn't find a page.

This means when trying to flatten such PDF's, pdf-lib would throw an error. So basically you have a pdf file that can be opened up with Chrome, Firefox/pdfjs, Acrobat Reader and even pdf-lib. But trying to flatten it using pdf-lib would cause an exception (as seen in #967,#1281,#1349)

How?

This patch makes pdf-lib's Flatten gracefully ignore such cases and render the PDF like other pdf readers.

Testing?

Checklist

• I read CONTRIBUTING.md.
• I read MAINTAINERSHIP.md#pull-requests.
• I added/updated unit tests for my changes.
• I added/updated integration tests for my changes.
• I ran the integration tests.
• I tested my changes in Node, Deno, and the browser.
• I viewed documents produced with my changes in Adobe Acrobat, Foxit Reader, Firefox, and Chrome.
• I added/updated doc comments for any new/modified public APIs.
• My changes work for both new and existing PDF files.
• I ran the linter on my changes.

[anodynos]

@emilsedgh please check my comment here

[satyajitnayk]

Hey @Hopding. It would be great if you could review this PR. It is an important fix & requested by many.

[caub]

cf #1281 too

[jalbertsr]

Is this planning to be merged? I'm currently using this alternative fork @visaright/pdf-lib only because of this issue.

[theprogramsam]

Can we get this in please? @Hopding

[aktary]

Bump. @Hopding

[sstepanchuk]

Bump. @Hopding

[iway1]

@anodynos what does your comment have to do with this? @cantoo/pdf-lib also has this problem

[sstepanchuk]

Here is my workaround, maybe it will be helpful

 const form = pdfDoc.getForm();
    if (form && form.getFields().length > 0) {
      const pages = pdfDoc.getPages();
      const formFields = form.getFields();
      const firstPageRef = pages[0].ref;

      for (const field of formFields) {
        const widgets = field.acroField.getWidgets();
        for (const widget of widgets) {
          const widgetPageRef = widget.P();

          // If widget has no page reference, assign it to first page
          if (!widgetPageRef) {
            try {
              widget.setP(firstPageRef);
            } catch {}
          }
        }
      }
      form.flatten();
    }