Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
5 years ago

PDF fillable forms, getting data into Power BI

Hello,

I am new to the formun and have a question on my first post.  I have a folder which contains several dozen PDF forms that are fillable and digitally signed.  I try to bring them into Power BI, but the only fields that are show are the Text Label fields and not the data that was entered into the form.  Can someone assist me in understanding what I am missing?

 

 

Need Help

9 Replies

  • lbendlin's avatar
    lbendlin
    Super User
    5 years ago

    I think you may be missing the security aspect - most likely these fields are protected against copying with some sort of encryption.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      5 years ago

      Thank you for your reply.  I created a blank PDF with just one field and was unable to get the data from that field.  It reported NULL.  I guess a question would be, is one able to read data from a fillable form (PDF) unsually?  

       

      Sean

       

  • v-henryk-mstf's avatar
    v-henryk-mstf
    Community Support
    5 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,

     

    I did a test, and the PDF file with a single text content can be imported into powerbi correctly.

     

    The import of the pdf data source is somewhat different from other data sources. When the content cannot be recognized, a null value will be imported, as follows:

     

     

     

    For more details, you can read related document:

    Connect to a PDF file in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Docs


    If the problem is still not resolved, please provide detailed error information and related operation screenshoots. Looking forward to your reply.


    Best Regards,
    Henry


    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

     

     

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      5 years ago

      Attached it a snipit of a PDF with the fields I am trying to get into Power BI.  Also included is a snipit of what BI is showing.  I want to get all the fields from the PDF into Power BI.


      • v-henryk-mstf's avatar
        v-henryk-mstf
        Community Support
        5 years ago

        Hi Anonymous ,

         

        Try to change the above content into text form, and then import it again. When the format of the content in the pdf is inconsistent, it can cause the above error.

         

         


        Best Regards,
        Henry


        If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

  • Nat88's avatar
    Nat88
    Frequent Visitor
    4 years ago

    Did you ever get this working, I am trying to do the same thing.

    I've managed to get the pdf field values to show in power query by flattening the pdf before it comes into BI. But the probmlem I am having is power query is adding the data from each file into one row (duplicating the headings) as opposed to adding the data from each file to a new line?  I'm pulling my hair out!

     

    • Syndicate_Admin's avatar
      Syndicate_Admin
      Administrator
      2 years ago

      What I've done is use Adobe Acrobat Pro to export the fillable fields of various files together to csv. Then you import it into Power BI.