[PDFBOX-5877] After flattening a form pdf, the pdf loses content

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Not A Problem
• Affects Version/s: 3.0.3 PDFBox
• Component/s: AcroForm
• Environment: Mac Ventura, java 18 PDFBox 3.0.3, Tomcat 9 ; Linux; version: 5.15.0-105-generic, java 17, Tomcat 9.0.93

Language

java

• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Joseph Jezerinac
• Created: 03/Sep/24 17:00
• Updated: 04/Sep/24 04:31
• Resolved: 04/Sep/24 04:31

Description

After flattening the pdf form content changes. Pls take a look at before and after pdf. The flattening works fine in 2.0.31. After upgrading to 3.0.3 we started getting many issues with pdf forms after flattening. 
The code that used for flattening is as follows

PDDocument pdDocument = Loader.loadPDF(file, “”);
pdDocument.setResourceCache(new PdfResourceCache())
try {
    boolean save = false;
    if (pdDocument.isEncrypted()) {      
        pdDocument.setAllSecurityToBeRemoved(true);
        save = true;
    }
    final PDDocumentCatalog pdDocumentCatalog = pdDocument.getDocumentCatalog();
    if (pdDocumentCatalog != null) {
        final PDAcroForm pdForm = pdDocumentCatalog.getAcroForm();
        if (pdForm != null) {       
            pdForm.flatten();         
            save = true;
        }
    }
    if (save) {
        pdDocument.save(file);        
    }
}