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I have to share parameters/information between two independent applications: an Executable and a PDF file.

By clicking a button within the pdf I want to perform some specific task (or run code) in my exe standalone player.

But I am confused about:

  1. How do two independent application talk to each other
  2. How will I write an interactive pdf(are there tools to do this) so that when I click a button I will go to my exe

I have a sound understanding of Unity3d, WinAPP, C#, database etc., but i don't know how to do this and if this is possible.?

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  • In theory since PDF could contain javascript, you might call a custom uri scheme that will be handled by your exe. Although it will be so much easier to just display the PDF from your app and handle clicking event on specific region.
    – Martheen
    Jun 9, 2016 at 6:24
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    PDFs are not applications. PDF readers are applications. So this is only possible if you can safely assume all of your users have a PDF reader which provides an interface for you to create UI elements via something in the PDF itself, which is such a weird requirement I doubt any of them do that. So you're going to have to rethink your requirements. As Martheen said, making your app contain a PDF reader is probably the only sane option.
    – Ixrec
    Jun 9, 2016 at 6:41
  • @lxrec Adobe Reader does allow UI elements - you can create an interactive PDF that lets you fill in forms and add actions to buttons
    – gbjbaanb
    Jun 9, 2016 at 8:10
  • While Adobe Reader has a lot of extra features, other readers do not. I'd become very annoyed with your application if it forced me to install Adobe Reader.
    – CodesInChaos
    Jun 9, 2016 at 9:56

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To create an interactive PDF, look at the Adobe documentation to add button actions. This may make your PDF only usable in Adobe Acrobat.

The action then needs to perform an action - send an email or more likely easier for you, to send the form details via a REST call to a webserver. If you add webserving functionality to your C# app, it can receive this information and process it. Alternatively, if this is too much for your exe, you can write the form data to a file and have your app read it if it detects file creation in a certain location (temp directory is good) with a certain name. Your mileage may vary with which method works best for you, but your options are listed on the link I've given you.

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  • so you said that adobe acrobat -> webserver -> my Application or acorbat -> file -> myapplication
    – Muhammad Faizan Khan
    Jun 13, 2016 at 5:15

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