How to set a checkbox to true?

[ColeBlender]

Once I get the appropriate key I can do this just fine with text boxes:
writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "Jeff Willams"})

How do I do it with checkboxes? I've tried all of following with no success:
writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: True}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "True"}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "true"}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "On"}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "/On"}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "Yes"}) writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[i], {key: "/Yes"})

Is there a different method for this? Am I using the wrong value? Is this even possible using this library?

[pubpub-zz]

a) can you confirm you are on the latest version from pypdf
b) the active state differs between checkboxes. To identify the states, you should get the informations using get_fields() and look for ["/_States_"] entry from the field to identify it.

[ColeBlender]

pypdf==3.12.1
Yes that's exactly what I've done. I'm able to see what the current value is. My question is how to change it. Is there a method designed for that or do I have to go and manually change it? If that's the case then do I just update where I see ["/States"] or is that just a reference to some other place that I have to go update?

[pubpub-zz]

from the test suite:

import pypdf
rrr = pypdf.PdfReader("e:/PyPDF4.git/PyPDF2/resources/FormTestFromOo.pdf")
rrr.get_fields()["CheckBox1"] 
# returns: {'/T': 'CheckBox1', '/FT': '/Btn', '/TU': 'help for CB', '/V': '/Off', '/DV': '/Off', '/_States_': ['/Yes', '/Off']}

www = pypdf.PdfWriter(clone_from=rrr)
www.update_page_form_field_values(
        www.pages[0],
        {
            "CheckBox1": "/Yes",
            "Text1": "mon Text1",
            "Text2": "ligne1\nligne2",
            "RadioGroup1": "/2",
            "RdoS1": "/",
            "Combo1": "!!monCombo!!",
            "Liste1": "Liste2",
            "Liste2": ["Lst1", "Lst3"],
            "DropList1": "DropListe3",
        },
        auto_regenerate=False,
    )

and the result:

[ColeBlender]

I'm not able to get it to work. Maybe the pdf is different somehow. Here's the link if you want to give it a try: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-589.pdf
Here's my code also:
`pdf = "app/pdf/i-589.pdf"
reader = PdfReader(pdf)
writer = PdfWriter()
writer.append(reader)

total_pages = len(reader.pages)
fields = reader.get_fields()

for key in fields:
if is_safe_to_fill(key):
for n in range(total_pages):
if is_check_box(fields[key]):
states = fields[key]["/States"]
# state = [s for s in states if s != "/Off"][0]
# new_states = [state, "/Off"]
# print(fields[key])
writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[n], {key: "/Y"}, auto_regenerate=False)
else:
writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[n], {key: "TEST"})

with open("app/pdf/filled-out.pdf", "wb") as output_stream:
writer.write(output_stream)`

[ColeBlender]

def is_safe_to_fill(key):
if "#subform" in key:
text = key.split("subform[")[1]
if text.split("]")[1] == "":
return False
return True
else:
return False

def is_check_box(value):
return "/States" in value

[pubpub-zz]

I may not have some problem to understand completely your code. but this is my proposal:

pdf = "app/pdf/i-589.pdf"
reader = PdfReader(pdf)
writer = PdfWriter(clone_from=reader)

fields = reader.get_fields()
for key,field in fields.items():
   if is_safe_to_fill(key):
       p = field.indirect_reference.get_object().get("/P")
       if p is None:
           continue
       n = r.get_page_number(p)
       if is_check_box(field):
           states = field["/_States_"]
           state = [s for s in states if s != "/Off"][0]
           writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[n], {key: state}, auto_regenerate=False)
       else:
           writer.update_page_form_field_values(writer.pages[n], {key: "TEST"})

writer.write("app/pdf/filled-out.pdf")

[KyleSCraig]

@pubpub-zz Thanks so much for this code here. I'm trying to fill PDFs that have a unique On state for checkboxes and this is so much nicer than working out what they are. Also I believe I saw you added /_States_ without which I wouldn't have even been able to see what the On state needed to be.