Bluebeam Scripting - Custom Columns, Markups, & Forms

Question

BLUEBEAM AND ADOBE ARE BOTH PDF VIEWERS THAT HAVE A LOT OF SIMILARITIES

Hello, I am trying to figure out how to link a form answer to some markups (tools).

Custom Columns that are created In Bluebeam:

When I create a new tool I can manually fill out all of these custom columns under the "Custom" section within the settings of a tool:

Then I can save that tool and all of the data will be repeated for every copy of that tool. However, the circled columns in the first picture would be changing on every page. Which means I would have to make a new tool for every page. (FYI I would be making ~20 tools for this, so I would have to update 20 tools every single page ;_;) Therefore, I want to create a dropdown/textbox on each page with those columns. When a user fills out the dropdown/textbox, the markups are automatically updated with that info, which means the custom columns are also updated.

Does anyone have an idea of how to link these?

As of now I have been able to create a code that creates a popup if a user selects a certain drop down. This shows me that you can grab the data from a user. I just don't know how to connect that data to all the markups (tools). I know each markup has a special ID, but I'm curious if you can somehow link to the tools "subject" property to do this.

Bluebeam provided me with their JavaScript API if that is any help. https://i.stack.imgur.com/yEdU1.jpg (I got this image from this post JavaScript Library with Bluebeam)

UPDATE I found another document with potential accepted scripts for Bluebeam. Please note this one will require people to have Bluebeam Revu eXtreme https://support.bluebeam.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bluebeam-Script-Reference-2018.pdf This version actually has a markup section (which are the things I am more or less wanting to have the custom columns be updated for with the user input) This document seems to be relevant only for the Bluebeam Script Editor. You can open it by looking in the folder for Bluebeam from your start window.

There are 2 issues I have with this though. I haven't figured out how to run the codes I have in the script inside of Bluebeam yet and I am curious if there is a way to not need the markupID's and/or a way to get them without having to download the markups

Answer 1

I've been lurking on stack for so long, I finally have something to contribute...

I work with custom columns and toolsets all the time. I think you're missing a basic understanding of what the markup list is. Or maybe I am. The markup list is the table of data at the bottom of Bluebeam, where you're trying to change column headings.

The markup list is basically a table of data, what you're trying to do will change the column headers per page, which would change it for all entries. From what I know about Bluebeam, these are static, just like any database or table in any application like Excel. If you need to have different column headings, you need to just stack them all and use what you need on each page or from tool to tool. Or create different profiles with different custom columns, but this gets messy having multiple profiles accessing a single document. Maybe java can help show and hide these per what's relevant on the page within the custom field. But... I think the java is limited to be used within PDF form fields and some basic PDF actions such as print, save, etc. I don't think the level of coding you're looking for exists within Bluebeam.

I use profiles to manage custom columns per process, not the actual tool. It's kind of unclear exactly why the custom columns can follow the tools without the actual profile though.

What I do to accomplish complex tasks is export the markup list and build something within Excel VBA to tabulate data and export reports with relevant information. I'm sure you could use basically any coding language to accomplish this after the table is exported from Bluebeam.