This is a repository of my experimentation with merging PDF annotations as done with FoxIt into QIQQA and also experimentation with MuPDF. I am making this visible on GITHUB to facilitate collaboration with the QIQQA project.

Intent / What does this do?

PDF annotations feature prominently in my workflow as these provide a rich annotation feature set. Currently Qiqqa only supports a few annotation types in its own application, which are stored in its SQLite-based metadata database; meanwhile I like to use other applications (e.g. FoxIt) which enable me to edit PDF annotations directly.

Qiqqa currently has no means to easily export PDFs for annotation editing in third-party applications and then re-importing and incorporating the annotation edits done.

These python scripts have been created to

• allow one to access the SQLite metadata directly, take a PDF document and augment it with its Qiqqa/database-stored annotations to date and have that ready for review and annotation editing in your preferred application (FoxIt, PDF Annotator, ...)
• pick up the annotated PDF document, extract the annotations and plug them into the Qiqqa SQLite metadata database directly for persistence. The annotated PDF is to be discarded afterwards, as the next iteration will re-create the PDF from the Qiqqa database.

Technology notes

Qiqqa uses a database record format for the annotations which includes an MD5 hash over the record data. The import script properly creates this hash to ensure that Qiqqa will recognize the new annotation records as valid.

Caveats

As the import script directly accesses the SQLite database for writing (annotation records), it is mandatory to close and exit your Qiqqa application before you run this script as SQLite is not engineered for multi-process access: if you don't, database corruption may result from this simultaneous write access.

Qiqqa is yet unable to paint / show many types of PDF annotation in its own UI. This repository "skips" that issue and just focuses on how the annotations will work with "external" PDF viewers, not Qiqqa itself.

I anticipate further work in the Qiqqa repository after I work out issues here.