500 user limit for distributing fillable forms that can be saved ?

It would be better if you explained how you intend to distribute the enabled form(s) and what you will be doing with any you receive back from the users.

The important information is:

(1) How many users will you distribute a particular enabled document to

and

(2) If more than 500 users, from how many instances of a particular filled-in enabled form (including hardcopies) will you extract data?

The details are in the Acrobat License Agreement you agreed to when installing Acrobat.

Also, note that if it turns out your needs will exceed the limits imposed by the Acrobat License Agreement, then there is at least one third-party that will, for a fee, enable your forms for use with Reader, so you would not necessarily have to purchase LiveCycle Reader Extensions yourself. In any case, you would not have to get any other back-end processing product from Adobe as LiveCycle Reader Extensions is the only relevant product here.

George

One more thing. This is only relevant if you need to enable the forms because your users only have Reader, as opposed to Acrobat Standard, Pro, or Extended. Users who have more than Reader will be able to save modified forms without limit, and you can extract data from any such forms without limit.

George

(1) Could be several thousand. Our sales reps would be downloading various PDF forms from our secure website for use when doing a sale. Its desireable that our sales reps have nothing more than the reader and an eletronic signature pad.

(2) Basically unlimited, but way over 500. In this case, the sales agents would be uploading completed PDFs to our secure server, via an upload page, which we would then parse to extract data to be saved in our database. Since Im the developer in this case, I would be writing the process to parse the forms. Im currently looking at using the opensource library, iText for this.

Based on your response, you will not be able to use Acrobat to Reader-enable your forms since you will far exceed the licensing restrictions. You have two options:

1. Purchase LiveCycle Reader Extensions from Adobe.

2. Use a service such as FormRouter: http://www.formrouter.com/pdf/readerextensions.htm

You'll have to do the cost analysis to see which is the best for you, and you'll have to contact both to get the cost information.

George

Thanks alot for all your help. Ive contacted Adobe for more info as to what my licensing requirements will be. Now that Ive read about LiveCycle a bit more, I realize that product is probably a bit more than I need. I simply need the ability to produce fillable forms and distribute them to more than 500 users who fill them out and upload them to our server.

You can set up a system that allows users to submit form data to a web server. This does not require usage rights.

But if the user needs to use Reader to save a filled-in form, submit outside of a web browser, or apply a digital signature, then you will need to apply usage rights, which for you means using LiveCycle Reader Extensions.

George

Well Im back to this thread again. I was reading about Micosoft's new XPS document format (XML paper Spec) which is being dubbed a competitor to PDF, however it doesnt support forms. So now, Im considering features you mention in your most recent post - enabling the PDF to post its data to a web service. Can I actually make a SOAP method call or can I only do HTTP POST ? What are my options for having the PDF submit the data to a web server ? Can data on the form, such as electronic signatures (which are stored as an encrypted string of bytes) be sent along with the normal form field data ?

In thinking about this route today, the inability for the user to save a copy is actually a good thing in some cases, although it might complicate the situation. However, I think this can be worked around.

You can do HTTP POST with Reader without usage rights, and SOAP with Reader with usage rights, but in either case you'll need to apply usage rights for Reader users to apply a digital signature.

George