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Completed form sent to multiple people?

lehua
Registered: Aug 11 2009
Posts: 19
Answered

We would like to use an interactive form for community reporting of invasive species. A couple of questions:

1. We'd like the reports to come in to two people: the database coordinator and the responder. Can i designate two emails for a submit button?

2. I've created a SUBMIT button with mailto:email address for our database coordinator. On tests, I keep getting the reports. How do I get them to only go to the required people?

3. I've created this form for someone else to use. How do I pass the response file on to her so she can collect the reports and the data files?

All help is appreciated as we need to do a number of these.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.1.3, Windows
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
email addresses can be provided as a "semi-colon" separated list. This is the standard web format for handling emails. You can also take a look at these tutorials:

http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/dynamically-setting-submit-e-mail-address
http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/create-acrobat-form-and-submit-data-over-web
http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/submitting_data

For issue #2, you say that you are getting the forms, does the database coordinator also get the forms? If you're getting them then you're email must be in there somewhere. Explain how you added this submit button, and how you set the form up for distribution.

For issue #3 it's best to send the form to the other person and have them setup the distribution and setup the response file in Acrobat on thier system.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

lehua
Registered: Aug 11 2009
Posts: 19
thank you for the help.

Regarding the responses coming to me, somehow my info is embedded in the form. Under "identity" in Adobe Acrobat preferences is my email address which shows up when distributing the form. How can I design forms for someone else's use and not be in the response loop?

If I send her the forms and have her "distribute" them through her Acrobat, then does her email address need to be listed on the submit button. Won't she get the responses anyway as the distributor?

I know all this information is probably out there somewhere, so I appreciate any tutorial links you can send.

Thanks
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
There are many different ways to setup a form. If you do not use the Acrobat Distribute functionality, then the forms will be returned to the address entered into the submit button. You can still collect from data in to a response file even when you don't use the distribute feature.

If you do you the distribute feature then the forms will be returned to the address entered when you ran the distribute wizard.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

lehua
Registered: Aug 11 2009
Posts: 19
1. If we don't "distribute" than do we just use the saved form? If so, can this form be put on a web page for download to a personal computer and be used over and over? And can the form also be sent out by email? I do know that I need to use the extend features to Reader to enable everyone to use it.

2. the response data file was created when using the Distribute function. How do we create one of these if we don't go through that step?


One other thing - on the form I have check radio buttons I can't get rid of. When I distribute it, a dialog box asks if I want these cleared. How do I get rid of these if I don't distribute - delete and redo the radio buttons? Seems there should be an easier way.

Thanks.
lehua
Registered: Aug 11 2009
Posts: 19
BTW - the overweb video tutorial won't play. do you have another link?
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
In Acrobat Pro, Under the "Forms" menu there is an option called "Compile Returned Forms..." This is how you handle form data that was not sent through the distribute function.

But, to use PDF forms you don't need any of these features. The Distribute and Compile functions have only been around since Acrobat 8. But PDF forms have been around since Acrobat 3. You might well ask what people used to do? You can put any PDF form on the web, or email it out to users. And you don't even need to Reader enable it. The form can be setup to send the data back to you in a variety of ways and formats. The only time you need the form to be Save Enabled for Reader is if the form is setup to send back the entire PDF, which is what the distribute function does.

There are other ways. Originally, you were supposed send the data to a server, but this takes more expertise than most users have. So there are 3rd party services like www.formrouter.com that will handle all the data for you and send you nice reports about it. This is the right way to do it. The email thing built into Acrobat is a cheesy attempt by Adobe to make form data handling availible to a wider audience, but its not the best way of doing this, it's only one way.

To get more info on setting up forms for data submission go to the tutorials section of this site and search for "submit"

I have no idea about your "check radio buttons". This sounds like a completely different issue. Why are they there and what exactly do you want with these buttons? Do you want them removed? or Initiaized in some way? You can do both of these things manually.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script

lehua
Registered: Aug 11 2009
Posts: 19
Thanks for all the info. I'll look at the tutorials.