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Export Data from Multiple Forms

khillebrand
Registered: Apr 24 2006
Posts: 26

I have a form that users will fill out and save internally (on a network drive). I would like to manage the data by merging the data into an Excel spreadsheet, and that process works great. My questions: (1) Am I correct in assuming that I cannot choose specific fields to export? I don't need all the data, only certain fields. (I see how you can choose fields with emailing (submit), but these forms will not be emailed, they are simply saved. (2) I cannot then save the Excel spreadsheet and add additional data later, can I? It appears that I have to recreate the spreadsheet each time. (3) Can I determine the order of the fields in the spreadsheet (other than by renaming all my fields (which will require all kinds of recoding! -- I see that they currently appear in the spreadsheet in alpha order.)
 
Thank you!

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8.0999999999999996447286321199499070644378662109375, Windows
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Hi khillebrand,

Your use of forms in conjunction with Excel might lend itself better to the ADBC plug-in that allows JavaScript in PDF documents to access databases through a consistent object model. ADBC is a Windows-only feature and requires ODBC to be installed on the client machine.

For more information on ADBC visit our Acrobat Developer Center at:
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/[/url]

Check out the Javascript for API Reference.

Hope this helps,
Lori

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

khillebrand
Registered: Apr 24 2006
Posts: 26
Thanks Lori. I have used the ADBC connection before and it worked great -- the only issue being that it needs to be configured on each PC invidually, and that's not always possible. Thought I would try out some of the new features! I assume then that the limitations noted in my original question are correct? Is there an easier way to compile the information other than using ADBC? I would be happy (even if I have to compile all the forms each time) if I could compile [u]only the fields I'm interested in[/u]. Either into Excel OR via Forms - Compile Returned Forms command.
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Yes, having to install the ADBC plug-in on every computer is definitely a limitation of using an ADBC connection in your form since it no longer ships in Acrobat. The "Compile Returned Forms" command doesn't apply for filtering of the fields; however, this can easily be done in Excel as noted in the following post:
http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=282

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

frihae
Registered: Apr 21 2008
Posts: 1
We have a form on the WWW that users have to fill out and mail the .xml-data to an e-mail-address (Send by email button).
The owner of this e-mail-address has to collect all the received .xml-files and export them to an excel-file (.csv).
The exported file seems to be empty: there is only the full name of the .xml-files .
The form is edited with Adobe LiveCycle designer 8 and we use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.1.2 to collect the data (Forms > Manage form data > Merge in a spreadsheet).What's wrong with the way to export the .xml-files?