Exporting form data to a database

Hi,

I am learning as well, but I believe you have to collect the data in acrobat (in a data set) and export it to access after. If it is not linked to a data set, I believe you can use acrobat to grab the Xml files and export them to access. There is suppose to be a way to create a data set (which I found in help) but the command is missing. Go figure...

"Collecting the data in a spreadsheet
You can use Acrobat Professional to consolidate the information from the returned files into a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel.
1. Start Acrobat Professional and open the form you saved in the previous section.

2. Choose File > Form Data > Create Spreadsheet From Data Files.3. Click Add Files and locate the XML file that you emailed.

4. Repeat step 3 if you want to add more files to the list.

5. Click Export.

6. Select a location on your computer to save the spreadsheet, and then click Save.

The Create Spreadsheet dialog box displays Done! when Acrobat has created the spreadsheet.
7. Click View File Now to open the spreadsheet file in your default application.

Here is a sample of how the data in the spreadsheet looks:
You can see the names that you entered in the Name box of the Binding tab. This makes the spreadsheet more readable.
8. Close the spreadsheet.

9. Click Close Dialog.

10. Exit Acrobat Professional.

Click to continue: What’s next?"

"Form Data" does not exist......

Maybe if we all add up what we are learning we will ALL get somewhere...

Lachance
I set up a data set. You find the dataset command in version 8.1 in the Forms menu under "Distribute Forms" Choose the first option if you are distributing the form through email or choose the second option if you are distributing the form over the internet. It will ask you The email address you want it returned to, the file name to store the dataset under and the file name to store the "pub" version (the file that will be published).
I have used your method outlined before to start with but it has it's advantages and disadvantages.

Mandrade/Lachance
I set mine dataset up to read in Excel
The file is published as a pdf file and returns the data as a pdf. It asks the sender what kind of email system they have and suposedly adapts to it. (I'll find this out later today when I do some testing.)
There are several ways to handle the file when it returns. Double click it and it opens in Pro 8. Experiment with the new options there. Then I save it as an xml. Then I open Excel (has to be at least version 2003). Excel will ask how to place the info - three options: first just lays it out, second I haven't used, third lets you drag whatever field names you want to the top live of the spreadsheet. You can change the order or only use some in one or more files by repeating the procedure.
You can also rename the file when it comes in and when you click on it for the first time it will ask if you want to open it in a data set. Then just experiment as above.
One weird thing I found is that it will not open it in the dataset the second or more times you open it by either method above so take advantage of it the first time around!!
Hope this gives you something to play with. Let me know if this works in a similar way with Access please. I wish that it ould go automatically to but.....

Any feedback??

Both Acrobat Forms and LiveCycle Designer provide methods for accessing SQL databases from the full version of Acrobat or one can use a web based server script to process passed FDF or XML data to and from a database. There are many articles and examples of how to do this in the developers section of the Adobe web site and within the AUC site. Microsoft Access is an SQL database. Or one could even use a named region within Excel.