These forums are now Read Only. If you have an Acrobat question, ask questions and get help from one of our experts.

Interactive PDF forms within Joomla 1.5

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Interactive PDF forms within Joomla 1.5
2010-05-03 06:39:43
Lerxst
Registered: May 1 2010
Posts: 5

My clients are medical practices who require new patients to fill out "New Patient Forms". Their websites are joomla based. Many of them are asking for interactive, online forms which can be filled out and submitted or emailed back to them.

A big part of the problem I am facing is that the doctors need the forms to look and print just like their inner office forms. HTML forms and joomla components arent very friendly in that respect.

--My first thought was to embed the pdf files in their site and let the pdf forms be send via their mail server.

--My second thought was to link the pdf files and let them open and submit them via the Acrobat reader. Attempts at making this happen were a failure.

When opened in Acrobat Pro the Submit button works quite nicely and up pops the dialog box asking if you have an email program or a use a web based email client. This feature does not seem to work via the acrobat reader or if forms are viewed in a web browser using the acrobat plugins.

--My third idea is to purchase a script that will allow pdf files to be emailed as attachments.

I have scoured numerous threads here and on other sites and reviewed much of the discussions on how complicated it is to get pdf forms to behave properly in this respect.

If you have thoughts or insights on a possible solution I would be very grateful. I've managed to kill two full days exploring the possibilities.

If there are scripts online or a script companies / product please send me a link. I'm looking for the most capable and simplest way or doing this.

Brett

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 9.3, Macintosh
Top
2010-05-03 08:05:40
#1
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
Have you looked at the various plugins for Joomla?

You can embed PDF's into the web page and use a submit button to a PHP, or other script page, and process the passed data to an SQL database. Of course, you will want this on an HTTPS server.

As for emailing any medical information, I would not even consider it because of the complete lack of security with regard to email. There is just too much personal and confidential information on a medical intake form like SSN, insurance, and medical history to name just the major confidential information.

George Kaiser

Top
2010-05-03 08:21:48
#2
Lerxst
Registered: May 1 2010
Posts: 5
gkaiseril wrote:
Have you looked at the various plugins for Joomla?I'm looking into them now but they seem able to embed the pdfs but not submit them once the client fills it out.

You can embed PDF's into the web page and use a submit button to a PHP, or other script page, and process the passed data to an SQL database. Of course, you will want this on an HTTPS server.

HTTPS is not a problem. Yes the database is easy but in the end not very useful to my client. They aren't going to be able to get completed forms (which look like their office forms) from a database

As for emailing any medical information, I would not even consider it because of the complete lack of security with regard to email. There is just too much personal and confidential information on a medical intake form like SSN, insurance, and medical history to name just the major confidential information.
Good point. It would be best is the forms could be saved in a secure area like a password secured directory on an https server.

Thanks for the feedback. It seems like we are stuck.
Top