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Submitting FDF via email - please help

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Submitting FDF via email - please help
2007-09-16 09:47:30
temp25
Registered: Sep 16 2007
Posts: 4

I'm trying to create the following process using Acrobat 7 Pro on mac: (1) The user completes an online form and clicks the submit button. (2) The data is forwarded to me via email (without the user opening an email client). (3) I populate that data into the original pdf (on my computer) to be printed. I've been trying forever to get a pdf form to allow online submission. I'm to the point where the form can successfully be submitted as html but I can't get it to submit using fdf. I'd like the user to submit data that is received by email to be repopulated on my computer so that I can print the pdf as it appeared on their screen when it was submitted.

The problem is that the html information that's emailed doesn't allow me to feed it back into the pdf file and selecting fdf as the submission method (for the submit button) generates errors.

The form is already created and the submission (as HTML) submits properly (but doesn't meet my needs).

I obviously don't know much about scripts and just need something simple. I don't need for the server to send any information to the user; I just need the fdf data to come back to me so that I can import it back into a .pdf--all generated simply by the user clicking the submit button.

I found a good number of (quasi complicated) sites talking about how to get fdf to write to the pdf on the screen but I can't seem to find any to give just a simple script to send the fdf via email. The form was created in Acrobat 7 Pro on mac.

The html submission works (but does not accomplish the goal). I was also able to get the form submitted as an attachment but the files can get large and the user has to open a separate email client for it to work so that's not a real option.

Submission of the fdf is the only other option that I can think of but I can't seem to find a script to make it work.

Any help? Is there a simple way to do this without a sophisticated knowledge of scripts?

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2007-09-18 10:32:25
#1
wislndixie
Registered: Oct 3 2006
Posts: 125
You should be able to get this to work by creating a "submit" button on your form. When you create the button go to the "actions" tab, when you open that window look for your box that says "select action", then scroll down to select "submit a form" then click the "add" button just below. That will bring up another menu box for form selection. The very top box will have a place to enter your email. Type in as follows: mailto:xxxx [at] xxxx [dot] xxx replace the x's with your email address. Then make sure FDF is marked as well as "all fields" these are the only two you need. Click OK then close the window. Save your form and now click the submit button. This should start your e-mail program. If it does, then you've got the form correct. Now all you have to do, is send this form to your user, have them store it on their system, they can then fill in the data, click the submit button and their e-mail program will send it back to you. When you open the e-mail, click on the attachment (which is the FDF data) and it will populate your form on your system. You may get a message box that asks you to locate the form you want populated, just find it and open it and it will populate itself. Hope this helps.
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2007-09-18 20:52:08
#2
temp25
Registered: Sep 16 2007
Posts: 4
Thanks for the feedback. I had gotten just about this far previously but ran into a problem.

Users are primarily using group computers and have not configured email clients. (Most of them use standard yahoo or hotmail accounts.) To complicate it further, I seem to lose people when I give instructions to attach the file to a new email message.

I am hoping to find a solution that will email the FDF data to me without the need for a separate email client to launch. Is this possible? I think it is achievable with a script but I don't know much about writing scripts.

THANKS AGAIN!
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2007-10-03 15:03:53
#3
curtis-r
Registered: Oct 3 2007
Posts: 1
Temp25,

Have you had any luck? I'm looking for the exact same thing. I've found a ASP.net script I can purchase, which I might do, but I have had to migrate my web site from a UNIX to a Windows server to run that script. So far, I'm not liking the Windows server b/c some other scripts & functions no longer work.
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2007-10-12 07:26:12
#4
lifespan
Registered: Oct 10 2007
Posts: 17
I got this to work from within Acrobat, but I have a Lifecycle Designer form that I want to do this in. The same procedures do not work in LD. How can I do this there? Surely there's a way!

wislndixie wrote:
You should be able to get this to work by creating a "submit" button on your form. When you create the button go to the "actions" tab, when you open that window look for your box that says "select action", then scroll down to select "submit a form" then click the "add" button just below. That will bring up another menu box for form selection. The very top box will have a place to enter your email. Type in as follows: mailto:xxxx [at] xxxx [dot] xxx replace the x's with your email address. Then make sure FDF is marked as well as "all fields" these are the only two you need. Click OK then close the window. Save your form and now click the submit button. This should start your e-mail program. If it does, then you've got the form correct. Now all you have to do, is send this form to your user, have them store it on their system, they can then fill in the data, click the submit button and their e-mail program will send it back to you. When you open the e-mail, click on the attachment (which is the FDF data) and it will populate your form on your system. You may get a message box that asks you to locate the form you want populated, just find it and open it and it will populate itself. Hope this helps.
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2007-10-12 07:32:10
#5
lifespan
Registered: Oct 10 2007
Posts: 17
Never mind. I just figured it out. Thanks for the earlier description.
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2007-10-31 08:19:43
#6
JohnLT4
Registered: Jun 6 2007
Posts: 29
Lifespan
How did you figure it out - what's the process??
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2007-11-15 09:46:04
#7
d2c
Registered: Nov 15 2007
Posts: 2
Here is some information I found about using a web-base eMail service:

To submit a PDF form with a web-based email service:

1. Click the submit or return form button on the PDF form. If the form fields are blank, the Email A Blank Copy Of This Form dialog box appears; click Email A Blank Copy.
2. In the Select Email Client dialog box, select Internet Email; then click OK.
3. In the Sending The Data File dialog box, click Save Data File.
4. In the Save Data File dialog box, choose a location on your computer to save the file; then click Save.
5.Open a new browser window, log in to your web-based email service, and use your service to create a new blank email.
6. In the Sending the Data File dialog box in Acrobat, select the value in the To field; then right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and choose Copy.
7. In your blank email message in your Internet email service, click in the To field, and paste the data you copied. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the Subject and Message Text fields.
8. Use your Internet email service to attach the data file (that you saved in step 4) to your email message.
9. If you want a copy of the filled-in form, click Print Form in the Sending The Data File dialog box in Acrobat.
10. Click Close in the Sending The Data File dialog box.
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