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submitting pdf to web server

KeniaA
Registered: Dec 17 2007
Posts: 11

Hello, I am using acrobat 8 professional, I have a fillable pdf with a submit button, I have selected the action to 'submit form', now I know I need a script to save the pdf and do whatever else I want with it. Can anyone point me in the right direction, give an example. Thank you..

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 8.0, Windows
carrimak
Team
Registered: Dec 13 2006
Posts: 165
Can you clarify? Do you want to "submit" your form to a Web server, as in the title of your post, or do you want people to be able to download the form from the web site, fill it out, and then "submit" the form and/or data to an email recipient?

Also, the home page of the Acrobat users group has lots of links to various information about forms.

Acrobat is probably the program I use most often and I'm learning more every day.

KeniaA
Registered: Dec 17 2007
Posts: 11
I want people to be able to download the form from the web site, fill it out, and then "submit" the entire PDF form to the web server.
Submitting to the web server is where I am having issues.
carrimak
Team
Registered: Dec 13 2006
Posts: 165
Are you using Acrobat or LiveCycle forms? Have you seen this from the Help files?


Add Submit functionality


Use the Submit A Form action to send form data to an email address or to a web server by specifying a URL. You can also use the submit button to send other files back to a server or database. For example, you can attach scanned images or files to a form. The files are submitted along with the rest of the form data when you click the submit button.

If your PDF form contains an email-based submit button, you can use the Initiate Data File Collection workflow to facilitate distributing the form to others.

On the Acrobat Forms toolbar, select the Button tool, and create a button.
Double-click the button to open the Button Properties dialog box.
Click the Actions tab, and select Mouse Up from the Select Trigger menu.
Select Submit a Form from the Select Action menu, and then click Add.
In the Submit Form Selections dialog box, type an entry in Enter A URL For This Link:
To send the form data to a web server, enter the destination URL.

To send the form data to an email address, enter mailto: followed by the email address. For example, type mailto:nobody [at] adobe [dot] com.Make additional changes to the available options, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
Change settings on other tabs in the Button Properties dialog box as needed, and then click Close.

Acrobat is probably the program I use most often and I'm learning more every day.

KeniaA
Registered: Dec 17 2007
Posts: 11
Thanks carrie, To send the form data to a web server, what kind of code/script will I need to write in the page to retrieve the data? Thanks again.
carrimak
Team
Registered: Dec 13 2006
Posts: 165
Ah; that I don't know! Maybe someone else can help....

Acrobat is probably the program I use most often and I'm learning more every day.

jasondeegan
Registered: Feb 5 2008
Posts: 21
KENIAA -

Did you ever figure out your server-side script? I've got a similar question, I do believe.

Jason
wislndixie
Registered: Oct 3 2006
Posts: 125
Whoever is hosting your website will have the server scripts in the cgi-bin folder on the website. You'll need to contact whomever is hosting your site and ask them for a script that allows users to post e-mail to your website.
jimshaggy
Registered: Feb 26 2008
Posts: 1
I too am interested in this topic. I can successfully submit my form to an email address and I get an XML file attached to an email.

I've also created a Ruby on Rails application that allows a user to upload the XML file received in their email and "process" the file.

What I'm trying to do is to skip the "receive the XML file in an email and upload it to the application." I would like to be able to submit automatically to my Ruby on Rails application.

I've tried changing the URL on the Submit button from a mailto: to http://blah.com/ What I seem to be having problems with is the function that processes the XML data. In my existing setup, the XML data is uploaded in a HTML form page and I have a variable that I can use to refer to the XML data and process appropriately. When I'm submitting this data via the PDF, I guess I'm not sure how to refer and retrieve the XML data.

Sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere.
NK-INC.COM
Registered: Apr 17 2010
Posts: 93
If you are using a Windows Server to process your PDF form submissions, then check out FDFToolkit.net.

FDFToolkit.net can merge, save, import, export, populate, extract, and create PDF form data with existing Acrobat and LiveCycle PDF forms. FDFToolkit.net works with ASP.net, and uses iTextSharp technologies. FDFToolkit.net can create, import, and save or edit XDP, XML, XFDF, and FDF data formats.

Useful links:
http://www.fdftoolkit.net/

Programming Tutorials:
http://www.nk-inc.com/blog/

Programming Examples:
http://www.nk-inc.com/software/fdftoolkit.net/examples/