I am new to Acrobat Forms or Forms LiveCycle.
I have to develop an online application form which can be filled-in and submitted online by interested applicants. The applicant should be able to take a print of the submitted form. the form should be secured and password protected. Once submitted by the applicant, the form cannot be changed by the applicant.
I did some research and found out that I can create forms using Acrobat Forms and LiveCycle Designer. But I am not sure what’s best for my requirement?
I should be able to design a form.
The form should be fillable, printable and submitable online from within one of our websites.
For each applicant who submits the form, I need to have access to the applicant filled in PDF. I should have access to applicant typed in data.
If required, should be able to edit the applicant specific filled in form.
For the above mentioned requirements, I want best fit solution between Acrobat Forms and Forms LiveCycle. Can someone help me understand the difference between Acrobat Forms and LiveCycle Forms Designer and Server? I may be comparing apples to oranges but I would be thankful if one can explain me what is best for my situation
Thanks in Advance
Acrobat Forms or Forms LiveCycle
2011-01-11 07:45:04
2011-01-11 13:16:29
#2
Thank you Thom. The links you provided were useful. I have few more questions.
With the help of the video, I created a PDF form and was able to save it on my hard drive. I was able to view and fill in data from internet explorer.
In my web application, I will be able to open this PDF form in browse and that will allow any applicant to fill the form.
But I need a submit button on the form that will allow me to save an applicant specific pdf of the original form i.e PDF with all the user entered data and I as well want to save the inputted data to sql server db.
If the same applicant is allowed to edit the form, I should be able to show him pre-filled form using the data that is saved to SQL Server db for editing.
I tried adding a button field to the form and added java script on mouse enter action (I assume this is equal to on click event of button) to show a message console.println("test"). But when I tried clicking on submit button from IE, there is no message.
Can you point me to some articles that help achieve this? Let me know if there is any better approach to achieve this.
Thanks,
Lakshmi Kasic
With the help of the video, I created a PDF form and was able to save it on my hard drive. I was able to view and fill in data from internet explorer.
In my web application, I will be able to open this PDF form in browse and that will allow any applicant to fill the form.
But I need a submit button on the form that will allow me to save an applicant specific pdf of the original form i.e PDF with all the user entered data and I as well want to save the inputted data to sql server db.
If the same applicant is allowed to edit the form, I should be able to show him pre-filled form using the data that is saved to SQL Server db for editing.
I tried adding a button field to the form and added java script on mouse enter action (I assume this is equal to on click event of button) to show a message console.println("test"). But when I tried clicking on submit button from IE, there is no message.
Can you point me to some articles that help achieve this? Let me know if there is any better approach to achieve this.
Thanks,
Lakshmi Kasic
2011-01-11 13:24:52
#3
For testing in the browser try using "app.alert" instead of the console.
Look at the articles on submitting data on this site. Just search for "Submit" and sort for articles.
If you can do some kind of server scripting, then you can easily write a server side script for receiving the submitted data and writing it to your SQL DB. But to make the task simple you'll need to submit the data as XML or XFDF. Do not submit the entire PDF, since it's very difficult to parse on the server side.
Look at the articles on submitting data on this site. Just search for "Submit" and sort for articles.
If you can do some kind of server scripting, then you can easily write a server side script for receiving the submitted data and writing it to your SQL DB. But to make the task simple you'll need to submit the data as XML or XFDF. Do not submit the entire PDF, since it's very difficult to parse on the server side.
2011-01-12 08:24:24
#4
thanks for your help Thom.
I tried using app.alert instead of console.
Testing from Reader, it works fine.
When I open the pdf form with a browser liek IE, a blank alert like window named "Adobe.acrobat" with a ? icon on it and no text pops up and the IE browser is blank.
I can view the pdf If I close the blank alert and press enter on browser address bar with out changing anything.
After teh PDF is visible, clicking on submit shows the test message.
Why the blank adobe.acrobat alert pops up and how to get rid of it?
I tried using app.alert instead of console.
Testing from Reader, it works fine.
When I open the pdf form with a browser liek IE, a blank alert like window named "Adobe.acrobat" with a ? icon on it and no text pops up and the IE browser is blank.
I can view the pdf If I close the blank alert and press enter on browser address bar with out changing anything.
After teh PDF is visible, clicking on submit shows the test message.
Why the blank adobe.acrobat alert pops up and how to get rid of it?
2011-01-12 10:34:39
#5
I don't know about the blank alert. Could be the result of a security setting in either Acrobat or the Browser. When doing this sort of thing you should always test on different systems, different versions of Acrobat, and different browsers. This will give you a better idea of the user experience. It will also make it obvious if there is a problem with the PDF, or part of the environment. Its quite common to see variations of behavior in different environments. In fact, people have reported all kinds of strange Acrobat stuff on theses forum. Interaction with the browser just makes things stranger.
2011-01-12 10:41:52
#6
Hi all - I'm new to the forums too, but I have been reading them for self help for a few months.
Along the same lines of this question, which one of these products results in a smaller sized file as the end product? LiveCycle is an intimidating beast to me right now. I have created a few forms for my job using Acrobat forms and they have met all of my needs. Each form consists of three pages. There are around 30 check boxes on page one, 50 on page two and about 300 on page three. My only complaint is that the file size varies from 1.5mb to 2.5mb. If I created the exact same forms in LiveCycle would the file size end up smaller or about the same?
Thanks
Along the same lines of this question, which one of these products results in a smaller sized file as the end product? LiveCycle is an intimidating beast to me right now. I have created a few forms for my job using Acrobat forms and they have met all of my needs. Each form consists of three pages. There are around 30 check boxes on page one, 50 on page two and about 300 on page three. My only complaint is that the file size varies from 1.5mb to 2.5mb. If I created the exact same forms in LiveCycle would the file size end up smaller or about the same?
Thanks
2011-01-12 10:55:49
#7
The interactive elements on a form are not usually the biggest part. Its all the other stuff: graphics, fonts, and file overhead. A dynamic LiveCycle form should have slightly less overhead than the equivalent AcroForm. But that depends on a lot of factors. Open the Optimizer in Acrobat and analyze your form to see how much space is taken up by the different types of PDF elements.
2011-01-13 10:36:41
#8
Thom,
Thank you for your guidance so far.
I was able to do a submitForm() as a PDF and was able to save it on server side with a unique name. my PDF is around 70KB size so saving whole pdf on server is not a problem.
I still have couple of questions.
1> From the browse; I don't want the user to save the form to their local drives. I want to allow only submit, print features from browser i.e. Adobe Reader. But "Extend features in Acrobat Reader" enables save, commenting and submit features. Is there anyway I can restrict user from "Saving"? Is there any way I can do it programmatically.
2> When I opened the PDF that got submitted from browser, I realized it is a fully editable AcroForm. I want to convert this to a regular non editable PDF document with the user typed-in data. I want to achieve this programmatically on the server side. I suspect I should use some kind of SDK to achieve this? Can you point me to the right SDK or in the right direction?
I did search this site and net for information but could not find anything clear and useful.
Thank you for your guidance so far.
I was able to do a submitForm() as a PDF and was able to save it on server side with a unique name. my PDF is around 70KB size so saving whole pdf on server is not a problem.
I still have couple of questions.
1> From the browse; I don't want the user to save the form to their local drives. I want to allow only submit, print features from browser i.e. Adobe Reader. But "Extend features in Acrobat Reader" enables save, commenting and submit features. Is there anyway I can restrict user from "Saving"? Is there any way I can do it programmatically.
2> When I opened the PDF that got submitted from browser, I realized it is a fully editable AcroForm. I want to convert this to a regular non editable PDF document with the user typed-in data. I want to achieve this programmatically on the server side. I suspect I should use some kind of SDK to achieve this? Can you point me to the right SDK or in the right direction?
I did search this site and net for information but could not find anything clear and useful.
Here's a blog post that described the technology differences in more detail than you probably want to know.
http://acrobatusers.com/blogs/thomp/so-what-difference-between-acroforms-and-xfa
Here'a a video on creating your first PDF form using the AcroForms technology:
http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#FirstForm
Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script