I would appreciate some direction. This is a long project and I am looking for some help.
Situation:
I have an application that is using Borland Databases (paradox tables) with file extensions .db. I have made some recommendations for a product to be developed, which will spit out an Excel document in the end from the paradox tables. I would like to have Livecycle create a form that can absorb this data as it is delivered (excel, .csv or xml)into tables. Along with the Dynamic Form with the absorbed data I would like to save the form information to a local database on the End Users computer. The User Interface would be a way to track and handle the information and interact or view the Dynamic Form. A company could view and track their End User's data, appointments, Previous Forms, video, images, history and email capabilities. An application no less is needed I'm sure.
Questions:
1. Can an Excel document (XML, CSV or Both) be absorbed into a Dynamic Form (LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2) to show a table set?
a. Can the transition be automatic or is it action dependent?
2. What kind of DBMS is needed with to work with Paradox Tables & LiveCycle?
3. Would it be very difficult to integrate a Dynamic Form into an application?
4. What challenges do you forsee?
5. Is it possible to position multiple End User captured data into one database
to be accessed as needed through IP?
6. Am I waisting my time with this idea?
7. What Database program would you suggest?
All responses are welcomed. Thank you'
LiveCycle forms interact with a DB through an OLE DB driver. Windows comes with a driver for ODBC so that's the usual route. But if you can get a driver for your DB, then the form can interact with that DB just as long as the driver is installed on the users system.
A LiveCycle form, if it is set up properly, can load XML data and build a table. In fact, it was designed to do exactly this sort of thing. Third party tools can also create XML data files (*.xdp) that when opened in Acrobat will automatically load and display the associated form. If you had a PDF library you could inject the data into the LiveCycle form itself from a custom application or server script.
In designing the process you have to keep in mind that Acrobat does not allow forms to write data directly to the user's disk. So Acrobat is only part of the process. You will probably need to create a custom application that will be installed on each user's system.
You can find out all about LiveCyle form scripting for DB access here:LC DB forms
Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script