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Livecycle Designer and Access 2007

Forum Index > Forms: LiveCycle Designer > Livecycle Designer and Access 2007
2009-01-08 11:44:26
JennD
Registered: Jan 8 2009
Posts: 18

I work in engineering... we have a change process that we have to go through to make a change on our product. I have a form - ECR that I can send to an engineer to start the process. I fill in the ECR #, the product name and the date (there are lots of other fields but I want to keep this simple). They fill in the reason they need the change and what it is.

I have an MS Access Dabase that I have written to store the information.

I have been able to sucessfully get the form to populate with "my input" from the database (ECR #, name, date). I can distribute it to the engineer and they can fill in "their input" (reason and change) and they can submit it back to me.

Here is where my questions begin.

How can I, once I receive back the form, get the reason and change information into the Access Database? Is there even a way to do this directly? I will be the only one to have access to the database. I just need to know if there is a way for the form and the database to "communicate" so the form places the "reason/change" information back into the correct record in the table.

Ideally I would like to click on a button that I placed on the form and have some sort of statement that tells the form to "connect" to the database where the form ECR # = the database ECR # but so far the only thing that happens is that it opens the connection and the text in my form "reason/change" field goes away. (I assume because the database "reason/change" field is empty in the database and the form is updating to the database instead of the database updating to the form).

I have searched for a solid week on this topic and cannot find the answer. I have gone through all of the tutorials that I can find regarding database and pdf but I can only find references and examples for drop down boxes, not fields. Can anybody point me in the right direction, or at the very least tell me it cannot be done so I can go find another way to accomplish what I need to get done.

Thank you in advance for any information.

Jenn D.

My Product Information:
LiveCycle Designer, Windows
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2009-01-12 09:41:04
#1
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
I see that Paul Guerette has helped you resolve this in your [url=http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/?13 [at] 777 [dot] YAYXiv[email protected]/0]U2U forum post[/url].

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-01-12 09:54:04
#2
JennD
Registered: Jan 8 2009
Posts: 18
He tried. The information he sent was how to connect and put information into the form. I have that part down. My issue is updating my database with the additional information on the form that was submitted back. Right now I am waiting on my IT department to recieve a copy of Acrobat 9 as my trial copy has expired. Once I get that I am going to see if I can find a creative work-around using xml. It's just a one to one connection, I thought it would be much easier than it has turned out to be.

I have not been able to find a way to open a pdf where (in my case) the ECR # on the pdf = the ECR # in the database and transfer the information from the pdf to the correct table in the database. When I try update(), it "erases" the fields on my pdf (as I mentioned above). Basically I need to sync the two. I got creative to "fill in" the pdf, I'll get creative to transfer the additional data back to the database.

:-) Jenn
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2010-04-02 10:23:10
#3
sealedesign
Registered: Mar 19 2010
Posts: 12
did you ever get this to work. Seems like this would be a typical feature of livecycle!!
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2010-04-02 10:30:29
#4
JennD
Registered: Jan 8 2009
Posts: 18
I did not. I can get the information from the db to the form. Any information returned on the form gets manually inputted into the database. I have not yet found the solution. I know there must be one, however, it apparently is over my head.

This manual input method works for us for now. Eventually I will try to design another way altogether. You'd think it would be a typical feature, however, after hours and hours and hours of searching all I can find are other users with the same question. It has been very frusterating.
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2010-04-02 11:02:55
#5
sealedesign
Registered: Mar 19 2010
Posts: 12
I tried send the info as an email, then used Email2Database free software to sort the email data into a database.
There are now live acrobat user groups starting up. I called goDaddy to see if they could help, but never heard of it.
Adobe has launched something new where it will host your databases from forms. I think it is $14.95/month.
Let me know if any of this works for you.
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2010-04-19 21:30:51
#6
krm240
Registered: Apr 17 2009
Posts: 95
Did you resolve your issue, asking as I will be trying to resolve this issue too as I need a solution for the exact same thing. I am using Access and Sql2005 (backend database).
If you did resolve the process, can you please share.
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2010-04-20 03:53:26
#7
JennD
Registered: Jan 8 2009
Posts: 18
No I did not. I settled for the manual input as I had other projects that needed my attention. I am able to send data from the database to populate the Adobe form, but I cannot get the Adobe form to send data back to the database. I works for our company for now but I need to find a solution in the future. Eventually they will want to be a bit more automated.
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2010-04-20 07:41:19
#8
sealedesign
Registered: Mar 19 2010
Posts: 12
I agree. I have not found a solution to this after several attempts, looking over the web and asking 5 programmers. I don't want to give up but am afraid that maybe this product needs some work.
I expected it to be fairly easy and the number of hours I spent just to find that it doesn't work makes me think another method is better.

I wanted to fill out the acrobat form and post results to a virtual server. Another objective was to use a program called email2database and send this data to the same database on the server. I tried calling Adobe but they gave me a lot of excuses and then said they couldn't help, I'd have to look in the help files, etc.

There is a huge disconnect between databases and pdfs. I don't know where to find a middleware expert who also knows pdfs.
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2010-04-20 08:00:01
#9
krm240
Registered: Apr 17 2009
Posts: 95
I am trying to resolve a date field issue, then I will be on this to try and resolve
I have a lot of Access experience, but limited Javascript and pdf.

At the moment, I have the following:
Backend database is offsite Sql2005
Access linked into this server to manage the data
PDF is connected to the server and pulling the data to prepopulate the data based on 3 drop downs.

My current issue is that a date/time field in the sql database is not populating properly as I only want a date field (no time) and just do not know how to do this :-(

The intent is to prepop the form, save as to a new form name, send form to user to complete.
User updates, sends back, I upload data to server when all done - so sounds like we are all working on the same type of project

Once this date issue is resolved, I need to come up with that process to upload the revised data back to the server. Will keep U posted.

Have U guys any experience on date fields???
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2010-04-20 08:38:27
#10
sealedesign
Registered: Mar 19 2010
Posts: 12
You are prepopulating data on the pdf form. Sounds like something I would have to do at some point but right now I want the data to go directly to the server. Seems too much work to receive, then post data.
It's OK if it goes to an access database or mysql or any other database. I want the database to be hosted on godaddy. I have read that people have had trouble with this since go daddy doesn't want all that activity unless related to a website, but some say they have found work arounds.
Have you thought of posting the job on odesk?
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2010-04-20 08:41:15
#11
sealedesign
Registered: Mar 19 2010
Posts: 12
Try contacting jammaster11 [at] yahoo [dot] com instant message.
He helped me with an access database and pdf and charged $10.
His name is Jayson.
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2010-04-20 08:47:45
#12
krm240
Registered: Apr 17 2009
Posts: 95
My sql backend database is on godaddy!
Works fine (so far) except this date field issue that I need to resolve
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