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populate pdf forms with data from fdf

2008-05-02 14:03:07

sankett

Registered: May 2 2008

Posts: 9

We have adobe lifecycle 8.0 which creates pdf form. In this form we have fields that have some user input values. Every time this pdf is opened by different users we want to load this pdf with data about that user from a fdf that is generated dynamically.

We actually want to import data in this pdf created using adobe lifecycle. This was possible when before we used pdf created using adobe professional. I can see that importing data from xml or xsd is easy.... but what about fdf.... we delt with it in adobe professional before.... can it work with pdf created in lifecycle.

Thanks...

2008-05-03 09:14:17

thomp

Registered: Feb 15 2006

Posts: 4411

You can use FDF to populate a LiveCycle form, but it is not recomended, and may not be supported in the future. The key difference between the Old AcroForms and LiveCycle Forms, at least as far as FDF is concerned, is in how the fields are named. LiveCycle forms have hierarchy, and each field is described with a hieararchal SOM path. It's that SOM path that you need to use the in the FDF. This is because merging FDF with a LiveCycle Form circumvents the Data Model, and merges directly into the fields.

The technique is to open your form in Acrobat Professional and then use JavaScript to export the FDF. Use the "this.submitForm()" function with the character set, set to UTF-8 and the URL as an email format. The exported FDF will give you the names you need to use.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
Very Important - How to Debug Your Script