Problems adding attachment after certifying form

By applying the Certification you are telling Acrobat that you don't want to allow any major changes to the PDF. In fact, even small changes to a PDF, such as changing the border color on a form field can break certification. Certification locks the PDF down for all changes except form filling and digital signing.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Hi,

I’m trying to send the form by opening it with Adobe Reader (without using a browser) to the web server through an https connection with client authentication. I’m certifying my form because otherwise this connection won't work.

Is it necessary to certify the form? How can I send it?

Please I need some help!!!!

Are you certifying the PDF or applying Reader Rights?

First I certify the PDF and then I apply Reader Rights, and I can send it. But I can't add an attachment.

But if I only apply Reader Rights, I can't send the PDF. it show this error: "An error ocurred during the submit process. Unknown failure."

is it posible to send it without certifying?

I've been going through all the online docs, tutorials, etc. and none of them mention that certification is necessary to submit to HTTPS. But I've never tried it before. Reader Rights are of course necessary only if the form is to be filled out in Reader, which brings up another problem. Attachments can only be added to a PDF in Reader if the PDF has a special Reader Right (embedding Rights). It's not the ones that you can apply with Acrobat Pro. You are going down the wrong path with this. You are not going to be able to attach a file to a PDF in Reader, much less submit it.

Since you are submitting to an URL you must also be writing a server script to handle the data on the server side? If this is true then you have another option. Submit the form as FDF and include the file you want to attach in the FDF data. On the server you'll need to parse out the file data, which can easily be done with the FDFToolkit (Free from Adobe). To embed the file in the FDF data use the "Field is used for File Selection" option on text field. There's some expaination of how this option is used in the Acrobat JavaScript Reference and in the Guide.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Ok, I understand you.

The form is designed with LiveCycle Designer, and the form has all special Reader Right (add attachment, submit outside browser, add comments, etc..)

If I submit the same form using a browser, it’s done. A dialog box shows the certificates in my computer's Windows certificate store and then I select one of these certificates and this connection to the server is done successfully. But when I submit the form outside using a browser, the dialog box doesn’t appear, so the client authentication isn’t done. I think this is my problem.

But do you know why I can’t submit the form (outside using a browser) to the web server through an https connection with client authentication?

Thank you very much for your help

So you are saying that you are able to apply File Attachment rights to the form? Do you then have the LiveCycle ES servers? and are you submitting this form to one of these servers (Form ES for example)? This is a game changer and would have been really nice to know up front.

Please provide a clear explaination of how the form is built and the environment it's operating in.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]

Sorry for having confused you.

I can't add attachments when the form is certified, but as you told me that adding attachments after certifying was not possible, I'm not certifying it anymore.

My problem is sending the form from outside the browser.

About the environment I'm working with: I design the form with the LiveCycle and then I use Adobe Reader Extensions ES to give rights to the form. The user downloads the form through a Java application developed by me using a browser and stores it in his computer. He then fills out the form and sends it back to my application pressing on a submit botton. This information is sent with a XDP format. I have developped this Java application because I needed to treat the information the user fills in. So I'm not sending the form to any LiveCycle ES server, the server I'm using is Websphere.

As I tried to explain you in my previous post, the connection is HTTPS with client authentification (client and server exchange certificates) which works when sent from inside the browser but not from outside.

I hope I have explained myself better now and you can help me.

Thank you very much!!

My understanding of how HTTPS works is not perfect, this is not my area. However, the way I understand it, the data passed back and forth between the client and server is signed. On the client side, it's the browser that does the signing. This doesn't have anything to do with Acrobat, a signed PDF is a different thing from the signed HTTP packet sent to the server. It works in the browser because the browser knows how to sign the outgoing data.

However, You can setup your Submit button to sign the submission data, there's a checkbox for this right below where you enter the submission URL. I don't know for sure, but I think that this is probably what you need to submit directly to HTTPS from the stand alone Reader.

You do have a way to check this out in more detail. Since you are the one who wrote the server script you should be able to tell what's coming down the pipe and how the server is handling it. The error messages reported by the server should tell you exactly what it doesn't like about the HTTP request from the stand-alone Reader.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
[url=http://www.pdfScripting.com]pdfscripting.com[/url]

The Acrobat JavaScript Reference, Use it Early and Often
[url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/javascript.php[/url]

Then most important JavaScript Development tool in Acrobat
[url=http://www.pdfscripting.com/public/34.cfm#JSIntro][b]The Console Window (Video tutorial)[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2006/javascript_console][b]The Console Window(article)[/b][/url]