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Redistributing a Form

Forum Index > Forms: LiveCycle Designer > Redistributing a Form
2010-02-13 07:26:59
davolson01
Registered: Jan 29 2010
Posts: 13

If I discover I need to make a change to a form I have distributed, do I need to give the form a new file name and redistribute it, or can I redistribute the form with the changes under the old name? (In this case, I don't have any data other than test data, so there's no problem with giving it a new name.)

Dave

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2010-02-14 16:05:36
#1
davolson01
Registered: Jan 29 2010
Posts: 13
Here is what I've discovered happens when I change a form that has already been distributed, then redistribute it: It creates a new distributed file with a distributed_001 appended to it. (i.e, if my PDF file is called "filename.pdf", the first time I distributed it it created "filename_distributed.pdf", and "filename_responses.pdf"... when I modify "filename.pdf", then distribute it again, it creates two new files on my hard drive, "filename_distributed_001.pdf" and "filename_responses_001.pdf". If I distribute it again, it's _002.pdf, etc.)

That's no problem if I'm distributing the changed file via email to new recipients. But here's my problem with that: I've already sent out an email, with a link to a file called "filename_distributed.pdf" which is posted on our web site, for respondents to download and submit to Acrobat.com. If I post the new distributed file, "filename_distributed_001.pdf", on the site, obviously the link in my email won't work.

I could send out a new email, but I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. So here's what my workaround has been. It looks like it will work with my tests, but if someone sees a big problem with this please let me know:

1. I logged into acrobat.com, and deleted "filename_distributed.pdf" (actually I renamed it in case the test didn't work and I could rename it back if so).

2. I then renamed "filename_distributed_001.pdf" to "filename_distributed.pdf".

3. I then downloaded this renamed "filename_distributed.pdf" to my hard drive, to replace the file there (again renaming the file on my drive to allow recovery if this failed).

4. I then uploaded this file to the web site, replacing the file there.

So now if someone clicks the link in my email I sent out, it pulls up this newly-modified form, because it has the old name -- even though it's "actually" the new, updated form. When they fill out the form and submit it, the responses go to the new "filename_responses_001.pdf" file, which is fine -- I can use that file to collect responses to this updated form. I just have to merge them with the responses I've already collected in "filename_responses.pdf".

If someone sees some problem with this that I haven't detected yet, please let me know. Thanks.

Dave
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