Response file unable to read multiple rows created in dynamic form

This isn't very well explained, but data collection files don't deal well with hierarchical data. After all, only one line is allocated for each form. It's not setup to display repeated data within a form.

It would be really nice if there was a way to setup a better data display, but there isn't, and because of how the Portfolio Navigator interface is setup it's unlikely that one will come along any time soon. (The collection document is a PDF Portfolio), what you really need is a real back end data management system. The distribution/collection mechanism built into Acrobat is very lightweight.

If you aren't loosing any data on the actual form, then this is just an irritation.

Wow - I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Unfortunately I built the whole form before trying out that aspect. I see one reason why it doesn't work - when you add a row, the row doesn't have a dedicated fieldname, so of course any information placed in it cannot be retrieved.

It seems like invisible/visible fields could work, but then there is still a blank space where the unadded row will appear. Is there any way for the invisible fields to not take up space until they are made visible?

I apologize if I'm not using the right terms.

The form collection process is a bit on the brain-dead side. It does one thing in a specific way. I've looked at some of the details under the covers, so to speak, and you might be able to manipulate which files are displayed by adding and deleting, or at least not including some of the Portfolio fields. There may also be a connection to info in the metadata. However, I don't know the specifics and as far as I know they are undocumented. So you're on your own. You'll need to experiment to see what's possible.

Thank you very much for your help. One quick question - what is Portfolio? I thought it was a just a group of PDFs - http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/Standard/WSA2872EA8-9756-4a8c-9F20-8E93D59D91CE.php. Is there another use, or am I missing something?

Yes, a Portfolio is just a fancy way to attach a bunch of files to a PDF. Structurally, there is no difference between a PDF that just has file attachments and a Portfolio. But there are two main differences in how Acrobat treats these documents. In a portfolio, each attached file has a set of metadata associated with it. The is not the PDF metadata. This is a special set of fields that are connected to each attached file. You can create your own fields and manually fill in the values for each file. Or the fields can be filled in automatically by some special piece of software that builds the portfolio. The second difference is that the Portfolio has a Flash presentation associated with it. This flash file is called the Navigator. Acrobat Plays the Navigator when the file is opened, so it's the only thing the user sees. The special thing about the Navigator is that it can be used to control which attached file is displayed, and it has access to all the Metadata fields for each attachment.

Ok, so this is how the Form Collection file works. It has a special Navigator for displaying form data. The form data is stored in the Portfolio Metadata fields. When a new form is added to the Collection, a program built into Acrobat, copies the data in the form into the Portfolio metadata for that attachment. The key point here is that there is functionality built-into Acrobat for adding the forms into the collection portfolio in a special way. i.e., the form data is copied into the Portfolio Metadata fields.