Dynamic Stamp with interactive fields-is this possible? If so, how?

Dynamic stamps are possible. Thom Parker has posted [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/dynamic_stamp_secrets/]Dynamic Stamp Secrets[/url] and then there is [link=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=16982]Dynamic Stamp - Multi Field Input[/url] with the same issue.

Read and tried these first and they dont work (assuming I didn't do something wrong). When you place the scripts into the stamp, the interactive functionality disappears after you save the stamp.

I can get date fields to show up and change based on the date, but I cannot get the check boxes or user input foelds for the date and time to work.

Hi yimyammer,

Did you read the Dynamic Stamp Secrets article? It states-

"A dynamic stamp is created by adding form fields to an existing stamp file. It doesn’t count if the fields are added to the original PDF that is turned into a stamp. Those fields are flattened out when the stamp file is created. They have to be added after the stamp is created....."

Did you add the fields after the stamp was created? My first guess would be that this is the problem, but it could be something else. We make these dynamic stamps all the time for customers so I know they do in fact work well, you just have to make sure to follow all the directions carefully.

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.windjack.com
www.pdfscripting.com

Hmmm.... I guess I didn't, how do I open the stamp file? I've just been opening the original PDF image I created to make the stamp out of, but I guess thats not the stamp file I need to open??

I tried opening the stamp located here:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\8.0\Stamps

then I tried to add the text and check boxes to the related stamp, but the stamp still gets flattened.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong still, any ideas what it is?

Did I go to the right place to find the stamp I created?

Can you confirm that if I am able to figure out what mistake I am making that the stamp I'm trying to create will be able to:

1. have an adjustable date field that starts with an automated date that I can override if I want to change it

2. I can click check boxes within the stamp where they apply, and

3. I can create a user input text box within the stamp that allows me to input data that applies (like the check #)

I dont want to beat my head against the wall trying to solve this problem only to find out it cannot even be done

Thanks

You might want to read [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/custom_dynamic_stamp/]Creating a Custom Dynamic Stamp[/url] by Lori DeFurio. There also is a vedio you can watch.

You nee to populate all the data prior to placing the stamp. Once the stamp is placed the data displayed by the stamp can not be changed, the PDF image of the stamp is flattened along with the stamps image.

According to this post, I cant do what I am trying to do:

http://acrobat.timhuff.net/?p=68

Dynamic is possible, interactive is not, DANG!!

The questions and answers posted here haven't exactly been clear. The Dynamic Stamp Secrets article describes a methodology where the user can input the information they want placed on the stamp. This happens only once, immediately after the user places the stamp on a PDF page. After the data is entered, usually from a popup dialog box, Acrobat flattens out all the information and finishes creating the stamp. After this point the stamp is basically a picture and cannot be change.

So, you can interactively enter the data that will appear on the stamp. What you cannot do is have fields on the stamp that will remain interactive after the stamp is placed on the PDF.

Try the example presented in the article you'll how it all happens.

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/]http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/[/url]

Thanks, through trial, error and research I figured out what you said is true. Too bad, that would be incredibly handy if they could pull it off

I followed the Dynamic Stamp Secrets steps and also downloaded the Stamp Secrets Sample file but I still haven't been able to create an interactive stamp that works the same way as the sample file. I basically made my on stamp and created the items the same way as the sample has them with the text fields and then went into each text field property to the calculate tab, then to the custom calculation script and input the script that was in the sample. I kept all the text box names the same also.

All that happens when I select the created stamp I made is it just is put on the form and doesn't prompt me for anything. The Sample I downloaded does work but, of course, its not the type of stamp I want.

All I want to do is create a stamp where the person just enters a specific date in the field (not the computer generated current date).

Any suggestions? Please!!

Can't be done, I beat my head for 2 days trying to pull it off. You can only do dynamic stamps (these auto input data such as the date or user name), you can't have an interactive field within the stamp where you can input data after its stamped.

SUCKS!! They need to fix this

You can use any number of other annotations to provide additional data besides the stamp. Like putting a text box over the stamp.

Hello everybody. I really want to customize my own stamp like Thom (like you all want to do, it seems).

I think, I understood the proceeding... my problem is, that I have not the device \Acrobat in my \Application Data device... In other words, it is impossible to change stamp once I created it. It is possible to find the device somewhere else ?

thx a lot !

I've got to be doing something wrong because the Dynamic Stamp Sample Secrets that I downloaded does work on my pc. But when I created a stamp sample like the above sample (and I only added the text box fields to the stamp after I made the stamp) everything works except where it prompts you to enter something, which is really the only thing I want in the first place.

I created 3 stamps just like the sample and had the same info in each stamp field name. I did change the stampName in the JAVA code under the userdata text box where the if statement is located in the code.

Knunddi,
The stamps you create are in Acrobat's "user" stamp folder. You can find the location of this folder by running the following code from the console window.

app.getPath("user","stamps");

If Acrobat says it there, then it's there.

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]

Taking,
Please explain more. What exactly is the code you are using in the calculate event of the fields on your stamp file? Are any errors reported in the Console Window? What happens when you use the stamp? Is the stamp placed? What is the data in the text boxes on the stamp? Did you follow all the steps for determining the stamp ID, and then validate that you had it correctly identified?

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]

thomp,

Your secrets example has three stamps but I'm assuming that I only need to use example 3 (although I did try it exactly the way your secrets example was). Below is the code for the stamp I'm using and my stamp has two text fields (first field is filename and second field is datereceived). The name of my stamp after I created a custom stamp is received (I changed it from the computer generated name) and the text fields above were created after I created the custom stamp.

Text Field - filename code

event.value = event.source.source.documentFileName;

Text Field - datereceived code

var cAsk = "Enter the Date Received: "; (I changed the text you had here)
var cTitle = "Document State For Stamp ";
if(event.source.forReal && (event.source.stampname == "received"))
{var cMsg = app.response(cAsk, cTitle);
cMsg =+ " : " + util.printd( "mm/dd/yyyy ", new Date ());
event.value = cMsg;
event.source.source.info.DocumentState = cMsg;}

What happens when I post this stamp to a pdf is that the filename field does show up on the stamp when it is place on the form but the datereceived field does nothing and nothing appears nor do I get prompted for something to enter.

This is the error I get when I select control+j to get to the Java Debugger screen (which I know very little about)

syntax error
1:Console:Exec
undefined
event.source has no properties
1:AcroForm:filename:Calculate
event.source has no properties
1:AcroForm:filename:Calculate
event.source has no properties
3:AcroForm:datereceived:Calculate
event.source has no properties
3:Acroform:datereceived:Calculate

The errors you list are similar to the errors you'd get from opening the Stamp file in Acrobat, not what you'd get from applying the stamp to a PDF page. I suspect the errors are not related to the stamp usage at all.

You say that you changed the name of the stamp? How exactly did you go about doing this? You can change the name of the stamp file. But without a good bit of knowledge and advanced tools you can't change the internal name of the stamp.

The second example in the article shows how to acquire the internal name of the stamp that will be used in the real working stamp. Add a form field to your existing stamp and copy the code from example to into the calculation event of this field. This will tell you the real name of the stamp. Once you know this name and have saved it, delete the field and use the name in your working code.

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]

Thom,

Thanks for the response. As I suspected I apparently did something different when I first added the code to get the internal name. Nevertheless, I got the correct internal name now and it's working great. Thanks for the help!!

One other question. Can I add a spot for a digital signature in the stamp as well? If so, please let me know how. When I add one nothing appears on the stamp after the stamp is put on the pdf form. The stamp I created from the last post only includes the date I enter when it is placed on the form (after being prompted to enter it).

Also, can users only have the adobe reader to use the stamp or do they need the full version?

Hmm, I think you can add a digital signature to the stamp, but it wouldn't do you any good. Remember, the user cannot interact with fields on the stamp. They are all filled out by JavaScript on the Calculate event of one of the fields on the stamp. You could write a script to sign a field on the stamp, but as soon as the stamp is placed the fields are flattened out and all you would be left with is the look of a digital signature on the stamp.

A digital signature is more than just a form field. It's a checksum of the entire document. So it has to be on the document itself, and it cannot be separated from it.

So, what you can do is use the code in the stamp to place a digital signature on the document and sign. I'm not sure this can be done directly from a stamp script. But you could go the another way. Write an automation script to place both the stamp and the signature as two separate operations. To the user it would look like one operation.

If a PDF is enabled for "Commenting and Markup" Rights then stamps can be applied with 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]

Man, I've reread this post as well as this:

http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/dynamic_stamp_secrets/

about ten freaking times and I cant get the pop-up to work to save my life.

Shouldn't I be able to test whether this works by pasting the text in the article into a calculate field of a text box and get a similar result?

Can someone help me get back on track, I'm frustrated as heck and can't get anything to work except a simple dynamic stamp with the date and user text

PS... all I want is a text box that pops up when I try to place my stamp that says:

"Enter check #:"

Why yes, you should. Have you tried the sample in the article? verbatim? Lots of people have had success with this. What is the exact problem that you are having??

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]

I guess I'm dense, because I dont see sample in this article:

http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/dynamic_stamp_secrets/

I see at the end there appears to be a working stamp depicted in the screenshot, but I can't tell exactly how it was created. I opened the "stamps secret sample PDF" and saved it to my hard drive and then copied the Text Field box to a stamp I created and it didnt work.

The dynamic stamp article and video is easy to follow, but I am having trouble with dynamic stamp secrets.

I can get the stamp name part to work, I just cant get the pop-up, fill in the blank, to work.

I have several stamps in my stamp pdfs, does it need to be a stand alone file?

[img]http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3351/adobestampgi0.png[/img]

Here's a link to the screenshot I provided in case the embedded one is too small to read

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3351/adobestampgi0.png

Ok, to start off with, the download sample in the article is a stamp file. If you copy it to you're local Acrobat stamps folder it will place 3 stamps on the Acrobat Stamps menu. Each of the stamps demonstrates a concept, or step, in creating a stamp that displays a popup.

Simply copying the script, or the field, from the final demo stamp onto another stamp will not work. But there is only one thing in that code that needs to be changed in order to make it work with your stamp, [b]the stamp name[/b]. You have to identify your stamp's name, and then copy it over top of the name that's used in the code.

Here's the code in the final demo stamp

The stamps name is #UdzyXagRctZoS5p43TZ43C. Your stamp will have a different name. The second demo stamp provides code for identifying the stamp name. You've stated that you have already gotten this code to work. So all you need to do is copy the name thats displayed on the stamp into the code for the final example and you're done.

Everytime you create a new stamp, Acrobat assigns it a unique name. You need to identify and use the name of the specific stamp you are working with.

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]

Why can't I just copy the text field into a new stamp and change the name of the stamp (in the calculate field) to make it work?

I tried that and changed the stamp file name by using the instructions in the article and it still didn't work.

My PDF stamp file has multiple stamps in a single pdf, does that make a difference?

If I wanted to go back to ground zero, how would I get the sample stamps to work as coded in the sample stamp pdf?

Do I use the "Create new stamp" and then reference one of the individual stamps in the sample stamp file? It seems like I tried that and then all the text fields got flattened and wouldn't work.

I've feel like I'm going in a vicious circle.........

See screenshot of one scenario I did:

[url=http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adobe03of7.jpg][img]http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2984/adobe03of7.th.jpg[/img][/url]

you'll have to click the link and then zoom in on the image in the new browser to read it

This is exactly what you do. Figure out what name of the stamp is, then use it in the code.

The name of the PDF that contains the stamps has nothing to do with the name of the stamp. Each page inside the PDF, except for page 1, is a different stamp. When you create a new stamp, Acrobat adds a page to the PDF and assigns the stamp a name. You have no control over this and for all practical purposes, you can't change the name of the stamp. You have to use the name that Acrobat gave the stamp.

You are way over complicating this. All you have to do is identify the name of the stamp and then use it in the code that displays the popup.

In the article, it explains how to discover the name of the stamp. That's what the second example in the demo file is all about.

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]

First of all thank you for your patience and taking the time to try and help me. I'm soo aggravated that I cant seem to figure this out. I am not as stupid as I sound

I tried this (which I dont think is the correct way to find the stamp name:

These events all occur in the context of the stamp file, i.e., the this object is the doc object of the stamp file. To demonstrate, place the following line of code in the calculation script for a field on your dynamic stamp:

event.value = this.documentFileName;

When you place the stamp on a PDF, it will display the name of the stamp file, not the name of the file on which the stamp is placed.


Then I tried this to get the stamp name:

event.value = event.source.stampName;

and it returns:

#azCuYFyQHnW2nDoJSxqTJB.pdf

Do I need the ".pdf" or do I leave that off?

I've retried this multiple times, nothing I do cause the stamo to have a pop-up when I go to a new PDF and place the stamp. Ive tried to put the name above with and without ",pdf" and like I said, nothing works

I'm using Acrobat 8 pro by the way

If you look at this code you'll see that two parameters are used as qualifiers for displaying the popup "event.source.forReal" and "event.source.stampName". So, the string that is compared against "event.source.stampName" must be exactly what is returned by "event.source.stampName" when you use it to identify the stamp name.

It is not #azCuYFyQHnW2nDoJSxqTJB.pdf. This is the name of the stamp file, not the stamp. I can garrentee you, 100%, that you did not setup the code properly when tried to get the value from "event.source.stampName". You need to do this again.

In fact, try this, Place the code below into the calculate event of the text field on the stamp


Open the console window and watch it as you select the stamp off the menu and place it on a PDF. You'll see these two lines executed each time an action takes place. In fact, you'll see many more actions than you think. The last time data is written to the console window, when the stamp is placed, the values printed out should look like this

ForReal: true
Name: #azCuYFyQHnW2nDoJSxqTJB

If this is true, then you'll know the string to use for comparing the stamp name.

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]

Thanks for helping to find the stamp name.

When I place the stamp name in the form data in the stamp, and utilize the stamp, the dialog box appears and allows user entry.

This user text is then written to the stamp file and saved, and not in the stamp on the document being stamped.

Any help would be appreciated.

What appears on the stamped document? What is code in the calculation script in the stamp file? do you have more than one calculation script? Are there any other scripts on the sampe file?

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]

I have reviewed the postings regarding creating a Stamp that will allow a user to input the date that needs to be on the stamp (vs picking "today's date") and I cannot get it to work. I am using Professional 8.1 any advise? I am working directly in the Stamp file, but can't get the stamp name to appear after following all of the posts listed.

Have you read the Dynamic Stamp Secrets article?

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]

Yes~ I am sure I am just missing a step, but I can't even get the stamp name to appear when I place a stamp. What do you mean when you say I can see the name in the "window console"? Also, should I be placing all of this coding in the text form field properties (Calculate tab, Custom calculation script)?

Thom- I re-read the dynamic secrets and was able to get it to work. It is great!!! The key is to make sure you put the coding into the actual stamp file. Thank you for the nudge!

Glad to help:) You just had the most common misunderstanding in creating dynamic stamps. This is a pretty complicated process and all the bit have to be just so.

There are links to info on the Console Window in my signature block below.

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]