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Overview of Tools to use for Forms Data Entry & Submission to DB

masai_chadi
Registered: May 17 2007
Posts: 6

Hi
 
I am new to Adobe tools and applications.
 
Our ourganization have hundreds of regulatory forms that our operations people have to fill out and send it to various departments and databases. The forms are defined and designed in MS Word (but can be changed to Acrobat if it is a prerequisite to other steps).
 
We would like to have operations people:
 
- enter data in the form
(form should have some validation and record retrieval capability, eg. when employee number is enter the name and address is looked up from the database)
 
- submit the forms
(when submitting the form should be saved in a local directory, server directory, and sent to a central location for uploading into the database)
 
- then the forms data are automatically uploaded into Oracle applications & other third party databases
 
** some of the operations people donot have persistent internet or network connectivity. For these folks it would be deisreable to have 'the solution' automatically detect connection and transmit.
 
I am some what confused as to what Adobe tools/applications would provide me a solution that meets the above high requirements.
 
Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Standard 8, Windows
thomp
Expert
Registered: Feb 15 2006
Posts: 4411
An Acrobat Form can implement all of features you've mentioned except for the last one, detecting an internet connection. However, since you have a closed environment, i.e., you have control over the user system's. You could use an external application for detecting a connection and transmitting the Form data.

This is a big project and there are many options for setting up a system like the one you describe. You'll need to do a lot of reading, get some training, and/or hire a consultant.

Thom Parker
The source for PDF Scripting Info
www.pdfscripting.com
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