New to LiveCycle need some help. How to....

[#1]

I am new to Livecyle but it has been pretty easy to figure out the basics. I have two questions. I am using LiveCycle Designer 8.0.



First:

When I place the "submit by e-mail" button on a form, does it only send back to me as an XML file? If yes, is there a way to change that so it sends as a PDF? If there is no way to change it to an XML file, how and what program do I need to read the XML file?



Second:

If I send a form out to a customer say and want them to keep it and save it for their use, is there a way to do this. Everytime I send it to myself it prompts me that I will be unable to save and can only print the form for personal use.

[#2]

Hi,

First: If you use the submit by email button, only xml is available as a choice. Instead, insert a Button, browse to the Object tab, and you will find the submit tab. Submit to URL: "mailto:" This will open the email application. Here you can set submit as PDF.



The XML file can be read in a standard text editor, or a xml parser.



Second: I believe you can only save the forms using Acrobat. For Acrobat Reader, I think you must enable Reader Extensions to be able to save the form.



I hope this helps you.

[#3]

On enabling the Reader Extensions I am a bit confused on how to do that, could you please explain? Thanks.

[#4]

The Reader Extensions ES requires a separate license. Have a look at http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/readerextensions/

[#5]

Hi there,



I just wanted to thank you guys because you just answered the problem I'm trying to solve since last week.



I'm in the same position as Greg, I learned the basics for Adobe Designer and was able to do some of what I wanted to, but now my form works perfectly well and I'm able to receive it as a pdf file.



I'll post Daniel's trick in every other forum I went to post my problem!



Thanks again 🙂



Chris

[BJeppson]

How did you solve this? I can't find the solution anywhere.

[#7]

Hi there,

In regards to your answer to the question about Livecyle:



"When I place the "submit by e-mail" button on a form, does it only send back to me as an XML file? If yes, is there a way to change that so it sends as a PDF? If there is no way to change it to an XML file, how and what program do I need to read the XML file?"



I followed your instructions and added mailto: in the URL, but when I press the newly created button on my form to submit the email message, it creates an email form WITHOUT a SEND option. I am totally perplexed. Any ideas?

[#8]

Another thank you. I spent two days trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I'm another beginner and the only problem was that I was receiving forms back from customers in "code" and had to read between the codes to find the details. Not ideal. But now all is good. I think that it is misleading and confusing that the "submit email" button included by default doesn't give the option to send as pdf.

Many more people must be struggling with this one. But thanks for the answers here.

Cheers,

Tricia

[#9]

Hi Whitney,

What email client are you using? Is it outlook, or a web client? I have no problem sending the generated email from outlook. You could send me your form if you like, and I can see if I get the same behaviour. My email address is daniel(at)wittwer.info.

[#10]

Hi all,

Glad to hear that your problems are being solved out. Always happy to help when I can. 🙂

[#11]

Hi Tricia,

I agree that reading the xml file manually is not ideal. However, it can be very useful when the response is to be imported into a database or such. I also agree that not being able to change the "submit as email" button is frustrating. I am glad that it works fine for you.

[#12]

Hi Daniel,

I wasn't able to send an email to the address you provided. In the form I created, the "button" functions properly (a box opens to send an email)in Adobe Professional but does not function properly in Adobe Reader. Any suggestions?

[pguerett]

Is this still an open issue or do you still need help?

[#14]

It is still an issue. I was able to work around it. I inserted a "button" instead of an "email submit button" and accepted that the info would be sent as an xml

[pguerett]

If you put just a regular button then you had to make it a submit button (Object Palette, Field Tab, Control Type). Once this is done a Submit tab becomes available. Click on this Submit tab. In the submit to URL parameter you can use the mailto:mailaddress. This protocol will allow you to code other parts of the email .... to find out how just do a google search on mailto and it will show you how. Now to change the submission type. There is a dropdown below the Submit to URL box called Submit As. Open this dropdown and you can choose what you want to submit. If you choose PDF then your entire PDF will get sent, if you choose xml then only your data will be sent, If you choose XDP then you can choose what you want to have included in your XML Data package (XDP). Note that if you use this option and you include the PDF then it will be base64 encoded.

[Robert_Hirst]

This will create a button which works correctly in Acrobat, but you will find that nothing happens when users on Adobe Reader click it. After you make the button you will need to open the file in Acrobat 8 Pro, then select "Enable Usage Rights in Adobe Reader" from the Tools menu then save the new file.



In the new file that is produced, the button will be able to send the PDF/XDP via email from Adobe Reader (with data).



Be careful using this, (from the top of my head) the licensing terms for Acrobat state that you if you enable this in the document then it can either be distributed to 500 people who can submit it unlimited times, or unlimited people but only 500 data submissions can be processed. Read the fine print in the user agreement for details.



If you are likely to come close to these limits you must license the server product Reader Extensions ES.

[#17]

First, thanks to you guys for the info on how to submit by e-mail. The help files are appallingly insufficient.



So I got my form working BUT when it sends that pdf to the e-mail address, the file name is crazy. The last one: _e3k1635n4f3e25j8u.pdf. Is there any way for me to spiff that up?

[Robert_Hirst]

This is a deliberate "feature" most likely to prevent certain usage scenarios under the limited licence granted to use Reader Extensions through Acrobat Pro.



I can confirm that if you license the full Reader Extensions ES product it will not happen, and the file will be sent with the original name.

[pguerett]

If you are running this test from a preview then the crazy filename is due to the fact that the pdf is being created as a temporary file (in the preview). If you save out the file as a PDF and try your test again then you shoudl get a proper filename as the attachment.

[Robert_Hirst]

My bad, the server product forced me to download the file and open standalone when I tested, hence my incorrect assumption. Apologies.



Well it's useful to know for future reference that there are no differences between email submissions from a document extended in Acrobat and one from the full Reader Extensions ES, although most of the projects I'm working currently on cannot use email submit for various reasons (no data security, excludes web mail users, etc.).