Struggling with PDF forms and Livecycle Designer/Technologies...
I am looking into replacing some of our Word doc forms with PDF forms. Easy enough creating simple PDF forms from the .docs.
But from there we'd like to investigate options for going paperless. So the idea is we have our PDF forms stored off on our network shares, just like always. Person opens a form in Reader, fills it out then Submits it. In some cases, the submitted form would need to be routed to another individual for approval, then submitted again to a final destination (person)...in other cases the form needs no approval and simply goes straight to a final destination....all-in-all a common practice.
Now, after the initial person fills a form in Reader, as I understand it, it can be submitted as XDP, XML, PDF or HTML URL. I've done some preliminary testing with our web server and getting stuck here.
If I submit to the web server as URL-encoded...a form with just 1 Text field, I get only the first character of both the parameter name and the value. For example, I have a TextField called "Username", say I fill it out with the value "Joe", and submit. What gets passed as the URL query string is
U=J
That's my first hurdle. I've looked at the TextFields properties and the Submit button properties and don't see anything that could be doing this. The web server iteself has never "chopped" things off like this either (though this is my first foray into PDF submits). Just FYI We are using an Oracle database and app server and PL/SQL procedures receiving the HTTP POST.
Conceptually I'm not even sure if a URL-encoded submit is the way to go, but I figured I'd start out simple, and with our simplest forms they would be submitted and maybe just a email notice sent, or insert into a database table, so a simple URL POST should suffice to initiate this kind of action. The more complicated forms that get routed to other users, and need to be re-rendered as a PDF, perhaps with the previous persons entries now being static, this is where some of our forms would evolve to. If I choose XDP or XML or PDF submit then the http server chokes...I think perhaps it needs some Livecycle server to received this post(???)
This is the point I am really lost. I don't understand the Livecycle technologies, what does what and what would even be needed and whether they are free or not. Could someone explain this to me, in laymans terms, what the technologies are and would be required here?...or maybe point me to some documents that would help me understand...
