Can you link a pdf form to a live database (access) (act)

[Former Community Member]

Can Designer create a form that can access a database live to get data and then relay the filled in information back to the database ie

job number xxxxx (from database)  Client xxxxxxx (from database) time on job xxxxx (input on form and uploaded back)

then upload this back to live database

[Former Community Member]

Depends on the database and the OS. Acrobat can use an OLE/DB connection through Windows to connect to the DB and perform those operations. We normally do not recommend doing itthat way beacuse you woudl have to configure a DSN on each client machine that will need to connect ot the DB (this becomes a maintenance issue in a large envirnment  - if there is a small number of users this is less of an issue). Dependinng on the DB you may have to laod an ODBC client driver on each machine as well. Bigger installation will centralize this function on a server and have the form submit to that place for these operations.

Database connectivity is a standard feature in Acrobat but if you are using Reader it is not supported by default. You can enable the functionality by Reader Extending the file using LiveCycle Reader Extensions Server.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

I run a Artwork studio that use Macs we currently use a paper time sheet to record artworking time based on job number client and time spent, this currently then get added to a PC based database manually everyday by myself. what I would like to do is get the Artworkers to enter the information on a Pdf form send it back to ? and the data be put on to the database automatically. What would be good is that as soon as you enter the job number the client name and project fills in Automatically also, this also could be applied to other departments who add there finish data manually.

[Former Community Member]

The database connectivity from the form will only run in a Windows environment.

[Former Community Member]

If the information was just entered onto the form without automatic database in put could I then use a PC to collect the data from a form and upload it to the database?

Thank you for all this information it is a great help in what i'm trying to do

[Former Community Member]

Yes, you coudl have the mac users email you the form and when you open it have it written to the DB. This also allows you to validate all of the data before writing it.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

If I put my current form together in designer which is pretty striaght forward is it easy at a later date to validate data (very new to designer not sure what that means) or can i flow it all together so someone could copy and paste on to the database page? Im told we have a very old database that is about 15 years old.

[Former Community Member]

Depending on the level of validation you may want to embed it in the form so that you know that you got valid data. If the validations are complicated it might be easier to do it after you recieve it. It is a matter of prefereence.

Paul