Importing XML data into Reader

[talk2hofmann]

HI All,
I have an application form which I used Acrobat Professional (with Reader Extend enabled) to allow users to save their filled out  form locally as well as to send in to our office for processing. I opened this created fillable form into Adobe LiveCycle in order to  add a "submit by email" button. The form works properly. It allows an applicant to fill and save (with data) the PDF form locally  for themselve and emails our organization the data via XML.

What i would like to do additionally is have the filled in PDF form emailed to me instead of just the XML data via the "submit by  email" button on the form

OR

Find a way that a secretary who only has Acrobat Reader installed can import the XML data into a copy of the PDF fillable form  so they can save the resulting file for archiving purposes.

I've looked for the answer and so far the closest discussions seem to be:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1363953 - (this one seems like it moght be a bit over my head to accomplish)

It sounds like you want to make the form non-interactive on submission. To do this you need to "flatten" the PDF before you  email it to the secretary.

The Adobe LiveCycle ES service that performs this is called Output (the TransformPDF operation).

One way to put it together would be:
- User completes the Form and clicks submit
- Submit sends the form to a server side component (either a servlet or a LiveCycle ES process)
- The server side component calls Output.transformPDF to create a flat, non-interactive, PDF
- The server side component sends the resulting PDF to the secretary via email

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1173827 -  (This post mentions a web script - wondernig if any sample of such a thing exist  for me to see if this is capable at my skill level. Also an FAQ is mentioned for forms but having trouble locating this specific info -  are they referring to an FAQ in Adobe LiveCycle or in this forum?)

Generally you should post in the Designer forum if you use Designer for your forms, rather than Acrobat. When you set up the  submit button, there should be options of the format for the submission. If you request the PDF format, you are limited to 500  submissions due to the requirement to add Reader Rights. The XML and FDF formats do not have that problem. You can open  the data form by importing them into the form or in many cases just selecting them and they will find the form (hard coded in the  data) to complete.

E-mail submission is not a good idea in general. Too much depends on the setup of the client machine that you have no control  over. You should have form data submitted to a web script instead. You might find the FAQs on forms useful.

Any help trying to get to my overall goal of saving the data and form together without having to use Acrobat Professional to do it  would be appreciated.

- Scott

[Former Community Member]

If you want to have the form email different formats then you will need to send two separate emails. If you can get the office to accept the PDF instead of the xml file then you can accomplish this by changing the email instructions to have you added as a CC or a BCC its up to you. If you cannot then you can add your admin in the CC field and have the same form (with an added imprt data button) on his/her machine. They can open the form and use the import button to import the data into the file. Now that the data is recombined with the PDF you can do with it as you please. Is the admin using Acrobat or Reader?

Paul

[talk2hofmann]

Paul, thanks for the reply. Regarding the format, I do not care to actually receive two different formats. I really only want one. My preference is for a PDF with content saved in form and emailed back. Are you stating that a full PDF, not just XML will be returned if a CC or BCC is added? Also, in Adobe LiveCycle Designer it only has one field in the wizard to add an email address, so how would I write in this one field an email address so it knows to be a CC or BCC?

As for the import, I did not know that you could add an import button to the form for other to use in Reader. If this is true how do i go about adding an import button?

- Scott

[Former Community Member]

Firstly I woudl not use the submit by email button (it is too restrictive). You could create or build an email submit button. Just drop a regular button on the form (change the caption to something more meaningful). Now make it a submit button. A submit tab becaomes active. Click on that. In the Submit to URL field enter in the command:

mailto:HeadOfficeEmailaddress@company.com, youremail address@company.com?subject="This is a subject"&cc="ccaddress if req"&body="This is the body if required"

You can control all parts of the message this way. Do a google search for mailto to see all of the different options.

Now you need to set what you are going to send. In the Submit As dropdown, choose PDF. Now a PDF will be sent. To be able to allow all users to send PDF you will have to Reader Extend the form. You can do this in Acrobat. Once all of this is done, open the form in Acrobat and under the Advanced menu choose Extend Features in Adobe Reader. Now follow the wizard and save your form. Distribute the saved form.

Paul

[talk2hofmann]

Thanks Paul,

Those hints worked for me. I created a button, changed the label for the button, went to the button palette and changed the button type to submit which added a new tab to the palette. In the submit to URL field I entered this:

mailto:USER@ORG.org?cc=ANOTHERUSER@ORG.org&subject=Application Form

The big thing i missed up front when i was exploring myself for the answer was not thinking you could change a plain button into a submit button since there was a separate icon to create a email submit button next to it. The additional tab for the button palette that appears after setting the button as a submit button was also not intuitive at first. Once there the dropdown made sense for sending as a PDF. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

For other, the Extend Features in Adobe Reader set in Acrobat is also key. You'll find this under the Advanced menu in CS3 version.

- Scott