Insert image in form - what software?

[JAAL2010]

Hi,

I'm not sure if I am in the right place to start this discussion - please forward me to the correct place if not.

I have a few questions and have marked them in bold below.

I have Acrobat Professional 8 at work (on a pc at the moment - this may change) and I need to create a form allowing end users the ability to upload an image.

From reading through posts across a few forums I gather that we will need Acrobat LiveCycle for this.

Is this correct?

I think LiveCycle was initially included with Acrobat Pro version 9 and then X. Is that correct?  I am hoping all I need therefore, is an upgrade to Actobat Professional 9 - and won't need to buy seperate LiveCycle software.

Is this correct?

Once I establish what software we need to purchase or upgrade to, I then need to know that some 10,000 applicants can use the form and complete it online as well as upload their photo, then save the completed form and email it back to us. We may then need to extract the images.

Is that all possible?

I am hoping this will work for end users who have any version of Reader, any operating system across any platform (pc/mac etc.)?

Is this the case?

I assume, that as with Acrobat version 8, I will need to create the form and ensure to apply 'enable usage rights in Actobat Reader' so that the form can indeed be saved by the user.

Is this correct?

Many thanks for your assistance in advance.

[Hodmi]

1 - "we will need Acrobat LiveCycle for this."

     Sort of.  LiveCycle is a family of products.  Specifically its LiveCycle Designer that you are looking for

2 - "I think LiveCycle was initially included with Acrobat Pro version 9 and then X. Is that correct? "

     Yes, LiveCycle Designer comes with Acrobat Pro 9 and X.  I believe it also comes with certain editions of Creative Suite.

3 - "Once I establish what software we need to purchase or upgrade to, I then  need to know that some 10,000 applicants can use the form and complete  it online as well as upload their photo, then save the completed form  and email it back to us. We may then need to extract the images."

     Now we start to get more tricky, lets break this down into two parts:

• 10,000 users can fill in form, save data and submit:  If I assume that your users are not all using full Acrobat (they are using free Reader), then you will need to do an extra step.  You cannot save a filled form locally when using Reader, unless the document is Reader Extended (see http://www.avoka.com/blog/?p=114). 
  You can either use the server side product (LiveCycle ReaderExtensions) or Acrobat Pro to apply Reader Extensions.  The Acrobat route doesn't require extra software but it is limited by the EULA as to the number of recipients (I think its 500).
• We may then need to extract the images.  This will depend on what is submitted, and how you build your form.  If you submit just the data (XML) then the image will be included as a base64 encoded format.  Then you can just find the data node and re-encode the image.  On the other hand if you are submitting the PDF and then you want to process the document, then you should look at LiveCycle Forms.

4 - "I am hoping this will work for end users who have any version of Reader, any operating system across any platform (pc/mac etc.)?"

     Yes, what I describe above works with all versions of Reader 7.2 and above

5 - "I assume, that as with Acrobat version 8, I will need to create the form  and ensure to apply 'enable usage rights in Actobat Reader' so that the  form can indeed be saved by the user."

     Yes, as I describe in #3

[markerline]

I am wondering Hodmi, why does Adobe allow thousands of users running the simple Reader or Reader Extended to fill out that many forms but Acrobat users are limited to being a number of 500 users or less?  I have Acrobat installed on my system and I don't think it is advisable to use Acrobat and Reader on the same installation.  So I would be excluded from being an active participant in the publisher's survey or whatever form it is that I would have to fill out (such as the Federal Government's FAFSA financial aid form for higher education--although this is not done through Acrobat but through server-side scripting, but if it were then there would be issues . . . . )

Please advise,

-markerline

[Hodmi]

I'm not a "licensing" expert, but I believe that the EULA means it a bit different.

Acrobat users don't need Reader Extensions (RE) applied to documents.  The RE is only needed for Reader users.  RE is applied on a document by document basis to allow users with free Reader to do things that normally you would need full Acrobat to do (such as saving data).

With Acrobat Pro, you can add the RE to the document. The EULA states that you can add RE to a document as long as it will be used by 500 Reader users or less.  I'm not sure if that's a cumulative total (two documents to 250 users), or on each document - you'd have to talk to your Adobe Sales Rep to clarify that point.

If you need to distribute your RE'd document to more that 500 Reader users then you will need to use the LiveCycle Reader Extensions product to apply the RE to the document.

[markerline]

Whom do I contact about such licensing issues as an end-user?  I am not too clear on the issue with the last post you provided here.

I still don't understand whether I would need to have Reader Extended installed to participate in a large-scale deployment of forms as a participant (not the form issuer).  I would also like to know, since I am in web development at a school of higher learning, how I would go about deploying a large-scale form such as a survey, especially to users who have Creative Suite with Acrobat installed?  Would they need to install Reader and get the "Extended" extension for it to participate in the survey instead of using their Acrobat software?

[Hodmi]

Let me try to spell it out:

• Using Acrobat Pro and/or LiveCycle Designer, you can create a form that people can fill out and return
  
• If my audience is using the free Adobe Reader product, and I want them to be able to save the document with data, then I need to apply RE to the document before sending it out.
  • Normally, users of the free Reader cannot save documents with data (as well as a few other things).  This feature is not part of the free Reader product.  By adding RE to the document, users of Adobe Reader will be able to save that one document (and not others) with the data.
  • Adding RE to a document doesn't require that the document's recipient's install any software.  Its simply a special switch inside the PDF.
  • Acrobat Pro allows a document creator to RE a document as long as it is being used by 500 or less users.  You use Acrobat to turn on that special switch in that one document.
    
  • The license compliance responsibility is to the document's creator - not the recipient. If you create a document and apply RE to it, then send it out to 2000  people; its you that is in violation - not the 2000 people.
  • If you are going to be sending the document to more than 500 Reader users, then you need to use another product to apply RE to the document.  That product is part of the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite of software and runs on a server.
• If your users have full Acrobat then you don't need to worry about any of this.  Full Acrobat includes the function to save a document and its data.  Users with full Acrobat always have the right to open, fill in and save a local copy of the document.  Users with Acrobat do NOT need to install Reader as well.
  

Think of it this way:   Adobe Reader is free. You pay for Acrobat (or get it as part of other software you paid for).  Because Acrobat is paid for, you get extra functionality (like the ability to save data) that you don't get with Reader.  By adding RE to a document with Acrobat or LiveCycle, you are "paying" for a little extra functionality when you send that RE document out.

If you have further questions about the Acrobat EULA, you should contact your Adobe Representative.

[billmce]

Frankly it is a bit rediculous that apparently Acrobat 9 std can't edit a pdf to drop in an image with any sort of ease without a bunch of work. I am a reseller and in the old days you would take the product brochures from the manufacturer and you would add a sticker that would provide the resellers info. One should be able to do this with a pdf in Acrobat in my view. I found a really cheap program that does this function with ease. It cost like $20 and is available here: http://www.pdfill.com/index.html

Adobe aught to get their act together on this one. Yeah you can do it with the stamp thing but try sizing and arranging the image to go where you want - it was easier to spend the $20.