Making the form "Unsecured" for advanced editing tools in PDF?

[purecrazed]

I have a Comment Card or Customer Satiscation Survey form that I created through Adobe LiveCycle Designer and I need help... I want to use the "Submit By Email" button BUT I don't want it sent back to me in data form... There is a buttons they click for 1-5 satisfaction and a comment area at the bottom of the form but I want the full form back, not the xml data...

So my plan was to use the Advanced Editing under the Tools tab on Adobe Acrobat Professional... Then use the Link Tool I believe it is to put a mask over top of the "Submit By Email" button and have it send me back the form filled out... I haven't tested this theory yet because the form is "Secured" while in PDF and I don't know how I can get my idea to work...

Can anyone help?

[Niall_O_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I suspect that the form is "secured" when viewed in Acrobat becuase you have set an open-password for when the formed is opened in LC Designer. This applies security to the form (which also prevents a user from printing to PDF).

Even if the form does not have the security, you will not be able to use AcroForm tools on an LC Designer form. They are different animals!

There is a solution, which is in plenty of posts to the forum. If you use a standard "button" instead of a "submit by email" button, you can have JavaScript in the click event which would look something like this:

var vEmail = "yourEmailAddress@somewhere.com";
var vSubject = "Customer Comments";
var vBody = "Put some nice customer focused text in here and it will appear in the body of the email for the customer.";

event.target.submitForm({cURL:"mailto: "+ vEmail +"?subject=" + vSubject +"&body=" + vBody, cSubmitAs:"PDF",cCharset:"utf-8"});

The submit as PDF command will ensure you get the form and not just the XML.

When developing in LC, it is best to do all of the scripting in LC, rather than trying to adapt parts of it in Acrobat (imho)  ;-)

Good luck,

Niall

[purecrazed]

I saw some of those scripts but what I saw when I search didn't look like it fit my needs... I'm going to try this and you are a SAINT if it works... Thank you so much for the help...

[purecrazed]

I copied and edited the formula in a normal button and a "Submit" Control Type... Then in the Submit tab, I pasted the formula in there and changed my email and message to my liking... Choose to "Submit As:" PDF and then saved it as a PDF 8.0... Went to the PDF file, clicked on the button hoping it would email me... It started giving me popups asking if I trust this and it's going to send me to multiple url's or something... I accepted and trusted whatever it said... Then it doesn't do anything... What did I miss?

var vEmail = "ohpminc@bellsouth.net";
var vSubject = "OHPM Survey Results";
var vBody = "Here are the results.";

event.target.submitForm({cURL:"mailto: "+ vEmail +"?subject=" + vSubject +"&body=" + vBody, cSubmitAs:"PDF",cCharset:"utf-8"});

That was exactly what I posted... The only place I'm able to post is in the "Submit to URL:" box after I click the "Submit" Control Type on the "Field" tab... So I know I must have did something wrong...

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

Sorry!! I was not clear in my directions. You are nearly there....

Just change the button back to "Regular" and put your script in the click event of the button:

I am uploading an example, which should work (fingers crossed)

Hope this helps,

Niall

[Jono_Moore]

Hey Niall, what's that purple control box around the button on your screenshot? Never seen it before.

[purecrazed]

Only thing I can't find is that top screen where you have the top red highlighted box... The place where you put the script... I don't have that screen, how do I make it visiable for me?

[Jono_Moore]

Window->Script Editor or ctrl-shift-f5.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Jono,

View / Object Editor

I blow hot and cold on this feature. It is OK, when working on a form with good spacing between objects; but it can get in the way when working with tables, as it makes it difficult to select objects below. I like that it shows the object name and has access to basic commands, but apart from that it has limited use.

Let's just say I am using it at the moment; but maybe not next week!!

Have a good weekend on the bike!!,

Niall

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi purecrazed,

Jono's commads will open the script editor; all |I have done is drag the bottom bar to make it bigger. The script editor is probably the most important panel in LC.

A lot of the examples you will see in the posts will give you useful scripts and you can copy these into the script editor.

"May the road rise with you",

N.

[Jono_Moore]

Neat, not noticed that before! Definitely handy in some circumstances.

Bought a new bike this weekend for more tour type riding.

[purecrazed]

Everything works fine on my end when I do my script and test it... I'm able to email it back to me and everything... I sent it out to test to a few computers and some get "save" issue problems and the others, nothing happens... My computer has the professional PDF while the others (like our customers) has the free standard viewing only... I can't save it with the information filled out so asking the customer to save it and send it to me is not an option either...

So I think I'm back to the beginning with trying to get the security off the PDF version... I don't know how you can make a form for people to fill out and not have any way to receive it back besides going through 30 lines of coding to gather their results when it's sent back as a xml page...

I'm more than willing to attach or email my template to get this resolved... Thanks in advance...

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

If I am following you correctly, then I think that there are a couple of things happening here that are unrelated.

First, when you send out the form to people with the free Reader, then they will be able to open the form; fill it in; print the form; submit the form back to you; BUT they will not be able to save the form.

If you want the user to be able to save the form, then you need to "Reader Enable" the form in Acrobat first. In Acrobat 9 you go to the Advanced menu and select "enable features in Adobe Reader...". This will prompt you to save the form (it is a good idea to have (enable) in the file name. Then when you send it out the users will be able to save the data that they input into your form. Please note that there are licensing restrictions (500 data returns per form, I think).

Next, the submit by email button will work with most email clients. There are forum posts where people have had difficulties with more obscure clients (no offense intended). If a user had a web based email account, then they will have to save the file and attach it manually to an email back to you.

If you want attach it to a post to the forum, or email it to niall.odonovan"AT"assurehsc.ie

Hope that helps,

N.

[purecrazed]

Yea, the biggest problem I'm having is with the save option... If they can save it then anyone is able to email it back to me as a PDF and I can skip all this script problems... I'm going to try the enable reader thing first and if it works then great... If it doesn't then at least they are able to save it now and I wont have any more problems...

Thanks again for the help...

[purecrazed]

Tried attaching file... File might be to big...

Emailing it anyways...