Please How to access database remotely?

[Former Community Member]

Hi everyone,i'm new to this forum and i hope to accept me as a friend. I have a study project and my supervisor let me free to choose the appropriate application to build E-forms which are interactive, intelligent, and dynamic, i investigate different products from different vendors like MS infopath, IBM lotus forms, ...etc  and finally choose Adobe XFA forms for its reliable features so i'm totaly new to livecycle designer and i'm learning from your discussions alot of useful information everyday.

I'm trying to build a forms that are connected to an oracle database and i succeed in this, and also build a simple html page that include a link to the pdf form that i'v been built and i host this page on an iis web server on the same machine,and when i open the page from the same machine and click the link  then the pdf form loaded and opened correctly through the acrobat inside the brwoser, but the problem arised when trying to open this form from another machine that connected to the hosting machine where a notification tell me that i must build the ODBC DSN connectivity again on the other machine and  i think that must be made on each user machine.

My question , is there a way to let other users to open the pdf form through their web browsers without the need for rebuild a DSN databese connectivity in their machines too (i.e leaving the connectivity only on the hosting machine). I read the answer of PAUL to the post "Database connection and what is the best method" recommending that a separate form be used for this case, but i did not understand how.

Any advice,scripts or links is really appreciated, thanks alot in advance.

[Former Community Member]

If you are interested in having teh form connect to the DB directly (without an intermeadiary process) then you really only have two options. ODBC (liek you have done) or web services. BY using web services you do not have to load anything on the client machines but you do have to set up web services to return your data for you. Many databases have built in web services already but if you do not you can build them or you can use LiveCycle Server to build them. Either way doesn't matter.

The intermeadiary process I was referring to earlier can be used to communnicate with a db on one hand while having the form communicate with the itermeadiary process on the other hand. So think of a server based program that the form will submit to and then the servlet will contact the DB on the users behalf. This can also be done using LiveCycle Server if you so choose.

Hope that helps

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Dear PAUL....Thanks alot for the directions you gave me, i'm really learning alot from the posts of you an STEFAN CAMERON, and as you said that many databases have a built in web services, i found some .wsdl files within the oracle database directories and i will read how  to use or how to build new one.

And about the intermeadiary process solution and as i said before that i'm totally new to livecycle designer, do you mean to build two forms one connected to the database and act as a middlware and the other is connected to database through the first?  forgive me for this question ,i'm new to this.

And away from data connectivity issue i posted  2 discussions at "LiveCycle Designer ES" that confused me  , i'm sure it can be achieved by designer but i don't no how ,one on dealing with dropdown lists & the other on pdf's security and saving . I really appreciate if you and the others can help me with when you have enough time.

Thanks alot PAUL

Mustafa

[Former Community Member · Accepted solution]

No there would only be one form ...the intermediary process would be a server based program (a servlet for example). Th eform woudl post (via HTTP or HTTPs) to the servlet and the servlet woudl interpret the data coming and and then make the connection to the DB and get the reults, format them and return the to the form. As mentioned this can easily be done using LiveCycle server but you do not have to use that if you prefer to write your own.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Thanks alot Paul, i really appreciate your fast reply to my questions.

I will try to learn how to build the needed web sevice , and if i could not then i'll try to download the trial version of the LC server to achieve my needs.

Thanks again

Mustafa