Saving to an XML file

[Former Community Member]

I've looked, but have never seen a direct answer. Where can I get a step by step tutorial on how to set my form up to save it's data to an xml file when they click a button?

[Former Community Member · Accepted solution]

There are menu choices in Acrobat and Reader to save Form data and you can put a button on the form to execute on the click event the command xfa.host.exportData("", false)

This will bring up a menu and allow the user to choose a filename for the data file. You cannot save the file without the user picking a filename (that is against the security model).

Hope that helps

paul

[Former Community Member]

So you can't put in a file name for them?

[Former Community Member]

The filename used will be derived from the name of the PDF file. If your file was called MyForm.pdf then the suggested name will be MyForm_data.xml. The user can override this if he/she chooses but you cannot change that name programmatically.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

What if I used xfa.host.exportData(filename, 0) on a click event? Why have this option if it won't work?

[Former Community Member]

It used to work (a long time ago), but with the advent of hackers ....the stance was taken that you cannot do anything without the users knowledge.

That being said, that parameter can be passed if you certify the document. Certifying the document means that the user is accepting the creator of the document as known and they will allow automation of certain functions for them. To do this you will need a digital certificate to certify with and then each user that opens your document will have to have that certificate in a trusted store (typically the browser store) on each machine that they open the document on. This trusted store location is a setting in Acrobat. Unless you are controlling the desktops of all people who are going to open your document this certification setup is a lot more trouble than what it is worth.

Paul