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Just to add some thoughts.
If we think as a form user, it's pretty obvious that a local, editable/savable copy of a form is very important because
(1) you need to have a copy of the filled-up form for future reference,
(2) the form may be somewhat complicate and you cannot complete the form in one session,
(3) there might be some mistakes and you don't want to do everything all over again in the next session.
The point is, submiting the data to the server is not doing much on helping the form users, and you still have to bother all the serverside programs and databases tasks.
If it can be done economically and without requiring the users to install additional program, isn't that a better/simpler approach if you can let the users create filled-up forms and e-maiil that to the collecting end? It shouldn't be too difficult to write a routine to extract the input data out of the submited PDF forms when a databse is established. This way, you will have the best flexbility and results right away, but you don't have to wait/wonder until the big budget is approved, if ever.
Jim SU [EMAIL PROTECTED] EFOVIEW.com
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From: James Plante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PDF-Forms] Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 12:46:36 -0500
On Friday, Jun 20, 2003, at 07:56 US/Central, Christine Cordell wrote:
I've been reading recent discussions with great interest as the sole purpose for subscribing to this forum was to find a way to create a PDF file with form fields that can be emailed to customers, filled out, and emailed back.?When my employer purchased Acrobat 6, it was strictly for creating PDF files.?When I realized it could create form fillable PDF files, I was very pleased.?This solved a huge problem for us.?However, the fact that you can create the form but lose the functionality with the reader is disappointing.?>>
My opinion is that Adobe dropped the ball on this one.?If you can create a PDF file with the ability to be an interactive form, why wouldn't you allow the "reader" to fill it out and then at the very least save it and email it somewhere??I would not consider asking a customer to purchase anything to be able to use a form.?Some of them still complain about downloading the reader (alas, not everyone is up to date technology wise).?So, we will continue to use what is "mainstream" and cost effective to serve our customers and facilitate communication.?If anyone has any suggestions, please respond.?I'd love to find a way to make this work, but not at further expense.
Thanks for listening!
Christine.
Christine,
You can still get the form field info back from your customers if all they're using is Reader. You must use the submitForm Doc method, and submit the form's contents to your server. To do this, you must have a web server at your end. Your customer fills out the form, hits the "Submit" button, and the information in the fields comes back to an .asp or .cgi script at your server's URL. It arrives in either HTML format, XML format, or FDF format depending on the options you set on the "Submit" button. What your server does with the form field info is up to whoever writes the script. It can simply stash the FDF on the server for later review, or it can parse the fields into a database, or eMail you to let you know a response has arrived, or all of the above.
There's really no need to send the whole form back and forth. All a form really does is to tell the other guy what information is needed for the transaction he wants to undertake. <You> already know what information is needed; all you need is his specific information, properly tagged. The information within the fields (and the identifying tags) is all that needs to travel. If the client needs the information for his records in electronic form, have your .cgi script mail him a receipt.
This is, admittedly, much more complicated that simply e-mailing whole forms back and forth. But it saves a <bunch> of bandwidth and hard drive space. Contrast a 50K form with a 4K text file containing the same information--and with no compression necessary! Now multiply that times 100,000 orders per month, and you begin to be up to your earlobes in external hard drives in a very short time, mostly just to store the same redundant form pictures.
I've never had to do a .cgi or .asp data collection system, so I can't give you any specifics about setting up a server or writing a script that works. But perhaps some of the others who hang out here can give you a link or two to tutorials on setting one up. The expense involved depends on your OS, your DB software, your server software, your customer base, etc. The expense in terms of time (learning curve) is high on the front end, low on the back end.
Jim Plante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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