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__________________________________________________________________
Steve,
Here is a good question for you, if you are using Cold Fusion to interact
with database and PDF forms, that might also clarifies some problems that I
experienced:
If you have two pdf forms as follow:
QueryForm.pdf & ResultForm.pdf
And you call the QueryForm.pdf via a Coldfusion script (for example:
abc1.cfm) that opens a database and finds some values etc and provides
appropriate data in the QueryForm.pdf form via a temporary fdf file on the
server. The user then fills up the rest of the data in this form over the
web and submits the form. The form either can call ResultForm.pdf file
directly form this pdf form (which is not practical as the data need to be
saved into the database somehow), or call a cfm script (say it is called
abc2.cfm) that analyses the data and saves them in the DB then calls the
ResultForm.pdf in the same way as before.
Anyhow, if your cfm files are in a secured environment, as you will need to
login to this section to access these web based forms etc, how do you call
abc2.cfm via QueryForm.pdf file, to not trigger a session timeout? As soon
as you call a cfm page from this pdf file, a new session is generated on
Coldfusion server, and therefore there is no valid authentication anymore? I
don't think you can pass all the login info via the URL from QueryForm.pdf
into abc2.cfm file as it will expose the details.
I will be very interested to know if you have experienced this problem (at
least on lower versions of Adobe Acrobat, as in Ver. 6.0 I did this and
experienced many other problem as well. At the end it made me to alter the
process in a different manner).
Cheers
Easa
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen M Aylor [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 18 July 2003 03:52
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [PDF-Forms] PDF Forms and database
interactivity?
PDF-Forms is a service provided by PDFzone.com |
http://www.pdfzone.com/
__________________________________________________________________
All of what George said is true :-)
You can experiment with database driven forms with many
solutions based upon
your budget and project requirements. The web server
solution George
mentions typically will require some type of database
"middleware"
application ...... Microsoft ASP code is convienent, or my
preference
Macromedia's ColdFusion server [of which you can get a demo
download]. The
middleware application [ColdFusion etc .... ] receives the
data from the
form and passes it into your database. Additionally it can
query the
database and pass the result set data TO your pdf form and
pre fill it.
All the best,
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [PDF-Forms] PDF Forms and database
interactivity?
>
> PDF-Forms is a service provided by PDFzone.com |
http://www.pdfzone.com/
>
__________________________________________________________________
>
> > I'm wondering if forms can do the following:
> >
> > 1: Write information to a database
> >
> > 2: Read information from a database
>
> Reader cannot do that directly, but data can flow into and
out of a form
with
> the help of a web server. The web server does the job of
interacting with
the
> database and handling the incoming and outgoing data. For
versions prior
to 6,
> the PDF has to be viewed in a web browser.
>
> The full version of Acrobat (5 and up) and Acrobat
Approval can connect to
a
> local database via ADBC. Reader cannot. You'd have to do
some JavaScript
> programming.
>
> > 3: Duplicate information between fields (i.e. - enter
text in one field
and
> > have it duplicate into other fields on the same form)
>
> Yes. Either give the fields the same name or use the
appropriate
JavaScript.
>
> > 4: Automatically retrieve the date and/or time from the
computer or
server
> > the form is located on and enter it into a field when
the field is
clicked
> > or the PDF is opened.
>
> Yes, via JavaScript.
>
> > One final question, does Acrobat Reader support the
filling in of forms
yet,
> > or are the users still required to have a full version
of Acrobat?
>
> Reader has been able to fill-in and interact with a web
server since 3.0.
It
> still can't save a filled-in form, unless the PDF has been
specially
prepared
> using expensive software from Adobe. Reader 5.1 and above
can do more than
> normal with such rights-enabled PDFs.
>
> George
>
>
> To change your subscription:
> http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdfforms.html
>
>
>
>
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