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Leonard,
I disagree - because javascript is embedded in the form, which is "decoupled" from the web server, PDF is DIFFERENT.
But once the HTML arrives in the user's browser, the JS in there is ALSO "decoupled" from the server! I can bring up an HTML form in a browser, hide the window for a week, come back to it then, and it will NOT have updated. JUST LIKE A PDF!
I agree when the form is locked to the web server - not in the general Acrobat form case of a free PDF form file. Lots of users seem to have the general case.
I always can push javascript from a web server with my HTML and I know that the HTML I push will be what actually runs in the browser.
At the time that user initially gets the HTML, yes. But you can't control what happens when that HTML is actually run. Same is true with PDF. You can place the JavaScript into the PDF on the fly before sending to the user so it's current at delivery time.
The problem that you are trying to solve is being current at "fill in" time - and by default, HTML and PDF (and XForms, and ...) all suffer the same lack of "auto updating".
Agreed again, but only when the form is locked to the web server.
#1: I think we agree that when a PDF forms deployment is centrally controlled and "locked down" so that the PDF forms aren't downloaded and saved for later use, an Acrobat reader-only or server-based management solution is sufficient.
#2: The requests we are seeing are coming from environments where this situation (#1) does not (yet) exist - customers either have "free" forms that they want to consolidate or the forms aren't locked to the web server. In this case the users want #1 but don't know how to get there. I think we also agree that in this case javascript, etc. contained in free forms compound the complexity issues in achieving #1.
Again, to the list, any comments from folks converting from the second case (#2) to the first (#1)? Leonard's points are excellent, but I am also interested in someone commenting who has real-world experience with the conversion issue I describe.
Thanks Todd
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