I'm trying to save post data from a PDF file to my web server. I don't have commonly available Windows tools, because I'm on Linux.
When using Linux software like Scribus, I am not able to successfully import the existing PDFs correctly... these are often critically accurate legal documents, which must appear exactly the way they've been designed.
I've used a web application (PDFecape.com) to add form fields to the PDF... I've autopopulated these fields on the server before showing the user. This application does not allow for a submit button.
I then used "Wine" to run Windows software called Soda PDF to add a submit button and a URL for submission.
It uses Javascript to submit the form, which from what I've read, seems to be the right approach. However, the server is not being pinged by PDFs when the button is pressed.
The URL for submission is a simple PHP script that saves post content as a PDF and sends me an email.
I've tried it in Ubuntu's built in PDF document viewer, Chrome's built in PDF reader, and have download Adobe's Acrobat Reader to try submitting with that as well.
In each case, the server is not being pinged.
Is there another way to add a submit button to this form? Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Jason Silver
Related
We developed an Asp.net web application (6-7 years ago), which generates pdf fillable forms dynamically, based on a template using iTextSharp, and display it inside the browser. This pdf fillable form(iTextsharp submitForm) has a submit button(also created with itextSharp-getPushButton). When user clicks on this button, the script behind the button submit(post) the form.
This application was working just fine for years using IE 11 using IE pdf plugin.
Recently, we upgraded to Microsoft Edge, which like Chrome, has its own, built-in pdf viewer, and the button for posting(submitting) the form stopped working. Button is there, on pdf form, but does not do anything when clicked. I found few resources saying this is because Chrome/Edge do not allow script from pdf embedded button to run. If it is not possible to run the script/code from pdf form inside Edge/Chrome, is there another way to accomplish this? We have an option to run Edge in IE mode, but this is not a long term solution.
Any ideas?
Thank you,
Goran
I need to implement Microsoft Word into my works website and I'm having real trouble trying to find any information about it. Is there a way to do this? I need mail merge functionality but I don't mind whether it just works with my website (database website)rather than being implemented into it
(I've used CKEditor and TinyMCE but neither are useful for my website/work. I need it to be simple and I'm working with people who just know basic Word)
I don't think you can embed (real) Microsoft Word editing functionality in an arbitrary website.
However, if you are running a Sharepoint server, then you can upload MS Word documents to Sharepoint and edit there them via a web browser via "word Web App". It also allows the user to "one click" download a document and edit it Word installed on their machine.
References:
Microsoft's Introduction to Word Web App
Alternatively, if you are prepared to look at 3rd-party solutions, some are listed in these Q&As:
Embed editable MS Word document on web page
Making Word document embedded in a web page editable or read-only
However, this is dangerously close to asking for a recommendation for software or a web-based service, and that is off-topic.
I have looked for a solution to this but all I have found are products that are close but not what I need.
We have a program that creates a word document on the fly based on data from our database, and stores it on our server, then the user can download this file to print,email,file away.
I need something that will allow the user to open the existing document from the server, edit it, and save it back to the server.
I need this to be able to work on all browser, so activex isn't a full solution.
This link is a proof of concept of using CKEditor to do what you describe.
The focus is on ensuring that the "long tail" of possible docx content is preserved across the editing process.
For example, take a look at the Microsoft demo docx, which they use to compare their web apps with Google Docs, at
google-documents-vs-word-web-app
I have developed the asp.net mvc application. my one form have the file upload control. so in details view i want to implement the facility to view the uploaded document in browser itself. it should not ask for download and should not open MS office instance to open document. its a user req. It should opens in view mode in browser itself. what code i have to do ? I am using C# as language.
It is not straight forward. For images you can use <img>tag and link to the location in server where you saved the uploaded image. That should work.
However ASFAIK showing the doc/docx things in web page itself is not possible. You will have to employ some third party control to achieve that. Search google to find such controls. May come at a cost.
Are there any good alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for creating interactive PDFs? The terminology is a little fuzzy here - by interactive, I mean "able to be filled in", and not necessarily "scriptable". So this form would be for data collection, rather than report generation which seems to be the common scenario for pdf-related questions on SO.
The trick is that they need to be fillable using Adobe Reader. For those who have not experienced the many frustrations of Acrobat - by default, Reader cannot fill in a form unless it was created using Acrobat Pro >8.0 and has specifically enabled usage rights. That's fine and it basically works (except then Pro users can't save their data - WTF?).
Because I am getting frustrated, I would ideally like to avoid Adobe products altogether (that is on the design side, for the users Reader is still a necessity or I would just do it as a db-backed web form). I'm wondering if anyone has has good experiences with alternatives? Either software libraries or products?
Thanks!
EDIT - Thanks, matt b - I'd seen iText before but didn't know it could create forms. Unfortunately, it looks like Reader cannot save filled-in data to the forms generated by iText (or generated by OO Writer). I've got the nasty feeling that what I want is fundamentally impossible except using Adobe's own rights management tools. If there are other ideas. I'd love to hear them.
You can create fillable form PDFs using OpenOffice.org as well as LibreOffice.
To create the initial form elements in the *.odt documents, enable the View --> Toolbars --> Form Controls tools, which allow you to add clickable checkboxes + radiobuttons, fillable text fields, pushbuttons and some more to the page(s).
When you're finished with your document, use File --> Export as PDF with the checkbox Create PDF form enabled.
Now your PDF form will be editable (and saveable!) with any non-Adobe PDF viewer.
NOTE, however: Adobe uses an own proprietary way to create and fill PDF forms. Adobe Reader does only support to fill PDF forms which were created by an Adobe product (and which have been assigned 'extended rights' so Reader can indeed save the formdata alongside the document).
Adobe Reader will not work with PDF forms you created with OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice ('work' in the sense of: 'allows you to fill+save the form data'.). The technical mechanism behind this is that Adobe digitally sign their form documents with their own key (which is known to the Adobe Reader, and which you agreed to not reverse engineer when you accepted the Adobe Reader EULA...). --
This means:
Non-Adobe PDF Readers will not be able to 'fill+save' forms created with Adobe products (they can 'fill+print' them however).
Adobe PDF readers will refuse to 'fill+save' forms created with non-Adobe products (they will 'fill+print' them however).
The latter two points will be true for all the tools and utilities mentioned in the other answers to this question. If I'm mistaken here, please let me know in a comment...
iText is pretty much the standard in the java-world for generating PDF files programmatically. Perhaps it can also be used to create PDFs with forms in them as you would like?
The open source page layout tool Scribus has a bunch of features oriented to creating interactive PDF forms. I haven't personally used them, but they appear reasonably complete and are covered by the tutorial.
Scribus is worth knowing about if you ever need to do serious page layout in any case.
XSL FO is some thing we used to create PDF files out of existing form data. Unless you want the fillable pdf to be sent out the client, this is a valid option.
IText lets you create Annotations (there are essentially 3 types of 'interactive' components - forms (old style FDF and new XFA) and Annotations. Acrobat and lots of third party tools should let you modify the Annotations values.
There is also a DotNet version of IText called ISharp - both are freeand extremely powerful.
CutePDF Pro allows you to turn a PDF into an interactive form.
Foxit reader allows you to save any pdf with the filled in fields.
I recently dabbled with Scribus. I found it to be an excellent tool if one has enough time to configure and play around with it. I highly recommend it. Wufoo is also very good.
I am not a fan of Acrobat / Adobe. A software should make my life easier not challenge me at every step.
If you search the net with these keywords - FREE FORM CREATOR and you can add the word HTML5.
You will find an array of sites where you can log online and all your clients can have their separate login, fill in data and the form remains in the Cloud and declutter your hard drive. All stakeholders can access the form and edit at anytime. The account can be used as a folder for your business. These forms can be accessed on any device and any platform.
Many of these forms are HTML5 driven, they are so beautiful and fluid. Keep away from macros, they carry viruses.
www.homebasedofficeservices.com