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We need to create fillable PDF forms and convert those to XML. What should we purchase?

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Level 1

We need to create fillable PDF forms. The forms have a definite structure. The filled forms and sent back to us. We need to scan those forms and convert

those forms to XML. Our final goal is to extract the filled informationa and transfer it to a DB.

What products should we buy??

What about the convertion to XML?? Do we need the SDK and DLL? If so what to purchase??

6 Replies

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Level 5

Really depends on the number of users accessing and filling these forms. I believe using the SDK and DLLs in a server setting is not supported. They are only used in client environments.

For large amount of users, Forms ES can be used to process submitted documents, execute any server-side script, extract any xml data, etc. Its probably going to be expensive though so Im sure there could be 3rd party ones to just handle data extraction.

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Level 1

Hello, thank you for your reply. Only one user will create the form. About 10 project leads will fill the forms.

For a day we need to convert about 5 forms to XML. Price is not the problem.

What products do we have to purchase?? I went to the store but could not find the Forms ES to purchase. What they have is a product called XPro???? Do we have to purchase the full product X Pro??? Can't we purchase only Forms??

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Level 5

This form is about the LiveCycle Forms ES product which is a server-based solution so you are not going to find it on the shelf as it were. What is the XML going to contain? Just the data? You can submit the data from the pdf hosted in a browser to a web-hosted component (i.e. java servlet, asp, etc). What you cannot do without any server product is call web services, database connections, data extraction (server-side), etc.

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Level 1

XML should contains the tags and data. Eg.

<pdf>

     <projectCode> projap194 </projCode>

     <ProjectLead> Rohan </ProjectLead>

     <Date>12-May-2012</Date>

     <MeetingPurpose> Discuss overrunns </MeetingPurpose>

     <Present> Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C</Present>

     <Absent>Mr. C, Mr. D</Absent>

     <MinutesLine1> akfjaskfjsfksfj </MinutesLine1>

     <MinutesLine2> deded </MinutesLine2>

    -----

    ----

</pdf>

So, we can use a XML parser and get the information and then update our Oracle DB.

We downloaded trial verion of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2. I went through the entire help of both, but could not find any mention of "pdf to xml" convertions, nor is there any documentaion about SDKs or DLLs.

How can we do this? We don't want to install any Server. We just create a Meeting Minutes PDF form and e-mail it.

Ohers fill this PDF and send it to us via e-mail. We convert to XML and upload data to our DB. That is all we want.

Also, without converting to XML, if we can extract the information in some other way would be OK as well.

Your help in this would be greatly appreciated.

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Level 5

If you are not using any server process at all when exporting the data (i.e. someone will start the convert to xml and upload to db) then you can with acrobat using the SDK to export the xml data from the form (you would need acrobat to do this, reader will not work without reader extensions) inside a vb app for example. You could run javascript when the form is loaded to export the data. There is a method called exportXFAData which can be used to export the bound data from the xfa data model (i.e. bind the sample you provided to your form objects) and it will be generated in that format.

You would probably need to download the SDK docs from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/sdk/eula.html

However if you are trying to automate this process end-to-end then I believe you will run into trouble since Acrobat is purely a front-end application and using it as a server process is not what it is designed to do (nor are you licensed to do this when you buy acrobat)

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Level 1

Is there an further update on the thread? We are also looking at the same.

When we have acrobat DC to create a fillable form, after filling the form, when I export to  XML, does the format same as below?

XML should contains the tags and data. Eg.

<pdf>

     <projectCode> projap194 </projCode>

     <ProjectLead> Rohan </ProjectLead>

     <Date>12-May-2012</Date>

     <MeetingPurpose> Discuss overrunns </MeetingPurpose>

     <Present> Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C</Present>

     <Absent>Mr. C, Mr. D</Absent>

     <MinutesLine1> akfjaskfjsfksfj </MinutesLine1>

     <MinutesLine2> deded </MinutesLine2>

    -----

    ----

</pdf>