Exctract data from LiveCycle forms

[_mila2010]

Hi all,

We have PDF documents with forms that are generated in Adobe LiveCycle DesignerES 8.2. We need to extract form data in XML format. What is the best way to doit? Which tools are available? And, it would be the best if we can integrate it into ourjava application.

Thank you in advance.

[Former Community Member]

You can submit your data to a web server as XML, you can export your data from the form and make a file (user intervention required) or you can email the xml data to an address.

Paul

[_mila2010]

Thanks Paul for quick response.

Just to clarify. We have only PDF documents that we receive from outside. We don't have data that were used to populate the forms in PDF documents. And we need to extract form data to store it in our database.

[Former Community Member]

Oh ..that is different .....it is going to depend on how the forms were constructed. If they are XFA based forms then what I said still is true. There are server based products that you can use to extract the data from the PDF as well (look at LiveCycle Server and the module you want is called Forms). If it is an Acroform then getting XML in your format is a bit more difficult. It will give you XFDF which is an xml format of teh FDF data files prodiced by those forms. LiveCycle also has tools to get data out of those forms.

Hope that helps

Paul

[_mila2010]

Is there a way to find out how the forms were constructed? I sorry for all those question. I am new to all this... Just trying to figure out how to get started...

Can you please point me to the LiveCycle tools available for extraction? Are they independent or more like the modules of one product?

[Former Community Member]

If you open the form in Acrobat/Reader then look at the File/Properties you can see the PDF Producer field. This will tell you what application created the PDF.

The extraction tools are more like the modules of a product line called LiveCycle. Here is a link to some information:

http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/

You woudl be using a very small piece of this.

Paul

[_mila2010]

So, if PDF was created using Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2 , then the form is XFA based? Is that right?

Thanks for a link.

[Former Community Member]

Yes that is correct.

paul