Xml generated from LiveCycle form contains old data

[Trisha_Long]

I have an Adobe pdf form which, after conversion to xml, uploads into a table in an MS Access database.  The form generates one record in one table.  Since we upgraded to Adobe Acrobat 9 and the new LiveCycle Designer, several of our forms are coming back with truncated, old data in the xml.  The new data are broken up into bits, with the old data inserted either above or below.  The old data from previous months is not evident when looking at the form in Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, or LiveCycle Designer, but it persists in the xml generated by the form.  What could be causing this?  It's impairing our import process into Access.

[Former Community Member]

This is difficult without all of th epieces in place to see what is happenning? How do you know the xml has old data? Can you post a sample of the form and resulting data as well as a screnn shot of the Access DB? How is the data being written to access?

Paul

[Trisha_Long]

Thanks for responding with interest.  I'll explain, and I'm providing a copy of the form (called "CS Updates") and the xml it generated here.

I can tell the xml data contain both the old and new data because each month the form is resent to me with updated information, and the current month is noted.  (The month/year combination is one part of the compound primary key for this particular table in the MS Access database, so it has to be different each month.)  In the attached example, you can see data for "04/09" (which are the old data), then the xml closes the CS Updates form, reopens it again, and then opens it a second time to provide the new data, without closing the CS Updates tag at the end.  I receive this report from fourteen different countries, and this particular error occurred only here.  However, when I examine the pdf version of the form in Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, and LiveCycle Designer, I cannot figure out how this could be occurring!

[Former Community Member]

Ok I think I know what is happening. They fill out the form, submit it via email, then save the form. So that the next time it opens there is already data in it from the last time. They simply overwrite the data and hit submit again. Because you have bound to a database Acrobat tries to create records in the data file for you. To solve this you can add another regular button at the top of the screen and hide the email submit button (make its presence invisible so the user cannot hit it). Then on the click event of the new button execute ths javascript code:

EmailSubmitButton1.execEvent("click");

xfa.host.resetData();

This will click the email submit button and once the data has been submitted it will clear out the data in the form with the reset command.

Give it a try and let me know the result.

Paul

[Trisha_Long]

Thanks for your response, Paul.  The information you provided was helpful, however, I do want them to be able to save the data from previous months.  This form is part of a pdf portfolio, and usually, they save a new copy of the portfolio from the previous month, enter the new data, and send to me using "submit by email".  If I set the button to wipe out their data after the submit, that will mean they'll lose the data they just entered, right?

[Former Community Member]

Right ...then you could apply a style sheet to the data file only getting the last set of data. This will leed to bigger and bigger data files being submitted as they go along.

Paul

[Trisha_Long]

It is already happening, but not quite in the way you described.   This morning I discovered a similar problem in a sister database.  In the new case, the pdf form with new data was sent to us from one country; note it was sent as a pdf and not using "submit by email".  This country would not have access to any other countries' data.  However, the xml produced by the form includes not only old data from the country that sent it, but also old data from other countries as well.  This indicates to me that the old data are somehow persisting on our computers here in the US (because we would be the ones who would have opened forms with data from multiple countries).  However, it only occurred with one country, in one form.  The rest of the forms from this country did not produce any problems, nor did the forms from any other country.

More background:

We have been using this form and database set up for more than a year, without this problem.  The problem only began when we upgraded to Adobe Reader 9.  Our colleagues in-country have not experienced any problems with the forms.  Some of them prefer to send in the form in pdf (rather than using "submit by email" because they can save and send the entire pdf package.  Others do it because the previous version of Adobe Reader did not allow anyone using a web-based email to submit the xml data from the form by email.  (In v.8 of Reader, the option to manually attach the xml to an email was disabled if Windows did not recognize the web-based service provider  - like Yahoo - as the primary email.  In some cases that was easy to change, but in others it was not.  I won't go into the details unless you really deeply want to know.)  Our in-country offices are not located in places where good IT help and infrastructure are available, so some colleagues prefer to use Yahoo or Gmail for their business account because it is more reliable.

[Former Community Member]

I do not know what could be causing this. You may want to post this thread on the Acrobat forum to see if they have any ideas. If not I would take it up with support.

Paul

[Trisha_Long]

Thanks for trying anyway.  I'll take your advice and see what answers I might find on the Acrobat forum...