PDF Forms Plugin questions

Classic Servoy
1

We’re looking at integrating the PDF forms plugin functionality into our solution. I’ve been working with it for a few days and it’s slow going. As far as I know there really isn’t documentation and the sample solution is helpful but also exhibits behavior that I don’t understand. So I know that some of you have worked extensively with it and maybe you could help me out. Storing and displaying form templates is no problem. I’m having problems saving the form field entries back into the table. Some forms work and some don’t. Same for computers with different OS, versions of Acrobat, and browsers. A couple of questions:

  1. Some forms have a green submit button in addition to the submit button manually placed on the form. Where does the green button come from?
  2. On forms where the green button displays, clicking either submit button closes the form and saves the data. No green button, clicking the manual button does nothing.
  3. On my development computer the green button never comes up. This could be because of Acrobat 9, has anyone run it successfully with 9. It seems to work on other computers with Acrobat 8.1.
  4. Forms developed with Live Cycle designer don’t seem to work anywhere. Anyone have experience in this.
  5. Does anyone know if it runs properly with 64-bit Java server or client?
  6. Any consideration of browser compatibility. We use Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE.

Thanks in advance for any advice. This is really a powerful tool and I think it would add considerable value to our solution if I can get it run reliably or at least figure out it’s limitations.

2

Have you seen the available documentation here: https://wiki.servoy.com:8443/display/DOCS/PDF+Forms ?

It might not answer all your questions (just yet), but it’s a start at least.

Paul

3

I did not see it, thank you. I’ll review and if still questions, post back. In the meantime if anyone has info in the compatibility issues, please let me know. Thanks.

4

msedita:
4. Forms developed with Live Cycle designer don’t seem to work anywhere. Anyone have experience in this.

Use Acroforms only (available with Acrobat 5 through Acrobat 9)

msedita:
6. Any consideration of browser compatibility. We use Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE.

On Windows it works with IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. On the Mac it appears to only work with Safari (we do not have very many Mac users). For recent versions of the free Adobe Reader, users may need to change their settings as shown at: http://www.acords.com/cant_submit.html

We have been using the PDF Forms Plugin for four years, with many millions of records submitted, and have found it to be extremely reliable. For the past three years most of our solutions have been using the Servoy webclient.

Please note that we are only using the PDF Forms Plugin with Servoy 3.5.x. We plan to start testing it with Servoy 5.x next week!

Dean Westover, President
Choices Software, Inc.

5

Thanks for the info Dean. I’ve seen you demo your forms solution, it’s impressive. Last I tried, I was continuing to have some problems with the submit process. I temporarily got sidetracked, but will l be back on it shortly.