Fillable PDF forms support?

[JamesUnitedWay]

Hello,

I work with a United Way regional office, and we are considering using Form Tools in our organisation. It's very robust, but we need to know if it can process submissions from a fillable PDF form. Is this possible?

Thanks so much,

~James

[Ben]

Hi James,

Interesting! I haven't played around with PDF forms much, but yes, you can configure them to submit them to Form Tools- with one small(ish) caveat.

So PDF-configuration-wise, all you need to to is configure your PDF form to send the data via HTTP post. From what I've read, I'm pretty sure it's just a question of choosing that option in the Adobe UI.

Then, you'd go through the standard Add External form process for a POST form, described here:
http://docs.formtools.org/userdoc2_1/ind...ding_forms

Here's the caveat. Step 5 of the Add Form process is a time saving device designed for HTML forms only. What it does it parse your form HTML content and figure out what fields are textboxes, textareas, radio buttons and so on. In your case, that step won't work: you'll need to skip it and just configure them later on. It's a bit of a pain, since if you have a big form you'd need to configure each and every field. Generally this doesn't take very long, but I thought I should mention it!

Hope this info helps - do let me know if you have any other questions1

- Ben

[JamesUnitedWay]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the quick reply! That is very helpful information; basically what I assumed would be the case.

It's either this, or wait until Form Tools has the ability to generate the forms themselves, as well as process submissions. Else, HTML form creation (consistent, standardized, attractive form creation that is) is not really a skill most office workers possess, and fillable PDFs represent the best of both worlds hopefully.

Thanks again!

~J