Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

[Bill Parker]

I have automated a process using Adobe Acrobat. It works fine, except one part must be controled by sending keystrokes to the Acrobat UI. This is a licensing issue because Adobe wants VERY big bucks for their distribution server if you want to automate.

In the PDF document I need to "extend rights" to Adobe Reader so reader can save changes after form fields have been filled. Then the entire updated PDF can be returned to us, not just the data stream from the fields.

I talked to Amyuni and they can't do what I need. The other usual suspects for PDF libraries dont' seem to provide it. I saw a site that was using iText java library (not JS) for some PDF processing that looked like it might do it. The documentation on the iText site was not helpful and I am trying to reach someone for clairification.

Anyone know of other PDF libraries that support extending rights so Reader can save input to form fields?

Bill.

[russ Boehle]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

I don't know if this will do what yo need but some parts of this have been very helpful to me, not filling in fields though.

Russ

http://www.pdfill.com/

[Bill Parker]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

I have owned pdfill for a number of years. It is useful when you want to type onto a PDF that does not have form fields. The PDFs we create will have form fields defined.

This PDF will be sent to others. They can then fill in the PDF without needing something like pdfill. But I want them to be able to save the filled in PDF on their system, so they can review it later. That is the part that takes special rights be given to Adobe Reader. By default, Reader can just send back the data to me, and the filled in PDF can't be saved locally.

Bill.

[russ Boehle]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

I am probably missing something here, and you've probably looked at this option, but if the pdf was "standard" as in not changing could you scan it to a form and add fields where you need them? Then you could print this to a pdf using Amyuni or other, and save. This would kind of get away from using Acrobat so the process would have to change from the start, which may not be possible.

Russ

[csda1]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Hi Bill,

This is a licensing issue because Adobe wants VERY big bucks for their distribution server if you want to automate.

In the PDF document I need to "extend rights" to Adobe Reader so reader can save changes after form fields have been filled. Then the entire updated PDF can be returned to us, not just the data stream from the fields.

Adobe probably has an encoded license that is specific for the full acrobat that generates the PDF. The Adobe Reader ascertains if the embedded code is valid and enables the features. My guess is that generating that encoded license is probably not possible.

It is probably possible to find a pdf form generator that has a "free" reader that would allow filling out the forms (or a distribution license for the program), but the users would have to install that free reader.

[Bill Parker]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

What I do now in an xbasic script is produce a report in Alpha with output to PDF. The output will change every time the report is created.

Then the script controls Acrobat via API to find a text string in the PDF and add a form field where ever it exists. This part could also be done by Amyuni if I bought a developer license.

Then the script sends keystrokes to the Acrobat UI to "distribute" the modified PDF. This does a several things and results in another PDF as output. This is the part Amynui can't do. I want to avoid having to automate this through the UI, so I am looking for another tool that could do this part in an API.

And when I say "distribute", the PDF is not sent anywhere in this process (it is sent later). Some code is added to the PDF and it is then possible for remote users with only Adobe Reader installed to locally save data typed into form fields for that PDF.

Bill.

[Bill Parker]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Ira,

Adobe probably has an encoded license that is specific for the full acrobat that generates the PDF.

No. I am using the API through the full Acrobat, and any reader can use the resulting output. Adobe just does not provide access to this particular function through the Acrobat API. Instead they want you to spend $30K on a distribution server license in order to get API access. But it is dead simple to accomplish this through the Acrobat UI, which is what I now do via sys_send_keys().

Amyuni was not ecplicit, but implied they could not come to terms with Adobe over providing this capability.

Bill.

[Bill Parker]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Ira,

You are correct in that doing this process Adobe adds a checksum to the document so it can not be processed further or it loses this capability.

So what I am looking for is a library that provides the capability for Adobe Reader (or generically, any PDF reader/viewer) to save the results of filling out form fields in teh PDF.

Bill.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Here is how I "cheat" adobe:
I fill the form then fax it (via my computer) to myself.
By doing that, you end up (depending on what computer fax software you have) with either a TIFF file or, JPG etc. any of which you could change to JPG via xbasic and any of which you could open with alpha, of course, as an image.

[Kerry Jackson]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Check out link below...

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/editor/

[csda1]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Hi Bill,

I don't think most get it, but the pdf form is saved with Adobe License Keys in it, that, when using the Adobe Reader, knows how to interpret and enable the form saving. Without knowing how to encode those keys (which is probably, as I said earlier, tied to a special developer's copy of the full Adobe Acrobat), it is not going to happen.

Unless someone cracks the license codes (unlikely) to embed (and that might be considered illegal), it will never happen.

However, I recall looking at this but you should check, is that it was possible to put an email submit button on the PDF form. Potentially, you could have it email the form back, or even to the person filling it out. Would something like that work for your situation

[Bill Parker]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Ira,

Yes, the PDF will have an email submit button. Without the capability I want, that submit button would only return a FDF or XML data string of the form field responses. Starting with Acrobat 8 it is possible to return the complete PDF with fields filled. Acrobat is currently version 9.

So a button to just return the data is easy to enable through the API. Having the button send the completed PDF is what Acrobat does not allow through the API, must be done through the UI.

Bill.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Hi Bill,

I don't think most get it, but the pdf form is saved with Adobe License Keys

Read what I said carefully. Who said anything about saving?
You can't save it without a license, period. Any attempts in that regard is a waste of time. You can't crack their code, they are not that stupid. However, what Adobe cannot (they can if they want to but they will loose a big marketing tool) prevent you from taking an image of the completed form which what the fax does. I have on other occasions simply taken an image and saved it.

There are software out there that claims to convert PDF to other file types, but they do admit they are not accurate.

I knew responding to these threads is a waste of time but did so against my best judgment. Have a good day, Bye!

[csda1]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

but the pdf form is saved with Adobe License Keys in it, that, when using the Adobe Reader, knows how to interpret and enable the form saving.

Read what I said carefully. Who said anything about saving?

My statement above is referring to the original form that is generated by the Full Adobe Acrobat when creating the form, not someone reading with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

As for saving the filled out PDF form to a Fax image, that's the hard way. It is a whole lot better to print the filled in form to a PDF printer driver (e.g. PDF Creator, Amyuni PDF etc), and that creates a PDF file (but not a PDF Form). The user still can't modify the values of the saved PDF file as if it's a PDF Form, but it's a whole lot better in quality, and you can still copy text from it, and even modify the "printed" PDF with a PDF editor.

[DaveM]

Re: Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for developing

Maybe I am too old to learn all this about a pdf. Yes I have read files sent to me in pdf format. Just never had a reason to send them out on a regular basis where I could not do it in an easier and mostly free manner.

Never found much I could not do with Alpha's report writer, Alpha email, word Pad, word, notepad, etc.

Am I missing something??



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