Auto-populate form fields across forms

[starbirdsp]

In Acrobat 5 I have created several forms which we want to allow to auto-populate across the forms frequently used data fields(ie. name, ss#, date of hire, etc).
How can I tell Acrobat to save a file upon submitting the form using say the ss# or employee id so that the additional forms can pull that data automatically without the employee having to retype personal data on every form?
I don't think JavaScript can do that and I'm not sure what scripting language Acrobat uses.
Thanks for any help!

 

[tgreer]

FDFs can point to several PDFs. In other words, Form Data is resuable.

Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

 

[starbirdsp]

Thanks tgreer for responding.
I can get the form data to populate when I open a new form by pulling the data from a .fdf, but what I'm not sure I can do is get Adobe to save the field data automatically as a .fdf without the prospective employee having to name and save the file... a step I would like to avoid to ensure we are consistant in file naming and for security purposes.
If I were working in Microsoft, I would write a macro in Visual Basics that would use one of the form fields with the .fdf extension and save it to a specific location automatically when a specific action occured - in this case when the form was submitted. But JavaScript (at least my understanding of JavaScript which is very limited), does not do this type of scripting.
Thanks

 

[tgreer]

Are you submitting this to a web server? The users fill out a PDF/Form in their browser and click on a submit button? Then it's just a case of setting the Action to submit XML or HTML, and you can do what you like with it.

That said, if this is a client-based situation, Acrobat's Javascript model does allow you to interate through the fields, and there is also an exportAsFdf method.

I haven't explored it much, but it looks promising that you can do what you need via JavaScript.

Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

 

[starbirdsp]

It's a client-based situation. I will look into this exportAsFdf you mentioned and see if that will resolve the problem. I'm guessing I set the action to JavaScript and write a script using this exportAsFdf?
Thanks a ton! I'll let you know what the outcome is.

 

[Murgle]

You can specify the path and filename of the output fdf file, but only in batch, console or menu events. Do you have any control over the user group that will be filling in these forms? I had a similar problem using the saveAs function, but as I manage the user group which has access to the form, I was able to write a batch sequence and install it on each users machine. This is then called as an execute menu item command by mouseup action on a form field.
This may not be feasible for you as my group only consists of 20 users.
I have a similar setup to export an fdf file with a specified name to a specified location which only runs on my machine, but could be exported to the other users if necessary.

Ahhhhh, I see you have a machine that goes Bing!

 

[starbirdsp]

Murgle, thanks for the info. I do not have control over the user group, so that may present a greater problem. I'm going to use the input from both you and tgreer and see if I can come up with a workable solution soon. I may be back for more help soon - Thanks