Can a PDF fillable form post itself to an HTTPS URL?

Question

I am building a webapp that will display PDFs. The PDFs have fillable forms. Instead of making the user save the form, and then re-upload it to the webapp, the idea is to adapt the PDF such that it can POST itself (when the user clicks) from inside the browser to some HTTPS endpoint when the user is done.

Is this doable? If so, how? If not, any suggestions? Thanks.

Hanzelin

Adobe has a product which caters to this exact need: adobe.com/products/livecycle/forms. No experience with it though... – Ardoin

See ammug.org/drupal/node/101 – Deguzman

If you want an automated solution, you could a PDF component to generate the PDF server side. Here is an article that has PDF forms documents posting to an HTTP URL - How to Create and Fill PDF Forms in .NET. This article was written for our company's product PDFOne .NET. We also have similar products for Delphi/C++Builder and Java developers. – Paternalism

Answer 1

Yes, there is an option (action) that allows pdfs to post themselves. The steps are as follows:

List item

1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro

2. Select the button tool

3. Add submit form button

4. Add the url and how you want the form to be submitted. You're done.

5. The warning shown when the user clicks the "submit a form" button.

This can also be done in Adobe LiveCycle.

Deguzman

Perfect. Just in case, what version of Reader is minimum for this functionality to be available? – Hanzelin

Not sure...I believe it works on 7 and up, though I haven't tested less...here are a few relevant links: kb2.adobe.com/cps/325/325874.html , blogs.adobe.com/stevex/2006/05/http_submit.html , kb2.adobe.com/cps/332/332289.html , forms.stefcameron.com/2009/12/16/testing-http-submit-buttons . Hope this helps! – Deguzman

FYI, for posterity, forms cannot send themselves as full PDFs unless you enable the PDF Form through Reader Extensions. – Hanzelin