web form to pdf

[D._Shun-...@adobeforums.com]

I am new to using PDF forms over the web. Is it possible to post a PDF form on the web, have the user fill it in and submit it and then have the PDF with Data emailed to someone or the PDF placed onto the server to be downloaded? After the filled in PDF is placed on the server (or emailed), I would like to be able to download it looking identical to the PDF form, except now it has the form data where the form fields were.

Also, I would need to do this on Apache server on Linux.

If anyone can explain this or point me to the right resources, that would be great! Thanks!

[Mike_Sc...@adobeforums.com]

I have used PDF forms on the Web, though not in the Apache/Linux environment that you are facing. You add a "Submit" button to the form. In the action for that button, you can ask it to post the results as HTML, FDF, XML, or as a PDF. Adobe's FDFToolkit can come in handy when processing the posted data. In my case, I took the HTML post, validated the data, then wrote it out to an FDF using the toolkit. I then used a product called FDFMergeLite (from www.appligent.com) to merge the data into the PDF and flatten it (the fields become text, displaying the data but prohibiting further entry). Presumably, you could then e-mail it or send it to the client's browser. In my case, I chose to send it to the browser by bit-streaming it. This allowed me to keep the PDF in a directory outside of the root structure of the Web site, but grant access to it by streaming the PDF to validated users. Microsoft's Web site has some tips on bit-streaming.