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Forms Us HELIX 2006 Presentation (H082) Diane Richmond Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education We’d like our on the web Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Technologies You’ll Hear Word Doc – to download PDF …and later FDF HTML submitted to an e-mail Form “handlers” or cgi scripts Dynamic programming languages asp php asp.NET Database backing MS SQL mySQL Oracle Getting really “jiggy with it” xml, ajax, fdf Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Which is the “right” one? Standards Proprietary systems Expertise on site Resources WHAT DOES THE CLIENT WANT THE FORM TO DO? Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Communication is the Like all good relationships… Don’t let the client SUGGEST a solution Let them talk a LOT Guide the discussion – especially if a skilled project manager is not the one meeting with the client Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education A Series of Questions Build a matrix A conditional web app A flow chart OR SOMETHING to guide this process Here is a simplified sample… Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Client’s Form PDF Form Yes HTML or PDF Fill-In Matches Paper Version at What Point Must Match Paper Version Print-Out No HTML Form (PHP, ASP, Etc.) A Word of Caution - Workflow If there IS a paper version… What is the workflow of the paper version? This MAY be a detailed discussion which eventually demonstrates problem areas and the need for a “new” system My husband refers to this as the “Oh, *$#@” factor Is there a plan for how the new web version will fit into that workflow? Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education HTML Forms Great if… Form questions change often by content owners, but functionality remains constant Page layout, template must match other web pages as opposed to print pages There is frequent need to change the form The form is quite complex; i.e. has many pages/sections or is completed in stages. The form data can be submitted online Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Eric Coffman says… Forms have long been and will continue to be a central part of any interactive site. Collecting information from a form has been solved, first by posting the data to an e-mail address, then by using Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, and currently by using other server-side technologies, such as ASPs. Collecting and storing this data into a database is a fairly simple process and even prepopulating a form with user-specific data via session variables or cookies has become a sort of standard. Though we are deep within the Information Age, we still require forms to be printed out and physically signed. Perhaps in 10 years or so everyone will have a digital signature and this will no longer be necessary. But, until that day we are faced with a kind of dilemma -- How to present a form that is connectable to a database and that can be printed for signature or other purposes. Along comes Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) which is both printable and transportable. On top of this they have added a layer called Forms Data Format (FDF), which is very similar and similar to HTML form elements. Eric Coffman 8/22/2001 “15 Seconds: Advanced Form Presentation and Printing w/PDF, FDF, ASP, and DHTML – Part 1” Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education PDF/FDF Forms Great if… Form must be available on the web, but printed out for signatures and or processing Form must visually match a paper form that already exists If this only a print-out issue, a non-PDF form could be used to produce a printable PDF The form data can be submitted online Sent to an e-mail address as a complete PDF Form data deposited in database Variations… Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education PDFs are not just for printing anymore… PDF forms can be useful for submitting and collecting information over the Web. This is done by providing several button actions that perform functions similar to HTML scripting macros. You must have a CGI application on the Web server to collect and route the data to a database. Any existing CGI application that collects from forms (in HTML, FDF, or XML format) can be used. …See the FDF Toolkit Overview on the Adobe Web site. From the Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education How do I get that data? About Acrobat form data Acrobat can submit data from PDF forms in a variety of formats: FDF exports as an FDF file. You can choose to export the form fields data comments, incremental changes to the PDF, or all three. HTML exports as an HTML file. XFDF exports as an XML file. You can choose to export the form fields data, comments, or both. PDF exports the entire PDF file that is your form. Although this creates a larger file than the FDF option, it is useful for preserving digital signatures. From the Complete Acrobat 7.0 Help. Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Acrobat Forms Tutorial Start with a Word or InDesign or Publisher or… A few hints here Don’t draw boxes or circles, etc. at this point Don’t draw lines in multi-line text boxes Convert, distill, capture, or print to PDF Author your fields Sample Doc Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education References/Resources Never hurts to go to the obvious… http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/ Detailed step-by-steps http://www.adobe.com/education/pdf/cib/acro7/acro7_c ib_14.pdf Looking for moving pictures? Here’s a video tutorial http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/vector/form s_movie.html Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Resources/References Really old articles, but conceptually VERY helpful : http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/010822.htm (part I) http://www.15seconds.com/issue/010823.htm (part II) http://www.15seconds.com/issue/990902.htm http://www.planetpdf.com/developer/article.asp?Cont entID=6492 http://www.planetpdf.com/developer/article.asp?conte ntid=6480&ra Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Resources/References My favorite non-Adobe (make that “MacroDobe”) support site: http://www.planetpdf.com Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Contact Info Diane Richmond Web Services Manager Truman State University – Kirksville, MO SunGard Higher Education Office Phone: 660-785-7191 Email: [email protected] HELIX Session H082 Presentation Available at: http://its.truman.edu/webservices/helix Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education Diane Richmond - SunGard Higher Education