I am working on a small government site that will contain a number of PDF forms which can be completed online and submitted via 'cfpdfform'. So far i have the submission working great, saving a copy of the actual completed pdf on the server and stripping out all of the submitted data , which is saved in a database with a datestamp and other important info.
These forms are being created in LiveCycle by staff members, with specific formatting and details determined by them. Fortunately CF makes it super easy to 'talk' to these forms.
The only issue I cannot sort out at this stage - each form has a "submit" button, which passes the data and the PDF itself to a receiving coldfusion page. When viewing the stored copy of the PDF after submission, along with all the user's info filled in, the 'submit' button is still there. This means the user can submit a form, click a link to view/print his completed copy, and then easily click the 'submit' button again, going round and round.
*Q*
Is it possible to remove or disable specific PDF Form buttons with coldfusion?
I looked at the 'flatten' option, but that appears not to work with LiveCycle created forms.
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I typically use the "mode" variable dgrafx is referring to.
<cfset request.mode = "screen"> default the mode to screen
Then somewhere in your application set it to print, when the page is to be converted to PDF.
You can make style changes and hide/display elements testing for this variable...
<cfif NOT request.mode is "print">
submit button
</cfif>
Thanks ... but I guess I wasn't clear.
These are PDF documents, created in LiveCycle, not pages made into PDF on the server.
And the submit button is part of the PDF - a 'button' widget added in livecycle as part of the pdf creation, just like the other PDF form fields... not an html submit button on the page.
isn't there "logic" you can use in livecycle to say that if this variable is true for ex then don't show the button widget?
it's the same concept.
you just need to know how to set a variable dynamically.
or as i had also said -
>you create different code for viewing / printing your forms than for filling them out
and the "view / print" mode doesn't have a submit button<
even if in your case this translates to "different pdf's"
I am not sure we can connect CF processing or variables to livecycle logic embedded in the PDF form - i guess that is the question i am asking.
and though i see how it would work, filling the container from stored xml, i am sure the city admin doesn't want to make 2 different PDFs. The way I have CF working now, it is super simple, actually saving a completed copy of the PDF on the server, no xml/wrapper routine to sort out.
hrmph.
i do understand
but tell your city developer that whenever pre-fabricated gadgets are used then customizing them can be difficult or impossible.
they do have a use - and that is ease of use for someone who is not an advanced developer.
but the cost is power and flexibility.
You could hire a contract developer to write you exactly what you need with a front end that is "easy to use" and that didn't have the limitations that you may be experiencing.
i should add, with regular (acrobat) web forms, CF gives us the option to 'flatten' the form, removing all functionality. I am looking for the same thing for livecycle forms. Have not tried writing the original PDF to a new PDF file yet, that might have some options. We don't really care if the button is still there, we just don't want it to actually submit the form.
> I am not sure we can connect CF processing or variables to livecycle logic embedded
> in the PDF form - i guess that is the question i am asking
I don't have an answer for you, but extending dgrafx's idea .. what about connecting the livecycle logic to a hidden form field value? That way you could populate the field value with CF and leave the rest to livecycle. Then the livecycle logic might say "If the value of hiddenFieldWasSubmitted = "yes" then disable the submit button. It is not as nice as flattening the form, but according to the docs, CF does not allow that anyway (not for livecycle).
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by: dgrafxPosted on 2009-03-24 at 04:07:46ID: 23966590
you need a variable that tracks "what stage" you are at in the form or has the form been completed - yes or no
meaning if the form has not been filled out yet then you may set a persistent variable to 0
ex:
<cfif Not StructKeyExists(session,"f
<cfset session.formcompleted=0>
</cfif>
Then in your page code
<cfif Not session.formcompleted>
submit button
</cfif>
then when the form is completed - on the form action page you'd do:
<cfset form.completed=1>
OR
you create different code for viewing / printing your forms than for filling them out
and the "view / print" mode doesn't have a submit button