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Participant
January 29, 2019
Question

Acrobat DC uses fdf or xfa? I need to know how Acrobat DC saves their forms data.

  • January 29, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 2038 views

Hello,
I'm interested in how Acrobat DC saves the form data.

I read about FDF, XFA and Acroforms. But XFA is only used with LifeCyleDesigner. Is the Designer included in Acrobat DC 2018?

I read a lot of websites how PDF format is structured but I need to know (for a technical chapter in my thesis) how Acrobat DC compiles his inserted data like "1a" of Radiobutton is pressed, "Lisa" is filled in as "fav. child name" ...

Can someone help me please? I'm not good in code but I need to write about the sturcture of the format and how the data is proceeded until I export a CSV.

Thanks a lot, Natalie

The websites I'd visited (but didn't found out a lot, cause I don't get it..)

PDF File Format: Basic Structure

What is the difference between AcroForms and XFA? – Appligent

https://blog.idrsolutions.com/2014/03/extracting-data-xfa-files/

Acrobat Forms Data Format (FDF) Toolkit

https://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/pdf-tools/

Planet PDF - Navigating the Internal Structure of a PDF Document

Introduction to PDF - GNUpdf

PDF Reference and Adobe Extensions to the PDF Specification | Adobe Developer Connection

PDFMiner

Structure of a PDF file? - Stack Overflow

1. PDF Syntax - Developing with PDF [Book]

PDF File Format: Basic Structure

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4 replies

Legend
January 29, 2019

Read about Widget annotations in 32000-1. And Acroform dictionaries.

Participant
January 29, 2019

Thank you two!

That's very interesting. I already tried to read the Spec but I didn't get it at all.

At the moment I collect the answers in the tracker and then I export it as a CSV to use it in excel. (But i use CSV as export format and neither FDF or XFDF or XFA format(?))

But how can I find out how the tracker knows which data is the question and which is the answer to store it correctly into the table?

Can a parser or something like that help to explain it?

My prof ask me to write a short part about the question "what does the inserted data "do" and how is it stored "during it's way through the pdf" (means 1. inserted, 2. saved,(then send via mail to the questioner) 3. converted by the tracker, 4. exported to a CSV)

And now i read a lot about the sturcture of pdf but I have no idea what or how I could describe something..

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 29, 2019

This is a very complex question to answer and it requires in-depth understanding of the PDF format.

Legend
January 29, 2019

Designer is not included with Acrobat, and no longer sold as a separate product. It is effectively dead (but don't quote that in your thesis, as reality is always more complicated).

The data is not stored inside a PDF in FDF or XFDF or XFA format. These are EXPORT formats only. When it is inside the PDF, it is part of the PDF data structure, and is fully described in the PDF Specification, ISO 32000-1 (warning, 1000 page document).

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 29, 2019

Acrobat doesn't use any such format when you interact with the fields. Only when you export or import the form data does it get converted to one of those formats. XFA-forms become XML files. Acrobat-forms can be either FDF, XFDF, plain text or XML files.