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Riccardo317482060r9q
Participant
August 18, 2023
Question

Adobe acrobat pdf database

  • August 18, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 333 views
 

<p>Is it possible to create a fillable file in which to insert a drop-down menu in which to extrapolate data from a database (in Excel)? After choosing a code from a drop-down menu there are fields that must auto-fill based on the information present in an excel file which contains the data.</p>

 

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    1 reply

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 18, 2023

    You want to automatically update an Excel file on the local file system from a PDF. This can kind of be done. You can write an Excel VBA script that opens a PDF and moves data between a spread sheet and the PDF. But that's running the process from Excel, not Acrobat. The problem with Acrobat is that it is heavily sandboxed. The JavaScript model doesn't have the kind of access to the local system that you'd need to create an Acrobat driven solution. 

     

    However, this can be done with a remote DB, since Acrobat can make remote data submissions (which get data as well as sending data).  You could even run a local server that does the Excel side. However this all takes a bit of programming chops, since you'll need to write either a server script or specialty server for handling the remote data. 

     

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
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