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bwvick
bwvick
Participant
April 2, 2024
Question

PDF Submittal response

  • April 2, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1985 views

We have many PDF forms that we use the submit function on.  The submit function sends the PDF to our webserver, there we process the PDF by grabbing all the form fields and saving to a database along with the actual PDF.

 

The server returns some html to describe the success/failure of the submittal.  If the submittal was not accepted the html will show the reasons for not accepting it.

 

Normally acrobat will save this html to a folder named c:\users\[current]\AppData\Local\Temp\acrobat_sbx and will prompt us to open the html document yes/no.  When we select Yes it will open the html in our default browser.  

 

We have a few installations where starting this week this function no longer works, the html is saved in the folder correctly, however acrobat will prompt with a message "An error occurred during the submit process.  Cannot process content of type text/html; charset=utf-8".  

 

I have went through all the settings and I don't see anything pertaining to this.  Other workstations with the same version are working.  

 

Any ideas?

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    2 replies

    C
    Charles3141479505h2
    Participant
    April 13, 2024

    We noted the same behavior in a very similar configuration where form data was being processed on a server and a response returned for confirmation.  In our case the html response from the server was being opened in Adobe Reader rather than in a web browser. Now submissions by Adobe Reader get the same error message you noted. If we submit the form using Adobe Acrobat, however, the html response confirmation is displayed in Acrobat without an error message.

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 2, 2024

    Returning HTML to an Acrobat Submit was never a reliable method, you were just fortunate that the particular version of Acrobat in use handled it in a convenient way. In older versions, Acrobat converted the HTML into  a PDF.  AFAIK there is not documentation on this behavior. 

    You would be much better served to use a documented method, such as returning FDF.  The FDF could even provide a redirect to open a web page. Or it could display a popup with error or success information. 

       

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    bwvick
    bwvickAuthor
    Participant
    April 2, 2024

    Any documentation you can provide on FDF.  I am not familiar with that format.

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 2, 2024

    It is a PDF specific format. You'll find the complete specification inside the PDF spec (ISO32000). FDF has not changed in many years, so an old PDF spec (pre-ISO) will do. 

     

    You can get an idea of how it is structured by exporting data from your form in FDF format. 

    I use FDF for much more than data, for examle sending scripts and messages back to the form. 

     

     

     

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