Any way to "update" the drop down list values automatically from an excel sheet/database, but not live linked?

[Speez]

We are putting some PDF forms in use on a project which would have multiple drop downs with set values that can be selected (example - employee names, roles, and ID numbers). The acceptable values will be saved in an excel sheet, but the issue is the platform that we are deploying these forms on does not allow us to reference and outside database to feed values into the sheet - they have to be hardcoded.

Because the acceptable values will fluctuate relatively frequently (we're a construction company, so lots of things change on site regularly), I would love to directly link the sheet to a database to ease the updating process. Since that is not possible, is there a way to manually update a sheet's dropdown field values from an excel sheet or other data source such that it updates the hardcoded options, and then we can just re-upload a new version of the PDF everytime we have changes?

Basically in a perfect world, we would build the sheet, install it on the platform, and just update the database that it pulls values from. Since we can't do this, we would instead build the sheet with all the initial values and deploy it so that it matches what is in our excel sheet. When there are changes (IE new employees coming onboard, new equipment to include) we would update the excel sheet, then create a copy of the sheet, run some script/process to update the hardcoded values in the fields within the copied PDF to match the updated excel sheet, and then upload the new copied PDF over top of the old PDF on the platform so that users have access to the new options.

[try67]

It's possible to do it using a script if the input file is a plain-text file and if its location is known in advance.

I've developed similar scripts in the past for my clients so if you're interested in hiring someone to do it for you feel free to contact me privately (try6767 at gmail.com) and we could discuss it further.

[hammer0909]

Here is a sample PDF form that allows you to paste items into a text field and then populate the combo box with those values. I've used this for several projects and it works like a charm. You can download the PDF to your computer, populate the box and then copy that box to your form.