Sending URL Variables to Populate PDF

[steve-lamb]

Hello All,

We have a digital product on our site that people can purchase.  Upon purchase, they get a certificate via email that is all personalized with their name and the quantity of the products that they purchased.  There is also a link to download a printable version of their certificate, that links to a PDF.  Right now, that PDF is a static PDF that does not contain their name or quantity.

I'd like to be able to add these parameters to the URL linking to the pdf, something like ?firstName=Steve&QTY=2 and have it populate fields in the PDF so that it contains the customers information for printing.

Is this possible?  How do I construct the PDF to be able to accomplish this?

[try67]

There isn't a built-in method to do it, but I've developed a (paid-for) script that allows you to achieve just that, but only under specific circumstances (the file is opened using the Adobe plugin and inside a browser). You can find it here: http://try67.blogspot.com/2011/09/acrobat-populate-form-data-from-url.html

[steve-lamb]

Thanks.  When you say "script", do you mean Javascript?  Where would the script go?  I'm looking to link to the PDF via an email.

[try67]

Yes, the script is written in JavaScript. You install the script on your local computer (it comes with detailed instructions) and then run it on your file. It then embeds the code in it to allow it to read the contents of the URL used to load it and populate the fields in it based on those values.