Submit button on PDF sending to Drafts inbox

[Geraldine5E78]

Hi - how can I get the submit button on interactive PDF to send directly to email and not sit in my Drafts inbox? I am using Pro DC. It is a file on a website and when it is completed I wanted them to simply click submit and that is the end of it. But when i tested it, it sits in Drafts waiting for me to go in and send it. 

The URL feature - how does that work? What url could I put for the form to be sent to the website? Do I need a plugin for this?? Thanks so much.

[try67]

- You would need to use a script file that's installed on the local computer of each user to achieve that, as sending emails silently without user approval is a huge security risk.

- You can submit the form data to a service that's running on a web-server, which in turn can save it as a file, extract the date from it into a DB, email it, etc. This requires having a web-server and developing this service, using something like PHP or ASP. You don't need anything special in the PDF file itself, though, just a basic Submit a Form command with the correct URL as the target.

[Test Screen Name]

Email seems such a simple way to submit forms. Everyone can send emails, right? But this is an illusion. Acrobat can't send emails without prompting - that would be a huge security issue. So it has to pass it to your email app. Some email apps will put it in Draft, some in Outbox. But what if the user never set up their email app? This computer, I am sat at, can't send email, I get by email on a different computer or my phone. Any attempt to send emails from it would fail, quite possibly leaving the email in an outbox I never saw. Did you know a web page can also "submit" to email? But nobody does, because it doesn't work reliably enough for any real solution. ALSO, it doesn't work at all from mobile apps (phone, tablets etc.). Just forget email. (It's also a breach of privacy law in many countries to use email to submit personal info).

But what should you use? Exactly what web pages use constantly: send to an http or https URL. But don't think of this as "where to write a file", it isn't that simple. It's a special URL (often called a web script, CGI, ASP, PHP or other names). It runs an app written by a specialist, professional programmer. Ths script can send an email, update a database, or do whatever it needs to do. Why a specialist? Because these scripts are the #1 way that hackers attack web sites; you could lose all your files, or find your web site replaced by spam or a policial campaign; or find your web site is secretly attacking your visitors and infecting them with malware. Only a specialist should be trusted with this stuff. (Also the privacy of the people submitting needs respecting).

Personally, I now advise against PDF forms for submitting. Just too much to go wrong. Use standard web forms. You will find complete services to receive and hold the info, like Google Forms. PDF forms look pretty but who cares? And they seem simple, but that's an illusion.