Can I make a website using javascript, that is able to fill in text in a PDF template?

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Hi

I work at a company where we have 14 different restaurants, and all I wan't is to create a website, that the restaurant managers can log in to and create or edit their menu's

We have a graphic designer that makes all the templates, but they have to fill in the text using inCopy,inDesign or Word. Instead, I want him to be able to upload the template to a FTP server, and they can log in to a website, that I create in javascript and html, and plug in the new menu's.

Is that possible?

I hope someone is able to get me going 🙂

Thanks!

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Not quite. What you can do is add form fields that will allow the users to

enter information into the PDF file, but that's about it.

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 1:14 PM, christofferw <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Can you please elaborate?

If our graphical designer makes a file using inDesign, where he tells the document where to the text need to be placed. Would that work?

In the end, all I want is for our restaurants to be able to log on to a website, where they plug in some text in boxes that can be used to create fill out a PDF file

Report · Jul 06, 2017

The designer can add fillable form fields in InDesign, or it can be done later on in Acrobat.

Then the users will be able to fill them in using the free Adobe Reader.

It might be a good idea to also include a button to lock the fields, once they have been filled in.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Yes, that's the normal way to do it. But I wanted a webpage that would solve my issue.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Not sure how it would work with a web-page... Do you mean that you wanted the users to enter the text on the web-page and then send them a populated version of the PDF with that text? That's possible, but will require a much more complex, server-side solution.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

That's exactly what I want. I got some programming skills, and I may be able to do the whole javascript myself, but I need some kind of system/program to populate the PDF files with the text from the javascript json.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

This type of thing should be done with PHP or Java, I would think. JS runs on the client-side, not the server-side.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

I know. But as I see it, Acrobat got the opportunity to include javascript.

http://help.adobe.com/livedocs/acrobat_sdk/10/Acrobat10_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.h...

Or did I misunderstand something?

Report · Jul 06, 2017

You're misunderstanding quite a lot.

JavaScript in Acrobat/Reader runs on the client side and in only those products and a few others (like Foxit) to a lesser extent. Given your scenario, the only way to use JavaScript to populate the PDF would be if you were able to have the PDF load data that's generated by the server. That's relatively simple but requires that everyone who wants to view a menu from your site be opened in one of the Adobe viewers first. These days, that is highly unlikely. In most modern browsers, the PDF is first handled by the browser itself or by one of the OS default PDF viewers which don't execute JavaScript. Only if the user notices that something is wrong with the PDF will they think to download and open it in an Adobe tool or use "Open In" if they are on mobile. The chances of a user even considering doing that if they are unfamiliar with what the PDF should look like is extreamly low.

The only way to have your menus be seen with the form data already in place is to process the PDF on the server. As mentioned before, Acrobat was neither developed for or licensed to function in that environment.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

The PDF files is not going to be visible on the company website. The only reason for us to do this, is to make it easier for the restaurant managers to edit and print their menu onto a piece of paper. The website is going to be updated elsewhere. Hope that explains

Report · Jul 06, 2017

Ah... that's another story. It's certainly possible to create a menu as a PDF form that your users just enter their data into but Acrobat isn't a great word processor. Even with JavaScript helping them along, it won't be a great experience.

Report · Jul 06, 2017

There are a number of 3rd party PDF libraries that can help you to accomplish this. Acrobat is not suitable and not licensed for server use, so you will have to look for a non-Acrobat based solution.

If you want to stay with Adobe technology, you can use Datalogics's Java Tool Kit, which is based on Adobe's PDF library: http://www.datalogics.com/products/pdf/pdfjavatoolkit/

There are a number of other solutions out there as well that do not come from Adobe, this being an Adobe hosted site, I will not mention any non-Adobe products, but when you spend a few minutes searching online, you should be able to find a selection of these tools. I actually just finished a project where JSON data got merged into a PDF form using one of these 3rd party libraries, so if you are interested in professional help with your project, feel free to contact me via email (my contact information is on my profile page).