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Henry.Ong
Henry.Ong
Inspiring
July 31, 2017
Answered

Creating a multiple choice questions in PDF

  • July 31, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 22144 views

I am creating a PDF document with set of questions answerable by multiple choice.

Example:

For which of the following disciplines is Nobel Prize awarded?

A. Physics and Chemistry

B. Physiology or Medicine

C. Literature, Peace and Economics

D. All of the above

In this example, the correct answer is "D - All of the above”

Here is what I would like to happen:

  1. How can I check if the answer selected is correct?
  2. I also plan to include a "Next" control button that when click, it goes to the next question and cannot go back to the previous question to change their answer.
  3. I want the result (Correct or Wrong) of each question to be display only after the last question has been answer.

        Example:

        Question 1 - Correct

        Question 2 - Correct

        Question 3 - Wrong

        Question 4 - Correct ...

   d.  I also want to display the total score at the end and a note if they passed or failed the test.

Thank you in advance.

Henry

    Correct answer WolfShade

    I agree with nic.  PDFs are supposed to be a cross-platform portable document used for conveying information.  Yeah, you can set up a form and have people check boxes/radios and fill out text fields, and such, but they were never meant to be as interactive as what you describe.  This would be better done with a webpage, and you don't even have to use server-side for it.  A standard HTML with JavaScript should be able to cover what you seek, and can be copied from system to system and run locally in the browser without a webserver.

    HTH,

    ^ _ ^

    UPDATE:  Of course, this won't prevent people from using "View Source" and cheating.  For that you'd have to have a webserver and a server-side scripting language like CF with AJaX for the checking of scores and such.

    3 replies

    Henry.Ong
    Henry.OngAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 10, 2023

    Very interesting requirements. I tried this before and reaches only up to the point of comparing the correct answers. However, one thing I would life to be added and that is a functional button that when check will show the results and not during while the questions is being answered.

    D
    Dave Watts
    Adobe Expert
    June 10, 2023

    This question is sort of a blast from the past! There are really two questions here: how to do it, and why you'd want to do it.

     

    To build a complex PDF form, we used Adobe Livecycle Designer, which was bundled with Acrobat Pro. This has been replaced by AEM Forms Designer. I don't know whether you can use this for free or where you can get it. I don't think it's part of Creative Cloud. I think the two tools are pretty similar. Anyway, Designer created XML forms that aren't really traditional PDFs but can be used as PDFs. These forms support JavaScript and have a very complex and powerful DOM. You certainly can use them for dynamic UI stuff. So, you should be able to build this form in Designer as it sounds pretty simple.

     

    But should you? Why not just use HTML? I don't see anything special about this form or its use case. Maybe there is, I don't know.

     

    Anyway, here's the AEM forum.

    https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-learn/forms/ic-print-channel-tutorial/create-xdp-layout-using-forms-designer.html?lang=en

     

    Good luck!

     

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC 

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC
    D
    Dave Watts
    Adobe Expert
    June 10, 2023

    Oh, a couple of caveats I forgot:

     

    While PDFs are certainly capable of doing what you want, most computers will open them with browsers instead of Acrobat, for security reasons mostly. Browsers won't handle XDP forms so they will likely be blank.

     

    XDP forms can be used with CF or any other server-side environment, but they're much harder to develop and debug.

     

    HTML is a preferred forms delivery method over XDP ... even by AEM developers. That does require an AEM server specifically, I don't think you can do that with CF.

     

    Again, good luck!

     

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC 

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC
    WolfShade
    WolfShadeCorrect answer
    Brainiac
    August 1, 2017

    I agree with nic.  PDFs are supposed to be a cross-platform portable document used for conveying information.  Yeah, you can set up a form and have people check boxes/radios and fill out text fields, and such, but they were never meant to be as interactive as what you describe.  This would be better done with a webpage, and you don't even have to use server-side for it.  A standard HTML with JavaScript should be able to cover what you seek, and can be copied from system to system and run locally in the browser without a webserver.

    HTH,

    ^ _ ^

    UPDATE:  Of course, this won't prevent people from using "View Source" and cheating.  For that you'd have to have a webserver and a server-side scripting language like CF with AJaX for the checking of scores and such.

    Henry.Ong
    Henry.OngAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 1, 2017

    Thanks Nic and WolfShade for this feedback.

    T
    T.Taylor
    Participating Frequently
    December 30, 2021

    Did you ever get this to work? If so, what did you use? 

    N
    nic_tunney
    Inspiring
    August 1, 2017

    This seems to be quite outside of the scope of a PDF, especially one generated by ColdFusion.  Adobe Livecycle used to add functionality that might be useful, but it is quite an expensive solution for something that might be better served as a web page, etc.

    -Nic

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