Fill PDF form with javascript

Question

This is what I have:

User fills very long html form
User gets link to download different pdfs (this are fillable forms), links are generated using javascript
User clicks link, url is generated (with the data the user submitted before), data is processed in the form and fields are completed *this is done using javascript inside the form).
User get pdf back with fields completed.

The problem I'm running is that in some cases the data needed to send to the form is around 8000 characters, when IE only allows 2083 character in the url.

As requested by client, we need to do everything client side, that means no access to php, c#, java. Also I'm using Acrobat Pro X, to work with the pdfs.

Is there a way to submit a post request, process that request in the pdf, fill the form and return the filled form to the user? Is there another way to go around the 2083 character limit of IE?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:54:36Z

7

Why do you need to send 8000 characters of data to the server if you want to fill out the form on the client side? Seems like all you need to do is to establish communication between the JavaScript in the HTML page and the JavaScript in the PDF. This is explained here: PDF hostContainer callback

PS: I'm the author of the book from which this excerpt was taken: http://www.javabeat.net/2011/04/javascript-communication-between-html-and-pdf-in-itext/

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:54

CommunityBot

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answered Mar 5, 2013 at 9:40

Bruno Lowagie

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3 Comments

andrantis Over a year ago

Because the user need to download the pdf from the site with everything filled. We never show the pdf to the user in the website. Also I'm seeing in your article that says "The hostContainer property doesn’t work on the Mac OS system. Because of that limitation, this example may not work for you or for a segment of your customers." And this would be another limitation

Bruno Lowagie Over a year ago

In that case your question doesn't really make sense, does it? How are you going to fill out a PDF with client-side Javascript if you don't send the PDF to the client? Also you say you want to "return the filled form to the user" and now you say "we never show the PDF to the user". That sounds like a contradiction.

andrantis Over a year ago

I saw in the example that the file was part of the webapge showed to the user and I got confused because we only have a link for him to download. Sorry about that. I'll take another look and try to make it work. I'll still have the issue with MAC OS tho. But thanks for the help so far.

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