PDF Link & PDF Action
A PDF Link takes you to
other location in the same document, to other document, or to website.
A PDF Action defines the
actions to be taken in response to various trigger events affecting the
document as a whole.
You can add the most common PDF Link & Action into your
PDF document:
-
No Action
-
Open a Web Link
-
Reset a Form
-
Submit a Form
-
Run a Javascript
-
Named Action
-
Go to Local Page
-
Go to Another PDF
-
Launch Application or Document
A Trigger determines how
action is activated in form fields. For each action, there are
six action trigger types:
|
Mouse Up |
When the mouse button is
released after a click. This is the most common button trigger,
because it gives the user one last chance to drag the pointer
off the button and not activate the action. In most cases, Mouse
Up is the preferred trigger for Push Button Form Field. |
|
Mouse Down |
When the mouse button is
clicked (without being released). |
|
Mouse Enter |
When the pointer enters the
field or play area. |
|
Mouse Exit |
When the pointer exits the
field or play area. |
|
On Focus (Get
Focus) |
When the link area receives
focus, either through a mouse action or tabbing. |
|
On Blur (Lose Focus)
|
When the focus moves to a
different link area. In most cases, On Blur is the preferred
trigger for Text Form Field's Calculation. |
Please
note that the PDF form Field cannot be set as Read-Only to use PDF
Action.
1. No Action
2. Open a Web Link
A
uniform resource identifier (URI) is a
string that identifies (resolves to) a resource on the
Internettypically a file that is the destination of a hypertext link.
Here are some examples to
open a Web or Email Link:
https://www.pdfill.com
ftp://ftp.pdfill.com
mailto:support@pdfill.com?subject=my subject
mailto:support@pdfill.com?subject=my subject&cc=barfoo@foobar.com&bcc=secretfoo@bar.com&body=type
body line here
3. Reset a Form
A
reset-form action resets the entire
interactive form fields to their default values.
4. Submit a Form
PDF
forms as well as HTML forms can be used in
a transaction between an end user and the form provider, but the
approach between the two types of interactive forms is quite different.
If your form is shortfor instance, a two-box login formyou should
prefer HTML over PDF. A PDF
form is typically preferred when you want to keep the layout of an
existing paper form: Some people
fill in the form online, whereas other people print it and fill it in
manually. HTML forms dont look
nice when printed out.
Forms Data Format (FDF) is
the file format used for interactive form data. FDF is used when
submitting form data to a server,
receiving the response, and incorporating it into the interactive form.
It can also be used to export form data to stand-alone files that can be
stored, transmitted electronically, and imported back into the
corresponding PDF interactive form.
You must put your PDF Form under
your Web Server to avoid "Html/text" error. Also, Adobe Reader 7.0 and
later is recommended for submit.
4.1. Email Form Data in
FDF Format
You can ask your client to email the filled form data by email. Here is
the format:
mailto:test@yourmail.com?subject=My
Subject&body=Here is my form data.
See the steps on How to
submit PDF Form Data (FDF) by Email.
4.2. Submit a Form In FDF Format
In your server, you can
easily save the raw data as a FDF. You can save it into your database or
let the client user to download this new FDF. The user can save this FDF
with the original PDF form. When this FDF is open,
the original PDF form is filled and ready to print.
PDFill Provides
FREE Form Data Submit
Services:
https://www.pdfill.com/example/submit/fdf_submit_free.php
You can ask your client
user to email the very compact FDF file instead of the entire PDF Form.
Instead, you can use this link to test your FDF submit:
https://www.pdfill.com/example/submit/fdf_submit_free.php. Please see
this
example
PHP Code
to handle this Online PDF Form Data submitted in FDF Format.
4.3. Submit a Form In
HTML Format
The data in your form is submitted
to the server as an HTML POST. You
can retrieve the parameters from
the request object as if it is a HTML form. Please see
this example
PHP Code
to handle this Online PDF Form Data submitted in HTML Format.
You
can easily save the filled data into excel, Text,
FDF, XFDF, or database in your
server.
4.4. Submit a Form In XFDF Format
XML Forms Data Format(XFDF), a version of
FDF based on XML. XFDF is described in the Adobe technical note XML
Forms Data Format Specification, Version 2.0. XML is described in
the W3C document Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1).
You can use any XML parser to get the field names and their
values. Please see
this example
PHP Code
to handle this Online PDF Form Data submitted in XPDF Format.
4.5.
Email the Entire PDF
Enter
the "Email To", "Email CC", "Email BCC", "Email Title", "Email Body".
See the steps on
How to Submit
Entire PDF by Email using PDFill PDF Form Maker
5. Run a JavaScript
Here are some
examples:
| JavaScript |
Function |
| this.print(true); |
Print the PDF document |
| app.alert('Hello!'); |
Give a message |
|
app.launchURL("https://www.pdfill.com", true); |
create the link in PDF that will open the URL in NEW
window |
| this.getField("Text3").value =
this.getField("Text1").value + this.getField("Text2").value; |
Add Simple Calculation |
var f
= this.getField("Text1");
f.value = util.printd("mmm/d/yyyy", new Date()); |
Insert
the current date into a Text Field |
var
url = "mailto:johndoe@doe.net";
this.submitForm(url, true); |
Send
form data (FDF) to an e-mail address |
|
this.mailDoc(false, "to@email.com",
"cc@email.com",
"bcc@email.com", "title", "body of text"); |
Send
the entire PDF to an email address (Adobe Reader XI
is required) |
var
nHide =
event.target.isBoxChecked(0)?display.visible:display.hidden;
this.getField("Text1").display = nHide; |
Show
or Hide a Text Box using a Check Box |
if (event.target.value==
"Yes")
this.getField("Text1").hidden = true;
else
this.getField("Text1").hidden = false; |
Use a
Check Box Form Field to Show or Hide a Text Box
Example
PFL and
PDF |
| //Under
Custom
Keystroke Script of "Text1"
if ( event.fieldFull
|| event.willCommit )
this.getField("Text2").setFocus(); |
Make a
multiple line form that text flows through one to
another: Set Font Size not Auto (0); Uncheck "scroll
long text". |
Acrobat Forms API Reference:
https://www.pdfill.com/download/FormsAPIReference.pdf
Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Guide:
https://www.pdfill.com/download/Acro6JSGuide.pdf
Acrobat JavaScript Scripting
Reference:
https://www.pdfill.com/download/AcroJS.pdf
6. Named Action
PDF viewers support a list of
named actions
that can be created with
-
First Page
Jumps to
the first page
-
Previous Page
Jumps to
the previous page
-
Next Page
Jumps to
the next page
-
Last Page
Jumps to the last page
-
Print Dialog
Opens a
dialog box for printing
7. Go to Local Page
Display the page, with the coordinates
(left, top) positioned at the top-left corner of the window and the
contents of the page magnified by the factor zoom. A negative value for
any of the parameters left or top, or a zoom value of 0 specifies that
the current value of that parameter is to be retained unchanged.
Page Number - a specific page
number
Left
- the left value. A value of 0 or negative keeps the current value.
Top
- the top value. A value of 0 or negative keeps the current value.
Zoom
- The zoom factor. A value of 0 or negative keeps the current value.
8. Go to Another PDF
Page Number: a specific page
number
PDF Path Name: The path name of a
remote PDF file. Example: /C/MyFolder/MyFile.pdf
../MyFile.pdf
9. Launch Application or Document
A launch action launches an application or
opens or prints a document.
For security reason,
Adobe Reader has disabled this function after version 9.3.
Application
- the application to be launched or the document to be opened or
printed.
Parameters
- (Windows-specific) A parameter string to be passed to the
application. It can be
empty.
Operation
- (Windows-specific) the operation to perform: "open" - Open a
document, "print" - Print a document. It can be
empty.
DefaultDir
- (Windows-specific) the default directory in standard DOS syntax. It
can be
empty.
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