# HELP! pdf forms, submit by? and captcha



## Fanis (Jul 31, 2003)

I am a bit of a newbie to the programming side of web design. I have a handful of clients, mostly friends and small ministries, for whom I have created primarily html websites (some CSS and simple PHP). Two of the clients have pdf forms for visitors to fill out and send back by email.

Problem one is on the site's quote and order forms. Submit buttons for submitting by email. However, the script doesn't initiate (bring up an email program) for people with Hotmail and other webmail programs. Am I doing something wrong or is this not the best way to submit? I know it can also be submitted by url, via http instead of by email, but I have no clue what is involved with having it write to our server and how to access it from there. (https://host36.christianwebhost.com/magdacsihas/magdaOrderForm.pdf)

The second problem is that we think one of the clients is getting spam emails from robots rather than true order submissions. I read up trying to find out how to add a Captcha security image, but all I could find were related to html FormMails, not to pdf forms. Can robots submit fake orders if I have required fields that must be filled out before allowing submission or do they just record the email address for other types of spam? Can you provide advice on how to better secure the pdfs or should I convert to html forms or what? (http://www.refugeoutreachcenter.org/pp_order_Bulk0508.pdf)

I need to fix Problem One asap. The client has asked that it be working by this weekend.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
fanis


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

If you're using a form action of "mailto:" to send the form data, that will invoke the locally registered e-mail app (if there is one registered). Your other option is to use a server-side script to process the form.

Now, I'm getting lost. The links you supplied above are to static PDF files. If the users are filling out the PDF form online (not sure how that would work), how are they submitting anything, in the first place? It looks like they would have to save the PDF file on their computer, fill it out, and then manually e-mail it to whomever.

Can you post a link to the site so we can see the context in which the PDF form is filled out?

Peace...


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## Fanis (Jul 31, 2003)

Thanks for the reply tomdkat!

Well...not sure, but it was my understanding that with the newer versions of pdfs, that any visitor can open these pdf forms with Adobe Reader 7 or later, fill them out and use the submit button to send the form according to whatever script is attached to the button. I know that it worked for me, my sister and my mom. However, all of us use Outlook or Outlook Express.

I have revised the form on the firstlink to email to me instead of the client, if you want to see if you can fill it out and send it to me. Still, I've read some forums on Adobe's site that may indicate that I need to change them to submit by http or other web service for it to work for people with Hotmail and other web-based mail programs. 

I guess this is what you referred to as a server-side script to process the form. However, I haven't the slightest idea of how to do that. Can you please elaborate or refer me to a tutorial that describes this? (I've posted a message on their forum too, but haven't gotten the solution yet.)

Thanks again,
fanis


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Ok, I see what you mean now. Earlier, I looked at the second PDF which didn't have a "submit" button on it.  I just viewed the first PDF and saw the submit button. I filled in some required fields and clicked "Submit" and nothing happened on my end. I've got Outlook 2003 installed. I'm not sure what was supposed to happen.

If you can configure the form to invoke a server-side form processing script, then your PDF form would function like most HTML forms on the Internet today.

Peace...


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## Fanis (Jul 31, 2003)

Thank you for double-checking. Do you possibly have any suggestions on tutorials for how to do the server side form processing?


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

I would suggest using a pre-written script, like FormMail BUT I don't know how your use of a PDF form would factor in. I'm just not familiar with using PDF forms in the manner you're using them. Sorry. 

Peace...


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