Mass Import PDF Forms

[misscrf]

I have a fill-in pdf form, with fields that match database table fields. My database is in SQL, but I use Access for the forms and reports.

The users will go on-site (and be offline), fill out the pdf forms a bunch of times and come back with a folder of them.


I am looking for a way to have a form where a user can choose a folder (maybe on an access form) and say "import PDFs" and then have all the data in the PDF forms import to the table. A lot of other stuff has to happen in that process (checking the project number on the form, assigning an ID tag for that item, etc).

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks!

 

[Pat Hartman]

I don't know how but I'm pretty sure you will need a full version of Adobe. Check the Adobe site for VB code on how to do this.

 

[nanscombe]

I've only had a quick look through Google, and downloaded an example fillable PDF form, but the data might be stored in Forms Data Format (FDF) inside the PDF files.

If it is then it might be possible to write an Access routine (no need for Adobe Acrobat) to:
Open a PDF file as a binary file
Scan the contents
Locate the data stored inside " obj" and "endobj" tags
Interpret the data
Store it

Is your form confidential (even without data)?

If not then a copy of your form, attached to a post, would at least allow me to have a look for you.

 

[spikepl]

A free utility pdftotext exists. It dumps the text from a pdf file to a text file. Using the Shell function, I use pdftotext to dump data into text files, which I subsequently read into some Access tables.