When you configure the data connection, the last page in the wizard has a “delayed open” option. Check that box. The result will be that the connection is not opened (and the first record loaded) until you make a call to the connection’s “open()” method, which you can do as a result of a button Click event, for example.

I’m afraid I must apologize, but the problem I have been having turns out to be a trivial user error!!

Recently, I updated my version of Adobe Reader and apparently it made itself the default program to open
my pdf files– and I hadn’t realized it. So when I tested these forms, they were suddenly opening in Adobe Reader rather than Acrobat! Hard to believe how many times I opened these files without noticing this! Anyway, this code works fine whenever I open it with Acrobat!

I do have one more question for you, however. I am working on another form that uses a SignatureImage
box. When the user clicks on the box, a Windows dialog automatically opens and prompts the user to select a bitmap file to load into the SignatureImage control. In association with this, I would like to run some validation code, which I have placed in the “Click” script for the SignatureImage box.
This works well as long as the user first selects a bitmap by single-clicking it and then presses the “Select” button on the dialog. However after the dialog closes, the form shows some unexpected behaviors.

First, if the user double-clicks the file name (instead of single-clicking and then hitting “Select”), the dialog closes and loads the bitmap– as expected– but then the “click” script fails to run!

Second, if the user fails to select a file and then hits “Cancel”, the bitmap is not loaded into the image box (as expected)– but then the “click” script runs anyway!

So we have a situation where the “click” script runs whether the user hits either select or cancel, but fails to run if the user double-clicks the choice (and therefore fails to hit either button).

I would like to be able to execute my script reliably when the user loaded a bitmap and cancel the script if the user cancelled the bitmap selection. Any ideas? For example, is there a way to obtain a return value from the Windows dialog so that I could determine whether the user successfully chose an image or canceled ?

Tom

Thanks for your reply. Because this code exhibits such odd behavior, I decided to rule out any possible problems with my system. So I did a complete uninstall of Adobe Pro and re-installed it. Then I started with a new form, adding no
scripting other than the code I am having a problem with. This version exhibits the same strange behavior as I described previously. Here is the entire script for this program.

form1::docClose – (JavaScript, client)
try {
if (g_HdrConn != null) g_HdrConn.close();
if (g_MainConn != null) g_MainConn.close();
}
catch (e) {
xfa.host.messageBox (“An error occurred closing the data connections.”);
console.println(e);
}

form1::docReady – (JavaScript, client)
var strDocKey= new String (“”);
var strSQL= new String(“”);

strDocKey= “123″; // set document key here to test code

strSQL= “Select * from [Table_1] Where [DocumentKey]= ‘” + strDocKey + “‘”;
try {
g_HdrConn = xfa.sourceSet.Hdr_Conn.clone(1);
g_HdrConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.commandType= “text”;
g_HdrConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.select.nodes.item(0).value= strSQL;
g_HdrConn.open();
}
catch (e) {
xfa.host.messageBox (“The header data was not initialized: ” + strSQL);
console.println(e);
}
strSQL= “Select * from [Table_2] Where [DocumentKey]= ‘” + strDocKey + “‘”;
try {
g_MainConn= xfa.sourceSet.Main_Conn.clone(1);
g_MainConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.commandType= “text”;
g_MainConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.select.nodes.item(0).value= strSQL;
g_MainConn.open();
}
catch (e) {
xfa.host.messageBox (“The main connection was not initialized: ” + strSQL);
console.println(e);
}

form1.#variables[0].g_Globals – (JavaScript, client)
var g_HdrConn= null;
var g_MainConn= null;

This executes correctly in Designer and will execute correctly exactly once from Acrobat. When it does so, the console window displays no errors. After running once in Acrobat,
the above error messages are displayed, indicating that the connections were not initialized (or later closed). However, when the connections fail, the console window also fails to open (even with Ctrl-J) so I am unable to get feedback other than my own messages.

Another oddity: if I open Designer and run Preview once and then exit Preview mode– but then leave Designer open while I run Acrobat, the Acrobat version will continue to run
correctly when opened multiple times as long as Designer remains open. After I close Designer, it will run once and then fail.

I really would appreciate a solution for this one! I would be happy to email you my pdf file if that would be any help. My Access database consists of two simple tables, each
with a single key field and just 2-5 other data fields, so the data connection would be easy to replicate.

Thanks for any advice! Tom

First, the confirmation dialogs that are displayed when Acrobat attempts to connect to the database cannot be suppressed programmatically. The dialogs are part of a security feature that ensures that a user’s data isn’t access without the user giving explicit consent to the access.

Second, about your form’s strange behaviour. When you preview in Designer, you get a new PDF file every time you preview your form. Having a new PDF must have something to do with this behaviour. What is the generated error message (output of “console.println(e)” in your code above)?

If it is tied to not closing the connection properly (though I haven’t experienced this myself), are you certain that you’re closing the right connection in your tests? You should be storing the cloned (opened) connection (“MainConn”) in a Script Object (as a declared variable) and then closing that connection, not closing the connection again and closing the second clone. Is that what you were doing in your tests?

It seems that the form that I am developing is not working as well as I initially thought. When I run the form in Designer Preview, it runs fine. However, if I click on the pdf file to run it in Acrobat, the form runs exactly once and then produces an error if the form is run a second time.

I have setup three data connections in the form. For two of these connections, I am using bound fields to connect form fields to database fields. The third connection is used for running SQL insert, delete and update statements.

In docReady, I initialize the two bound data connections by updating their SQL statements. I have my ODBC connections setup using a generic SQL statement like “SELECT [KeyField] FROM [TableName]” and then inside of docReady I re-assign the SQL statement with something more specific to the form– like “SELECT * FROM [TableName] WHERE [Keyfield]= ‘value’.

The problem I am having is that if I try to open the form repeatedly in Acrobat, I get a null return when cloning my data connection in docReady. The first time I open the file, it works correctly and the data fields on the form are correctly updated. If I then close the form without saving and open it again, the data connections fail. Opening Designer and running the form in Design Preview seems to reset the system so that I can open it once more in Acrobat—but just once.

Here is the code I use to initialize one of my data connections in docReady:

var MainConn;
var strSQL= “Select * from [Table_2] Where [DocumentKey]= ‘” + strDocKey + “‘”;
try {
MainConn= xfa.sourceSet.Main_Conn.clone(1);
MainConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.commandType= “text”;
MainConn.resolveNode (“#command”).query.select.nodes.item(0).value= strSQL;
MainConn.open();
}
catch (e) {
xfa.host.messageBox (“The main data connection was not opened.”);
console.println(e);
MainConn= null;
}

I have displayed the SQL statement just prior to its execution, so I am sure that it is the same each time the program runs. I have also tried adding a “MainConn.close()” statement, either immediately after opening the connection or later in docClose, but this has no effect.

When the data connection fails, the console message indicates that MainConn is returning null.

Any ideas what might be happening?

Thanks, Tom

To do so, however, I have created a couple of data connections within the form and I find that whenever the form loads and whenever my script accesses a data connection, the user gets a message indicating that the form is trying to access the data connection. Could you tell me what I should do in order to suppress these prompts? My users will know that the form is database enabled and should not be required to answer these pop-up prompts multiple times while using the form. Whatever you can tell me about this issue will be appreciated.

I have just what you need: Please see my tutorial on inserting, updating and deleting records in a database.

Does Adobe support these SQL queries, and if so, do you have a sample that I can see?
Ken

I don’t know of issues with User DSNs vs System DSNs.