Opening the PDF in a browser is the only way this feature will work. What URL are you using?

I tried your sample, but nRequestStart = sURL.indexOf(“?”)
returns -1.
Is there a problem when the PDF is opened on Web?
Thanks for help
Gerald

I believe event.target.URL will return a URL that begins with “file:///” if the PDF is locally.

Perhaps simply checking the URL for “file:” instead of “http:” would give you the information you need.

Is there a way to find out if the PDF is opened from a website or on someone’s computer?

Or maybe find out if the PDF has been saved?

Basically what I was thinking was finding a way to only execute the javascript code IF the PDF is viewed online and not yet saved.

So that we would only use the event.target.URL only if the PDF is viewed online and not local, if it’s viewed locally don’t run the code.

Any ideas?

My sample PDF is an XFA form. The only way you wouldn’t be able to open it to see the script is if you aren’t using Designer…

In any case, here’s the parsing code. I hope it helps!

// Requests:
// message >> The message to display, URI-encoded
// color >> RGB value "R,G,B" to set on the message

// start by clearing the values first
this.ui.oneOfChild.border.fill.presence = "hidden";
this.rawValue = null;

var sURL = event.target.URL; // URL used to access this PDF form
var nRequestStart = sURL.indexOf("?");

// show the URL
URL.rawValue = sURL;

if (nRequestStart > 0) // must be larger than zero or else this is a weird URL!
{
    var sRequest = sURL.substr(nRequestStart + 1);

    // show the request
    Request.rawValue = sRequest;

    var aRequests = sRequest.split("&"); // 1 request per array element

    for (var i = 0; i < aRequests.length; i++)
    {
        var aNameValue = aRequests[i].split("="); // name=value
        var sName = aNameValue[0];
        var sValue = "";

        try
        {
            // attempt to decode the various URI encodings (regular and component)
            sValue = decodeURI(decodeURIComponent(aNameValue[1]));
        }
        catch (e)
        {
            // invalid URI encoding found -- skip
            continue;
        }

        if (sName == "message")
        {
            // show message value in text field
            this.rawValue = sValue;
        }
        else if (sName == "color")
        {
            // expecting RGB value: "R,G,B"
            this.ui.oneOfChild.border.fill.color.value = sValue;
            this.ui.oneOfChild.border.fill.presence = "visible";
        }
    }
}

James H.

Can you save a document with data that is imported via the URL? I woud like the users to get 1/2 of the data via the URL, enter the other 1/2 and be able to save their PDF locally.

I took your sample PDF document and commented out the two lines of code that clear the values:
this.ui.oneOfChild.border.fill.presence = “hidden”;
this.rawValue = null;

But, after I save the document and re-open it, the values are gone.

Thanks,

James H.

I’m glad you liked my post. You’ll need Adobe LiveCycle Designer to open this form and look at the code inside. You can get a trial version of Designer by downloading the trial version of Acrobat Pro.

Best,
Dan