Acrobat learns a new trick: interactive PDF

MacWeek, Jan 26, 1998 by Andrea Dudrow, David Morgenstern

Adobe Systems Inc. will swing its Acrobat technology into the enterprise market this week with a set of plug-ins for generating interactive forms.

The Acrobat Forms Upgrade, comprising a free plug-in each for Acrobat 3.0 and Acrobat Reader, offers sites a robust set of interactive features for form creation, Adobe said. The upgrade supports custom views of data and adds new navigation controls.

The upgrade implements dynamic templates, which let managers customize content for individual users, said Sharon Grimshaw, director of marketing for Adobe's Enterprise Solutions division. For example, parts of a Portable Document Format (PDF) file can be filled in automatically with data after a user enters a password or performs other actions.

A variable number of pages can be provided to a user, and the dynamic content lets users enter data that spans more than one page. Grimshaw said the variable-data capability uses technology from Extreme, Adobe's high-end printing architecture.

In addition, the software supports JavaScript, allowing client-side controls, such as authentication. JavaScript lets authors add "navigational intelligence" to PDF files. Depending on a user's actions or answers to queries, the document can jump to areas of relevance for that individual, Adobe said.

"A key feature is JavaScript," said John Linde, systems process manager with TRW Inc.'s Space and Electronics Group in Redondo Beach, Calif. "It allows us to embed a calculation in a PDF file without having to go back to the database."

PDF's cross-platform compatibility between Macs and Windows was a determining factor in TRW's choice of PDF over competing products, Linde said.

The new plug-in lets users place a PDF document in a field on a form. Digital photographs or other images can be embedded in a form after conversion to PDF, Adobe said.

"This positions PDF as an important part of mission-critical enterprise," said Dov Cohn, program manager with HAHT Software Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., the developer of HAHTsite enterprise Web servers for Windows and Unix workstations. The company offers the Enterprise Solution Module for Adobe Acrobat, middleware that links Acrobat Forms with mainframe databases, such as those from Oracle Corp. and Sybase Inc.

Although HAHT offers a high-end solution for legacy data, Adobe said its interactive forms scale easily to smaller databases with a CGI script. The Adobe Developers Association offers a Forms Data Format tool kit, and developers can swap the PDF for an HTML form and "have it just work," Adobe's Grimshaw said.

Analysts said the robust, interactive forms capability is a logical extension of PDF technology, but the move may signal an Adobe push onto new turf.

"Is Adobe a forms vendor or a [technology] development vendor?" said Rita Knox, vice president and research director with Gartner Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn. Knox said the new PDF forms placed Adobe in competition with traditional electronic forms vendors, such as Hummingbird Communications Ltd. and JetForm Corp.

Adobe Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., can be reached at (408) 536-6000 or (800) 272-3623; fax (408) 537-6000; http://www.adobe.com.