15 Replies Latest reply on Nov 12, 2008 9:18 AM by (Leonard_Rosenthol)

Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Peter_Demling) Jul 1, 2008 2:04 PM

Greetings (I'm desperately seeking an answer to this, but I'll try to keep the rhetoric toned down!):

Is there a way for Acrobat Pro (I'm current at 8.1.2) to convert a (static) XFA Form into the old AcroForm format? I have a large static XFA form (created in LiveCycle Designer), but the Java API that I'm using to pre-populate some values currently works only with the AcroForm format.

FYI, there are two "informal workarounds" to be found on the net, but I can't get either of these to work in Acrobat Pro 8:

o From Carl Young: "Create PDF -> From Web Page"; select the XFA form instead of a web page; Acrobats web page conversion tool would turn the XML inside the Designer form to a regular PDF. Only works in Acrobat 7.

o From Ted Padova: "Document->Extract Pages" (static XFA only). This option is always grayed-out on any static XFA form I create.

So unless there are other suggestions out there, would you say that my best option for an immediate solution is to track down a copy of Acrobat 7 and use that? I've tried creating an AcroForm manually with Acrobat Pro's "Tools->Forms->Text Field Tool"/etc, but it's very, very difficult to replicate all the form field config and layout we did in LiveCycle. Having to do that might force us to abandon PDF forms altogether.

Thanks very much for any suggestions!

Regards,
-Peter Demling
Lexington, MA

1. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Leonard_Rosenthol) Jul 1, 2008 3:14 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

There is nothing in the Acrobat UI that will enable this operation.

However, you can use various programming libraries (including the one that you are already using on this project) to simply remove the XFA from the PDF leaving the rest of the document intact.

Leonard
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2. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Ned Patterson Jul 1, 2008 10:20 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Acrobat 9 has conversion to Acroform functionality, it might help.
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3. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Leonard_Rosenthol) Jul 2, 2008 3:33 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

I'd be curious to know where you believe Acrobat 9 has XFA->AcroForm conversion functions built into the UI of the product...
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4. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Sabian_Zildjian) Jul 7, 2008 8:10 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

There is another way but it's a manual process and it's a HACK. Using this process will basically kill any XFA or JS functionality that was in the form previously. So proceed at your own risk...

Use a tool that can view and edit the internals of a "static" LiveCycle PDF form (i.e. Windjack's PDFCanOpener).
Delete the XFA dictionary
Do a SaveAs to a new form name.
Close the form
Re-open the form and then you should be able to edit the form with the Acroform tools.

Note: This WILL NOT work with dynamic forms.

Sabian
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5. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Ned Patterson Jul 7, 2008 8:26 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

"Forms - "Start Form Wizard" - "A Paper Form"
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6. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Bernd Alheit Jul 7, 2008 8:45 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

That doesn't convert a XFA Form to an AcroForm.
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7. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Leonard_Rosenthol) Jul 7, 2008 12:56 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Sabian - that suggestion won't work on many types of XFA forms - only those classic ones that happen to have an "AcroForm mirror".

Leonard
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8. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Sabian_Zildjian) Jul 7, 2008 1:58 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Leonard,

Understood but I thought that it was worth mentioning the hack.

Sabian
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9. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Ned Patterson Jul 7, 2008 11:45 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Print and scan may create a passable layout and the entry fields of an Acroform, it will not get all the dog hairs of the lollipop.
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10. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Sancta_McGinnis) Jul 10, 2008 7:27 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Print the form to Adobe PDF.
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11. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(James_Kruegera) Nov 11, 2008 12:03 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Do all pdfs that contain XFA forms also contain AcroForms?
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12. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

Patrick Leckey Nov 11, 2008 12:45 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Yes and no.

XFA PDFs contain an AcroForm dictionary at the Cos level, but they are not accessible in the same way as AcroForm fields are.
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13. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Leonard_Rosenthol) Nov 11, 2008 4:09 PM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

While what PDL said is true in the past, as of Acrobat 8.1, you will NOT find an AcroForm in all XFA-based PDFs - specifically, dynamic XFA will NOT have AcroForms associated with them.
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14. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(James_Kruegera) Nov 12, 2008 8:08 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Why?
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15. Re: Convert XFA Form to AcroForm?

(Leonard_Rosenthol) Nov 12, 2008 9:18 AM (in response to (Peter_Demling))

Because they were wasting space in the PDF.
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