pdf files - add input fields with acrobat/livecycle but file is password protected

Question

We have some government forms that we want to be able to fill from mysql database and print automatically with php script. I downloaded demo of Adobe Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer and started playing with it.

Only problem is that pdf files theat we use are locked with password. More specifically - document assembly page extraction, creation of template pages are not allowed.

What is best way to access pdf to add fields. Is there a way to "unlock" or re-import as pdf. As last resort I could probably scan documents and re-import

Answer 1

Hi Bob,

Depending on the volume and frequency, you may want to consider using the server-based piece of LiveCycle which would allow you to unlock, add data to, then re-lock the PDFs.

The LiveCycle Unlock Password Encrypted PDF operation can un-lock the PDF then you can use other operations.

You could create a process that takes a locked PDF and citizen ID as inputs, unlocks the PDF, runs a mySQL query, merges that data into the form, then re-locks it and outputs the modified PDF.

Hope that helps, -John