Digital Forms for Construction Company

[Ty44ler]

I work for a construction company and am in need of turning paper forms into digital forms for our maintenance guys to fill out while on the job and turn them in to us through their laptops with aircards. The trick is that they need to fill out different forms according to what they fill out on the first form... For example, if one type of refrigerant is installed they check it on the first form then once complete, it should take them to another form to fill out about that type of refrigerant installation....

At first, I was thinking of writing a java program with a bunch of if then statements, but I am not extremely comfortable yet with Java and was wondering if there were any other solutions? Any suggestions?

[Ty44ler]

Bump for justice.

[RobRich]

How about a simplified "web app?" HTML and some JavaScript or whatever scripting language you prefer. Seems easier than tossing together an one-off GUI application just for forms.

[Ty44ler]

hmmm... yeah that's what I was kinda figuring it would have to be... I wish I was a little more knowledgeable about javascript.

Do you have any place in mind about forms like this I could look for starters?

[RobRich]

Assuming you want a quick solution without much in the way of programming, I know there are form building applications available for HTML, JavaScript, etc. However, I have not used them, so I will let someone else recommend a specific solution.

Otherwise, I suspect there are many tutorials for building interactive forms using HTML and JavaScript. Drop a Google search.

[Rootstonian]

Hard to provide any direction not knowing the scope of the project: is it 5 items that could spawn 10 forms or 50 items spawning 100 forms?

Irregardless, you have to have some way (read: programming) to get the data from a static web page (or wherever) and do something with it. I don't do web programming, but I do have to do something similar for programs with reading in data for programs to use.

[Ty44ler]

Thanks for the replies!

Hard to provide any direction not knowing the scope of the project: is it 5 items that could spawn 10 forms or 50 items spawning 100 forms?

I'm thinking it is going to be about 5-10 forms that could spawn about 15 forms or so from that tops.

Irregardless, you have to have some way (read: programming) to get the data from a static web page (or wherever) and do something with it. I don't do web programming, but I do have to do something similar for programs with reading in data for programs to use.

Otherwise, I suspect there are many tutorials for building interactive forms using HTML and JavaScript. Drop a Google search.

That is another question I had, if I were to use the web for collecting data, what are the options for extracting the data? I wouldn't want to store it online anywhere simply due to the fact that it may contain sensitive material and don't even want to take the chance.

[DoubleK]

Designing your own pdf documents is quite easy. I figured it out. The trick will be in finding a suite that will do as you want without paying Adobe's exorbitant fees.

I have used pdfill but really am annoyed as it is buggy:

PDFill PDF Editor with FREE PDF Writer and FREE PDF Tools - www.PDFill.com

Have not tried the latest version.

[RobRich]

That is another question I had, if I were to use the web for collecting data, what are the options for extracting the data? I wouldn't want to store it online anywhere simply due to the fact that it may contain sensitive material and don't even want to take the chance.

HTTPS with authentication to deliver the form pages to the user. User fills data. Data could be stored (think database) and/or forwarded (think encrypted email).

Still, security is a concern with pretty much anything you pass over the net. You could do a VPN for users, then host the web app on the intranet (instead of Internet) if need be.

[Rootstonian]

If it doesn't need to be web-based, a Windows program would do the trick. However, if you're not a programmer, that's going to be dang near impossible.

I'm a programmer and coding Windows programs is a PITA. On this project you would be basically designing/coding dialog boxes (e.g. your forms) and then writing code as required.

Sounds like a ton of fun to me, project-wise. And even if I was a solid Windows programmer, I would slate this as a 1 to 2 month project.

[RickKnight]

The easiest method I use for our people is to recreat the form in Adobe Live Cycle designer in which they can fill out the form and email it directly from within the form.

You can also use the full version of Acrobat and create forms with active fields.

If you are using a web server, you can setup web forms that post to a database or email the results.

[DoubleK]

Easy yes Rick but why don't you explain to him the cost of your companies over inflated business suite?

The mere fact that Adobe has to pay people to scour Google to talk their product up explains that Adobes software suites are not aggressively priced for small business in a sour economy.

https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/sto...s&view=ols_cat

[RickKnight]

Easy yes Rick but why don't you explain to him the cost of your companies over inflated business suite?

The mere fact that Adobe has to pay people to scour Google to talk their product up explains that Adobes software suites are not aggressively priced for small business in a sour economy.

https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/sto...s&view=ols_cat

WHAT!! You think I am promoting Adobe products? You are totally inaccurate.
The orginator of this post was asking how create a postable form for his people and I told him how I manage these same things for my company.

A forum's purpose is to share the knowledge, apparently you do not know how to do that, Time to put away your Y2K attidue away and get real.

[Ty44ler]

We actually do have the Adobe Suite. I am actually using something similar to what Rick said, but first having the information sent through a web form to validate the data before sending it to the fillable forms in the pdf.

[DoubleK]

WHAT!! You think I am promoting Adobe products? You are totally inaccurate.
The orginator of this post was asking how create a postable form for his people and I told him how I manage these same things for my company.

A forum's purpose is to share the knowledge, apparently you do not know how to do that, Time to put away your Y2K attidue away and get real.

I am well aware of the wonderful purpose of forums and contribute here as frequently as possible.

You joined these forums to what end? To speak of your furnace issues and espouse the wonderfully over inflated Adobe suite? Welcome to Techimo and Merry Christmas.

To the original poster, I have been using Foxit Phantom Pdf Suite and it really rocks in comparision to Adobe's over inflated resource hog! There is a trial here:

Foxit Software - Foxit Reader 3.0 for Windows

Personally I ditched Adobe Reader for Foxit reader some time ago and am generally more pleased with its performance than Adobes by far. I know I am sounding like a mouthpiece for Foxit but was recommended this software sometime ago and can only make the same recommendation for you. Do what you will with it when/if your license expires or your Adobe suite starts having "issues." I think you will also enjoy how streamlined and efficient foxit software products are.

[Socalgal]

Not sure if this is what you want/need but thought I'd throw it out there: InfoPath