How to save Fillable PDF locally upon submission using an Android smartphone?

Hello there

I recently came across the pdf converter tool you have started to share.

I have a question/ tricky scenario and I am wondering what is the best way to go around this.

This is about how to fill a form in offline and save it locally ( I will be using a android smartphone to do this)

I am currently able to access the form in an application without internet connection.

I want to be able to fill the form out and save it as a PDF to a local folder or the phones dropbox folder which it can automatically upload when internet connection is reached.

Its really important that this can be done offline, so I was wondering if there was a function/button instead of submit which is something like 'SAVE AS/SAVE PDF'

If this could be done this would be extreamly helpful.

Thanks

Ben

Hello Ben,

I've tested your scenario on iPhone 5s. I've also added my phone an Adobe Acrobat as an PDF Reader. As you've mentioned above, I am able to fill out the form. On the PC I ab able to save the PDF file. However, I couldn't save it on my phone with Adobe Acrobat. I've closed and opened the PDF file. I realized that it is saving as default even if you close it. We would appreciate it if you could provide us what you are using as PDF reader on your mobile phone.

By the way, kindly check the guide below for more information:

http://www.jotform.com/help/312-Fillable-PDF-Everything-you-need-to-know-about-JotForm-Fillable-PDF-Creator

We will wait for your response.

Hi Beril

Many Thanks for your help.

I will try and be as clear and concise as possible..

I am using adobe acrobat for my PDF Reader. Like you I have not been able to save the PDF using a button at the bottom of the page. .. Also when I close it it saves over the original PDF - hence I want to be able to save as ' x '

As I am hosting the form OFFLINE. I am able to embed the source code into a page of a Native android smartphone application.

Therefore I can actually access and fill out the form when I am completely offline. ( I do not have to save the form as a fillable PDF document this way )

However It comes to the point where once i fill out the form I want to be able to save it locally in my phones storage.. Internet coverage in my area is bad so its really important that I can be able to initiate a save to local storage function as a PDF ..

Ideally I would press Save as / Save  Instead of the Submit button. I realise this actually may be veering into a new question so I apologies if I confuse you.

https://form.jotformeu.com/60912794142355

Above is a link to the form in question.

Thank you very much for your help and time !

Ben

The only way I can see to accomplish this would be to use a print button on your form and use the Print to PDF function.  However, since android does not have the print to PDF option. 

To print to PDF, you would have to use Android’s Share feature. Tap the Share button — or Share menu option — in whatever application you’re using (for example, tap it while viewing a web page in the Google Chrome app) and select the app you would like to share the content with. You’ll just need an app that will convert the web page to a PDF file.

Hi there David,

Thanks for that but unfortunatly that option is no good as it doesnt allow me to save the file as a pdf with a particular name.. The calculation function seems to disapear when this happens and i gets saved over the template I used.

Do you have any other ideas what may work?

Many thanks

Ben

Currently, there are no other feature that allows you to save the forms progress in offline mode, aside from using the PDF converter, however, the form's functionality is limited when using that one, you can check more about it in this link. Forms are hosted in our servers and data are submitted in our end. It is true that you can get the form's full source code and host the files, however, there are still other resources that will come from our end. Example is that if you click the submit button, it will directly send the data in our servers, not in your local store even though you are hosting the files. Widgets and app integrations will also not work if you choose to host your files in a local server and run it offline. 

It is still possible to save the completed form offline (given that the form's functionality will be limited) if you'll customize your form's full source code, add or edit the custom scripts to convert the completed form. Here's how I will do it:

1. First, if my form is quite simple and does not have any app integrations or widgets, then I can host it in my local server using the full source code.

2. I will then manually create a button and two script function that will convert the form submission into a PDF file or an XML file in the phones local storage. 

Button 1: Will act as "Save to local storage and submit when online"

Script 1: A function that will convert the submission data into an XML file or PDF file. Here's an example PHP library that you can use to convert data to a PDF file: http://www.fpdf.org/. The file will then be saved in your phone's local storage.

Script 2: I presume you are embedding the full source code on an Android app, as you have mentioned. The script will act as a queuing function, the form's data will be queued in your local storage, whenever the Android app is opened, the script will try to submit the form automatically to our servers. This can be done via API. Here's a direct API call on how to submit data: http://api.jotform.com/docs/#post-form-id-submissions. Basically you will save the data as a raw file like XML then use the API to submit it silently. Without the need to click the "submit" button.

So far that's how I have understood that goal you would like  to accomplish, unfortunately, we do not have the direct feature that will allow you to do that, but the form together with our API can make this happen. But you'll need to hire a developer for the complex custom script functions.

I hope that helps.

Thanks very Much Charlie I will look into this.

Regards

You are welcome. Please do let us know if you need more help on this :)