PDF Submission: Allow to download all or multiple submissions as separate PDF files in one zip file?

I've seen your recent email about downloading all form data from across all forms into a zip file, but wanted to know if you could customise it so that you were just able to retrieve all the PDFs of submissions from one particular form, which could then be exported into a Zip file?

You can only download all the submissions at once but only as one PDF file, not a zip or compressed file. Here's a guide on how to download it: https://www.jotform.com/help/73-How-to-Download-Form-Submissions-as-Excel-CSV-PDF 

Currently, the only feature that allows you to download data as zip file is the one mentioned in this guide: https://www.jotform.com/help/374-How-to-export-all-of-your-data-at-once. And when you download submission file uploads.

However, I do have a workaround that should allow you to download all the submissions as separate PDF files all at once. Please allow me some time to look for it and post it here.

Hi,

You can use this workaround to download all the submissions as a PDF by following the steps below. It is quite lengthy so please do bear with me.

Please be familiar with this guide, we will follow this same extension and concept on how to download all our submissions as PDFs: http://www.jotform.com/help/315-Downloading-File-Uploads-in-the-form-using-DownThemAll-Mozilla-Firefox-Extension. 

Now, to start, what we want to do is to have an excel file with all the submission PDF downloadable link on it and use the extension DownThemAll to download all of it automatically.

1. Navigate to your Submissions page and make sure to tick the "ID" check box.

2. Download your submissions as an excel file.

3. Open the downloadable excel file, then create additional 2 sheets. In my case, I named them "Sheet1" and "Sheet2".

Sheet1 will be the sheet where we will combine all the necessary parts of our link.

Sheet2 will be the sheet where we will display the final download PDF links.

4. In the "Submissions" sheet, you will see your submission data. Copy the "Submission ID" column. We will pasted it in "Sheet1". 

5. Navigate to Sheet1, paste the Submission ID in column 2. Here's the break down of our columns. We will combine columns 1, 2 and 3 to have the final download link.

Column 1: This is the URL structure of how the PDF submissions are being downloaded in JotForm.

http://submit.jotformpro.com/server.php?action=getSubmissionPDF&sid=

Column 2: This is the list of our Submission IDs, we will append them on column 1.

Column 3: This is the Form ID, it is the same with all of the submissions so you can just copy and paste to make duplicates, or you can hold and drag.

6. We will often use the function in excel file the hold and drag function to copy not only the value but also the formula. You see in column one, place your mouse at the lower right part of the box, the mouse will change into a cross, hold and drag down to copy and paste the values in your other rows.

7. How to combine all three columns? You can check it here: Combine Contents of Multiple cells in one. So basically, add "&" on each cell.

On column "D2", I added in the function bar this: "=A2&B2&C2"

Now, to apply the formula to all of your rows, you can hold and drag downwards again.

8. After that, you'll see that we have our downloadable links. Make sure that you are doing it correctly, check the submission ID on those links, if they are unique on each other, then everything is right on track. We want to have those links in our "Sheet2". Why? Because we can download them on "Sheet1".

9. Navigate to "Sheet2". Click Insert->Hyperlink.

10. Now we will add in the Address bar this: "=Sheet1!D2". We are referencing the first link value in column D, which is in "D2".

11. After that, you'll see our first downloadable link in "A1". Now how do we copy the rest of the links? Just like what we are doing earlier, just hold and drag downwards.

12. After that, make sure to save the excel file, to save the changes. 

We will then save it as an HTML file. First, click "Save As"->Choose .htm or html as file type. Check the file name.

13. Navigate to your folder where you saved it, right click->Open with->Firefox.

14. Here you can download all the links automatically, just right click on the page and click "DownThemAll". Note: Make sure that you are viewing "Sheet2", you can check which sheet you are viewing at the lower left side of the browser. Also, make sure that only one link per line is shown in your page.

 

15. You can also highlight all of the link and right click, choose "DownThemAll". Click "Start" to download.

 

16. They are all now downloaded.

 

 

I hope this helps. I have also forwarded this to our developers as a feature request. But I cannot guarantee that this will be implemented. We will update you on this thread as soon as we hear any news.

Thank you.

Hi Charlie, 

This is a fantastic workaround, thank you very much for putting it together. The only further question I have, and I appreciate it's probably something that isn't possible, is whether there is a way to rename the submission automatically with the content of one of the fields? I'm using the technique you've shown me to download around 244 submissions each from a different group at our organisation, but they obviously just come up with the submission ID as the file name, so I'll still have to go into each one, see which group it refers to, and manually rename it. Is there a quicker way to do this? If not, I understand, and thank you for your earlier help!

Kind regards,

Andy

We are g;ad that my colleague's workaround managed to achieve what you were looking for. :)

I'm afraid the submissions will be automatically named after the submission ID, Andy, because that is how they are fetched from our servers. Our servers name the submission PDF files with their submission ID.

I am not sure of any workaround at the moment that would make the DownThemAll extension automatically rename the files based on data from columns in the spreadsheet. However, I will look into this some more and if I manage to find a workaround for this, I'll let you know through this support thread.

Thank you.