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Mapping Custom Forms to PDF Templates

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Brittco Support
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This article will go over mapping a form in the Brittco form builder to a PDF version of a form.

The first step is to create the form in Brittco. Go to the 'Forms' screen and select the mceclip0.png in the top right corner.  After you build your form, you will need to do a few things to get the pdf version of the state form to populate.  

When creating the form, we will need to upload the template, which will be a pdf version of the state form and export it.

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Now that the form is created in Brittco, we need to map the fields from Brittco to Adobe Acrobat - PDF editor.

To get the unique identified of each field in Brittco, go to the Preview Form Structure by clicking Actions -> Preview

When we preview the form, we will see unique ID fields in italics next to the fields as shown below.  These unique IDs are what we will put into Adobe Acrobat.

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Open Adobe Acrobat and open the PDF file you wish to edit.  In Acrobat, go to 'Prepare Form' as shown below.

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NOTE: If the template is password-protected, use the following link to remove the password: https://smallpdf.com/unlock-pdf

Now, rename each of the fields in Adobe to match the unique identifiers in Brittco.

The form will look like the example below when entering in the codes to the fields.

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Note: Anytime you make changes to the PDF template, you will need to save and re-upload into Brittco.

 

Below are some additional notes regarding mapping specific field types to Adobe.

Checkbox Fields

  • For Checkbox fields, make sure the 'Export' option is 'Yes'.

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  • Checkbox fields have a particular naming convention in order to map to Adobe: the unique ID of the field + underscore (_) + the option name in Brittco.  Acrobat is sensitive to extra spaces and particular characters so be careful to copy it exactly over and avoid strange characters.

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Tables

  • If you want to map a Table in Brittco to a table in the PDF, you need to use the following naming convention: uniq_id of Table + _ + row_number + _ + uniq_id of field within table.  Here is an example with the correct name manually entered into the short text field for reference:

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  • Row number must start with 0.
  • Must set a maximum number of rows based on the table in the template.  

 

Signatures

Signature fields work different from all other fields when mapping to PDF templates.  Nothing needs to be added to the PDF template in order to map a signature - instead you'll need to tell the system exactly where to put the signature.  You'll likely need to use a guess and check method to fill in the 4 fields that determine where the signature goes:

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  • Page: what page the signature will go on.
  • X Pos: the position along the X axis that the signature will start (in px).
  • Y Pos: the position along the Y axis that the signature will start (in px).
  • Height: how tall the signature image will be (in px).

*If you'd like to map the name and date to the PDF, you can do so using the following guidelines:

  • Name: the unique ID of the signature field + underscore (_) + "name"
  • Date: the unique ID of the signature field + underscore (_) + "date"

 

Additional Variables Available for Use

You can add additional information about the form to a mapped PDF by using the unique identifiers in the list below. 

  • PACKET_ID - If the entry is attached to a packet, the unique ID of the packet will be displayed.
  • FORM_ENTRY_ID - The unique ID of that specific entry will be displayed.
  • DATE_PUBLISHED - If the entry has been published, the published date will be displayed.