We have a Java based application which needs to collect certain information from employers about their current employees on a monthly basis.  We're thinking of using some sort of offline electronic form for this purpose.  An employer would "fill in the blanks" to maintain the information and upload the form to us monthly.  We would then strip out the machine readable content of the form and insert it in our data.  Can anyone suggest products that might meet our needs as discussed below?

The form needs to be editable in a no-charge viewer that is either (a) generally available at no charge or which (b) we can license to provide a free download.  It must be possible to extract the data in a machine readable structure, preferably an XML schema we define.

At the very least the form must support multiple occurring data (an arbitrary number of employees).   Preferably it should enforce edits with user-friendly diagnostics for missing data and valid syntax, permissible values, etc.  Ideally it should also calculate summary information such as total number of employees.

It appears that Adobe may offer a solution in this area, with Adobe Reader providing the viewer and Adobe LiveCycle (Acrobat) the designer.  Does anyone have experience using this combination to capture XML and extract it to Java?  Would Reader support the above requirements for multiply occurring items and user-friendly validation? 

Does anyone know whether the ability to fill in a form and save it using Adobe Reader no longer supported Acrobat 9?  The Acrobat Wikipedia page seems to imply this.

What other e-form products are out there with which a business might easily edit and upload data using a smart form?  The XForms standard would in theory support this, but can anyone recommend a good product that would be easy for small businesses to use and would not require the purchase of viewers?   How about proprietary e-from options other than Adobe's; Microsoft Office InfoPath for example?  Can that meet the above requirements and has anyone integrated it with Java?

Best,

Owen Newnan

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Best,

Owen Newnan

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-- 
Best,

Owen Newnan

cell 720 260-5753
home 303 697 1925
work 303 285 7798