NEW FEATURE: Redirect after Submit

Question

We just released the Redirect after Submit feature on Friday (6/24/11). This has been a very commonly asked for feature. The problem is this - how do I get the respondent back to my website once they successfully filled out the form. Currently the respondent ends on the confirmation page and has to manually navigate back to your website - which is far from optimal.
This feature is part of the Basic and Plus plans; and it can be found on the "Options" tab under the "Redirect URL" section. This option will work on previously created forms as well as new forms.
Here is what the UI looks like:
You have two redirect options:
Redirect back to the first page of the form - Why would you ever want to do that?? If respondents are filling the form out in person (like an event registration) at a kiosk-like computer or tablet then this feature allows you to automatically redirect back to the beginning of the form (and it will be empty) so the next person in line can fill it out.
Redirect to a specific URL - Type in the URL to the website you want to redirect and set the amount of time the user sees the confirmation page (the minimum time is 5 seconds).
Now when the user Submits the data the confirmation page will look something like this:
After 5 seconds it will automatically redirect back to your website or to the beginning of the form depending on the option you chose.
Enjoy!
Randy Swineford
FormsCentral product manager
(Randy Swineford, 12/20/2011) Updated description to include new option

Answer 1

The difference is web forms are used in browsers and PDF forms are often not. Web servers have always been able to return a redirect response that causes the browser to load the specified URL. Most PDF viewers don't know what to do with such a response, but Adobe Reader/Acrobat do know what to do with an FDF response, which is what FormsCentral returns and results in the popup message that you see. PDF forms can be loaded in a browser or directly in Reader/Acrobat or non-Adobe PDF viewer, but in both cases the viewer doesn't know what to do with an HTML redirect response from a web server. This is outside of the control of FormsCentral so it would require a change in the way Reader/Acrobat behaves.
There is a technique that can be used in PDF viewers that support the app.launchURL JavaScript method (http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/11/Acrobat11_HTMLHelp/JS_API_AcroJS.89.155.html) and loading form data or triggering JavaScript returned in an FDF, but this method isn't currently supported in the mobile versions of Adobe Reader, so it would only be a partial solution even if FormsCentral were to return the appropriate FDF response.