In a static PDF form,
only the value area of the field can be updated on the client. Everything
else on the form is frozen or fixed. In a dynamic PDF form, the
entire field object can be updated on the client. The examples that
follow are provided to give you an idea of what happens.
Changing the field border color
If you create a client-side script
to apply borders to objects, the results differ in static and dynamic
PDF forms.
For example, you can write a script on the exit
event of a field to turn the border color red:
TextField1.border.edge.color.value="255,0,0"
In
a static PDF form, the outline of only the value area turns red
after the end user exits the field.
In
a dynamic PDF form, the outline of the entire field object turns
red after the end user exits the field.
Applying field shading
If you create a client-side script to apply
shading to objects, the results differ in static and dynamic PDF
forms.
For example, you can write a script on the exit event
of a field to turn the shading color in the field to red:
TextField1.fillColor = "255,0,0"
In
a static PDF form, only the value area turns red after the end user
exits the field.
In
a dynamic PDF form, the entire object, including the value area,
turns red after the end user exits the field.
Hiding objects
If you create a client-side script to hide objects,
the results differ in static and dynamic PDF forms.
When you
are designing a static or dynamic PDF form, you can hide objects
on the form by setting the presence property to either “invisible”
or ”hidden”. In both cases, the objects do not appear in the final
output; however, when you set the presence value to “hidden”, objects
do not occupy any space in the layout. If the objects are inside
flowed subform objects, the subform itself will shrink in response
to the hidden objects.
The difference between static and dynamic
PDF forms is that on a static PDF form you cannot change the presence
value of an object by using an interactive scripting event, such
as the click event of a button. Static PDF forms cannot rerender
on the client; therefore, scripts executed on interactive events
cannot change the visibility of form objects. Dynamic PDF forms
do not have the same limitation because they can rerender on the
client.
You can change the visibility of form objects on
static PDF forms by using non-interactive events that trigger during
form rendering, such as the initialize event. For example, on a
dynamic PDF form, you can write a script on the click event of a
button to hide a text field:
TextField1.presence = "invisible"
Alternatively,
you can use this script to completely remove the text field from
the layout:
TextField1.presence = "hidden"
In
both cases, to achieve the same results on a static PDF form, you
use the same scripts but write them on the initialize event of either
the text field or the button.
