Hiding and showing objects

This example demonstrates how to hide buttons when printing a form, as well as how to hide and show objects by changing the presence values at run time.

Note: You can also use the Action Builder dialog box on the Tools menu to hide and show objects in forms that have a flowable layout, without writing scripts. For information, see Building actions in forms

In this example, all form objects are showing in the form.

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The form filler can use the drop-down lists in the Presence Values area to show or hide objects. In the following diagram, the Address field is hidden and the form layout has adjusted accordingly. The Print Form button is also invisible.

View full size graphic

Note: To hide and show objects at run time, you must save your form as an Acrobat Dynamic PDF Form file.

To see this scripting example and others, visit visit the Developer Center .

Scripting the presence values for subforms

The script for the subform presence values uses a switch statement to handle the three presence options that a form filler can apply to the subform object:

switch(xfa.event.newText) { 
    case 'Invisible': 
        Subform1.presence = "invisible"; 
        break; 
    case 'Hidden (Exclude from Layout)': 
        Subform1.presence = "hidden"; 
        break; 
    default: 
        Subform1.presence = "visible"; 
        break; 
}

Scripting the presence values for text fields

The script for the text fields presence values requires two variables. The first variable stores the number of objects contained in Subform1:

var nSubLength = Subform1.nodes.length;

The second variable stores the name of the text field that the form filler selects in the Text Fields drop-down list:

var sSelectField = fieldList.rawValue;

The following script uses the replace method to remove all of the spaces from the name of the field stored in the sSelectField variable, which allows the value of the drop-down list to match the name of the object in the Hierarchy palette:

sSelectField = sSelectField.replace(' ', '');

This script uses a For loop to cycle through all of the objects contained in Subform1:

for (var nCount = 0; nCount < nSubLength; nCount++) {

If the current object in Subform1 is of type field and the current object has the same name as the object that the form filler selected, the following switch cases are performed:

if ((Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).className == "field") & (Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).name == sSelectField)) {

The following script uses a switch statement to handle the three presence values that a form filler can apply to text field objects:

        switch(xfa.event.newText) { 
            case 'Invisible': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "invisible"; 
                break; 
            case 'Hidden (Exclude from Layout)': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "hidden"; 
                break; 
            default: 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "visible"; 
                break; 
        } 
    } 
}

Scripting the presence values for buttons

The script for the buttons presence values requires two variables. This variable stores the number of objects contained in Subform1:

var nSubLength = Subform1.nodes.length;

This variable stores the name of the button that the form filler selects in the Buttons drop-down list:

var sSelectButton = buttonList.rawValue;

The following script uses the replace method to remove all of the spaces from the name of the button stored in the sSelectField variable, which allows the value of the drop-down list to match the name of the object in the Hierarchy palette:

sSelectButton = sSelecButton.replace(/\s/g, '');

This script uses a For loop to cycle through all of the objects contained in Subform1:

for (var nCount = 0; nCount < nSubLength; nCount++) {

If the current object in Subform1 is of type field and the current object has the same name as the object that the form filler selected, perform the following switch cases:

    if ((Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).className == "field") & 
    Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).name == sSelectButton)) {

This script uses a switch statement to handle the five presence values that a form filler can apply to button objects.

Note: The relevant property indicates whether an object should appear when the form is printed.

        switch(xfa.event.newText) { 
            case 'Invisible': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "invisible"; 
                break; 
            case 'Hidden (Exclude from Layout)': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "hidden"; 
                break; 
            case 'Visible (but Don\'t Print)': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "visible"; 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).relevant = "-print"; 
                break; 
            case 'Invisible (but Print Anyway)': 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "invisible"; 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).relevant = "+print"; 
                break; 
            default: 
                Subform1.nodes.item(nCount).presence = "visible"; 
                break; 
        }     
    } 
}

Scripting for resetting the drop-down lists

Use the resetData method to reset all of the drop-down lists to their default values:

xfa.host.resetData();

Use the remerge method to remerge the form design and form data. In this case, the method effectively returns the objects in the Form Objects area to their original states:

xfa.form.remerge();