The Forms service renders HTML forms in response to an
HTTP request from a web browser. When rendering an HTML form, the
Forms service can reference a custom CSS file. You can create a
custom CSS file to meet your business requirements and reference
that CSS file when using the Forms service to render HTML forms.
The Forms service silently parses the custom CSS file. That is,
the Forms service does not report errors that may be encountered
if the custom CSS file does not comply with CSS standards. In this
situation, the Forms service ignores the style and continues with
the remaining styles located in the CSS file.
The following list specifies styles that are supported in a custom
CSS file:
-
Class level selector-style pairs
: If present in
a custom CSS file, selectors used in the HTML form as class styles
are used. Unused class styles are ignored.
-
Identifier level selector-style pairs
: All identifier
styles are used if they are used in the HTML form.
-
Element level selector-style pairs
: All element styles
are used if they are used in the HTML form.
-
Style Priority
: Style priority (like important) is
supported and can be used in a custom CSS file.
-
Media Type
: One or more selector-style pairs can be
wrapped in @media style to define the media type. The Forms service
does not check whether the specified media type is supported. The
media type specified in the custom CSS file is merged in the HTML
form.
You can retrieve a sample CSS file by using the FormsIVS application.
Upload the form, select it in the Test Form Design page, and click
GenerateCSS. You are not required to set the HTML transformation
type before clicking the button. Next select save. You can edit
this CSS file to meet your business requirements.
Note:
Before rendering an HTML form that uses a custom
CSS file, it is important that you have a solid understanding of
rendering HTML forms. (See
Rendering Forms as HTML
.)
Summary of steps
To
render an HTML form that uses a CSS file, perform the following
tasks:
-
Include project files.
-
Create a Forms Java API object.
-
Reference the CSS file.
-
Render an HTML form.
-
Write the form data stream to the client web browser.
Include project files
Include necessary files in your development
project. If you are creating a client application by using Java,
include the necessary JAR files. If you are using web services,
ensure that you include the proxy files.
Create a Forms Java API object
Before you can programmatically
perform an operation supported by the Forms service, you must create
a Forms client object.
Reference the CSS file
To render an HTML form that uses a custom
CSS file, ensure that you reference an existing CSS file.
Render an HTML form
To render an HTML form, you must specify
a form design created in Designer and saved as an XDP file. You
must also select an HTML transformation type. For example, you can
specify the HTML transformation type that renders a dynamic HTML
for Internet Explorer 5.0 or later.
Rendering an HTML form
also requires values, such as URI values needed to render other
form types.
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
When the
Forms service renders an HTML form, it returns a form data stream
that you must write to the client web browser to make the HTML form
visible to the user.
Render an HTML form that uses a CSS file using the Java API
Render an HTML form that uses a custom CSS
file by using the Forms API (Java):
-
Include project files
Include client JAR files,
such as adobe-forms-client.jar, in your Java project’s class path.
-
Create a Forms Java API object
-
Reference the CSS file
-
Create an
HTMLRenderSpec
object
by using its constructor.
-
To render the HTML form that uses a custom CSS file, invoke
the
HTMLRenderSpec
object’s
setCustomCSSURI
method
and pass a string value that specifies the location and name of
the CSS file.
-
Render an HTML form
Invoke the
FormsServiceClient
object’s
(Deprecated) (Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method
and pass the following values:
-
A string value that
specifies the form design name, including the file name extension.
If you reference a form design that is part of a LiveCycle application,
ensure that you specify the complete path, such as
Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp
.
-
A
TransformTo
enum value that specifies
the HTML preference type. For example, to render an HTML form that
is compatible with dynamic HTML for Internet Explorer 5.0 or later,
specify
TransformTo.MSDHTML
.
-
A
com.adobe.idp.Document
object that contains
data to merge with the form. If you do not want to merge data, pass
an empty
com.adobe.idp.Document
object.
-
The
HTMLRenderSpec
object that stores HTML
run-time options.
-
A string value that specifies the
HTTP_USER_AGENT
header
value, such as
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
.
-
A
URLSpec
object that stores URI values
required to render an HTML form.
-
A
java.util.HashMap
object that stores file
attachments. This is an optional parameter, and you can specify
null
if
you do not want to attach files to the form.
The
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method
returns a
FormsResult
object that contains a form
data stream that must be written to the client web browser.
-
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
-
Create a
com.adobe.idp.Document
object by
invoking the
FormsResult
object ‘s
getOutputContent
method.
-
Get the content type of the
com.adobe.idp.Document
object
by invoking its
getContentType
method.
-
Set the
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s content
type by invoking its
setContentType
method and
passing the content type of the
com.adobe.idp.Document
object.
-
Create a
javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object
used to write the form data stream to the client web browser by
invoking the
javax.servlet.h\ttp.HttpServletResponse
object’s
getOutputStream
method.
-
Create a
java.io.InputStream
object by invoking
the
com.adobe.idp.Document
object’s
getInputStream
method.
-
Create a byte array and populate it with the form data stream
by invoking the
InputStream
object’s
read
method
and passing the byte array as an argument.
-
Invoke the
javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object’s
write
method
to send the form data stream to the client web browser. Pass the byte
array to the
write
method.
Render an HTML form that uses a CSS file using the web service API
Render an HTML form that uses a custom CSS
file by using the Forms API (web service):
-
Include project files
-
Create a Forms Java API object
Create a
FormsService
object
and set authentication values.
-
Reference the CSS file
-
Create an
HTMLRenderSpec
object
by using its constructor.
-
To render the HTML form that uses a custom CSS file, invoke
the
HTMLRenderSpec
object’s
setCustomCSSURI
method
and pass a string value that specifies the location and name of
the CSS file.
-
Render an HTML form
Invoke the
FormsService
object’s
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method
and pass the following values:
-
A string value that
specifies the form design name, including the file name extension.
If you reference a form design that is part of a LiveCycle application,
ensure that you specify the complete path, such as
Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp
.
-
A
TransformTo
enum value that specifies
the HTML preference type. For example, to render an HTML form that
is compatible with dynamic HTML for Internet Explorer 5.0 or later,
specify
TransformTo.MSDHTML
.
-
A
BLOB
object that contains data to merge
with the form. If you do not want to merge data, pass
null
.
(See
Prepopulating Forms with Flowable Layouts
.)
-
The
HTMLRenderSpec
object that stores HTML
run-time options.
-
A string value that specifies the
HTTP_USER_AGENT
header
value, such as
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
.
You can pass an empty string if you do not want to set this value.
-
A
URLSpec
object that stores URI values
required to render an HTML form. (See
Specify URI values
.)
-
A
java.util.HashMap
object that stores file
attachments. This is an optional parameter, and you can specify
null
if
you do not want to attach files to the form. (See
Attach files to the form
.)
-
An empty
com.adobe.idp.services.holders.BLOBHolder
object
that is populated by the
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method.
This parameter value stores the rendered form.
-
An empty
com.adobe.idp.services.holders.BLOBHolder
object
that is populated by the
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method.
This parameter stores the output XML data.
-
An empty
javax.xml.rpc.holders.LongHolder
object
that is populated by the
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method.
This argument stores the number of pages in the form.
-
An empty
javax.xml.rpc.holders.StringHolder
object
that is populated by the
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method.
This argument stores the locale value.
-
An empty
javax.xml.rpc.holders.StringHolder
object
that is populated by the
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method.
This argument stores the HTML rendering value that is used.
-
An empty
com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object
that will contain the results of this operation.
The
(Deprecated) renderHTMLForm
method
populates the
com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object that
is passed as the last argument value with a form data stream that
must be written to the client web browser.
-
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
-
Create a
FormResult
object by getting the
value of the
com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object’s
value
data
member.
-
Create a
BLOB
object that contains form
data by invoking the
FormsResult
object’s
getOutputContent
method.
-
Get the content type of the
BLOB
object
by invoking its
getContentType
method.
-
Set the
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s content
type by invoking its
setContentType
method and
passing the content type of the
BLOB
object.
-
Create a
javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object
used to write the form data stream to the client web browser by
invoking the
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s
getOutputStream
method.
-
Create a byte array and populate it by invoking the
BLOB
object’s
getBinaryData
method.
This task assigns the content of the
FormsResult
object
to the byte array.
-
Invoke the
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s
write
method
to send the form data stream to the client web browser. Pass the
byte array to the
write
method.
|
|
|