The Forms service can render forms that have usage rights
applied to them. Usage rights pertain to functionality that is available
by default in Acrobat but not in Adobe Reader, such as the ability
to add comments to a form or to fill in form fields and save the
form. Forms that have usage rights applied to them are called rights-enabled
forms. A user who opens a rights-enabled form in Adobe Reader can
perform operations that are enabled for that form.
In order to apply usage rights to a form, the Acrobat Reader DC extensions
service must be part of your AEM forms installation. Also,
you must have a valid credential that enables you to apply usage
rights to PDF documents. That is, you must properly configure the
Acrobat Reader DC extensions service before you can render a rights-enabled
form. (See
About the Acrobat Reader DC extensions Service
.)
Note:
To render a form that contains usage rights,
you must use an XDP file as input, not a PDF file. If you use a
PDF file as input, the form is still rendered; however, it will
not be a rights-enabled form.
Note:
You cannot prepopulate a form with XML
data when you specify the following usage rights:
enableComments
,
enableCommentsOnline
,
enableEmbeddedFiles
,
or
enableDigitalSignatures
. (See
Prepopulating Forms with Flowable Layouts
.)
Summary of steps
To render
a rights-enabled form, perform the following tasks:
-
Include project files.
-
Create a Forms Client API object.
-
Set usage rights run-time options.
-
Render a rights-enabled form.
-
Write the rights-enabled form to the client web browser.
Include project files
Include necessary files into your development
project. If you are creating a client application using Java, include
the necessary JAR files. If you are using web services, ensure that
you include the proxy files.
Create a Forms Client API object
Before you can programmatically
perform a Forms service Client API operation, you must create a
Forms service client.
Set usage rights run-time options
You must set usage rights
run-time options to render a rights-enabled form. You must also
specify the alias of the credential that is used to apply usage
rights to a form. After you specify the alias value, you specify
each usage right to apply to the form.
Render a rights-enabled form
To render a rights-enabled form,
you use the same application logic as rendering a form without usage
rights. The only difference is that you must ensure that the usage
rights run-time options are included in your application logic.
Note:
When rendering a rights-enabled form using the
Forms web service API, you cannot attach files to the form.
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
When the
Forms service renders a rights-enabled form, it returns a form data stream
that you must write to the client web browser. Once written to the
client web browser, the form is visible to the user. A user viewing
the rights-enabled form in Adobe Reader is able to perform operations
that are enabled for that form.
Render rights-enabled forms using the Java API
Render a rights-enabled form 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 Client API object
-
Set usage rights run-time options
-
Create a
ReaderExtensionSpec
object
by using its constructor.
-
Specify the alias of the credential by invoking the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object’s
setReCredentialAlias
method
and specify a string value that represents the alias value.
-
Set each usage right by invoking the corresponding method
that belongs to the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object. However,
you can only set a usage right if the credential that you reference allows
you to do so. That is, you cannot set a usage right if the credential does
not allow you to set it. For example. to set the usage right that
enables a user to fill in form fields and save the form, invoke
the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object’s
setReFillIn
method
and pass
true
.
Note:
It
is not necessary to invoke the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object’s
setReCredentialPassword
method. This method is not used by the Forms service.
-
Render a rights-enabled form
Invoke the
FormsServiceClient
object’s
renderPDFFormWithUsageRights
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
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.
-
A
PDFFormRenderSpec
object that stores run-time
options.
-
A
ReaderExtensionSpec
object that stores
usage rights run-time options.
-
A
URLSpec
object that contains URI values that
are required by the Forms service.
The
renderPDFFormWithUsageRights
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.http.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 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 rights-enabled forms using the web service API
Render a rights-enabled form by using the Forms API (web
service):
-
Include project files
-
Create a Forms Client API object
Create a
FormsService
object
and set authentication values.
-
Set usage rights run-time options
-
Create a
ReaderExtensionSpec
object
by using its constructor.
-
Specify the alias of the credential by invoking the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object’s
setReCredentialAlias
method
and specify a string value that represents the alias value.
-
Set each usage right by invoking the corresponding method
that belongs to the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object. However,
you can only set a usage right if the credential that you reference allows
you to do so. That is, you cannot set a usage right if the credential does
not allow you to set it. To set the usage right that enables a user
to fill in form fields and save the form, invoke the
ReaderExtensionSpec
object’s
setReFillIn
method
and pass
true
.
-
Render a rights-enabled form
Invoke the
FormsService
object’s
renderPDFFormWithUsageRights
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
BLOB
object that contains data to merge with
the form. If you do not want to merge data with the form, you must pass
a
BLOB
object that is based on an empty XML data
source. You cannot pass a
BLOB
object that is null;
otherwise, an exception is thrown.
-
A
PDFFormRenderSpec
object that stores run-time
options.
-
A
ReaderExtensionSpec
object that stores
usage rights run-time options.
-
A
URLSpec
object that contains URI values that
are required by the Forms service.
The
renderPDFFormWithUsageRights
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
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.
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