Render an interactive PDF form using the web service API

Render an interactive PDF form by using the Forms API (web service):

  1. Include project files

    • Create Java proxy classes that consume the Forms service WSDL.

    • Include the Java proxy classes into your class path.

  2. Create a Forms Client API object

    Create a FormsService object and set authentication values.

  3. Specify URI values

    • Create a URLSpec object that stores URI values by using its constructor.

    • Invoke the URLSpec object’s setApplicationWebRoot method and pass a string value that represents the application’s web root.

    • Invoke the URLSpec object’s setContentRootURI method and pass a string value that specifies the content root URI value. Ensure that the form design is located in the content root URI. If not, the Forms service throws an exception. To reference the repository, specify repository:///.

    • Invoke the URLSpec object’s setTargetURL method and pass a string value that specifies the target URL value to where form data is posted. If you define the target URL in the form design, you can pass an empty string. You can also specify the URL to where a form is sent in order to perform calculations.

  4. Attach files to the form

    • Create a java.util.HashMap object to store file attachments by using its constructor.

    • Invoke the java.util.HashMap object’s put method for each file to attach to the rendered form. Pass the following values to this method:

      • A string value that specifies the name of the file attachment, including the file name extension

    • A BLOB object that contains the file attachment

    Remarque : Repeat this step for each file to attach to the form.

  5. Render an interactive PDF form

    Invoke the FormsService object’s renderPDFForm 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, pass null.

    • A PDFFormRenderSpec object that stores run-time options. This is an optional parameter and you can specify null if you do not want to specify run-time options.

    • A URLSpec object that contains URI values that are required by the Forms service.

    • 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.

    • An empty com.adobe.idp.services.holders.BLOBHolder object that is populated by the method. This is used to store the rendered PDF form.

    • An empty javax.xml.rpc.holders.LongHolder object that is populated by the method. (This argument will store the number of pages in the form.)

    • An empty javax.xml.rpc.holders.StringHolder object that is populated by the method. (This argument will store the locale value.)

    • An empty com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder object that will contain the results of this operation.

    The renderPDFForm 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.

  6. 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.

Write the form data stream to the client web browser

When the Forms service renders a form, it returns a form data stream that you must write to the client web browser. When written to the client web browser, the form is visible to the user.