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The Forms service can render forms that are based on fragments that
you create using Designer. A fragment is a reusable part
of a form and is saved as a separate XDP file that can be inserted
into multiple form designs. For example, a fragment can include
an address block or legal text.
Using fragments simplifies and speeds up the creation and maintenance
of large numbers of forms. When creating a new form, you insert
a reference to the required fragment and the fragment appears in
the form. The fragment reference contains a subform that points
to the physical XDP file. For information about creating form designs
based on fragments, see LiveCycle Designer 11 Help
A fragment can include several subforms that are wrapped in a
choice subform set. Choice subform sets control the display of subforms
based on the flow of data from a data connection. You use conditional
statements to determine which subform from within the set appears
in the delivered form. For example, each subform in a set can include
information for a particular geographic location and the subform
that is displayed can be determined based on the location of the
user.
A script fragment contains reusable JavaScript functions
or values that are stored separately from any particular object,
such as a date parser or a web service invocation. These fragments
include a single script object that appears as a child of variables
in the Hierarchy palette. Fragments cannot be created from scripts
that are properties of other objects, such as event scripts like validate,
calculate, or initialize.
Here are advantages of using fragments:
Content reuse: You can use fragments to reuse content
in multiple form designs. When you need to use some of the same content
in multiple forms, it is faster and simpler to use a fragment than
to copy or re-create the content. Using fragments also ensures that
the frequently used parts of a form design have consistent content
and appearance in all the referencing forms.
Global updates: You can use fragments to make global changes
to multiple forms only once, in one file. You can change the content, script
objects, data bindings, layout, or styles in a fragment, and all
XDP forms that reference the fragment will reflect the changes.
For example, a common element across many forms might be
an address block that includes a drop-down list object for the country.
If you need to update the values for the drop-down list object,
you must open many forms to make the changes. If you include the
address block in a fragment, you only need to open one fragment
file to make the changes.
To update a fragment in a PDF form, you must resave the form
in Designer.
Shared form creation: You can use fragments to share
the creation of forms among several resources. Form developers with
expertise in scripting or other advanced features of Designer can
develop and share fragments that take advantage of scripting and
dynamic properties. Form designers can use those fragments to lay
out form designs and to ensure that all parts of a form have a consistent
appearance and functionality across multiple forms designed by multiple
people.
Assembling a form design assembled using fragmentsYou can assemble a form design to pass to the Forms service
based on multiple fragments. To assemble multiple fragments, use
the Assembler service. To see an example of using the Assemble service
to create a form design which is used by another LiveCycle services (the Output service), see Creating PDF Documents Using Fragments. Instead of using the Output
service, you can perform the same workflow using the Forms service.
When using the Assembler service, you are passing a form design
that was assembled using fragments. The form design that was created
does not reference other fragments. In contrast, this topic discusses
passing a form design that references other fragments to the Forms
service. However, the form design was not assembled by Assembler.
It was created in Designer.
Summary of stepsTo render a form based on fragments, perform
the following tasks:
Include project files.
Create a Forms Client API object.
Specify URI values.
Render the form.
Write the form data stream to the client web browser.
Include project filesInclude 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 objectBefore you can programmatically
perform a Forms service Client API operation, you must create a
Forms service client.
Specify URI valuesTo successfully render a form based on fragments,
you must ensure that the Forms service can locate both the form
and the fragments (the XDP files) that the form design references.
For example, assume the form is named PO.xdp and this form uses
two fragments named FooterUS.xdp and FooterCanada.xdp. In this situation,
the Forms service must be able to locate all three XDP files.
You
can organize a form and its fragments by placing the form in one location
and the fragments in another location, or you can place all XDP
files in the same location. For the purposes of this section, assume
that all XDP files are located in the LiveCycle repository.
For information about placing XDP files in the LiveCycle repository, see Writing Resources.
When rendering a form based on fragments,
you must reference only the form itself and not the fragments. For
example, you must reference PO.xdp and not FooterUS.xdp or FooterCanada.xdp.
Ensure that you place the fragments in a location where the Forms
service can locate them.
Render the formA form based on fragments can be rendered in
the same manner as non-fragmented forms. That is, you can render
the form as PDF, HTML, or form Guides (deprecated). The example in this section
renders a form based on fragments as an interactive PDF form. (See Rendering Interactive PDF Forms.)
Write the form data stream to the client web browserWhen 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.
Render forms based on fragments using the Java APIRender a form based on fragments 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
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 and the fragments are 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.
Render the form
Invoke the FormsServiceClient 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 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 URLSpec object that contains URI values that
are required by the Forms service to render a form based on fragments.
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 renderPDFForm 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 forms based on fragments using the web service APIRender a form based on fragments using the Forms API (web service):
Include project files
Create a Forms Client API object
Create a FormsService object
and set authentication values.
Specify URI values
Create a URLSpec object
that store 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.
Render the 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. Note that the tagged PDF option cannot be set if the input
document is a PDF document. If the input file is an XDP file, the tagged
PDF option can be set.
A URLSpec object that contains URI values 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 parameter is used to store
the rendered 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.
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.
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