Validating DDX Documents

You can programmatically validate a DDX document that is used by the Assembler service. That is, using the Assembler service API, you can determine whether or not a DDX document is valid. For example, if you upgraded from a previous LiveCycle version and you want to ensure that your DDX document is valid, you can validate it using the Assembler service API.

Remarque : For more information about the Assembler service, see Services Reference for LiveCycle.
Remarque : For more information about a DDX document, see Assembler Service and DDX Reference.

Summary of steps

To validate a DDX document, perform the following tasks:

  1. Include project files.

  2. Create an Assembler client.

  3. Reference an existing DDX document.

  4. Set run-time options to validate the DDX document.

  5. Perform the validation.

  6. Save the validation results in a log file.

Include project files

Include the 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.

The following JAR files must be added to your project’s class path:

  • adobe-livecycle-client.jar

  • adobe-usermanager-client.jar

  • adobe-assembler-client.jar

  • adobe-utilities.jar (required if LiveCycle is deployed on JBoss)

  • jbossall-client.jar (required if LiveCycle is deployed on JBoss)

if LiveCycle is deployed on a supported J2EE application server other than JBoss, you must replace the adobe-utilities.jar and jbossall-client.jar files with JAR files that are specific to the J2EE application server that LiveCycle is deployed on.

Create a PDF Assembler client

Before you can programmatically perform an Assembler operation, you must create an Assembler service client.

Reference an existing DDX document

To validate a DDX document, you must reference an existing DDX document.

Set run-time options to validate the DDX document

When validating a DDX document, you must set specific run-time options that instruct the Assembler service to validate the DDX document as opposed to executing it. Also, you can increase the amount of information that the Assembler service writes to the log file.

Perform the validation

After you create the Assembler service client, reference the DDX document, and set run-time options, you can invoke the invokeDDX operation to validate the DDX document. When validating the DDX document, you can pass null as the map parameter (this parameter usually stores PDF documents that the Assembler requires to perform the operation(s) specified in the DDX document).

If validation fails, an exception is thrown and the log file contains details that explains why the DDX document is invalid can be obtained from the OperationException instance. Once past the basic XML parsing and schema checking, then the validation against the DDX specification is performed. All errors that are located in the DDX document are specified in the log.

Save the validation results in a log file

The Assembler service returns the validation results that you can write to a XML log file. The amount of detail that the Assembler service writes to the log file depends on the run-time option that you set.

Validate a DDX document using the Java API

Validate a DDX document by using the Assembler Service API (Java):

  1. Include project files.

    Include client JAR files, such as adobe-assembler-client.jar, in your Java project’s class path.

  2. Create a PDF Assembler client.

    • Create a ServiceClientFactory object that contains connection properties.

    • Create an AssemblerServiceClient object by using its constructor and passing the ServiceClientFactory object.

  3. Reference an existing DDX document.

    • Create a java.io.FileInputStream object that represents the DDX document by using its constructor and passing a string value that specifies the location of the DDX file.

    • Create a com.adobe.idp.Document object by using its constructor and passing the java.io.FileInputStream object.

  4. Set run-time options to validate the DDX document.

    • Create an AssemblerOptionSpec object that stores run-time options by using its constructor.

    • Set the run-time option that instructs the Assembler service to validate the DDX document by invoking the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s setValidateOnly method and passing true.

    • Set the amount of information that the Assembler service writes to the log file by invoking the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s getLogLevel method and passing a string value meets your requirements. When validating a DDX document, you want more information written to the log file that will assist in the validation process. As a result, you can pass the value FINE or FINER.

  5. Perform the validation.

    Invoke the AssemblerServiceClient object’s invokeDDX method and pass the following values:

    • A com.adobe.idp.Document object that represents the DDX document.

    • The value null for the java.io.Map object that usually stores PDF documents.

    • A com.adobe.livecycle.assembler.client.AssemblerOptionSpec object that specifies the run-time options.

    The invokeDDX method returns an AssemblerResult object that contains information that specifies whether the DDX document is valid.

  6. Save the validation results in a log file.

    • Create a java.io.File object and ensure that the file name extension is .xml.

    • Invoke the AssemblerResult object’s getJobLog method. This method returns a com.adobe.idp.Document instance that contains validation information.

    • Invoke the com.adobe.idp.Document object’s copyToFile method to copy the contents of the com.adobe.idp.Document object to the file.

    Remarque : If the DDX document is invalid, an OperationException is thrown. Within the catch statement, you can invoke the OperationException object's getJobLog method.

Validate a DDX document using the web service API

Validate a DDX document by using the Assembler Service API (web service):

  1. Include project files.

    Create a Microsoft .NET project that uses MTOM. Ensure that you use the following WSDL definition: http://localhost:8080/soap/services/AssemblerService?WSDL&lc_version=9.0.1.

    Remarque : Replace localhost with the IP address of the LiveCycle server.
  2. Create a PDF Assembler client.

    • Create an AssemblerServiceClient object by using its default constructor.

    • Create an AssemblerServiceClient.Endpoint.Address object by using the System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress constructor. Pass a string value that specifies the WSDL to the LiveCycle service (for example, http://localhost:8080/soap/services/AssemblerService?blob=mtom). You do not need to use the lc_version attribute. This attribute is used when you create a service reference.

    • Create a System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding object by getting the value of the AssemblerServiceClient.Endpoint.Binding field. Cast the return value to BasicHttpBinding.

    • Set the System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding object’s MessageEncoding field to WSMessageEncoding.Mtom. This value ensures that MTOM is used.

    • Enable basic HTTP authentication by performing the following tasks:

      • Assign the LiveCycle user name to the field AssemblerServiceClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName.

      • Assign the corresponding password value to the field AssemblerServiceClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password.

      • Assign the constant value HttpClientCredentialType.Basic to the field BasicHttpBindingSecurity.Transport.ClientCredentialType.

      • Assign the constant value BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportCredentialOnly to the field BasicHttpBindingSecurity.Security.Mode.

  3. Reference an existing DDX document.

    • Create a BLOB object by using its constructor. The BLOB object is used to store the DDX document.

    • Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the DDX document and the mode to open the file in.

    • Create a byte array that stores the content of the System.IO.FileStream object. You can determine the size of the byte array by getting the System.IO.FileStream object’s Length property.

    • Populate the byte array with stream data by invoking the System.IO.FileStream object’s Read method and passing the byte array, the starting position, and the stream length to read.

    • Populate the BLOB object by assigning its MTOM property with the contents of the byte array.

  4. Set run-time options to validate the DDX document.

    • Create an AssemblerOptionSpec object that stores run-time options by using its constructor.

    • Set the run-time option that instructs the Assembler service to validate the DDX document by assigning the value true to the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s validateOnly data member.

    • Set the amount of information that the Assembler service writes to the log file by assigning a string value to the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s logLevel data member. method When validating a DDX document, you want more information written to the log file that will assist in the validation process. As a result, you can specify the value FINE or FINER. For information about the run-time options that you can set, see the AssemblerOptionSpec class reference in LiveCycle API Reference.

  5. Perform the validation.

    Invoke the AssemblerServiceClient object’s invokeDDX method and pass the following values:

    • A BLOB object that represents the DDX document.

    • The value null for the Map object that usually stores PDF documents.

    • An AssemblerOptionSpec object that specifies run-time options.

    The invokeDDX method returns an AssemblerResult object that contains information that specifies whether the DDX document is valid.

  6. Save the validation results in a log file.

    • Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the log file and the mode to open the file in. Ensure that the file name extension is .xml.

    • Create a BLOB object that stores log information by getting the value of the AssemblerResult object’s jobLog data member.

    • Create a byte array that stores the content of the BLOB object. Populate the byte array by getting the value of the BLOB object’s MTOM field.

    • Create a System.IO.BinaryWriter object by invoking its constructor and passing the System.IO.FileStream object.

    • Write the contents of the byte array to a PDF file by invoking the System.IO.BinaryWriter object’s Write method and passing the byte array.

    Remarque : If the DDX document is invalid, an OperationException is thrown. Within the catch statement, you can get the value of the OperationException object's jobLog member.