Supporting Files
Adobe LiveCycle Designer, Second Edition includes many hands-on demos and lessons using these supporting files.
ZIP Download All Sample Files (8.3 MB)
About This Book
Creating intelligent forms can be challenging. Forms have to present critical information in a compact format. Interactive forms that respond to data entry by the user requires some programming. Dynamic forms also have to work seamlessly with the database that collects customer information. Plus, forms need to be designed well to eliminate confusion and entice completion by the user.
As shown in this book, LiveCycle Designer addresses the many objectives of forms creation. It offers a digital handshake between the graphic designer and the data programmer. LiveCycle Designer lets forms designers create more compelling and dynamic documents than is possible with Acrobat or Microsoft Word. Forms created with LiveCycle Designer automatically expand to accommodate different amounts of data and report that information back to a database. The new version of LiveCycle Designer (ES4) allows for the first time forms to be deployed in HTML5 format, so they can be used on a wider array of devices (page sizes can adjust to smaller screens) and in a wider range of software systems (no special reader or plugin needed to use them, just a Web browser).
Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES4: Creating Dynamic PDF and HTML5 Forms for Desktop and Mobile Applications shows design strategies as well as the technical underpinnings of PDF and XFA (Adobe XML Forms Architecture), the tools necessary to create intelligent forms. This new edition also comes with instructor ancillaries to facilitate its use in training classes.
Supporting Links and Materials
FormCalc User Reference
If you're interested in exploring FormCalc further, Adobe provides this FormCalc User Reference.
Working with the Event Model
Here is some information about the event scripting model properties and methods from Adobe's online Help system.
Action Builder Exercise
If you need the benefits of scripting but don’t have the time to master JavaScript, Designer’s Action Builder may be the tool you’re looking for. This sample exercise will help you learn how to use the Action Builder in LiveCycle Designer.
JavaScript for Acrobat
One of the easiest and most powerful ways to customize PDF files is by using JavaScript. JavaScript is particularly useful for XML forms. JavaScript enables automated forms handling, Web and database communication, commenting, and user-interface capabilities.
XFA-based PDF forms on Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome
The built-in PDF viewer introduced with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome do not support XFA-based PDF forms. This link explains steps necessary to configure older versions Firefox and Chrome to open PDFs using Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. Note: new versions of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome do NOT support the Adobe PDF Viewer plugins or XFA forms.
Font Handling in LiveCycle Designer
Here are some guidelines for font handling and font mapping using the the Designer.xci file.
Mobile Forms Architecture
Here is a link to Adobe's Help documentation about the LiveCycle Mobile Forms architecture.
Mobile Forms Custom Profile
A Mobile Forms profile is a resource node in Apache Sling that provides a customized version of Mobile Forms rendition service. You can use the Mobile Form Rendition service to customize appearance, behavior, and interactions of the Mobile Forms.
Developing Custom Components
You can develop components within a Java integrated development environment (IDE), such as Eclipse, that you can deploy to the LiveCycle server. Components are independent units of production that contain operations that plug into LiveCycle server or AEM Forms Server (JEE). Components are combined with other components to build applications using LiveCycle Workbench / AEM Forms Workbench. By developing components, you can extend LiveCycle / AEM Forms server by adding functionality to meet your business requirements.
FormCalc User Reference
If you're interested in exploring FormCalc further, Adobe provides this FormCalc User Reference.
Adobe AEM Forms Portals
Please note: The Change of Address demo mentioned in our 2013 Adobe Press book is no longer the best practice for hosting Designer HTML forms. The new best practice approach for Adobe AEM Forms 6.x, is to host HTML forms in an AEM Forms Portal.