Adobe LiveCycle Designer can open (import) .ifd files since the very first version, I believe. Once imported, you will have an XFA form which you can save as a PDF file.

I am using Adobe Output Designer 5.5, and few .ifd and .mdf files. The task is to convert these to .pdf files. ]
I am able to covert the .ifd to .mdf but unable to convert .mdf to .pdf… Could you please let us know how to go further.

Thanks
Sha

Are you giving the proper reference to the xfa.host.resetData() method? You should be giving it the SOM expression to your table. For example,

xfa.host.resetData(myTable.somExpression);

If that doesn’t work, you can always use the table row’s Instance Manager to remove all instances and add a blank one (assuming you’ve set the row to be repeatable and you’ve set a minimum instance count of 0 (zero) using the “Object palette > Binding tab”):

myTable._Row1.setInstances(0); // remove all
myTable._Row1.addInstance(0); // add a new blank row

It sounds like your form is configured to populate the drop downs in the first instance however not in the new instances. The addInstance() method actually returns a reference to the new instance which you can use to access the drop down lists and populate them as required:

var newInstance = _repeatableSubform.addInstance(0);
newInstance.DropDownList1.addItem("item 1");
...

Another way to do it is to use the repeatable subform’s Initialize event (you can access it using the Script Editor palette, “Window menu > Script Editor”) to populate the drop down lists. When you add new instances, their Initialize events are triggered and they’ll automatically populate the drop down lists that pertain to them.

A very good blog, got to know many a new things.
Despite of me being working with forms for a considerable time, this blog of urs gave me a lot new things to learn. Thanks..

We are working on a scenario wherein we are add the instances of a subform depending upon the value entered by user at runtime.
That subform has around 15 dropdowns, so i’ve used the addInstance method to add the instances of the subform at runtime.
The value populated into the dropdowns is coming from some backend system, that is they are not static. So, wht is my problem is when i add the instances of that subform, they get added but the values of dropdown are there only in the first instance, rest all dropdowns in the rest of the instances are blank.

Need your help..

I think what has happened is that you imported your Excel worksheet with the “fixed pages” (“artwork”) option. This creates a form with high-fidelity layout towards your original document however it prevents you from using objects that involve subforms (subforms themselves as well as tables). There are also other restrictions such as not being able to use text, rectangle, circle and line objects amongst others. The benefits of importing your form this way is that the original layout (from Excel) is preserved and you’re meant to overlay fields on it.

You may also import a form with “flowable layout”. This will give you the ability to use subform-based objects however the import utility will translate every last piece of the original document into an XFA object. In certain circumstances, this can yield forms with 100s of objects.

There’s a third option you may with to use, since you’re importing an Excel spreadsheet and that’s Designer’s ability to paste cells from an Excel spreadsheet. I believe this was introduced in Designer 8.0. Simply copy and paste cells from your spreadsheet right into Designer. You should get a special “paste from Excel” dialog when you paste into Designer that will guide you through the process. I think the end-result is a table object in your form.

I haven’t could find any suggestion about my problem so i hope you can help me. I’m trying to convert an excel file to pdf dinamic form using livecycle but, when I try to add a subform or a table on it, these options are disabled showing this message “this type of object can not be used in PDF forms with illustrations” (i had to translate this message because I’m using spanish version, so it can not to be right) I have tried to find a solution but I haven’t found. Any suggestion about this problem?

Thanks for all your help

Dani

I’m having some difficulty understanding the structure of your form but bindings that start “$record” are anchored to the root data node rather than being relative to the parent’s binding. So you could try to bind the “r2″ table row to “$record.item[*]” and then bind the fields inside to “OrderMult” and “ItemDesc1″ (no “$record.item[*]” prefix) which would make those field’s bindings relative to the instance of the <item> data node that gets bound to the instance of the “r2″ row.

I am seeing a strage behavior in my own form when using addInstance().

I am using a data connection to prefill a form. The form has a Add_Row button that executes the following two lines as the click event:

root.PO.grid.Table1.#subformSet[0].action.Button4::click: – (JavaScript, client) –
Table1._r2.addInstance(1);
xfa.form.recalculate(1);

Some fields in the row “r2″ have default bindings such as $record.item[*].OrderMult and $record.item[*].ItemDesc1, etc. which are used during pre-population.

The strange behavior is that all of the ItemDesc1 fields of the rows created with the dynamic form Button4 have the same value regardless of which row I enter a value. This “linked”-value behavior happens for all of the row fields that have a Non-Normal default binding.

Do I need to explictly change the bindings of the newly added instances to prevent this problem? How would that be done?