Thanks for your response. I did exactly like what you have suggested but still did not return all the data. However, I did create a new form that call the sample web services from StrikeIron and it works perfectly. When I created a web service in Workflow 7.2 with an Oracle query, I see no option for me to enter username & pw & db to login to Oracle in order for that query to run. So I doubt about it and question that how can the workflow know which database to use so it can execute that query. In this case, is it considering a secured web service that require authentication? Could you please advise.

Thanks,
Han Dao

If you’re calling the web service appropriately, then this kind of trouble is probably related to the bindings you’ve set on the fields.

Web services have import and export bindings. The export bindings are for the request part of the web service (the data that goes out like the empid data to do the query) and the import bindings are for the response part (the data that comes back to the form like fname, lname, etc.).

You should have the lanid and empid fields bound to export bindings within the web service data connection and you should also have fields bound to fname, lname, etc., bound to the import bindings.

The easiest way to verify that the web service is working as expected may be to simply drag & drop the entire data connection onto a blank form. This will create all of the import and export fields and bindings. You can then fill-in the empid and lanid fields manually and invoke the web service. You should then see the data coming back in the fname, lname, etc., fields.

If that works, then it points to a binding problem in your form.

I got every thing done now but I don’t get all the information populated except for only one fields. I created a web services in workflow 7.2 and created a form to connect to that web service, I binded fields such as lanid, empid, fname, lname, address, etc to that w.s and created an invoke button to populate the data base on the laid but I only got the empid populate shown only but not fname, lname, etc. I know that I may miss something here but I could not figure what it is. Any of your idea would be appreciated. Note that the web service contains a query from 2 different views/tables in which the lanid and empid are from viewA and empid and other fields are from viewB.

Thanks in advance,
Han Dao

I am still in learning phase of LiveCycle Designer and Workflow . I’m trying to follow your tutorial “Connect to Web Service” but having a problem that I don’t get the other data populate. How do I make the form that when a user enter a emp ID and press on the button then the response will populate all the information such as name, address, etc for that empl ID which connect from the web service that I created in the Workflow (I created it by using SQL qpac in Wkflow 7.2)? I know that I miss something but could not figure out so I would like to get some help/hints from you. Note that I am still using LiveCycle Designer and Worflow 7.2. Do you have some tutorial or example from the scratch, please provide it. Thanks very much in advance. I appreciated much.

Regards,
Han Dao

I can’t speak to the specifics of what’s required with respect to the IMS database however I can suggest what the setup would look like for a database in general:

It sounds like your form is a data capture solution, meaning that you don’t have a need to pre-populate it with data from the database. Users simply download the form from your website, fill it out and you want the data submitted directly into your database. If that’s the case, then I suggest you consider the following options:

1. Create a web service and connect your form to it using a data connection. Upon clicking a submit button on the form, the data would be submitted directly to the web service which would, in turn, insert the data into the database. In order to implement this solution, you’ll need LiveCycle ES with LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES in order to extend the PDF to allow for communication with the web service.
2. Create a web service and connect your form to it using a data connection however you would specify that the web service execution would take place on the server, which means Acrobat/Reader would not be submitting the data to the web service. This task would occur on the LiveCycle ES server running in the back-end. In this case, you would LiveCycle ES with LiveCycle Forms ES.
3. Create a web service and create a web page that can process an HTTP POST call. Ideally, this would be either an ASP, PHP or JSP-style page. This page would take the posted XML data and relay it to the web service. Or it could even insert it directly into the database (e.g. in a PHP+MySQL setup). That’s up to you. The advantage here is that you don’t need LiveCycle in the back-end however it’s an extra step to go through the web page and you can only submit XML data (as opposed to the entire form, if you needed to do that).

Please note that I can’t guarantee any of these solutions and I can’t speak to the degree of security of each one. They’re just some ideas for your consideration.

I am trying to implement a similar solution and my requirement is something like this:

I have a PDF form that was developed in LiveCycle Designer 8 and user rights enabled using Acrobat 8.
This PDF form will be posted on our organization’s website, so that our users can download the form to their desktop. (Note: our users are not connected to our corporate network).
Users will fill out the form and then click on the Submit button located on the form.
When they submit, data should be posted directly to our IMS database.

We are still in the design phase and I would like to know what the architecture would look like. We have IMS connect which is an interface between the XML stream and the IMS database.

Now my question is:

1. What are all the components required to do this? (Web server, Application Server, LiveCycle Server, IMS Connect, IMS database). I am just looking for some step by step guide on how the data flows from pdf form to database how the components/servers are interacting.
2. Do we need to write any servlet/php scripts that will send the form data in xml or just changing the “Submit As” property would do the trick?

Much appreciate your help.

This is the sort of thing LiveCycle ES Process Management was designed to handle. The process would manage the email routing as needed.

My boss has asked me to develop a form that is filled out and then sent to a first, second, and third line manager in that order. The first line manager reviews the form, signs it, and e-mails it to the second line manager. The second and third line manager do the same. My boss wants to know how the form will handle the situation if one of the managers is out on sick leave or vaction. He wants the form to be able to forward itself to the next manager in line. From my understanding, once a form is sent out via e-mail it has no other connection with the world. I know for certain that the form cannot determine how long it has been sitting in someone e-mail’s box. A suggestion my boss gave me was to send the form to next line manager and send the data via XML to a database on a server. A batch job would run every so often and check to see how long the data has been sitting in the database. If a certain amount of time has passed, then a program would load a pdf form with the data and automatically send it to the next manager in line. Obviously this is a very complex solution. I want to know if anything like this is possible using Livecycle 8 or Acrobat 8?

I tested my sample form and I’m getting an “error 500″ response from the “echoEmployee” web service. That tells me that there’s something wrong with the web service (the server), not the form or Acrobat. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about that since I don’t own it.

If your colleague had created a web service that required authentication and you were connecting to it with Designer 8.1, which doesn’t support authenticated web service access (or you tried this with Designer 8.2 but didn’t configure the authentication), then this would explain the error before they switched it to “anonymous access”.

As for other web services out there, it could be an authentication problem just the same or something entirely different. It’s difficult to tell what, exactly.