We’ve been using LiveCycle to create forms that are 508 Compliant and have found a major issue with creating a document in LiveCycle and saving it as a PDF. When brought into Acrobat there are several options that have been lost in the Form Properties menu. Under the advanced tab the Reading Options Language has been grayed out and has no value. Actually, everything in the Advanced tab has been grayed out with no values present. This is a problem because this effects how the Screen Reader interacts with the PDF.

I’ve been in touch with Adobe and JAWS (the screen reader) and neither of them have noticed this issue, though they both agree it is not good. Is there anyone with any sort of solution to this problem; maybe a third party software that rights this wrong or a way around it? And does anybody have an idea of what would cause this? Is there a known problem with integration between LiveCycle and Acrobat?

Also, has anybody been able to test the how a Screen Reader works with a Form done in Acrobat?

Ian Hockett,

That’s certainly very frustrating! Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice to offer on that issue but for the benefit of other readers, are you seeing this when you use Acrobat 9.0 or an earlier version?

Hi Stefan,

One more note about the Adobe Reader 7.0 database connection failure. I was able to stop the infamous accessor errors in Adobe Reader for the $sourceSet.DataConnection.addNew() and Update by adapting the connection script for the submit to database button. The connection works great in Acrobat 8.0 with a system DSN and with a DSN-less connection string, but silently fails to connect to the database in Adobe Reader (there are no error messages). Here’s my test form script (just testing 3 fields) which was adapted from one of your earlier posts:

—– form1.#subform[0].Button1::initialize: – (JavaScript, client) ——————————–

xfa.sourceSet.DataConnection.addNew();

—– form1.#subform[0].Button1::click: – (JavaScript, client) ————————————-

// Database control button >> update the current record with any changes.

$record.DataConnection.Title.value = Title.rawValue;
$record.DataConnection.Instruc.value = Instruc.rawValue;
$record.DataConnection.Just.value = Just.rawValue;
xfa.sourceSet.DataConnection.update();

xfa.sourceSet.DataConnection.close();

Again, this works perfectly in Acrobat 8.0 Standard and Adobe Professional 8 and 9, but it will not work in any Adobe Reader I’ve tried. I uninstalled and installed 3 different Reader versions on my test computer at home (7, 8, 9)–they all fail to connect to the database even though I’v extended the usage rights via Adobe Professional before trying in Adobe Reader.

Also, in case anyone would like to know how to do a DSN-less connection for a Microsoft Access Database that works in Acrobat Standard or Professional, here’s the instructions (also adapted from an earlier post by a blogger):

Create a new form in Adobe LC. From the menu: File / New Data Connection. At the Dialogue Window, select OLEDB Database and click Next. In the field “Connection String” paste in the connection string below (after you change the path name, folders, and database name to the location of your Access Database: you may also use a UNC \\server\share\ instead of a drive Letter):

Provider=MSDASQL;Persist Security Info=False;Data Source=MS Access Database;Extended Properties=”DSN=MS Access Database;DBQ=H:\DocControl\DCRManager\STL\DCRManager_STL.mdb;DefaultDir=H:\DocControl\DCRManager\STL\DCRManager_STL;DriverId=25;FIL=MS Access;MaxBufferSize=2048;PageTimeout=15;”

After you paste in the corrected connection string. select the radio button for table and use the drop down menu to select which table you’d like to connect to in the database. If you don’t see any tables, then check the connection string to be sure you have the path and names correct. After you select the table, click next, I leave the fields empty for User and Password and click finish.

You should see all of the fields from the database on the left in the Data View Palette. I select the purple colored Data Connection to drag and drop all of the fields onto the blank form. It’s a quick and easy way to get the form started.

Switch to preview PDF view and check to make sure the connection works. Then you just need to add the Javascript (above) for the submit to database button and everything should work fine in Acrobat Standard or Adobe Professional. I only wish it would work in Adobe Reader. I’ve tested the DSN-less connection on other computers at work in Acrobat Standard and everything is perfectly peachy–but not so for Adobe Reader.

If you have any suggestions, Stefan, or if anyone else knows how to solve the Adobe Reader connection to a database Riddle, please let me know. I need to get my form working, or I’ll have to start from scratch again and develop something like Data Access page. Remember, I must go low cost for this solution.

Thanks again!

Debbie

Hi Stefan,

I’m having difficulty with an issue and would appreciate any assistance you might be willing to provide.

I’m trying to hide blank text field from printing. I have no problem hiding other types of fields – I just can’t figure out how to hide a text field. I’ve inquired on the Designer ES forum, but the response did not work either.

I’ve tried the following JavaScript on the Preprint option to no avail:

if {this.rawValue == ” “} this.presence = “hidden”;

if {this.rawValue == Null} this.presence = “hidden”;

if {this.rawValue == Null()} this.presence = “hidden”;

if (this.rawValue == “”) {field.presence= “hidden”}; (from Adobe Forum)

Thanks!

Andi

Andi Mitchell,

You’re close. Try this, and make sure the script language is set as “JavaScript” (FormCalc is the default):

if (this.rawValue == null || this.rawValue.length == 0)
    this.presence = "hidden";

This will check to see if the value of the field is null (no value specified) or if it’s an empty string (length == 0). If either of those conditions are true, the text field’s presence will be set to “hidden”.

Stefan,

Thank you for your reply and this website. They have been very helpful.

I have tried your suggestions but unfortunately still have the same issues. The problem I am seeing can be reduced to a simple
test. I am using WinXP SP3 with LiveCycle 8.2 and Acrobat 9 pro extended.
I use a blank form and add a Standard ListBox and a Textfield.

In the initialize event for the listbox I add the following code,

this.addItem(“test”,”it”);

In the change event for the list box I add this code,

TextField1.rawValue = this.boundItem(xfa.event.newText);

When I preview the form it shows the “test” displayed in the listbox and when I select “test” in the list box it displays “it” in the Textfield1 box.

This is working as it should. The problem occurs when you place the addItem in a loop.

var i;

for( i=0; i<10;i++){

this.addItem(“test”,”it”);
}

The result of this loop is to fill the listbox with 10 test choices, but when I select them there is no value appearing in the TextField box.

This is the same problem I find when I try to use the custom drop down list. I have found that when the oDB.open(); command is executed the
addItem fails in the same way.

Am I missing something basic here or is this a major bug?

Thanks for your help Stefan.

Steve

Steve Pence,

Have you tried having a look at what the items in the list look like after the oDB.open() call is executed? Perhaps the items aren’t what you think they are?

You could place a button on your form with the following script in its Click event (using the list object API where “myList” is the name of your list object):

console.println("myList contains " + myList.length + " items:");

for (var i = 0; i < myList.length; i++)
{
    console.println("item " + i + ": " + myList.getDisplayItem(i) + " / " + myList.getSaveItem(i));
}

Run your form, open the database connection, click on the button and then press "Ctrl + J" in Acrobat to show the JavaScript console. In there, you should see something like this:

myList contains 2 items:
item 0: text1 / value1
item 1: text2 / value2

which would show you what items are in the list. Are there any items? Do they have the values you're expecting?

Blair,

Use a regular button, set it’s “Object palette > Control Type property” to “Submit” (a “Submit” tab will appear in the Object palette at this point), then set the “Object palette > Submit tab > Submit As property” to “PDF”.

Note, however, that submitting the PDF is akin to saving the PDF, functionality that is not available by default in the free Adobe Reader. In order to export data in the PDF format in the free Reader, you’ll need to extend your PDF using Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions.

Xancholy,

There are date and time functions available in both JavaScript (the Date object) and FormCalc (see the XFA spec for the FormCalc date/time functions) that you can use to calculate the number of days between two dates but nothing that I know of that takes in account holidays and weekends. That’s intelligence you would have to build-in yourself.

Hi Sir!

How to insert .flv files in LC.

hi sir
how can add record after connect i need script under java in adobe live cycle used access database (odbc).

thanks

Hi,
I’m trying out Livecycle, which seems pretty neat so far. I have created a form with data binding to my SQL Server database via DSN. Text boxes seem to work fine, but I cannot get the drop down boxes to work, I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Steps I have done:
1) Create the DSN, add the data connection. I know this is working because text boxes that point to a table show the value.

2) Drop a drop down box, then click on List Items (Object/Field tab).
3) Select data connection dsOrigination
4) Item Text: Source
5) Item Value: sourceID
6) Save the file as PDF on my desktop
7) Double click the PDF on my desktop. Navigate to the drop down box but it doesn’t display any value for me to select.

What I have done:
1) File/Form Properties/Preview:
a) Preview Type: Interactive Form
b) Preview Adobe XML Form as: Dynamic XML form
2) Tools/Options/Data Binding
a) Show dynamic properties is checked

What the heck am I doing wrong? I really want to proof this so I can get my boss to buy it me. It will save a boat load of time of filling in forms rather then creating webpages but right now I cannot show him the neat form I’ve created cause I can’t get the drop down to work.

Thanks in advance!