Connecting to a web service usually means using import bindings to capture the response but what if you wanted to do something special with the response? What if the response wasn’t exactly correct for merging into your form (e.g. you just wanted to extract a part of the response and push it into your form somewhere)?
You could still use import bindings (set using the “Object palette > Bindings tab > Import/Export Bindings property”) but then you might have to hide most — or all — of those fields if you didn’t want to expose them. You would wait for the web service data connection to execute, then find the field that contains the piece of data you want and set it where it needs to go. This isn’t ideal, however, because Designer doesn’t expose any events, in the Script Editor, that would let you know that you now have data from the web service response in your form. Furthermore, having those extra fields around could add a lot of unnecessary weight (read: file size).
Continue reading…
Posted by Stefan Cameron on March 23rd, 2009
Filed under
Data Binding,
Designer,
Events,
Scripting,
Tutorials,
XFA
I wasn’t sure I could actually blog about this update due to licensing issues but hey, they just did on the LiveCyle Blog. I guess it’s all in the wording.
In particular, this 8.2.1 SP2 update resolves a nasty bug where your form would grow to multiple megabytes in size due to a processing instruction (PI) being repeated thousands of times for a particular field. The PI looks like this (though the value, ‘aped3’, may differ):
<?templateDesigner StyleID aped3?>
Thankfully, this bug doesn’t occur often but when it does, the most common symptoms are:
- reduced performance when working in Designer;
- form file bloat (into the multiple MBs); and
- crashes when working in Designer with the form open.
If you can’t update Designer due to your licensing agreement and you come across this bug, you’ll need to go to the XML Source and look for a processing instruction like the one quoted above. It’ll be there many, many times. Just delete all occurrences. If your form is saved as an XDP, then you can exit Designer and open it in Notepad (or some other text editor) and delete it that way as well. Then re-open it in Designer.
Updated: March 28, 2009
Posted by Stefan Cameron on March 17th, 2009
Filed under
Bugs,
Designer,
LiveCycle
Did you know that transparency in GIF and 8-bit PNG images is supported as of Designer and Acrobat/Reader 8.0?
If you have an image that has a transparent area in it (perhaps you have an odd-shaped logo which you want to place on a colored background in your form), you can save it as a GIF or 8-bit PNG with a single color indexed as transparent.
There are various PNG formats: 8-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit. The 8-bit format is supported and uses an indexed color table in which colors may be marked as transparent (only one of which is supported in Designer/Acrobat/Reader). The 24-bit format is also supported and provides true colors (non-indexed) but no transparency. Finally, the 32-bit format allows for varying degrees of transparency (i.e. an alpha channel) within the image but is not supported at this time.
The GIF format is at most 8-bit and uses an indexed color table in which colors may be marked as transparent however Designer/Acrobat/Reader only supports one transparent color within the color index.
Updated: May 26, 2009
Posted by Stefan Cameron on March 9th, 2009
Filed under
Acrobat,
Designer
It seems that calculating totals in an expandable table with a dynamic/repeatable row is a hot topic lately so I thought I would post a tutorial on how to build a simple table which represents a purchase order where you can add and remove line items and various totals are automatically calculated.
Before we get started, you’ll need Designer 7.1 and Acrobat/Reader 7.0.5 at minimum to run through this tutorial. I will be using Designer 8.2 and Acrobat/Reader 9.0 to do the tutorial so it’s possible some of the UI may have changed slightly since the 7.1/7.05 versions.
Continue reading…
Posted by Stefan Cameron on February 25th, 2009
Filed under
Data Binding,
Designer,
FormCalc,
Scripting,
Tables,
Tutorials,
XFA
The recording of the Acrobat User Community eSeminar on Advanced Forms and LiveCycle Designer by Easel Solution’s Angie Okamoto is now available for viewing. Angie demonstrates advanced concepts in creating dynamic forms with LC Designer and you can also see all of the Q&A comment threads between the attendees and the team of specialists answering the questions.
Posted by Stefan Cameron on February 13th, 2009
Filed under
Data Binding,
Designer,
Instance Manager,
Scripting,
Tables,
Tutorials
