Zack,

What they’re doing with the event.target.getField method is accessing the underlying AcroForm Field Object for the XFA field by asking the Acrobat Document (event.target) for the AcroForm Field that matches the fully-qualified SOM expression they specify. I talk about this stuff in my earlier posting on AcroForm Objects.

The reason why it may not be working for you is because you aren’t using a fully-qualified SOM expression to address your signature field. Assuming you have a simple object hierarchy on your form, the fully-qualified SOM for the signature field you wrote would actually be like this:

“form1[0].subform1[0].signatureField[0]”

Giving that to event.target.getField should get you an AcroForm Field object from which you can call the signatureInfo method in order to get the Acrobat SignatureInfo object which represents the signature. This object would then give you the information I think you’re after.

To help you get the correct fully-qualified SOM expression for any object on your form, you can use the code from my AcroForm Field Name Generator post.

Last of all, JavaScript must be used when accessing the Acrobat API. The reason why you don’t see a listing for “getField” when you add the dot (“.”) after “event.target” is because the Object Assist window you get in only programmed to display XFA-related methods and properties. Since the “getField” method is a property of the Acrobat Document object, it doesn’t show-up in the list — hence my post on AcroForm Objects, which I encourage you to read.

Thompson,

I think what you need to use is a Floating Field inside your paragraph.

Floating Fields are typically used inside static text in order to inject values into a paragraph, for example, like the current date, a page number, etc.

It’s also possible to bind a Floating Field to a data node in a data connection — which is exactly what you need to do since the data for the text that replaces the “%TF%” place-holder in your paragraph comes from a database.

You would just need to place a text object on your form, set its text to be the paragraph you quoted (without the “%TF%” place-holder) and, once you’ve positioned the insertion cursor where the “%TF%” place-holder would go, insert a Float Field using the “Insert | Floating Field” top-level menu option.

At this point, your paragraph will look something like, “… proven their flexibility in the {Text Field}. They are a…” Notice a text field has been inserted as a Floating Field inside the paragraph. Now, set the text object’s width and/or height to be expandable using the Layout palette so that if the inserted word should cause the text to reflow, the object’s boundaries will grow to accommodate the new length of the paragraph.

Finally, select the Floating Field either by highlighting it in the paragraph or by selecting it in the Hierarchy palette (named “TextField1” by default) and bind it to the proper data node in your data connection to your data base.

When you preview the form, the Floating Field’s value should be set to the value from the data connection and the paragraph should read, “… proven their flexibility in the physical world. They are a…”

To help illustrate this concept, I’ve created a little sample form which uses data from an XML file to achieve the same thing:

Download Sample [zip]

Note: If you open this form in Acrobat, don’t forget to import the data into the form using the options under the “File | Form Data” menu.

Cliff,

I think what you’re looking for is something slightly different from what I’m talking about in this post.

XFA has a property you can specify on fields that says that their width and/or height is expandable. If you put a text field on a form and set its width to be “expand to fit” using the Layout palette, the field’s content area (where you enter its value) will automatically be extended to fit the value you enter into it.

If you make the content area 1 inch wide and then enter “Last Will of John Smith” into it, assuming this takes more than 1 inch to display, the field will be extended just wide enough to fit the entire value completely.

Eric,

Just for clarity, are you using LiveCycle Forms to render an XDP to an HTML document or is this just pure HTML you’re trying to do?

Personally, it sounds like just pure HTML and you seem to be looking for a way to do some sort of word completion as a user starts entering a value into a text box.

Is that right or am I totally missing the boat?

Charles,

This is certainly possible but there are three very important things you need to know in order to get this to work properly:

1. Floating fields are, by definition, hidden fields which are referenced by static text. That means that when you insert a floating field into a text object, an actual text field gets inserted into the form. If you look at the hierarchy tree in the Hierarchy palette after you insert the floating field, you’ll find an object with a name similar to “TextField”. You can change the name if you wish (e.g. to “myFloatingTextField”) to make it easier for writing scripts.
2. Since floating fields are hidden (and should remain hidden), changing their value at runtime with script such as the one you suggested won’t trigger a repair to the form’s layout (because hidden objects don’t usually need to be rendered). Therefore, after setting its value, you must force the form to be re-rendered using the

   xfa.layout.relayout()

   statement (which works in both FormCalc and JavaScript). (The reason it works with data binding is because data binding generally occurs prior to the form being rendered so the floating field’s value shows-up correctly from the start.)

3. You must preview and save your form as a dynamic form (e.g. “Acrobat 7.0.5 Dynamic PDF”) in order to be able to modify the content of a text object. In static PDF forms, text objects are rendered directly to the canvas as artwork and therefore cannot be modified as opposed to being actual objects in dynamic PDF forms.

Joseph,

Displaying a value in a floating field at runtime is definitely possible.

Unfortunately, I believe there’s a bug with floating field rendering where you must explicitly call

xfa.layout.relayout();

after setting a floating field’s value in order to get the new value to be displayed within the text where the floating field is referenced. In my opinion, this update should occur immediately and shouldn’t require the entire form’s layout to be updated either.

To update a floating field’s value on field’s mouse exit event, all you need is the following script in the field’s MouseExit event (although I would recommend using the Exit event instead since this also covers the user hitting the Enter key while focus is still in the field in order to commit its value as well as covering the Tab key when tabbing to the next field):

FloatingField.rawValue = this.rawValue;
xfa.layout.relayout();

Note that the above script is in JavaScript but could be translated to FormCalc as well.

In order to set a floating field’s value on the click of a button (could be regular or submit type), it’s just as easy: Just use the same script as above but place it in the button’s Click event.

Finally, because of the fact that xfa.layout.relayout() must be called after an update to a floating field and that calling this method causes text in the field in which you’re entering characters to be highlighted, it’s not possible to update the floating field’s value as characters are entered. Essentially, you would only ever see the last character you typed.

Joseph,

You’re very welcome!

Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to resolve the behaviour you’re observing.

Floating Fields are, by definition, hidden fields which are referenced by text objects (<draw> nodes in XFA).

Text objects only display the value of Floating Fields which they reference and therefore don’t have any dependence on those fields’ presence types (e.g. visible, invisible or hidden).

Jim Garner,

I’m glad you find my blog useful!

I think what you need is to set the field’s height and/or width to expand to fit the entire value.

As for the following:

I have attempted in LiveCycle to use a size 0, and have tried to have western flowing of subforms, etc…. but the boss wants the static text and the text entered into the fields to look as if it was just inserted onto the line using MS-Word… No font changes or line position changes.

I’m not sure I understand. Perhaps setting the field’s value type to “read-only” via the “Object palette > Value tab > Type property” would do the trick?

Diane,

Whenever you add a floating field to a text object, Designer creates a hidden field as a sibling to that text object which is the actual floating field (the text object just displays its value at the location you inserted the floating field). It’s possible those hidden (floating) fields may have become visible somehow. You could try selecting them and hiding them by setting the “Object palette > Field tab > Presence property” to “Hidden (exclude from layout)”.

Khalid,

It sounds like whatever you did to set ‘Font = 0’ didn’t work. To make it work, either set the value font size of the field to zero (as indicated in my post) or go to the XML Source tab, select the field in the Hierarchy palette so scroll quickly to it in the source and set its value font size to zero like this:

<field>
    ...
    <font face="Myriad Pro" size="0"/>
    ...
    <caption>...</caption>
    ...
</field>

Note that you need to set the size attribute on the font node which is a child of the field node, not the font node inside the caption node (inside the field node).

Teresa Kong,

As I suggested to Jim, you should be setting the field’s height to expand to fit the value that’s typed into it.

Does that not solve the problem? If not, I’ll need more detailed information on what the formatting problem is.

Hello, I have my field set to 0 so the text will auto resize if the user enters alot of characters BUT I would also like the autosize font to start at around font size “10” as default – until the autosizing comes into effect.

My form looks really weird as some fields have a really big font when only a few characters are entered and alot smaller font when alot of characters are entered. The text on the form is completely disproportionate to each other.

Ebs,

Sounds like you would be better-off making the fields expand to fit their value.

Mike,

I’m afraid the zero font size may be something only supported by Acrobat/Reader which means when rendering the form to a static PDF on the server, you won’t get that behaviour. Also, depending on how and when the behaviour (of shrinking the text to fit within the field’s content area) takes place, it’s possible that Acrobat/Reader is required in order to achieve it and Acrobat/Reader doesn’t come into play on the server.

Since you cannot let fields expand to fit their values, I would suggest you lower the font size and set the field’s “Object palette > Field tab > Limit Length to Visible Area property” to make sure users can’t enter more text than can visibly fit within the field.

Cone,

Unfortunately, I don’t believe it’s possible to do what you ask. When you set the font size to zero, Acrobat/Reader manages the font size for you.

If you have a compliant form that can’t allow the field to grow, you might want to consider this solution which shows how to overflow the text onto a second field on another page in the form (e.g. an appendix page of some sort).

Susila,

It sounds like you want to do something similar to what I describe in my tutorial on testing HTTP submit buttons…

Brad,

I would suggest you use the list API methods to dynamically change the text value associated to the selected item when the selection changes (in the Change event).