Carey,

you need to set the font size of the field to 0. Make sure that you only set the size of the _value_ (meaning the part of the field where you enter stuff). If you try to set the caption size or value & caption to 0, it will switch back to your original size.

Cheers,

Sven

Weilin,

My Invalid Flashing Fields 2.0 tutorial will show you how to do that. It’ll even make the field flash but you can easily disable that part in the script if you don’t want it.

Terri,

Unfortunately, while there are ways that you may be able to make the user think that they can’t print the form (you can show a print button on the form and display an error message, instead of printing, if a particular field isn’t filled all the way up to removing the print menu item in Acrobat) there will always be some other way for the user to print (e.g. there’s no way you can stop “Ctrl + P” from functioning).

So my answer to this question is always that it just can’t be done reliably. If you like the idea of the print button, then I suggest you use the two button submit solution but use a print button instead of a submit button.

Terri,

If you’re using Designer 8+, there’s a new option for text fields in the Object palette’s Field tab called “limit length to visible area”. That should give you what you’re looking for.

NP_Martin,

I think you would put script in the first field’s Exit event that would look at the field’s value, find the related city and set the city field’s value to the name of the city. For example, you could define an array of postal codes and city names in the Exit event like this (using JavaScript):

function pair(postCode, city)
{
    this.postCode = postCode;
    this.city = city;
}

var postCityArray = new Array();
postCityArray.push(new pair("A1A1A1", "Name of City"));
postCityArray.push(new pair("B1B1B1", "Name of Other City"));

Then you would get the field’s value:

var postCode = this.rawValue;

Next, search the array for the city:

var cityName = "";

for (var i = 0; i < postCityArray.length; i++)
{
    if (postCityArray[i].postCode == postCode)
    {
        cityName = postCityArray[i].city;
        break;
    }
}

Finally, set the city field's value:

CityField.rawValue = cityName;

Give that a try and see if it works.

Sylvia,

You can achieve this by using validation scripts on fields A and B that check for values in C and D. To do this, you have to understand that a validation script evaluates to either true or false and that the result of a validation script on an empty field (one that doesn’t contain a value) is ignored and considered true (i.e. Acrobat considers the validation to have succeeded).

Knowing this information, you can define validation scripts for A and B that evaluate to true if the other one isn’t filled or if C and D are filled. On A, you would use the following JavaScript expression in the Validation event:

B.rawValue == null || (C.rawValue != null && C.rawValue.length > 0 && D.rawValue != null && D.rawValue.length > 0)

This says that A is valid if B isn’t filled or if both C and D are filled. On B, you would have the following expression:

A.rawValue == null || (C.rawValue != null && C.rawValue.length > 0 && D.rawValue != null && D.rawValue.length > 0)

This says that B is valid if A isn’t filled or if both C and D are filled.

Remember that Acrobat ignores validation script results on empty fields. That means that if only A and C are filled, A’s validation script will succeed but B’s validation script will fail (because A is filled therefore C and D must be filled). BUT, Acrobat will ignore the fact that B’s validation script failed because B isn’t filled. Therefore, Acrobat will let the form submit. Of course if B and C are filled and A isn’t, the opposite occurs (A’s failed validation is ignored by Acrobat because A is empty and the form can still be submitted). Now if both A and B are filled and either C or D isn’t, Acrobat will not let the form be submitted because it will respect the failed validations on both A and B since they are filled.

I know this will seem overly complex for something as simple as “if A and B are filled, C and D are required” but that’s the way script validations work.

Another way to do it might be to script the Exit event of A and B and set C and D as mandatory if A and B are filled. For example, on A’s Exit event, you would use the following JavaScript:

if (this.rawValue != null && this.rawValue.length > 0 && B.rawValue != null && B.rawValue.length > 0)
{
    C.mandatory = "error";
    D.mandatory = "error";
}
else
{
    C.mandatory = "disabled";
    D.mandatory = "disabled";
}

You would do something similar on B’s Exit event. The Exit event is fired after a user clicks out of a field so when the user clicks out of A, you check to see if A was filled and if B is filled as well, in which case you make C and D mandatory fields. Same thing for B when A is filled.

I’m so confused. I’ve examined the sample documents for acrobat 8.1 and 7.x. In both cases the action script portion appears to be the same for making the “Please specify” text field appear and disappear. However, I cannot duplicate these results on my own using LiveCycle 8.05. These are the steps I have taken:
Open a new blank document.
Drag 3 radio buttons to the page and change the captions to “Single”, “Married” and “Other”, then uncheck the specify item values box.
Drag a text field to the page and change the caption to “Please specify:”, then set the presence to invisible and the name to “RBLOther”.
I copy the script section from your example:
&ltevent activity=”click”>
&ltscript contentType=”application/x-javascript”>if (“Other” == this.rawValue)
{
RBLOther.presence = “visible”;
RBLOther.mandatory = “error”;
}
else
{
RBLOther.presence = “invisible”;
RBLOther.mandatory = “disabled”;
RBLOther.rawValue = “”; // remove the other value in case one was specified
}&lt/script>
&lt/event>
&ltvalidate>
&ltmessage>
&lttext name=”nullTest”/>
&lt/message>
&lt/validate>
I insert the script after the “&lt/field>” line for the Other radio button (where it is placed in your example) and then I go to Preview PDF and click on Other – nothing happens! What am I missing? My form properties are set to JavaScript, Interactive Form, Acrobat 8 (Dynamic) XML form.
My goal here is to understand how to make a text field or drop-down list appear or disappear depending upon which radio button is selected from a group of radio buttons. The radio buttons don’t have to be mandatory, they just need to control the appearance or disappearance of the text filed or drop-down list. I know I’m missing something here since your examples clearly work. Please clue me in on the missed step. Thanks!

Sylvia,

In that case, I think it might be as simple as using this little expression in A’s Validate event:

this.rawValue == "0" || (B.rawValue != null && B.rawValue.length > 0)

Note that checkbox fields always have a value (their “off” or “on” value — 0 or 1 by default, respectively) so the Validate event results are always “respected”, if you will, as opposed to a Validate event on a text field which is initially empty.

The result will be that the validation will fail and you’ll get a “validation failed” error message the second you check A if B hasn’t been filled — not the nicest experience.

Why not just leave it as you have it already with the Exit event on A? That seems like it would do the trick…

TJ,

It looks like you’re doing everything correctly (although I would recommend you use the Script Editor palette to set the script on the radio button list’s Click event rather than copying and pasting XFA from one form to another). I followed the steps you outlined and it works just fine (though I was using Designer 8.2 and Acrobat 9).

When you say that “nothing happens”, I assume you mean the “RBLOther” field doesn’t become visible when you select “Other” from the radio button list. The only thing I can think of is that while you’ve set form properties correctly, you may still be saving as a static PDF. As a sanity check, you could try creating a new form, dropping a text field on it, set its presence to “hidden” and set its initialize script to

this.presence = "visible";

Then preview the form using the “Preview PDF” tab. If the field isn’t visible, you’re previewing the form as a static PDF — which is likely your default save format. Static PDFs don’t support showing/hiding fields.

Have a look at my article on previewing as Dynamic PDF to see if you’ve covered all the bases.

TJ,

Awesome!

Cindy,

Unfortunately, validations in XFA forms don’t really work the way you would expect them to. At the moment, you’re still better-off implementing your own script to validate the fields you care about unless you only care about mandatory fields being empty or filled. If it’s that simple, then setting a field’s “Object palette > Value tab > Type property” to “User Entered – Required” will prevent the form from being submitted if that field is empty. If you want to prevent printing, saving or web service execution if form fields aren’t filled, then see my article on preventing a form from being printed.

If you need to do something more complicated than that, then you’ll need to implement your own solution. I would start by implementing the two button submit technique on your form. Once you’ve done that, you’ll just need to iterate through all the fields on your form and make sure they’re filled. My Invalid Flashing Fields 2.0 tutorial is a great example of looking at all fields in a form and highlighting (flashing red) the first one found that isn’t valid filled.

Of course pasted too quickly. Please see the script below:
<field h=”1.8549mm” name=”DropDownList1″ w=”35.4598mm” x=”30.0253mm” y=”25mm”>
<ui>
<choiceList>
<border hand=”right”>
<edge presence=”hidden” cap=”butt”/>
<corner presence=”hidden”/>
</border>
</choiceList>
</ui>
<font size=”6pt” typeface=”Myriad Pro”/>
<para vAlign=”middle”/>
<items save=”1″>
<text>No
<text>Yes
</items>
</field>

Stefan,

I looked over your article; however I am still unsure as to how to only fill the field when ‘Yes’ is selected. If ‘No’ is selected, I do not want the field to appear as colored.

Maybe I am just having “a blonde moment”.

Thanks!
Melissa

Thanks Stefan. I really apprecaite your assistance. =) Looks great!

rpeterson,

The messageBox function doesn’t let you add UI controls to it like radio buttons. If you want to use messageBox, then then best you can do is instruct the user to click ‘yes’ for one thing, ‘no’ for another and ‘cancel’ for the third option.

In this case, you would use the following script:

// JavaScript:
switch (xfa.host.messageBox("Choose an option:\nyes: option 1\nno: option 2\ncancel: option 3", "Option Dialog", 2, 3)
{
    case 4:
        // user clicked 'yes'
        break;
    case 3:
        // user clicked 'no'
        break;
    case 2:
        // user clicked 'cancel'
        break;
    default:
        break;
}

Another option is to use the xfa.host.response() function. In this case, you would instruct the user to enter the number corresponding to the option they want to select in the message box that appears (it’ll have a single entry field):

// JavaScript:
var answer = xfa.host.response("Choose an option by entering the corresponding number in the box below and pressing 'OK':\n1: option 1\n2: option 2\n3: option 3", "Option Dialog", "" /*can set default answer here*/, false);
if (answer == null)
{
    // user clicked 'cancel' instead of 'ok'
}
else
{
    switch (parseInt(answer))
    {
        case 1:
            // user chose 1
            break;
        case 2:
            // user chose 2
            break;
        case 3:
            // user chose 3
            break;
        default:
            // invalid option!
            break;
    }
}

sblanco,

In my ProcessAllFields script, just change the first part to this:

if (oNode.className == "exclGroup" || oNode.className == "subform"  || oNode.className == "subformSet" || oNode.className == "area")
{
    // Look for child fields unless it's a hidden subform.
    if (oNode.className == "subform" && oNode.presence != "visible")
        return;

    for (var i = 0; i < oNode.nodes.length; i++)
    {
        var oChildNode = oNode.nodes.item(i);
        ProcessAllFields(oChildNode);
    }
}
else if (oNode.className == "field")
...

Notice the new statement inside the first IF that checks to see if the node is a subform and if it isn't visible (if those conditions are met, the function doesn't look inside).

Quick question: I’m trying to do something very simple, but I’m having the hardest time figuring out how to do it correctly.

I have a checkbox field that when checked, I would like a numerical field to go to zero. The complicated part is that this numerical field is a calculated field (it automatically calculates shipping cost), and if the customer doesn’t check the box, I would like the normal calculation to take place.

I figured that I could use a simple “if…then” statment, but I think my programming skills are rusty, so I’m struggling.

I’m trying to do this in Adobe LiveCycle Designer 8.0.

Any suggestions?