Page History
Wiki Markup | ||
---|---|---|
Div | ||
| ||
DO NOT EDIT THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE DIRECTLY (EXCEPT INSIDE THE DIV BELOW WITH ID=DESCRIPTION), UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. |
Div | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The PDF Forms plugin can be used to publish PDF Forms through the Application Server. User can open the PDF Form, fill in the fields and submit the PDF Form. The submitted PDF Form is sent to the plugin and the values of the fields are extracted from the PDF Form and stored in the database. For the plugin to receive the filled out PDF Form and to extract the data, the following is required:
The PDF Forms plugin is a 100% server side operating plugin and interacts directly with the database for retrieving the form and storing the filled in field values. Basic Workflow
Creating PDF FormsThe PDF Forms plugin supports PDF Forms (both FDF and XFA) created using Adobe Acrobat .
In order for the PDF Forms plugin to work with a specific PDF Form, it is required that the PDF Form has:
Uniquely named fields *
the user has filled out a form and submits it, the Forms plugin retrieves all the fields and their values and stores them in the database. For each field name, it stores only one value. This means that unless each field is uniquely named, values will get lost. *Submit button *
form needs to contain a submit button to allow the user to post back the filled in form back to the Forms plugin on the Application Server.
Adobe Acrobat or Adobe LiveCycle, create a button named "SUBMIT" and add the following JavaScript code to the mouse-up action on the button: {code}submit button on the form. For FDF form add the following JavaScript code to the mouse-up action on the button:
For XFA form add the following JavaScript code to the preSubmit action on the button:
For XFA form the form must be submitted as XML using UTF-8 encoding. Also in this javascript code Form and Page must be replaced with the actual names present in the PDF document. Automatic submit button injection To enable automatic insertion of the submit button, the 'skip_placing_submit_button' field on the pdf_template record needs to be set to one ('1'). When set to zero ('0') the button will not be inserted automatically. *Hidden fields *
Form needs to contain two hidden fields, one named 'servoy_pdf_submit_url' and one named 'servoy_action_id'. These fields will be automatically populated by the Forms plugin and are used to retrieve the filled in data back. h4.Accessing the PDF Forms The PDF Forms plugin exposes two dynamic url's for accessing the PDF Forms: - <serverUrl>/servoy-service/pdf_forms/pdf_template?template_id=\{template_id} Through this URL, the PDF Forms can be viewed, but filling and submitting the form will not result in storing the data to the database - <serverUrl>/servoy-service/pdf_forms/pdf_form/load.fdf?action_id=\{action_id} Through this URL, a PDF Form linked to a specific pdf_action record can be opened. When submitted, the filled in form data will be stored in the database, as records in the pdf_form_values table, linked to the specific pdf_action. {note:title=pdf_action.action_type}The pdf_template record contains one column that affects if the PDF Form can be submitted or not. If the action_type column is set to VIEW (value=0) the PDf Form will open in read-only mode. The fields will be read-only and the submit button will be disabled. When the action_type column is set to EDIT (value=1) the PDF Form will open in edit-mode, allowing the fields to be edited and the PDf Form to be submitted.{note} {note:Adobe Acrobat Reader}To view PDF Forms in the browser, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 (or higher) - including the default web browser plugin - must be installed. Acrobat Reader 7 can be downloaded (at no charge) from Adobe: [http://www.adobe.com]{note} h4.Redirect url After submitting the PDF form, the browser will redirect to the redirect_url, if specified. If no redirect_url is specified on the specific action, the PDF Forms plugin will lookup the redirect_url on the pdf_template record linked to the pdf_action. If both the pdf_action and pdf_template do not specify a redirect_url, the browser will be redirected to a default page that displays the text 'Data successfully stored,close this window' and will attempt to close the window. h4.Automatic pdf_action closing When the user submits a PDF Form, the related pdf_action record will be marked as closed. When the user would try to re-open a PDF Form that was previously submitted, thus the pdf_action record is marked as closed, instead a page will be shown in the browser, displaying the text 'Security violation, use the pdf system to edit pdfs'. h4.Re-using data When the PDF Forms plugin opens a PDF Form linked to an pdf_action, it will fill any field in the PDF Form with data that is already stored in the pdf_form_values table, related to the pdf_action record. As can be seen in the ERD below, the link between the data stored in the pdf_form_values table and the pdf_action table is not done based on the primary key of the pdf_actions table, but on a separate form_id column. This allows for the following: - Link multiple actions, possibly linked to different pdf_templates to the same set of data - Provide default values for fields, by pre-populating the pdf_form_values table h4.Entity Relation Diagram The ERD below is the minimum required by the plugin to operate. The data model needs to be present in one of the Database Servers. By default, the DataBase Server named 'pdf_forms' will be used, but this can be overwritten using theback. For XFA forms, these hidden fields are also used in order to put the form to readonly. This is needed because the XFA form cannot be flattened out-of-the-box, just as the FDF form. So, this javascript must be added in initialize event of the form:
In this javascript code Form, Page and submiButton must be replaced with the actual names present in the PDF document. Also this code only works for PDF version 9 and later when access property was introduced for form. In order to support earlier versions all fields in form must be parsed and put to nonInteractive (in javascript code). Accessing the PDF FormsThe PDF Forms plugin exposes two dynamic url's for accessing the PDF Forms:
Redirect urlAfter submitting the PDF form, the browser will redirect to the redirect_url, if specified. If no redirect_url is specified on the specific action, the PDF Forms plugin will lookup the redirect_url on the pdf_template record linked to the pdf_action. If both the pdf_action and pdf_template do not specify a redirect_url, the browser will be redirected to a default page that displays the text 'Data successfully stored,close this window' and will attempt to close the window. Automatic pdf_action closingWhen the user submits a PDF Form, the related pdf_action record will be marked as closed. When the user would try to re-open a PDF Form that was previously submitted, thus the pdf_action record is marked as closed, instead a page will be shown in the browser, displaying the text 'Security violation, use the pdf system to edit pdfs'. Re-using dataWhen the PDF Forms plugin opens a PDF Form linked to an pdf_action, it will fill any field in the PDF Form with data that is already stored in the pdf_form_values table, related to the pdf_action record. As can be seen in the ERD below, the link between the data stored in the pdf_form_values table and the pdf_action table is not done based on the primary key of the pdf_actions table, but on a separate form_id column. This allows for the following:
Entity Relation DiagramThe ERD below is the minimum required by the plugin to operate. The data model needs to be present in one of the Database Servers. By default, the DataBase Server named 'pdf_forms' will be used, but this can be overwritten using the 'pdf_forms_plugin_servername' setting of the plugin, available on the Admin page under [ ]. {gliffy:name=ERD|size=M|border=false} *pdf_templates* The pdf_templates table stores the the actual PDF Form: -
pdf_templates
pdf_actions * -
pdf_form_values * -
PDF Template location optionsWhen a PDF Form is shown to the user a related PDF Form template is automatically retrieved. This PDF Form Template is by default loaded from the "actual_pdf_form" column from the pdf_templates table. There are two options to override the location from where the template is retrieved:
The overrideTemplateLocation can be any location that is accessible from the machine where the Servoy Web Client is running, for example ../application_server/server/webapps/ROOT/servoy-webclient/.. The order of precedence for PDF Form Template location is:
|
HTML Table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
HTML Table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|