How to Render PDF from Adaptive form with data on AEM 6.5

Any suggestions will be helpful. Thank you

Hi @smrithigo,

You’re running into a issue with proxy and rewriting in front of AEM Forms: internal Adaptive Forms (AF) AJAX calls (such as guideContainer.af.internalsubmit.jsp or similar endpoints) do not automatically include your SI proxy path prefix (/abc/def). This causes problems when the client-side JS tries to interact with endpoints whose URLs no longer directly match the served page URL structure, particularly when a reverse proxy adds such a prefix.

Here’s a summary of the problem and the main ways to solve it for Adaptive Forms on AEM 6.5:

1. Background and Requirements

• You render an Adaptive Form on a proxied path (e.g., /abc/def/content/...) but internal JS tries to POST/GET to /content/..., missing the /abc/def prefix required by the proxy topology.
• You want to fetch dataXML from the AF and pass it to a custom servlet to render a PDF with filled data.

2. Why This Happens

• The URLs for internal AF AJAX endpoints are computed on the server, based on the context path of the AEM instance, and do NOT factor in custom proxy path prefixes.
• When accessed via a proxy that injects a path segment (/abc/def), the browser “sees” a different base path than the actual internal server-side context, and client JS can’t automatically detect this or prepend the prefix.

3. Solutions and Best Practices

a. Use a Reverse Proxy Rewrite Rule

You can configure your proxy/load balancer to rewrite requests by stripping the /abc/def path before forwarding to AEM, and to correctly handle the reverse for response URLs. This is the most robust solution and aligns with how AEM/AF expects to operate:

Example (Apache):

# Forward /abc/def to AEM, but strip the prefix
ProxyPass /abc/def/ http://aem-int-host:4503/
ProxyPassReverse /abc/def/ http://aem-int-host:4503/

# In dispatcher, add rewrite rule
RewriteRule ^/abc/def/(.*)$ /$1 [PT]

More info:

• Embed Forms in Sites Server – Reverse Proxy/Dispatcher Rewrites
• Experience League: Embedding Adaptive Forms - Reverse Proxy Setup
• Example PR for link transformation within AEM

b. Fix URLs in the Client Side (Not recommended, error-prone)

You could attempt to programmatically detect the path prefix in JavaScript and add /abc/def before making manual XHR/fetch calls, but this approach is brittle:

• AEM internal AJAX calls (like .af.internalsubmit.jsp) are generated deep in the GuideBridge or submit logic—hard to override.
• Manually rewriting will fail for internally-generated resource URLs (e.g., dynamic submission, prefill, attachments).

c. Use a Link Transformer or Custom Form Container Adaptation in AEM (Advanced)

Another robust approach is to customize your AEM Adaptive Forms’ form container Sling Model or use a custom Link Transformer so URLs generated for client-side consumption include the correct path prefix:

• Copy the relevant Sling Model and override methods like getCustomFunctionUrl, getAction, getDataUrl to return URLs with the /abc/def prefix.
• See GitHub samples and detailed instructions (reference).

d. Server-side Proxy Servlet (if you cannot reconfigure the reverse proxy)

Set up a proxy servlet in AEM that forwards requests to the correct internal endpoints, using the servlet as a fixed entry point that handles path mapping. You direct all AJAX calls to /abc/def/bin/customProxy?target=/content/..., and the servlet resolves it and proxies the call to the real path on AEM.

4. Relevant Docs and Solutions

• Experience League: Embedding Adaptive Forms on External Web Pages
• Using GuideBridge API to Post Form Data
• Writing custom Submit action for adaptive forms (for custom servlet scenarios)

Thanks

Pranay