Editing Adobe Livecycle forms in AEM Forms Designer - enabling extended features not supported

[#1]

We have a number of forms that were created using Adobe Livecycle and when moving to Windows 10 were advised to use AEM Forms Designer, as Adobe Livecycle was no longer supported. The Adobe Livecycle forms had enabled extended features in Adobe Reader as the forms are shared on our public web site for downloading. The user completes the form (using Adobe Reader) and emails it to us.

We have now discovered that when we try to edit the original forms in AEM Forms Designer that the enabled extended features in Adobe Reader are no longer supported. Please see attached message when we import one of the forms into AEM Forms Designer.

We can edit the form using AEM Forms Designer but the option to save the PDF with enabled extended features in Adobe Reader is not available – it was previously available in Adobe Livecycle.

Can you please advise how we can create our forms are fillable and saveable in Adobe Reader?

Best regards,

Martin

[MTraynor · Accepted solution]

Martin,

Usually, enabling usage rights for a form is done outside of the designer (Either in LiveCycle Designer or AEM Forms Designer). You need to have the Reader Extensions certificate to do this. The below link will help you get more information on this.

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/AEMForms/6.1/AdminHelp/WS92d06802c76abadb-5145d5d12905ce07e7-7ffa.2.htm...

Thanks,

Manoj 

[MTraynor · Accepted solution]

Hi Manoj,

[Kosta_Prokopiu1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Martin, there is absolutely no way that you did apply Reader Extensions with LiveCycle Designer. This never was a functionality of Designer. The message box you get is because when opening an extended PDF with Designer, it extracts the XFA design information and when you save it again you either have an XDP file or a completely fresh PDF with no Reader Extensions. Adobe Acrobat Professional allows to apply Reader Extensions in a limited way. This might be what you were doing.

[MTraynor]

In my environment, LiveCycle and AEM Forms were not configured to save in a reader-extended format so I use a 2-step process to Reader-Extend my forms:

1. In LiveCycle or AEM Forms, I save the form as generated by the program.

2. In Acrobat, I open the file and "Save as Other > Reader-Extended PDF".

[MTraynor]

Hi, thanks for your suggestion. Will explore this but wonder if AEM dynamic forms will work once they have been saved again in Acrobat. Thanks again Martin

[MTraynor]

Hi, the solution suggested by MHWinter works, i.e. using Acrobat to "Save as Other > Reader-Extended PDF". Thanks!

[MTraynor]

Hi Martin,

As far as I know, we can not apply usage rights only by using LiveCycle designer or AEM Forms Designer. Reader Extensions is a server module and you need licenses to use that. I am not sure what kind of support you have from Adobe. You can reach out to them and figure out the options of using the Reader Extensions in AEM Forms designer.

Earlier you might be using Acrobat Professional along with LiveCycle Designer and do the Reader Extensions. You can do partial reader extensions with Acrobat Professional. 

If you want to use LiveCycle Designer itself in Windows 10 as a work around you can still do that.

To install LiveCycle Designer in Windows 10, you need to run the LiveCycle Designer installer file in the Compatibility Mode of Windows 7. This will install the LiveCycle designer in Windows 10 and keep using it without any issues. I have done this on my Windows 10 machine at my workplace and been using it for almost 2 years. I did not see any problems with the forms using the LiveCycle Designer in Windows 10.

Thanks,

Manoj

[MTraynor]

Hi Manoj, will explore the compatibility mode option for Livecycle in W10. I feel the server option is almost overkill for how we are using these forms but may be the only way to go. Thanks again Martin

[#10]

Hi Manoj,

Thanks for your response.

We were able to enable extend extended features in Livecycle without using a server or certificate and expected we would do the same in a stand alone version of AEM Forms Designer.

We only have AEM Forms Designer and do not have a server set up. Does setting up a server require an additional licence?

Best regards,

Martin