LiveCycle and Crystal Reports

[_Juddy5_]

I have searched the site and can't seem to find an answer to the following.



We have purchased the Live Cycle suite of products to enable secure signature capabilities on our contract documents.



My problem is that our contracts are currently in Crystal Reports XI, and a total rewrite to Adobe Forms Designer would be a significant undertaking (i.e. it may cause us to abandon Adobe as the solution if the two products are not able to work together.) We have a lot of time and effort invested in our existing Crystal document base.



My question is whether there is any type of object library, UDF, or function that will allow us to place an Adobe "intelligent" signature block on a Crystal report.



Any advice would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks!

[Former Community Member]

I highly doubt it there is such a solution as it would require Crystal Reports to generate a LiveCycle or Acrobat PDF output which I am sure it isn't capable of doing.



One way you might be able to easily achieve your conversion is to export your existing contracts to PDF (generate the report in CrystalReports and export to PDF), then use LiveCycle Designer ES to import that PDF. You have two options for importing - the first option essentially imports the document as a background image and you trace fields over the top, the second option actually imports the document itself and tries its best to identity fields, text and lines. You only really need the second option if you are planning to make the PDF interactive and dynamic (show / hide fields based on user input).



Once this is done, you can add your digitial signature to the form.



Hope this helps,

John.

[_Juddy5_]

John-



Thanks for your input!



I will take a look at importing a document, but I don't have high hopes that this will be a viable solution.



There is a great deal of logic built into the Crystal templates and the output varies based on the data. Sections are displayed or hidden, text is replaced, etc. So it's not possible just to say give it all data it could possibly have and print that version as the base to be imported. The documents are made up of some static text and 12 - 15 subreports with variable data and text.



I believe Adobe Live Cycle Designer can replicate the actual functionality but am struggling with how much work that would be for us.



Thanks again!



Mary

[Former Community Member]

If it is a static report then doing what jnesbitt suggested could work. You could also leave the report in PDF format and simply add a signature block to it.



If the report needs to be dynamic then you will have no choice but to re-create it in Designer if you want to use a signature.