Unique values while using the same binding.

[#1]

Hi,



I am using DDG to stitch multiple templates dynamically. All the templates are bound to the same XML schema. We have some text fields across the different templates that share the same element in the data connection (schema). When the templates are stitched, all these fields that are bound to the same element in the schema share the same value, that is, when one field is updated all the other fields with the same binding change the value.



Is there a way to override this behavior?



Even though the fields might use the same binding, I want the values to be unique, so that when the PDF is submitted as XML the unique value is preserved in the XML.



Thanks,

Badri.

[#2]

Badri,



Unfortunately, I don't believe this is possible from an XFA data binding point-of-view. The way it works, in XFA, is that all fields with the same binding share the same value. Its like global but without actually giving the fields global bindings where they all have to share the same name.



If you had one data node in which data could be stored but you had 3 fields, each bound to it, with different values, how would you tell which value from which field to set into the data?



Unless you write some script to auto-split the data into the 3 fields somehow (by inserting some separators into the combined text) and leave only 1 of the 3 fields bound, I don't see how you'll achieve what you're wanting to do.



Stefan

Adobe Systems



More answers at
Stefan Cameron on Forms.

[#3]

Stefan,



Thanks for the explanation. Why I wanted to do this is because we have some free form fields in our templates that will be pre-filled with blank value when the PDF is rendered, but the user can type in anything later. Hence we created a set of dummy fields in the schema that the template designer could use to bind the free form fields, using a different field in the data connection each time. But since the number of templates is huge, there is a probability that the same dummy field is bound to a differnt text fields in multiple letters, by mistake. If this is the case and the end user chooses to stitch these two templates, then we have a problem.



Hence, our template designers wanted a solution that will relieve them of the responsibilty to keep track of the free form fields and their bindings.



Thanks,

Badri.