Which comes first? The schema or the form?

[Elaine_Schmitz]

I am new to livecycle, so please bear with me ;-)



My question is about schemas. Since my company does not have a "master" schema, we will be starting from scratch.



How does one begin? Do you create a schema first in a tool such as xmlSpy and then use that to create forms and bind the data? Or does one start by creating forms and then exporting the data from livecycle out to a schema (which then would also need to be bound back to the fields in the data view). For some reason I'm stuck thinking that starting by creating the form(s) first and exporting the data would be useful for growing your master schema.



Thanks for your help!

[Former Community Member]

That is a chicken and egg thing. In most cases the forms already exist (in a paper format). So they begin by making the paper form electronic then realize that a Master schema would be a good thing.



In your case where you are starting from scratch I would guess that creating the schema 1st woudl be advisable as that way you can define your data. Then you can build forms using the right objects to represent that data. Just be prepared to adjust your schema as you go.

[Former Community Member]

Hi,

What the Paul said is actually correct. However most of the time form is changing a lot so you have to change the schema before changing the form if starting from schema.

If you design the document first, you can generate the schema later by using the exported data of the PDF. There exists some free tools to convert XML data to XSD schema.



In case of any consultancy issues and huge number of PDF designs needed in small periods, we develop and design PDF documents.



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