I can build forms in Designer, but when I use a Data Model, I can't interact with the Form

[Ben_Lyons_no42]

In LiveCycle ES2 Designer I can create a form and then preview it and interact with the form.

This is assuming that I just build objects by dragging and dropping the pre-made object fragments onto the form (eg. text field) - which I then name, wrap in subforms whatever - I can add actions and all is well.  When I preview the PDF, I can enter data into the fields, click radio buttons, make objects appear everything is great.

But LC ES2 is based on data-model driven development, so in my case I need a form guide along with the form - so it's best to have a data model created first - then create the form based off of the data model - then build the form guide based off the data model - this also makes sense and I am cool with that.

My issue is that when I build a data model (just for a quick and dirty development demo not wired up to any back-end services or databases) and I build the form based off of the data model - I cannot interact with any of the form objects in the preview pane - further when I launch workspace and invoke my process which contains the form - I likewise cannot interact with the form.

What am I doing wrong?

Summation - I can build a form and interact with it - but if I start with a data model and build the form based off of that - I cannot interact with the form (radio buttons don't click - I can't enter data into form fields - etc.) what causes this?  What do I need to do to use a data model and be able to crate an interactive form?>

Does anyone know what causes this issue?  It's driving me nuts.

Thanks -

Ben

[Former Community Member · Accepted solution]

You are not doing anuthing wrong. It is working as advertised. When you build a Guide and work with an fml data model the Designer will only allow you to create static non fillable PDFs. This is beacuse when you import the model into Designer the model is being turned into a schema. The schema cannot represent the constraints and validations that can be encoded into the model. The only thing that can be maintained is the structure, so Designer disallows you to buidl an interactive form.

If you know what you are doing you could take the data the is generated from the Guide and merge it onto an XDP template file that you build (without he model as a start - you coudl use the sample XML data as a starting point)using LC Forms. Th edowmside is that if there are rules/constraints you woudl have to code them into the template as well. This is the way it is at he moment but it will improve over time as more of the model capability is exposed to the XFA world.

Hope that helps

Paul

[Ben_Lyons_no42]

Ahh.  Thank you - that explains it.

Thanks for the quick response!!

Ben L.