iPad / xfa Forms

[bpx_hmemcpy]

Just wondered if there have been any updates to the xfa form on ipad problem?

Is there any new work around to display a Livecycle form on the iPad?

I would buy an iPad if you could view LC forms!

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

I haven't come across any. I don't have an iPad, but have been trying using iOS3 and iOS4 without luck.

There is a discussion here: XFA Forms in iPhone and iPad but you will see the problem is with Apple's restrictive approach to their OS. I hear that Google Voice has made it onto iOS4, so maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Good luck,

Niall

[Timothy_W_]

Take a look at PDF Expert - great tool to fill out and sing PDF forms, as well lets easily annotate PDF documents. As to the XFA forms, it seems PDF Expert update will support XFA at least developers claim that they are working to implement this function.

JIC, here is a link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-expert-fill-forms-annotate/id393316844?mt=8

[radzmar]

From the details I can see that in only supports "PDF forms made with Adobe Acrobat" which will exclude XFA-Forms created with Designer.

[Timothy_W_]

You're right. The current version doesn't support XFA forms. Still as I've said in my previous post, the next update will support LiveCycle forms, according to the reply provided by Readdle's customer care team. If to be exact, only static XFA forms will be supported in the upcoming update.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

Out of interest I purchased PDF Expert for iPhone. Just so that I can test once the update comes out. At present it is just a "viewer".

I suspect the real issue will be whether the app supports JavaScript and FormCalc scripts. It is one thing to support/open an XFA form, but it's usefulness will be judged on support for built-in scripts.

I can accept the limitation that it will only open static forms and not dynamic xml forms. However most static forms will have some script, even simple calculations. If the app does not support these, then I would have a problem with that.

The last update was Feb. 2010, so hopefully an update for XFA forms is not far off.

Niall

Assure Dynamics

[Timothy_W_]

It seems you have purchased PDF Expert for the iPhone. Though, I though we were discussing iPad apps here. As well the link provided above goes to PDF Expert for iPad, that was updated on December 2010. Anyway, sorry for not being clear enough.

BTW, PDF Expert for iPad does support PDF forms with calculations.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

No problem,

I am just very interested in AcroForms/XFA forms on iOS devices, including iPhone and iPad.

I'll wait until the updates come out, but lack of scripting support relegates the apps to simple viewers (imho). Anything beyond the simplest of forms will probably not work as intended by the original forms developer.

By default an object that contains script in the calculate event is set as readOnly. This means that a total/sum calculation would work in Acrobat/Reader but not on an iOS device using PDF Expert. The user would be limited, in that they could not manually type in the answer. In addition processes, like submit would probably not work.

I'll see what the next update brings,

Niall

Assure Dynamics

[HowardTreisman · Accepted solution]

Hi

I can't give you a way to view XFA forms on an iPad. But I can give you a way to build a form that will work either as a PDF/XFA form, or as an iPad form (using HTML).

Check out these links for more details.
http://www.avoka.com/blog/2012/02/style/

http://www.avoka.com/content/avoka/en/products/sff3/smartform-composer/features_and_demos.html

http://www.avoka.com/content/avoka/en/products/sff3/avoka-smartform-factory.html

[KamleshBahedia]

With LiveCycle ES4, you should be able to achieve what you were looking for years back. Take a look at http://helpx.adobe.com/content/help/en/livecycle/help/mobile-forms/introduction.html

[TeeBee1]

Did you ever get a solution? I can’t modify our forms as they are externally supplied and mandatory for us to use. They are xfa forms. Would be so much easier on an iPad than making staff carry laptops for this task.