Expand my Community achievements bar.

Dive into Adobe Summit 2024! Explore curated list of AEM sessions & labs, register, connect with experts, ask questions, engage, and share insights. Don't miss the excitement.

Is LiveCycle the right product?

Avatar

Level 1

Hi, I'm lost in the sea of Adobe products. My need is this: automatically generate (pre-filled) fillable pdf to be used on IOS mobiles.

Now, we can forget the "to be used on mobile IOS devices" and focus only on the first part of the sentence...

I've tried Acrobat DC only to find that it could only generate pdf interactively, that wasn't enought for me, I need batch processing.

So I was in a support chat with Adobe representative and he told me that LiveCycle Designer was the right product.

I bought it instantly, and followed a fast tutorial... now I can create static fillable pdfs, in XFA format (so there could be problem on the mobile side, but leave that away for now), based on xmls. Ok but...  how can I create the batch process that I need, using only Designer?

The basic goal could be this: I create a template static fillable pdf with xml schema data binding. I regenerate dinamically this xml from another database and use the binding to fill some pre-fill data. Then send the merged pdf to the final user to complete the form filling. I've tried to use the script   "xfa.host.importData("test.xml")" on pdf loading without success. Even the button under "File -> Distribute form... " is greyed out... in Designer, so I started to have some doubts and I've googled a little, to find out that LiveCycle ES4 is a suite of programs... Designer is only one of them... Ok, so what else do I need to arrive to my final solution? Which software part does the merge between the xml and xfa to produce my pdf in batch?

Adobe Forms? So must I buy another piece of software or ask a refund? Do you agree that with only the Designer its impossible to achieve my goal?

Thanks...

4 Replies

Avatar

Level 10

Hi there,

I would like to test it for you, because it is suppose to be working.

But just to make sure you tried the good steps, have a look at this tutorial on how to import data in a PDF form using LiveCycle Designer Forms.

If you have any questions about it, let me know.

Importing and Exporting Data in LiveCycle Designer ES4® - YouTube

Avatar

Level 1

In the tutorial you need Acrobat Pro? Can't Designer be used as a stand alone tool? Is there a way for designer to change User Rights on a pdf?

Avatar

Level 10

Unfortunately LiveCycle Designer depends on softwares you are using. If you only have Reader, LiveCycle will use Reader but if you have Acrobat Pro, you can specify which application you want LiveCycle to use by default. Therefore, if you only have Adobe Reader, you are limited to what you can do with LiveCycle because it only allows you to handle PDF as Reader can.

The only way to be able to import data in a PDF with Reader is only if your PDF form has Enabled Additional Features as Reader Extended PDF, with this you can import data with Reader but to do this you need Acrobat Pro to enable the feature...

Avatar

Level 6

A form that's Reader-enabled with Acrobat won't allow importing data with Reader. You'll need to Reader-enable with LiveCycle Reader Extensions for that.