Maintaining state within a PDF document

[Ray_Silke]

Hi,

Is it possible to maintain state within a PDF document by updating hidden fields? I realize its possible to do this in an XDP format by updating bound fields but after it is rendered is it then possible to update hidden fields in its binary format?

One option we're exploring for our project is the ability to maintain state through hidden fields as a document steps through our workflow process.

Thanks,

Ray.

[Former Community Member]

It is possible but it will be painful as you woudl have to extract the data, update it to hold your state information then remerge the data back onto the template. There are services in LiveCycle server to help in this.

Paul

[Ray_Silke]

Thanks for the reply. Can you point me in the direction of these services so that I can do some research?

Thanks again.

Ray

[Former Community Member]

If this is an Enterprise level solution then I urge you to continue. If this is for a small number of users then you may find this solution cost prohibitive.

http://www.adobe.com/products/livecycle/?promoid=BPDEO

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Hi Ray,

If you are rendering the form via livecycle server then this shouldn't be that bad. When an xdp file is rendered (template and data xml being merged) it still holds your schema binding. In your workflow if you have a process variable that holds the form then drilling down into the xml field via xpath expression and updating it with setValue component should change the state in data xml.

And the next time the rendering happens it should show you the form in that state.

regards,

Parth Pandya

http://blog.pandyaparth.com