Old image does not change when replaced

[Former Community Member]

I have a form with an image that is using a relative URL to a file location.  When I open the resulting PDF form the image appears with no problems.  I then go out to the file location and replace the image with a new one.  The new image has the exact name as the old image.  When I open the form the old image appears in the form.  This happens even when I remove the old image from the server.

I have not embedded the image into the form as I want to be able to change the image without having to re-open the form in Designer and re-saving it out.

Can you please explain why the image does not change even though I have replaced it with one that has the exact name and relative path as the original.

Cheers,

Barry Graham

[TundraSteve]

I suspect Reader is caching the PDF.  Make sure the Reader.exe isn't in memory or rename the PDF to another name and open the new one.

[Niall_O_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Did you set the relative link in LC Designer?

Once the form is rendered, it uses the relative link to display the image file in the ImageField object. Once the form is rendered the image data is stored in the PDF form and becomes part of the file.

It therefore does not need to go back to the server to get the data again.

In addition the Embed image checkbox in Designer can confuse (it did me at least, until John Brinkman set me straight). When you tick embed it means that the image data is available to other Developers who open the form in LC Designer. When this is unticked, the image data is already contained within the PDF, when the user opens the form in Acrobat/Reader.

See an example here: http://assure.ly/mcFrC6.

Hope that heps,

Niall

[Former Community Member]

Hi Niall,

Thank you for the clarification on how the embedded image works.  I was under the impression that the image only became part of the form after it was embedded.  I assumed that since I had used the relative path to the image file, the form would go look for it each time it open.  My confusion was made worse when I read the Designer help where it stated that linked images had to be in a folder that was accessible to the user.  I assumed that this was so the form would have access to the image.

So if the form has the image information as part of it, then in order to change the image, the user is going to have to open up the form in Designer and make the change.  Am I right in this assumption.  That is unless they use Adobe Forms to re-render the PDF form.

Thank you for the help.

Cheers,

Barry Graham

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Barry,

To be fair, the way the "Embed image data" is set up is confusing for developers. The help file does not clear it up either.

If you save the form as a template, which is them rendered by a module of Enterprise Suite on the server, then yes the relative link and availability of the image is required.

However if you are saving the form as a PDF, then the image is contained within the PDF and will travel with it. The relative path is no longer required, nor is access to the image folder.

So if you are doing the latter (saving as a PDF), then yes, one option would be to change the image in LC Designer. Another would be to get the image in a Base64 format and import it into the form.

Hope that helps,

Niall 

[Former Community Member]

Hi Niall,

Thanks for the insight.  It was all very helpful.  I have informed my client and it will be interesting to here what they say.

Cheers,

Barry