Searchable drop down menu?

[jrhea1984]

I have several drop down lists in a PDF I am creating. These drop down lists contain diagnoses to be used by physicians. With there being a LOT of diagnoses, it would be extremely convenient if I had a "search" function of some kind that could be utilized as the wording of the descriptions for the codes/diagnoses can vary: (Ex. "Rib Pain" or "Pain in Rib")

As of now, the only option is to select the first letter of the name they believe the diagnosis to have. Using this example, they would select the drop down menu and press "R" and the list would jump down to the beginning of the R's. But, if the name is actually "Pain in Rib", they would have to search through all the other diagnosis codes to locate it.

I believe a search function would be the most appropriate for something like this. But, I am having some trouble locating any info on coding for something of this nature. If there are any suggestions that could make this, (or something that accomplishes the same task), possible, I am all ears.

Thanks!

I included a pdf with the fragment with the drop down menus as well as a list of the diagnoses I have in them.

I appreciate any help or ideas. I've never been let down by the people here in these forums.

[_Bruce_Robertson]

Hi Tarek,

Sorry my last post was a bit limited.  Dragging the field to the (Referenced Objects) node has the same effect as adding the <proto> tab and adding a field underneath it.

So as a simple example, I have a form with two date fields that reference a date field under the <proto> tag.

There are two ways to reference the field under the <proto> tag, the XML Source for this form shows them both.

<subform name="form1" layout="tb" locale="en_AU">
   <subform w="8in" layout="tb">
   <field name="Today" w="62mm" h="9mm" use="$template.#subform.DateField1"/>
   <field name="Tomorrow" w="62mm" h="9mm" use="#Today"/>
   <?templateDesigner expand 1?></subform>
   <proto>
   <field id="Today" name="DateField1" y="41.275mm" w="62mm" h="9mm">
   <ui>
      <dateTimeEdit>
      <border>
      <edge stroke="lowered"/>
      </border>
      <margin/>
      </dateTimeEdit>
   </ui>
   <font typeface="Myriad Pro"/>
   <margin topInset="1mm" bottomInset="1mm" leftInset="1mm" rightInset="1mm"/>
   <para vAlign="middle"/>
   <value>
      <date/>
   </value>
   <caption reserve="25mm">
      <para vAlign="middle"/>
      <value>
      <text>Date Field</text>
      </value>
   </caption>
   <border>
      <edge presence="hidden"/>
   </border>
   </field>
   </proto>
  </subform>
</p>

To get the use attributes on the field you need to use the XML Source view.  If you are using the second method you also need to use the XML Source to add the id attribute.

It was to avoid using the XML Source view to add the use attribute that I suggested creating a custom object.

But once setup  you can use the UI to change say the border color of the field under the "(Referenced Objected)" and all the fields that reference it will pick up the change

You can have a subform under a <proto> tag and that is how I would suggest you handle the AddressAC object rather than adding it to the master page

[tarekahf]

Very clear ...

I think <proto> objects are better than custom objects, because you can change the reference objects, and the change will be reflected everywhere. I don't think custom objects have this feature.

In relation to <proto> object, I tried to modify the "use" attribute using javascript, but it didn't work. I got error during runtime that the assigned value is not valid or something like that.

This feature <proto> object is awesome, but why it is not well documented in the Adobe References/Help resources? Also, when I came across a reference PDF, it is mentioned everywhere that <proto> and "use" attributes are deprecated, so is it safe to use such feature in the production environment?

Tarek

[_Bruce_Robertson]

Hi Tarek,

Adobe used the <proto> element to implement the styles that came with ES3 so I believe they are safe to use.  But don't understand why there's not more documentation about them, John Brinkman did do an example Track PDF Forms with Omniture

My idea of creating a custom object was just to save having to add the use attribute in the XML Source, in the case above I could define a ProtoDateField which already has the "use="$template.#subform.DateField1" attribute in it.

Bruce

[tarekahf]

Thank BR001​..

So far everything looks fine on my side, I will add my findings below to help improve the reusability of such components in the future...

• I tried to use a fragment inserted on the master page, which will be used to how/hide the Autocomplete subform (component). This approach worked with limited success. I was able to show/hide the instance on the designated page, however, I need to solve two problems:
  • If there are other elements on the same position of the list box of Autocomplete, and if they are clickable, then the click event of the listbox will not work.
  • I need to get the absolute position of the element, and use it to set the position of the Autocomplete component. This is because the Autocomplete component coordinates are relative to the master page, and the coordinates of the Search Box are relative to the content subform, and they don't align with each other. I believe I have seen script that will take care of this issue. I will have to look for it.

The code below I used to get a reference to the Autocomplete component (inserted in the master page) from the Enter Event of the search field:

// form1.subform[0].address_field::enter - (JavaScript, client)
var pgNo = xfa.layout.page(this);
var strAutocomplete = "form1[0].#pageSet[0].Page1[" + (pgNo-1) + "].AddressAC[0]";
sfAutocomplete = xfa.resolveNode(strAutocomplete);

For now, I will insert the subform fragment "AddressAC" in each main page where it is needed.

Tarek