Submit form with response in new browser window

[Jared_Langdon]

Is it possible to set up a submit button so that it pops up the response in a separate browser window?  With an HTML form, I can do it using target="_blank", but not aware of any such option on a LiveCycle submit button. 

If it can't be done, maybe there's another way to do what I need.  Users complete the data-entry PDF form and submit the data to a servlet, which returns another (different) PDF.  My user may look at this PDF, see a problem, and want to return to the data-entry form to change what he's entered before regenerating the output.  However, by this point my original data-entry PDF is gone.  I am not using LiveCycle on the server.  Any ideas?

[Former Community Member]

What if you returned a PDF as your response ....then the response PDF woudl open in the same session and the user could flip between opened PDFs as required.

Paul

[Jared_Langdon]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the idea, but I'm not sure how that would work.  I am, in fact, returning a PDF, but it's a static document.  How would the user flip back to the completed PDF data-entry form?  The browser back button won't do it.

Having slept on it, I have thought of two approaches:

1) Submit XDP including the PDF itself.  The form can have save rights applied using Acrobat (there are way fewer than 500 users of the form), so I think that's possible even with the free Reader.  The completed PDF will be base-64 encoded in the submitted data (right?).  On the server I can decode the completed PDF and serve it back to the user if needed.  When I return the static PDF, I do so inside a DIV or iFrame or object tag or something along those lines with a link back to the completed PDF in a separate frame.

2) I embed my LiveCycle data-entry form in an object tag inside a wrapper HTML page.  That HTML page contains a hidden HTML form.  I use the hostContainer object in my form to invoke javascript on the wrapper form.  I pass the XML data from the PDF form to the wrapper using hostContainer messaging and submit the HTML form programatically with target="_blank".  This allows me to get my response in a separate browser window.

The first option requires me to hang on to the completed PDF on the server so that I can serve it back to the user if needed.  I like the second option, but I'm wary of using hostContainer.  I've played with it in the past and run into problems with different browsers and/or user security settings.  I don't remember the details, but it was problematic.  That said, I was using it to integrate with a Flex applet, so there were more variables in the mix.  Straight PDF to wrapper javascript should be more reliable.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.  Thanks.

Jared

[Former Community Member]

What if you submitted the PDF in a web service call ....then you coudl return a string that thanks them for the submission and you can have logic in your form that woudl display the returned message while still inside of your original form?

Paul

[Jared_Langdon]

That's a good idea.  The web service could even return a unique identifier and call app.launchURL with a URL that includes the identifier.  That can pop a separate browser window with the content that I want to serve up.  Hmmm.  Can Reader call web services using usage rights enabled by Acrobat?  My client doesn't have LC Reader Extensions.

[Former Community Member]

Nope …you would need LC Reader Extensions

Paul

[Jared_Langdon · Accepted solution]

Many thanks for your help on this Paul.  I decided to go with the hostContainer approach despite my reservations.  Here's a simplified version of my servlet.  This version simply parrots back the XML in a separate browser window.  I hope this helps someone.

package ca.jlangdon.sampleservlets;

import java.io.*;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

public class AnnuityFF extends HttpServlet {

        static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

        public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, java.io.IOException {
                response.setContentType("text/html");
                java.io.PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
                out.println("<html><head>");
                out.println("<title>Fulfillment Generator</title>");
                out.println("<style>body { margin: 0px; overflow:hidden }</style>");
                out.println("<script type='text/javascript'>");
                out.println("var int=self.setInterval('setUp()',1000);");
                out.println("function setUp() {");
                out.println("try {");
                out.println("var oPDF = document.getElementById('oPDF');");
                out.println("oPDF.messageHandler = {};");
                out.println("oPDF.messageHandler.onMessage = onMessageFromPdf;");
                out.println("int=window.clearInterval(int)");
                out.println("} catch(e) { } }");
                out.println("function onMessageFromPdf(oStrings) { document.getElementById('myTextArea').value = oStrings[0];");
                out.println("document.forms['myForm'].submit(); }");
                out.println("</script></head>");
                out.println("<body scroll='no'>");
                out.println("<div id='myFrame' style='background-color:transparent;border:0px'>");
                out.println("<object id='oPDF' height='100%' width='100%' data='FulfillmentGenerator.pdf'></object></div>");
                out.println("<form id='myForm' method='post' action='.' target='_blank'>");
                out.println("<textarea id='myTextArea' name='myTextArea'></textarea>");
                out.println("</form></body></html>");
        }

        public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, java.io.IOException {
                try {
                        String strExtract = request.getParameter("myTextArea");
                        response.setContentType("text/xml");
                        PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
                        out.println(strExtract);
                }
                catch (Exception e) {
                }
        }
}

My form is called FulfillmentGenerator, and it's stored in the root of the web app.  On it there's a button with this javascript on the click event:

var oDoc = event.target;

var strData = xfa.datasets.data.resolveNode("AnnuityFulfillmentPackage").saveXML("pretty");

var strings = [strData];

try {

oDoc.hostContainer.postMessage(strings);

}

catch (ex) {

xfa.host.messageBox("Error while posting a message to the container: " + ex);

}