What is the field size limit for the forms?

[Former Community Member]

Does anyone know is the field generated in the form as a maximum field size limit? Also, is there any limit to the number of item that can be bound to the drop-down list?

Thanks in advanced.

[Former Community Member]

Hi,

In Designer text fields have a property to limit the length of a field.  If not specified, The XFA specification (http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/xml/xfa_spec_3_1.pdf) says their is no maximum.

The maxChars property

This property specifies the maximum string length that this text value is  permitted to occupy. The length is calculated by expressing the value as a  string of [Unicode  3.2] code points packaged in the UTF-32 format, as defined by [UAX-19].  The absolute  omission of this property, or a value specified as an empty string indicates  that there is no maximum.

For a text field, if you want it to be unlimited, just leave the Limit Length unchecked.  If you want to limit the characters, select "Limit Length" and then specify what the max number of characters you want to restrict it too.  Finally, if you want to limit it to the visible area, you can select that option as well.

If you're interested in limits on a numeric fields, it's virtually unlimited assuming the value is a valid number.  With numeric values, localization and canonicalization issues come into play, it's probably best to review the Numeric Edit section in the same XFA specification listed above to get to the fine details (Chapter 14, page 485).  In Designer you can use standard integers, or select the patterns option when you want to deal with currency, decimal, and other custom formats.  Note you can specify patterns, for display, edit, validation and data patterns, either individually or different patterns for each, depending on how you are designing your form.

When you click on the patterns button you get the following options as well as the ability to create a custom pattern.

For a drop down list, values are defined as children, hence they are unlimited.  Only practical memory limitations would come into play here.  Speaking of lists, there are some good articles in the FormFeed blog (http://blogs.adobe.com/formfeed/) that talks specifically about performance, and populating lists via webservice.  Just go to the link and type in lists in the search fields.  The blog entry for Populating List Boxes has some good info and performance tips.

Hope this helps,

Scott

Message was edited by: Scotty222