Creating Dynamic Forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Transcription

1 Creating Dynamic Forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer J.P. Terry

2 Contents Foreword... xi Introduction... xiii CHAPTER 1 The Basics...1 What is LiveCycle Designer?... 1 A Tool for Creating Interactive and Dynamic Forms... 1 Tool for Creating XFA-based Forms... 4 A Multifaceted Tool... 7 Getting Started... 9 Installing LiveCycle Designer... 9 Downloading the Samples Folder...10 Starting LiveCycle Designer...10 The First Screens You'll See...12 Your First Look at the Workspace...13 The Designer Workspace...13 Palettes and Objects...15 Designer's Flexibility for Different Users...16 Knowledge Workers Start with a Template...16 Graphic Designers Start with a Page...17 Data Designers Start with a Schema...18 Web Designers Start with an Interaction...18 Bringing It All Together...19 Creating Your First Forms...19 Method 1: Starting from a Blank Form...19 Method 2: Creating a Form Based on a Template...22 Method 3: Creating a Form Based on a PDF File...26 Method 4: Creating a Form Based on an XML Schema...28 Interactive Form Example...30 Dynamic Form Example...31 Moving On...33

3 CHAPTER 2 Form Design...35 The Importance of Form Design...36 The Form as a Brand Touch Point...36 The Form as an Indicator of Service/Product Quality...38 Good Form Design Saves Time and Money...39 Improving Form Aesthetics Improves Usability...39 Principles of Good Form Design...40 Simplicity...40 Consistency...48 Graphic Design Tips...51 Choosing a Font...52 Creating a Hierarchy Through Font Style and Size...55 Other Typography Tips...58 Clearly Relate Captions to Actions...60 Interaction Design Tips...63 Guiding with Button Design...63 Notifying Before Correcting...64 Clarifying Choice with Radio Buttons and Check Boxes...67 Form Guides to the Rescue...69 What Form Guides Are...69 How Form Guides Work...71 Moving On...72 CHAPTER 3 Form Creation...73 The Workspace...73 The Layout Editor...73 The Script Editor...75 The Palettes...76 Text Objects...86 Graphic Objects...87 Image Objects...88 Field Objects...90 Button Objects Check Boxes and Radio Buttons From the Simple to the Complex...103

4 Master and Body Pages Master Pages Body Pages Examining Master Page Properties Examining Body Page Properties Subforms and Flow How Subforms Work Subforms and Data Files Subforms and User Interaction Tables The Table Object The Table Assistant and Table Menu Dynamic Tables Fonts and Tabbing Embedding Fonts Tips on Tabbing Moving On CHAPTER 4 Form Scripting The Benefits of Scripting FormCalc and JavaScript FormCalc JavaScript The Script Editor The Script Editor in Single-line View The Script Editor in Multiline View Basic Scripting Your First Scripts Properties Variables Referencing Objects The Form Object Model Understanding the Object Model Scripting the Form Object Model...155

5 Events Examples of How Events Work Types of Events Script Objects Creating a Script Object Writing Functions in Script Objects Referencing Functions in Script Objects Debugging Scripts The Warnings Tab of the Report Palette The JavaScript Debugger The Message Box Method Moving On CHAPTER 5 Form Data Data Basics Working with Data in Acrobat Working with Data in Designer Formatting Data Submitting Data Data Binding Binding Form Elements Types of Binding Data Validation Validating Data Using the Empty Message Field Validating Data with Patterns Validating Data with Scripting Form Validation with Scripting Barcodes Barcode Types Retrieving Data from Web Services Connecting to a WSDL File Calling the Web Service Creating a Bible Verse Lookup Form Moving On...224

6 CHAPTER 6 Steal These Scripts Short Scripts Message Box Scripts Mutually Exclusive Check Boxes Changing Background Colors Changing images Setting a Field as Required Working with Page Numbers Get Today's Date Medium Length Scripts Disabling All Form Fields Add Time to Date Identifying Text Fields by Partial Name Sending Through Scripts Calculating Totals for Repeating Objects Sorting Items in a List Box Long Scripts Highlighting Required Fields Date Validation Dynamic Entry Subform Validating User-entered Text in a Drop-down List Calling a Web Service Moving On Resources Index...259