| Section | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
' Pixel Perfect PDF generation feature allows you to generate additional PDF forms as part of a work flow. This capability is not supported in the form designer in this version although it will be available in a future release. You will need an "Acroform" to generate a pixel perfect PDF. Acroforms (also known as Acrobat forms) are forms that contain writable form fields. You can generate as many PDFs as you like. It is very easy to map controls to individual Acroform fields for each one. The additional PDF forms are generated at the end of a flow and all generated PDF forms will be added to the document set of a completed flow. This makes it possible for the form designer to specify doc actions on these additional form documents as well. The designer can construct flows in which the generated forms may be viewed at any point in the work flow via a new Form Viewercontrol. See below for the details.
...
- Digital signatures in PDF forms, and Word doc forms are not supported.
- Currently PDF form creation must be done in the flow designer. Adding an additional PDF as the output of an e-form will be added to the form designer in a future release.
- Adobe XFA Forms are not supported. The tool that Adobe uses to create PDF's does not support integration with third party software. Use PDFescape to generate acroforms for mapping with Live Forms.
- Password or sensitive text fields being transferred to a PDF form will be written in plain text if they are mapped to a PDF field.
- PDF files support layers that can be turned on/off as a way of hiding and showing content dynamically. These are the underlying technology behind optional content groups. These can be manipulated programmatically as a way to dynamically build forms.
...
You can only drop the "New PDF Form" below the "Default Generated Form" activity, if present. The default name will be "Generated Form N", where N is a unique number starting at 1. You can change the name of the activity and set up any precondition that your flow may require on the Properties panel. For Example, currently the only way to disable a template is to use a precondition that always evals to false and it will be skipped.
| Note |
|---|
Skipped activities do not affect PDF's generated by Live Forms. For example, controls in flow activities containing default values, that have been mapped in the pdf mapper, will show up in the PDF even if the activity is skipped due to a precondition. Use a form.load rule to set the "initial state" data dynamically instead. |
...
Use the New Form Generation screen to upload the Acroform for the PDF you wish to fill using fields. Click the 
New icon to begin:
A list showing all . If you do not provide a name for your template, the file name will be used.
A list showing all of the PDFs to be generated for this activity of the flow will display.
Click the icon to remove the template and the
icon to edit the template name. You will be asked to confirm the deletion as the template and all field mappings will be removed.
Click the icon to edit the template name. If you try to delete the template name, you will see the message "Name is Required".
makes a copy of the uploaded Acroform template and modifies it with available selections of appropriate e-form fields for each PDF Acroform field. The modified PDF Acroform (Mapper) will be re-generated every time because the e-form fields may have changed. Upload the modified template every time you make a change to your Acroform PDF. For example, changing the Acroform to make a field acro-fillable, requires the upload of the modified template again.
| Note |
|---|
will not allow the use of an owner or user password protected PDF acroform to be used as a template. It is the the flow designer's responsibility to provide an unprotected PDF acroform. There are programs available to "remove" an owner password from a protected PDF such as PDFescape. Simply upload the password protected PDF to PDFescape, then save and download it. The passowrd will be "removed" from the PDf and you will be able to use it as a template. Invalid templates cannot be uploaded either. The message "Invalid PDF or password protected" will display. |
Download the Mapper
Download the Mapper by clicking on the icon. The downloaded mapper is a modified template so it will have the same name as the template that you uploaded even if you changed it.
| Note |
|---|
If you add a control from schema with maxOccurs="unbounded" to your form or flow, when you download the mapper, the mapping options show a maximum of 100 items. This is as designed. |
...
Open the mapper with an external PDF viewer/editor, such as Adobe Reader (version 11 or higher), Mac Preview or PDFescape.
| Note |
|---|
PDF.js, a PDF Viewer available for the Firefox browser, may not render the PDF properly. If you are using this as your viewer, and the PDf does not look as expected, download the PDF and view it in Adobe or Mac Preview. |
...
|
Previous mapping selections should be retained. There There are some forms where Adobe reader may loose the previous mappings. If this is the case, all fields will have to be manually mapped again. Here is an example of the downloaded mapper for the W-4 PDF. Notice the Acroform fields are re-written with editable combo box controls. The combo boxes are pre-populated with the names of relevant e-form fields from the flow for the purposes of field mapping.
...
| Info |
|---|
Adobe Reader supports the linkage of fields. This means that Acroform fields can share the same values even if the fields have different names. For example: Let's say you have an Acroform pdf consisting of 8 pages. Writable fields for Name, Address, City, State and Zip Code are located on the first, third, fifth and eighth pages. If you are using Adobe Reader to map your PDF, then you can map the Name and Address fields in the mapper on the first page and the Name and Address fields on pages three, five and eight will automatically become mapped. Adobe enforces the link between these fields even though the field names are different. (the Name field on the first page is named topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1... while the Name field on the third page is topmostSubform[0].Page3[0].f1...). If you are using Adobe Reader, you cannot map the fields on pages three, five and eight separately. If you are using a mapper that does not support field linkage, such as Mac Preview and or PDFEscape, you will have to map the Name and Address fields on each page. |
...
Correct mapping will result in a checked box on I-9 generated pdf depending on the choice selected by the new employee on the Live Form. The image shows the pdf when the A citizen of the United States is selected.
| Warning |
|---|
| Adobe Reader has an issue with grouped check boxes. Sometimes it only allows a single selection for all of the check boxes in a group. In this case it will only be possible to map the whole e-form checkbox, radio or select control to the pdf checkbox (vs. mapping individual options). An example is discussed below. |
Adobe Reader Issue with Grouped Check Boxes
A snapshot of the Filing Status section on the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return Acroform (1040) has To Summarize:
- When mapping the entire selection control (Dropdown, Checkbox, Radio), then the option values in e-form should match the selectable values, else nothing will be checked in the generated PDF.
- When mapping an individual option of a selection control (Dropdown, Checkbox, Radio) to a PDF control, then the value and selectable value need not match. If it is checked while testing the form, it will be checked in the generated PDF.
| Warning |
|---|
| Adobe Reader has an issue with grouped check boxes. Sometimes it only allows a single selection for all of the check boxes in a group. In this case it will only be possible to map the whole e-form checkbox, radio or select control to the pdf checkbox (vs. mapping individual options). An example is discussed below. |
Adobe Reader Issue with Grouped Check Boxes
A snapshot of the Filing Status section on the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return Acroform (1040) has checkboxes for 5 status choices:
...
A user who selects the Head of Household radio button in the Live Form will see that option checkbox checked if the mapping is done correctly.
Date Date/time will be derived from the xml and it will be in ISO format and in UTC (time and date/time only). There are two issues to consider:
- Timezone. Times and date/times must be formatted using the form’s timezone.
- Formatting dates (and times) use the formatting from the e-form set by the designer.
Form Viewer Control
You may have a flow where you want the user to view the generated PDFs for accuracy. The Employee On Boarding flow requires that the new employee review the generated PDFs and sign to verify that the information is correct. The Form Viewer control allows a generated form to be viewed as part of a form activity. The Confirmation form in the Employee On Boarding flow lets the new employee view and approve the generated W-4 form by signing in the provided signature field. Clicking on the generated form name in use mode displays the form in a separate window/tab. The form can then be viewed or downloaded via the Save procedure for the PDF viewer you are using. There may be other methods of downloading/saving the form depending on the browser.
Open the Flow designer for your flow. Select the step in the flow where you want the PDFs to be viewed by clicking on it and then click on the pencil icon to launch the Form Designer. Notice the addition of the Form Viewer control to the palette. The form viewer control is only available in the form editor's palette when the form editor is launched from the flow designer. You will not see this control on the Forms Designer palette.
Drag and drop the Form Viewer control from the palette into your form. It can not be placed in a repeat or table control. You will need a Form Viewer control for each PDF that you want to be reviewed. The generated form will display in Link Mode. Select the PDF to be viewed for each control from the Form dropdown..
...
- and times) use the formatting from the e-form set by the designer.
| Info |
|---|
Mapping of dynamically generated selection control options via a rule is not supported at this time. It will be available in a future release of . |
Form Viewer Control
You may have a flow where you want the user to view the generated PDFs for accuracy. The Employee On Boarding flow requires that the new employee review the generated PDFs and sign to verify that the information is correct. The Form Viewer control allows a generated form to be viewed as part of a form activity. The Confirmation form in the Employee On Boarding flow lets the new employee view and approve the generated W-4 form by signing in the provided signature field. Clicking on the generated form name in use mode displays the form in a separate window/tab. The form can then be viewed or downloaded via the Save procedure for the PDF viewer you are using. There may be other methods of downloading/saving the form depending on the browser.
Open the Flow designer for your flow. Select the step in the flow where you want the PDFs to be viewed by clicking on it and then click on the pencil icon to launch the Form Designer. Notice the addition of the Form Viewer control to the palette. The form viewer control is only available in the form editor's palette when the form editor is launched from the flow designer. You will not see this control on the Forms Designer palette.
Drag and drop the Form Viewer control from the palette into your form. It can not be placed in a repeat or table control. You will need a Form Viewer control for each PDF that you want to be reviewed. The generated form will display in Link Mode. Select the PDF to be viewed for each control from the Form dropdown..
The default width is 400px and the default height is 300px. Changes to margin, padding and border properties will have no effect but the rest of properties on the Style tab work as expected. Style properties for the Form Viewer control will be addressed in a future release.
In version 5.1.1. the Form Viewer control added from schema to a form that is not in a flow displays:the message: 'Form viewer control is only supported within a flow.' You will see this message in design and use mode.
Link Mode
The Form Viewer control defaults to link mode. Link mode offers the generated PDF to the user as a link for viewing/downloading/saving it. Clicking on the generated form name in use mode displays the form in a separate window/tab. The form can then be viewed or downloaded via the Save procedure for the PDF viewer you are using. There may be other methods of downloading/saving the form depending on the browser. The download link is inactive in edit mode unless you right-click on it and open the form in a new window/tab. Form Viewer controls in link mode in the designer display as shown in the image. Select the PDF to be viewed for each control from the Form dropdown.
In version 5.1.1. the Form Viewer control added from schema to a form that is not in a flow displays:the message: 'Form viewer control is only supported within a flow.' You will see this message in design and use mode.
Testing the flow
When the generation of Pixel Perfect PDFs for your flow is completed, and you have saved the updates, click on the Test icon and run the flow and submit it. When you get to the form with the Form Viewer controls, be sure to check the generated Pixel Perfect PDFs such as the W - 4 etc.
If you are using MySql MySQL, and you see the following exception in the frevvo.log when are running/submitting a flow with a large Acroform , the form/flow with a large acroform, , you may see this error:
The default value of the max_allowed_packet parameter in your MySQL server may not be large enough. Refer to this website for detailed information about the MySql configuration parameter.
...
Increasing the max_allowed_packet variable setting in your MySQL Server from the default (1M) to something like 16M (16777125) fixes the issue. To fix the issue temporarily, run the following commands:
To permanently set it, choose one of the two methods listed below:
mysqld --max_allowed_packet=16M
On Mac OS, you can access the my.cnf file by typing
The location of the my.ini/my.cnf file varies by configuration.