Document Service
Live Forms's built-in document service can be used for processing your form data prior to submission.
The document service is accessed via the Url /service. It supports the following parameters:
- method=POST -- required and should be left POST
- target=[url] -- [url] is the path to your servlet
The target will be passed name/value pairs of all of the controls in your form with their current values. The target will also be passed the collection of xml documents comprising the form's current data. The collection will include at least one document in the namespace 'form' which contains all the data in controls added to the form from palette. The collection will also include one xml document for each data source added to the form.
Custom Print View
One example use of Live Forms's document service is to provide a print preview different from Live Forms's default print view.
All forms by default are printable. To make a form printable edit the form and check the printable property. Sometimes form designer required a highly customized print view. By calling Live Forms's document service you can pass all the form's xml documents to another target servlet that transforms the data into exactly the format you need and then returns html to another browser window.
To do this:
- Add a message control to your form
- Add the following html to your message control
<center>
<a href="javascript:void(0);" onClick="window.open(document.location.toString().split('?')[0] +
'/service?_method=POST&target=http://[myhost]:[myport]/Myservices/service/print/myForm')">Print</a>
</center>
Your transformation service should return html to the browser window. You can style the message control as a button by adding a border, background color and even dragging into a panel to size the "button".