Built-in PDF Snapshot

frevvo offers an automatic PDF snapshot of your forms and workflows, which is a great option that requires no code, no mapping and no PDF to build. You can customize the print layout, fonts, headers/footers, file name, and more with just a few clicks. It is also responsive to repeat controls like tables, so the PDF will grow with more entries vs. the static number of rows available in a typical PDF.

Check the Save PDF option in the Form/Workflow Properties Wizard to save a PDF snapshot in the frevvo submission repository.

The PDF Snapshot generator uses a Chromium browser as a rendering engine to create a snapshot. On Premise customers must install Chrome on the same server where frevvo is installed in order to use the PDF Snapshot Generator.

Pixel Perfect PDF Overview

frevvo's Pixel Perfect PDF generation feature allows you to integrate your form's data with any acroform PDF. You can view mapped PDFs in your Submissions repository. You can also email mapped PDFs, and/or save them to a file system, Google Drive, or a database. This tool is often used in cases where a specific PDF format is required, such as to complete federal tax forms in an Employee Onboarding Workflow.

frevvo' Pixel Perfect PDF generation feature is supported in both the Form and Workflow Designers.
frevvo uses a web-based mapping scheme where the designer can map form fields to PDF fields within the visual context of the PDF.
You will need an "acroform" to generate a pixel-perfect PDF. Acroforms (also known as Acrobat forms) are forms that contain writable fields.
You can generate as many PDFs as you like.
You can use the Step 5-FormViewerControl control to allow users to view the mapped PDF from within the form itself.

Limitations

PDFs mapped in the Form Designer will carry over when you add that form to a workflow. However, mapped PDFs will not be preserved when a workflow step is downloaded as a standalone form.

	Form → Workflow	Workflow Step → Standalone Form

	Form → Workflow	Workflow Step → Standalone Form
Do mapped PDFs carry over?	Yes	No

Import of forms created in previous versions will preserve all PDFs and mappings.

Adobe XFA Forms are not supported.
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.

Generate a PDF Form

Follow these basic steps for each Pixel Perfect PDF your form/workflow will generate.

Obtain the acroform PDF that you want to populate with frevvo data.
Design your frevvo form/workflow to collect the information that you will map to the PDF.
Upload one or more PDF acroforms.
Map the fields in your form to the fields in the PDF acroform.
Add the Form Viewer control to your form/workflow.
Test the form/workflow and generated PDFs.

Step 1 - Obtain the Acroform

You must have an acroform PDF for successful mapping in frevvo. Acroforms are PDFs that contain writable form fields. There are many acroforms available on the internet. For example, the latest acroform for the federal W-4 Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate can be downloaded from the IRS website.

If you cannot find an acroform to use, use a tool like PDFescape to create a PDF with writable fields. Refer to the mapping rule guidelines in the PDF Form Generation Rules below.

The tool that Adobe uses to create PDF's may not always support integration with third-party software like frevvo.

Some acroforms may not have a writable field for all of the data that you want to collect. For example, the signature field on W-4 downloaded from the IRS website is not writable. You can use a PDF editor such as PDFescape to add a writable text field for the signature to your acroform template. frevvo signatures are treated as images that can be mapped to text fields. Here is an example of a PDF acroform for the US federal W-4 Employee's Withholding Certificate. Notice the blue highlighted writable form fields, and the green selected signature field that we added.

Step 2 - Design Form/Workflow to Collect Information

Add controls to your forms/workflows to collect the information that you need for the PDF. For example, many forms/workflows contain separate fields for the user's First Name and Middle Initial. The first name field on the W-4 PDF requires the user's first name plus middle initial. To supply the information in this format, the designer can include a hidden control on the form that is populated by a Business Rule that concatenates the data in the first name and middle initial fields.

Designers should give Group Controls meaningful names whenever possible to help differentiate them when using the mapping tool..

Step 3 - Upload PDF

Click PDF Mapping in the Form/Workflow header.

The list of existing PDFs (if any) will appear. For example, the Employee On-boarding workflow shown below will generate a PDF for the NY-W4, CA-W4, and Federal W-4 forms when the user clicks Submit or the Form Viewer control.

Each PDF in the list will have a status icon.

A green status icon indicates the mapping is complete.
A yellow status icon indicates the mapping is incomplete.
A red status icon indicates a mapping error.

Click Add . Upload the acroform for the PDF on the New Form Generation screen. The acroform serves as a PDF form generation template. Enter a template name, or leave this field blank to use the filename instead. The template name can be up to 30 characters. You can use Templatized Strings when naming your template. For example, naming the template 'W-4 {LastName}' results in a PDF filename such as 'W-4 Smith'. If you do not select a file and you try to submit this screen, you will see the message "Form Template file is Required".

Uploading a file that is not an acroform results in the following error “Invalid PDF: Password protected, non-reader Enabled, XFA, etc.”:

The generated PDF are read-only by default, meaning the fields you mapped from frevvo cannot be changed on the published document. Choose Generate as fillable form to keep all fields in the final document editable, including any fields that contain mapped data. This would be useful if, for example, an Office Use Only section of the PDF would need to be completed after the workflow is submitted.

When viewed with the Form Viewer Control, mapped PDFs are always read only. This ensures they are viewable on mobile devices.

Notice that your newly uploaded template is added to the PDF list. Click the icon to edit the template name.

Click the icon to remove the template. This action removes the generated form and all field mappings.

Preconditions for PDF

You can set up the logic for the PDF via a precondition that will control when the PDF will be generated or skip the PDF entirely. For example, let's say you want to generate an English version and a Spanish version of a PDF. Preconditions can be used to determine which PDF is used at runtime.

For example, your form/workflow contains a Radio control named Language with two options: English and Spanish. You have mapped an English PDF and a Spanish PDF. Click Precondition for the English form. The Precondition Rule Builder is automatically toggled "on." Click Edit to launch the Precondition Editor and add the condition.

If you prefer to use JavaScript to create or edit the precondition, click on Precondition then toggle the Precondition Builder Off. Type the JavaScript into the field.

The Precondition Editor checks the expression for valid JavaScript and displays appropriate error messages when necessary. Preconditions are re-validated when you Save and Test, Save and Close, or return the PDF Mapping page. If there is an error, an on-screen notification will give you the option to edit it or cancel (ignore.)

With this precondition in place, the English version of the PDF is generated when the user selects the English option for Language.

Step 4 - Map Form Fields to the Acroform

The PDF mapping screen enables designers to map form fields to PDF fields. Mapping is performed one field at a time in the context of a PDF page. There are two ways to map fields.

Drag-and-drop a field from the outline to the PDF field
Click on a PDF field to activate the PDF Mapping Dialogue

The quickest way to map your PDF is to use the drag-and-drop method, but if you need to define indexes for a table or repeat control, the Mapping dialogue must be used. You can change mapping choices on the PFD Field as well.

Open the PDF Mapper

Click the Map Fields icon.
In the forms designer only, the following message will display when you click on the Map Fields link. Click Ok to save the PDF form before any further mapping is performed. Click Cancel to cancel the mapping operation and not save.
Click the Map Fields icon. You may see this message as the PDF mapping screen loads.

The PDF view screen is divided into two areas: the Mapping Form Outline and the PDF Canvas. On the canvas, the PDF fields will be color coded to show you whether they have already been mapped, are not yet mapped, or have an error.

Notice the Done, Clear, and PDF Page icons at the top of the page.

Function	Description

Function	Description
Done Button	Click this button when mapping is complete or you wish to exit back to the PDF Generated Forms Screen. Field mappings are saved to the in-memory form/workflow as they are performed. Mappings are not persisted until the form/workflow is saved.
Clear Button	Clicking this button clears all mappings for the whole PDF. All fields are then displayed as not mapped (colored yellow and cleared of all text).
PDF Page thumbnail Image	Thumbnail images are displayed for each page found in the PDF with no limit. The HTML element containing the PDF page thumbnails will be scrollable if there are a large number of pages and all cannot fit in the displayable area. Click the thumbnail image for the page in the acroform where you want to map fields. When clicked, that page is selected for mapping and it is displayed along with any previous mappings filled into the fields.

The Mapping Form Outline contains all mappable controls along with sections, panels, and special mapped items such as Signed Section signatures and selection control options. Click the plus and minus icons in the Mapping Form Outline to expand/contract the Group Controls and display the mappable controls in your form/workflow.

In the Mapping Workflow Outline, the top level elements in the tree correspond to separate forms in the workflow.

Method 1 - Drag and Drop Mapping

Drag form fields from the Mapping Form Outline and drop them onto the PDF fields. The color of the hovered field will be changed slightly to indicate that the drop can happen there. If the mapping complies with the PDF Form Generation Rules, then the PDF field is filled in with the name of the control and colored green to indicate that it is mapped. Non-mappable control types can be dragged, but you will not be able to drop them on any PDF field.
Repeat for all fields on each page of the PDF template.
Click Done when finished and remember to save your form/workflow.

Method 2 - Clicking on a PDF Field

Another way to map fields is to click the field in the PDF Canvas, which opens the PDF Mapping Dialogue.

Click on a yellow unmapped field to create a new mapping
Click on a green mapped field to modify an existing mapping

The upper portion of the PDF Mapping dialogue names and describes the PDF field being mapped. Below is a table that shows frevvo fields. The top row of the table shows the field that is currently mapped to the PDF field. Below that is a scrollable table of candidate fields that may be selected for mapping. If there are no mappable fields in your form, you will see the message 'No frevvo fields mappable to this PDF field.' Only a single form field may be mapped to a PDF field. If field names or labels are too long to read in this view, hovering the cursor over the text will display a tooltip with the full name/label.

Functions for buttons in the PDF Mapping dialogue box:

Action	Description

Action	Description
more>> less<< links	Used to hide and show more details about the PDF field being mapped, including Type, selectable values and the name of the field in the acroform. This information is useful when trouble shooting. Selecting more>> shows the details and changes the link to less<<. Selecting less<< hides the details.
Clear Mapping	Clears the mapping (if any). Any selected radio button is cleared. Changes take place immediately.
Selection Radio Buttons	The first column consists of radio buttons for each mapping choice. Click the radio button corresponding to the frevvo control to map it to the field in the PDF. Radios may not be de-selected. frevvo fields are unmapped using the clear button or by selecting another e-form field.
Index Edit Boxes	For repeating frevvo fields, the 1-based index is used to select the field to be mapped. The value must be ≥ 1. The default is 1. Changes take effect immediately upon tabbing/clicking off the the index field. The index field is disabled for non-repeating frevvo fields.
Search Text Box	Use this to search for mapping choices for the PDF field that was clicked. Entering filter text causes the possible mapping selections to change. Only those matching the filter text will be shown. If the name, label or form name (workflows) is either a partial or full match of the filter text (case insensitive), then the field is shown in the list of candidate fields selectable for mapping. E-form fields that are incompatible with the PDF field are not shown in the list . Search will find special mapped items such as Signed Section signature, date signed as well as the single select comment field. Use option control values to search for selection control options.
PDF Field	The name of the field in the acroform is displayed here.

Let's say you want to map the Employee Signature on the W-4 to the Confirmation step signature control in your workflow.

Click the Employee Signature field in the PDF.
Type the name of the form, in this case, Confirmation, into the search box. Mappable fields from the Confirmation step in the workflow will display as possible mapping choices.
Hover your cursor over the name field on the mapping dialog to display a complete path to the control's hierarchy as a tooltip. This is helpful when mapping nested controls.

The label and form columns of the Mapping Dialogue displays a maximum of 40 characters. If you have long labels in your form/workflow, hover over the displayed text to see the full label text in the tooltip.
Click the Done button when the mapping is completed and don't forget to save your form/workflow changes.

Error Conditions:

Mapping validation will detect the following conditions and report them as invalid:

A mapped field that has been deleted from the form.
A comment that was mapped and then the control's comment property was deselected.
A signed section's signature or sign date that was mapped and then the section's signed property was set to none.
An option value that was mapped and then the option is changed or deleted.

If you try to save a PDF with mapping errors, you will see the message

Clicking the OK button will bring you back to the designer canvas. Clicking the Cancel button returns you to the form/workflow home page.

Mapping Table and Repeat Controls

Form controls placed within repeats or tables use the max number property to create multiple "instances" of the field for mapping. Controls within a repeat (or table) are indexed to allow the user to select the specific control for mapping. For example, the first instance of a repeat/table control with a min value of 1 and a max value of 3 has an index of 1, the second instance has an index of 2 and the third instance has an index of 3. There are no restrictions to the number of repeating items or rows in a table. You can map controls from a table or repeat using the drag and drop method but you must click on the table/repeat field in the PDF and change the index value for instances greater than 1 in the PDF Mapping dialogue.

Entering an invalid index number displays an error message.

Example 1: Map Table to PDF

Let's take a look at examples that will clarify the mapping process. An Emergency Contact Form has a table to list additional authorized individuals that a student can be released to in the event the school is unsuccessful at contacting the parents. This table has a min value of 1 and a max value of 3.

Locate the table in the outline and simply drag the Name, Relationship, Home, Mobile and Work controls from the outline and drop them into the correct column in all 3 rows of the table.
Click on the field 'Name' in the second row of the table (on the PDF canvas.) This will open the PDF Mapping Dialogue.
Change the Index to '2'.
Repeat steps 2 & 3 for the field 'Name' in the third row of the table, changing the index to '3.'
Repeat steps 2-4 for the additional fields (columns) changing the index in the second row to '2', and the third row to '3.'

When the user fills out the form, it will map the correct table cell to the correct PDF field.

Example 2: Map Repeat to PDF

The Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (W-7) has fields for Name and Name at Birth - if different.

A Repeat control containing a section with name fields and min/max values of 1 and 2 respectively can be used in your form to capture both pieces of information.

Locate the repeat control in the outline. Drag and drop the control 'FirstName' to the 'Name' row in the PDF. Repeat, dropping it onto the second row.
Repeat Step 1 for MiddleName and LastName controls.
One at a time, click on the First Name, Middle Name and Last Name fields in the 'Name at birth if different' row. For each, change the index to '2'.

When the user fills out the form, it will map the correct table cell repeat item to the correct PDF field.

Nested Repeats

For nested repeats, use the max number of each repeating level multiplied to determine the total max index of an item. This is illustrated in the example below showing repeat 2 nested in repeat 1. Each repeat has a section with a text control. Each repeat level has a max of 2. The inner most text control will have an index of 4 (2 * 2) as shown.

frevvo v11.1 Documentation

Generate Pixel Perfect PDFs