'  Pixel Perfect PDF generation feature is supported in both the form and flow designers.  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 form/flow and all generated PDF forms will be added to the document set of a completed form/flow. This makes it possible for the form designer to specify doc actions on these additional form documents as well. The designer can construct form/flows in which the generated forms may be viewed at any point in the form/flow via a new Form Viewer control. See below for the details.

If a form designed outside of a workflow has generated PDFs associated with it, the PDFs will not be carried along when the form is added to a workflow. This is by design.

Import of a v5.1.1 flow into v5.2 will preserve all PDFs and mappings. The v5.1.1 feature of PDF generation activities is discarded and the PDFs and mappings display in a flat list as discussed below.

The form/flow designers now have two separate views:

• form/flow View - canvas where the designer can drag/drop/edit controls/forms to create activities in a  form/flow. See Designing Forms or Designing Flows for more information.
• Generated Forms View - canvas where the designer can create/edit PDF forms to be generated. See below for the details.

Launch the form/flow Designer. Clicking on the edit form/flow View and Generated Forms View icons on the toolbar toggles between the two views.

• Digital signatures in PDF forms, and Word doc forms are not supported.

• 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 Form

• 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.

Mappable and Max Map Idx Properties for Controls

All mappable controls, including signed sections, table columns, upload controls, etc have a Mappable checkbox on the control property pane that MUST be checked for the control to be available for mapping. If this property is unchecked, mapping options for the control will not appear in the mapper or the detail status screen as described below. Checking this property minimizes the amount of options in the mapper. For large PDFs, that number could be significant.  

The Max Map Index property pertains only to tables and controls inside of a repeat. This property determines how many mappable indexes of the repeat item or table are available. 

Configure PDF Form Generation

There is a three step process to configure PDF form generation. The designer must follow these basic steps for each PDF form to be generated as part of a form/flow:

• Upload one or more PDF acroforms that will serve as PDF form generation templates.
• Download a modified version of the uploaded PDF acroform that contains mapping meta-data. The mapping meta data consists of available selections of appropriate e-form fields for each PDF acroform field. This is the recommended method for mapping.
• Upload completed mappings for each PDF acroform to .

View Forms Generated by the Form/Flow

Click the icon to display the PDF forms view for your form/flow. Any existing PDFs to be generated for the form/flow will be listed. The PDF view screen is divided into two areas: the form/flow properties pane and the PDF forms editor. Click the New icon to add a new PDF form to your form/flow. For example, the Employee On Boarding form shown below will generate a pixel perfect PDF for the federal W4 and the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form when the Employee On Boarding form is submitted or the Form Viewer control is clicked.

You will not see the forms view when editing a form inside a workflow. In the workflow designer, only the control and rules views are available.

Upload PDF acroform Templates

Here is an example of a PDF acroform for the federal Employee's Withholding Allowance. Notice the blue highlighted writable form fields.

Use the New Form Generation screen to upload the acroform for the PDF you wish to fill using  fields. Click the  icon to begin. If you do not provide a name for your template, the file name will be used. The template name should not exceed 30 characters. You can use Templatized Strings when naming your template. For example, naming the template W-4 {LastName} appends the new employee's last name to the pdf in the submission repository. Of course, you must have a control named LastName in your form.

A list showing all of the PDFs to be generated for this activity of the form/flow will display. 

Click the icon to edit the template name. If you try to submit this screen with a blank template name, you will see the message "Form Template file is Required".

Click the icon to remove the template. You will be asked to confirm the deletion as the template and all field mappings will be removed.

You can set up logic for the PDF vi a precondition that will control when the PDF will be generated or it can be used to skip the PDF entirely. For Example, currently the only way to disable a template is to use a precondition that always evaluates to false and it will be skipped.

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. 

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 file template that you uploaded even if you changed it. In the forms designer only, the following message will display:

Click Ok to continue. Save the mapper to disk. Although you can map fields in the acroform from the status screen, it is recommended that you download the mapper to disk, map the fields and then upload the updated file into .  See below for more information.

The prompt and save of the form prior to either downloading the mapper or going into edit mode for the ui-based pdf mapping can be controlled by a web.xml context parameter named: form.save.om.mapping. The parameter defaults to true. If set to false, upon mapper download (or mappings edit in the status dialog), the designer will not be prompted and the editing instance will not be saved. This parameter applies only to forms, not flows.

Map the E-Form Fields to the acroform Fields

Open the mapper with an external PDF viewer/editor, such as Adobe Reader (version 11 or higher), Mac Preview or PDFescape.

Previous mapping selections should be retained. 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 form/flow for the purposes of field mapping.

Click on the arrow to display the e-form fields. Select the appropriate e-form field from the selections provided. The image shows the acroform field for the Last Name on the W-4 form being mapped to the LastName [form > LastName] [id:_Dpf0vUf3EeK8Grq3Nz0xDg] selection in the list. You may have noticed each entry in the mapping choices has a unique ID as part of the mapping string. This is needed by the PDF mapper at this time but may be removed in a future release.

Mapping selections should be made in all fields. You do not have to map all the fields in one session - you can save the file and return to complete the mapping at a later time.

It is up to the designer to ensure that the content fits within the acroform field. The acroform will truncate it if it does not fit.

Upload the Completed Mappings

Save the completed mapping PDFs and upload them to by clicking on the Upload Mapping icon. You must upload completed mappings for each PDF acroform that you want to generate.

will process the mappings and post a status that can be viewed by clicking on the [Details] button. Any errors encountered will be listed here. This can be a valuable tool for troubleshooting any problematic issues when mapping your e-form to the acroform pdf.

The Form Generation Mapping Status screen will display the following information:

• the acroform Field Name
• the acroform field type
• the "Selectable Values" column is useful when mapping to PDF comboboxes, lists and radios. It is important to have the eform's mapped checkbox, select or radio's option values be the same as the corresponding PDF fields option values. The values will be shown in the selectable values column. See PDF Form Generation Rules below for more information. 
• Mapping Status  = Mapped or Not Mapped
• The E-Form Field Name, if the field is mapped.

You will see this error icon if the mapping for your form is incomplete. It will change to the  critical error icon under the following conditions:

• Incorrect Mapping File - if any fields in the mapped PDF do not match the original set of form fields in the template.
• Mapping File Invalid - the uploaded mapping file must have exactly the same set of form fields as the original uploaded template. A mismatch results in an invalid mapping file.
• Form Template File Invalid - the uploaded template is checked to see if it is a valid, read-able PDF acroform File.
• Mapping Errors - the form fields in the mapped PDF must be filled with a valid selection corresponding to an e-form field. Any acroform fields mapped to an unknown e-form field will show the invalid e-form mapping field name. For example, if you delete a field from your form after mapping, or change a control to a different one you will see the "Invalid E-form field" in the Mapping Status column:

If you uncheck the mappable property for controls that have already been mapped to the acroform, the mapping status for those controls changes to invalid. Submissions created with these invalid status controls will also report "Form submission filed -  One or more generated PDF forms generated with mapping errors. Some information may be missing". Even though the Mappable property is set to false, the PDF is generated with the old mapped values.

will check the mappings after saving a form or flow. When the critical errors listed above occur, the designer will see a prompt informing them of the error after the form/flow has been saved and the editor closes. The mapping can then be re-edited. A status of Mapping Incomplete is not considered an error and will not prompt.

The icon indicates that the mapping is complete and there are no errors.

You may notice an Edit button on the status screen. Clicking this button allows the designer to make changes to the mapper on the status screen without downloading the mapper and uploading the updated mapper file. In the forms designer only, you will see this message when you click on the Edit button:

Click Ok. This screen formerly only displayed a read-only status of the mapping. Once Ok is clicked, the screen is re-displayed and the mapped e-form field names are now displayed in a select box, allowing the user to make changes. Select the Save button to save any mapping changes or the Cancel button to close and not save anything.

In some acroforms, determining the field in the acroform can be difficult to interpret. For this reason, it is recommended that mapping from the status screen be reserved for small changes while the majority of the mappings should be done by downloading, modifying and then uploading the mapper into .

Mapping Table and Repeat Controls

E-form controls placed within repeats or tables use the max number property to create multiple "instances" of the e-form field for mapping. Controls within a repeat (or table) are indexed to allow the user to select the specific control for mapping.  will put the correct number of instances of the control in the mapping select list based on the max number of the repeat/table. Each of these instances will be clearly labeled with an index. For example, a table in your form to collect the Education History of a new employee has a column for the Degree earned. The dropdown choices are: High School, Bachelors, Masters and PhD. The Max # property for the table is set to 10.

The mapping selections list the 4 choices (High School, Bachelors, Masters and PhD) with indexes of X of 10 for each choice.

Here is an example of an Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (W-7) that 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.

The choices in the mapper dropdown for the first name control are: FirstName (1 of 2) [form > Names > FirstName]:followed by a unique id. or FirstName (2 of 2) [form > Names > FirstName]:followed by a unique id. Choices for the middle and last name controls follow the same format.

In the mapper, selecting the (1 of 2) choice for the First, Middle and last Name controls and the (2 of 2) choice for the repeating first, middle and last name controls that appears after the user clicks the plus sign, maps the data as shown:

Nested repeats, use the max numbers of each repeating level multiplied to determine the total max index of an item. This is best illustrated with the example below showing repeat 2 nested in repeat 1. Each repeat has a section and each section a text control. Each repeat level has a max of 2. The inner most text control will have an index of 4 (2x2) as shown.

Form
    repeat1
        section1  (max 2)
            text1                     -- index = 1
            repeat2
                section2   (max 2)
                    text2             -- index = 1
                section2
                    text2             -- index = 2
        section1 
            text1                     -- index = 2
            repeat2
                section2   
                    text2             -- index = 3
                section2
                    text2             -- index = 4

If you have empty rows in a table control or blank repeating items in your form, pdf mapping may shift a bit. To keep the mapping predictable, set the min value equal to the max value for the table/repeat controls. This will give you options to map the missing/blank items in the pdf mapper.

Mapping the Upload Control

Let's say you wants to take a photo using a mobile device and then map the photo to a PDF.  supports mapping of the Upload control that can be used to upload the image to a form/flow. 

• You can only map one image file per upload control. In the case of upload controls with more than one file, the mapping simply takes the first found image file. 
• Common image types supported are: gif, png, jpg/jpeg and bmp. 
• Tiff is not supported. 
• Non image file types uploaded are ignored. 

Adding a Field to an acroform

Some acroforms may not have a writable field for all of the data that you want to collect. An example might be the signature field on such forms as the I-9 or W-4 acroforms. The Employee On Boarding form/flow collects information to populate the W-4 PDF after the new employee completes the  screen form/flow. Another step of the form/flow asks the new employee to review the PDF and sign if the information is correct. Mapping the  signature to the generated PDF cannot be accomplished unless there is a writable field in the W-4 template. You can use a PDF editor  such as PDFescape to add a writable field for the signature to your acroform template.  signatures are treated as images that can be mapped to text fields so be sure to add the acroform field as a text field. Upload the modified acroform as your PDF template. 

You can also create an acroform from scratch using PDFescape or a similar program. The table below gives more information on mapping rules.

PDF Form Generation Rules

PDF forms are generated as the last step(s) of a form/flow or when the Form Viewer control is clicked. All other activities are completed prior to the execution of any form generation activities. PDF forms are generated by using the mapping meta data entered by the user to map the e-form field data into the PDF's acroform fields. Precondition properties are supported for form generation activities and operate in a standard fashion, i.e. if the precondition evaluates to true, the activity executes.

In general, the following applies to the generation process:

• E-form fields are written into/over the acroform fields in the PDF in the exact location and space of the acroform field.
• The data written into a field cannot exceed the original acroform field length.
• The fields are flattened out and made read only in the resulting PDF document.
• The resultant PDF document must have the same name as the original uploaded PDF acroform file.

The specifics of mapping e-form data fields into acroform fields are detailed in the table below:

• The horizontal columns represent the acroform field types and the vertical rows represent the Live Forms control types.
• Blank cells indicate that mapping is not possible. E-form fields will not be made available for mapping for those types of  acroform fields.
• An acroform check box is a single check box and does not correspond one to one to a Live Forms check box.
• An acroform radio button is a single radio button and does not correspond one to one to a Live Forms radio control.
• Checkbox, radio and dropdown options are included in the mapping select controls in the PDF (according to the table below). They will be listed as ControlName.OptionName?.
• Live Forms manual signatures are treated as images. They can be mapped to text fields. The image is linearly scaled to fit within both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of the text field without any distortion.  

In general, all the controls listed, can be mapped to an acroform text field. Selection controls are mostly handled by mapping the option values as indicated above.

When mapping selection controls, you will see the name of the control and the options for that control in the downloaded mapper selections. The option values will be listed as ControlName.OptionName?.  As an example, let's take a look at the Eligibility field on the I-9 Employment Eligibility federal form. Your Employee On Boarding form/flow might contain a form with a radio control to collect the eligibility status from the new employee.

The option/label values for the radio control in the e-form are:

A_lawful_permanent_resident_(Alien_#)=A lawful permanent resident (Alien #)
A_citizen_of_the_United_States=A citizen of the United States
An_alien_authorized_to_work_(Alien_#_or_Admission_#)=An alien authorized to work (Alien # or Admission #)
A_noncitizen_national_of_the_United_States_(see_instructions)=A noncitizen national of the United States (see instructions)

The mapper will offer the choices for each option value.

Select the choice that begins with EligibilityChoices.A_lawful_permanent_resident_(Alien_... [form > from the dropdown in the mapper for the option value of A lawful permanent resident (Alien #) in the radio control.

Select the choice that begins with EligibilityChoices.A_citizen_of_the_United_States [form > from the dropdown in the mapper for the option value of A citizen of the United States in the radio control.

Select the choice that begins with EligibilityChoices.An_alien_authorized_to_work_(Alien_... [form > from the dropdown in the mapper for the option value of An Alien authorized to work (Alien # or Admissions #) in the radio control.

Select the choice that begins with EligibilityChoices.A_noncitizen_national_of the United States from the dropdown in the mapper for the option value of A noncitizen national of the United States (see instructions) in the radio control.

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.

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:

You can use a radio control in your e-form which will allow only one of the five choices to be selected.

When you download the mapper and open it using Adobe Reader, you might notice that some of the grouped checkboxes may not have a combo box dropdown, offering choices for mapping to the acroform field.

This is a case where the acroform fields look like and are called checkboxes but really are radio controls.

Follow these steps to map the Qualifying widow(er) checkbox:

• Upload the 1040 acroform which will serve as the template.
• Download the mapper. Open it with Adobe Reader (version 11 or higher)
• Select the option choices for Single, Married filing jointly, Married Filing separately from the dropdown lists.
• Map the Head of Household option to the choice that does not show any options for the control. The image below shows the mapper choices for this example:

• Upload the Mapper.
• Click on the [Details] icon. Look at the mapping details and find the mapping for Head of Household and Qualifying Widow(er) in the list. The selectable values for the acroform fields, c1-041, c1-042 and c1-043. There is the on choice (single, married filing jointly, married filing separately) and an off status. Mapping is done by option value. If the value of any of the selected option(s) on the e-form control matches the 'on' value of the check box, then it is checked on the acroform. Otherwise it is unchecked.
  The image below is a composite of the mapping status for the Filing Status choices. Notice the selectable values for c1_045. They are QW and HoH for the Head of Household and Qualifying widow(er) checkboxes on the 1040 acroform.

In order to map these two options, you must make sure that the values for the options in the properties pane of the radio control in the e-form EXACTLY match the options you see in the Selectable Values column for the acrofield. The mapping is done when the user selects one item in the  radio corresponding to the selected radio option. The items/options are matched to value/option, not label, of the control. Only one selection is supported. See PDF Form Generation Rules for more information.

The options values of the Live Form Status control in the e-form are shown below: Note the Selectable Values from the mapping status are on the option value side of the equal sign. The case of the option values is important. The option values MUST be the same case as listed in the mapping status. 

Single=Single
Married filing jointly=Married Filing Jointly
Married filing separately=Married Filing Separately
HoH=Head of Household
QW=Qualifying Widow(er)

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.

This is a situation where mapping for a checkbox can be done via the UI mapping capability on the status screen as you can map individual options to the individual checkboxes in the group on the acroform outside of Adobe.

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 form/flow where you want the user to view the generated PDFs for accuracy. The Employee On Boarding form/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 form/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 form/flow designer for your form/flow. Notice the addition of the Form Viewer control to the palette. The form viewer control is available in the form editor's palette. 

Drag and drop the Form Viewer control from the palette into your form. If you are using the flow designer, select the step in the form/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. 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. If you used templatized strings when naming your template, it will show the template unresolved in the drop down.

Properties on the Style tab work as expected. 

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 generates a new PDF form from the latest form entered data and 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.  

Testing the form/flow

When the generation of Pixel Perfect PDFs for your form/flow is completed, and you have saved the updates, click on the  Test icon and run the form/flow and submit it. When you get to the form with the Form Viewer control, be sure to check the generated Pixel Perfect PDFs such as the W - 4 etc.