Considerations when building an eform solution using LiveCycle - part 2

Continue'd from last part

5. Volume
What is the anticipated volume of electronic submissions expected? Simultaneous submissions? If large and simultaneous submissions are expected, then you want to leverage a JMS queue to handle the submission part. The downside to this is that results can not be returned to the user synchronously.

The other approach is to leverage clustering of your web / application server. This will result in better performance as well as a more reliable solution. Unfortunately there is a cost associated with clustering (software licenses and hardware).

6. Paper based submissions?
Are there times in which the signed paper forms are required for legality reasons? This is found in particular in heavily regulated industries (financial institutions and government organizations). If you require to keep a copy of the signed paper forms, then at design time, you want to consider leveraging 2D Barcode. The way the 2D Barcode works is that as you enter data using Reader / Acrobat, the data is being encoded into the Barcode. The data by default is encrypted. To decrypt the 2d barcode, you would need 1) reader extensions rights 2) barcode decoder from Adobe 3) Acrobat to print the barcoded forms.

Let me know if you have other questions in the comments area, I will do my best to include them in my post.

David

Considerations when building an electronic form (eForm) solution using LiveCycle - Part1

This article is intended for those who are interested in migrating your existing paper based processes over to an electronic one. I will go through some high level considerations in finding the right solution.

1. PDF or HTML?
Are you interested in implementing a pure PDF solution or one that includes both HTML and PDF? LiveCycle Forms allows multiple output formats (PDF, PDF Form, HTML, DHTML, AHTML, etc) to be generated from a single template (.xdp) created from LiveCycle Designer. The caveat is that the scripting behavior is different between the HTML and PDF, resulting in scripts that has to be coded into the templates. Unless there's a significant requirement to continue to support HTML based forms, I would stick with PDF Forms.

2. When is HTML Form an appropriate output from LiveCycle Forms?
Scenario 1: If the PDF form is very long (5-10 pages), I sometimes use HTML Forms to capture data, in a multiple step wizard. This breaks the long time into a sequence of smaller and more focused forms for the user to fill out.

Scenario 2: Use HTML Forms when screen real-estate becomes a high premium (within a portal, within LiveCycle Form Manager)

3. Requirements to archive the PDF?
Do you have existing requirement to archive the PDF that the user submits? If yes, then the submit type needs to be either XDP or PDF. This is done at the form design stage. Note, to support this capabilities using Adobe Reader, the PDF needs to be reader-extended first. (Product: LiveCycle Reader Extensions)

4. Requirements to use digital signature?
Are you planning to support digital signatures in your PDF Form? If that's the case, you should be aware that an existing PKI infrastructure and/or support for roaming certificates / id needs to be there to associate and identify the signing party. Also, if digital signatures are required, the submission type (of submit buttons on the PDF) has to be an XDP aor a PDF.

to be continued..

Gmail on the desktop? Sign me up!

Leslie at jinsync.com released an apollo gmail app that showcased how easily existing AJAX application can be wrapped and deployed onto the desktop. The concept is very simple, use the HTML capabilities within apollo sdk to wrap around an existing web site. Many will say, "so what? I can just bookmark gmail using my browser, and place a link on my desktop as well." Now, look at apollo's documentation. Offline capabilities support within the SDK. Add caching and offline capabilities onto the existing AJAX-based gmail, and you will have a powerful desktop emailing tool without significant rewrite of the entire code base.

Google, pay attention. With Apollo, gmail can be a desktop email client that is cross platform, based on the same code base as the existing web version, and ready to be deployed within a couple of weeks.

Apollo is released on Adobe labs!

Apollo has been released on Adobe labs at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/apollo/ ! Get it while it's hot. For those of you who doesn't know, Apollo is the code name for cross platform runtime from Adobe, that allow developers to use familar web technologies (flex, ajax, css, html) to build compelling rich client applications.

How to automate testing of PDF based form solutions?

With the increased adoption of fillable PDF forms for government agencies and corporations, there is a need to automate the testing process of online applications that includes PDF Forms. How is this accomplished?

Use the testing tool and example provided on Adobe LiveCycle Developer center. Note, the PDF form tester toolkit contains C, Java, JUnit, Robot, RobotJ, and VB Examples. This should allow adoption of these samples into any existing test framework.

David in Vancouver

LiveCycle Workflow Tutorials

For those interested, there is a series of LiveCycle Workflow tutorial posted on my company's site here.

This tutorial shows you how to implement a process using Adobe LiveCycle Workflow. The thirteen parts step you through changing an existing paper process for expense reports into a completely electronic process.

The following topics are covered:

1. Adding LiveCycle Workflow fields to the form
2. Uploading the form to LiveCycle Form Manager
3. Linking the form to a category
4. Identifying the form as initiator of a workflow
5. Initiating a workflow by submitting the form
6. Assign the form to a group of users
7. Render the submitted form as a PDF
8. Use route names as choice-list items
9. Split workflows into parallel branches of tasks
10. Save the form as PDF in the file system
11. Insert the form data into a database
12. Look up the originator's e-mail address
13. Importing the sample workflow

Cheers,

David

Changing the paradigm - new user interaction

Go to here to view a more extended display of multi touch system from Jeff Han. He originally displayed the multi-touch system at TED conference in 2006. This technology alone, can change the way humans interact with machines. More information at the tip of your finger tips and hopefully reduce the number of RSI.