With SAP NetWeaver 7.01 and SAP NetWeaver CE 7.11 also a new Adobe LiveCycle Designer became available. In this blog I want to highlight new features of Adobe LiveCycle Designer that are of specific interest for form developers using SAP NetWeaver.
Syntax Checking
This is probably the highlight for a lot of form developers. I had the request for this functionality many times. The following screenshot shows what you get after you hit the button with the green checkmark. The code line with the syntax error is highlighted and you get feedback on what is wrong. In this example a semi-colon of a for-loop is missing. The syntax of JavaScript and FormCalc can be checked.
Option to Enforce Strict Scoping Rules in JavaScript (Form Properties Dialog)
This option influences the performance of JavaScript execution starting with Adobe Reader 8.1 by applying strict scoping rules. Do not use this option if you are targeting an earlier Adobe Reader version.
Target Version Warnings
Designer now provides support for developing a PDF form for a specific Adobe Reader version. This is for example useful if you want to ensure that you are using only features that are also available with Adobe Reader 7. You can specify on the Defaults tab in the Form Properties dialog that the target version is, for example, “Acrobat or Adobe Reader 7.0.5 or later”. You will get a list of warnings as shown in the following screenshot if you are using a feature that is not supported in Reader 7.0.5. In the example, locking fields after signing the form is not support with Reader 7, you need at least Reader 8.0.
New Dialog for Specifying Patterns
Designer 8.1 consolidates all four patterns in one single dialog to improve usability. You can specify different patterns, i.e. display patterns and data patterns for print and interactive scenarios in one location. Additionally, for interactive forms there are edit patterns and validation patterns. Also, a “well kept secret “ that it is possible to handle empty (i.e. null values) and zero values in picture clauses made it to the UI.
Support for additional hardware barcodes
With SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EhP1 (including corresponding ADS) and Adobe Designer 8.1 support for additional hardware barcodes was added: Aztec, Planet Code, RFID (ASCII Data only), RSS 14, RSS 14 Stacked, RSS 14 Stacked Omni, RSS 14 Truncated, RSS Expanded, RSS Limited and UPS Maxicode.
Form Metadata
Form metadata entered on the Info tab in the Form Properties dialog is now transferred to the PDF when rendered with ADS.
Microsoft Windows Vista
Adobe LiveCylce Designer 8.1 now supports Microsoft Windows Vista.
Comparing the Designer delivered by SAP to Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES
Three Adobe LiveCycle ES features, form guides, PDFs as background artwork and fragments, are currently not supported in SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe.
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