Technical Articles
SAP S/4 Hana Cloud: Testing Form Developments in Adobe Livecycle Designer
During a recent working session with SAP’s Lukas Bretschneider, an SAP S/4 Hana Outputs expert, my colleagues and I have learned of a new way to test form developments in Adobe Livecycle Designer. Previously it was understood that in order to test a form development, one must first upload the form into SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, create new data and view the output in the forms corresponding application. This process would be repeated for each development leading to hours of testing and hundreds of unnecessary clicks.
Currently, SAP has not created a KBA to explain this process, so, in this blog post, I’m going to explain how to download the document’s .XML file from SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, upload it to Adobe Lifecycle Designer and test developments locally in Adobe Lifecycle Designer.
Downloading the forms.XML file
In this example, I’m going to be using a Delivery Note.
Prerequisites
- There must be a valid test sample in the system that covers all of the data needed to support your development efforts.
- The following statement will serve as the designated print queue. This statement will be the same across all systems. #&&DOWNLOAD_FORM_DATA_XML&&#
- Once the sample document has been created with all of the data needed to test your development efforts. Go to the document and select the output screen.
- Create a new output record.
- Once the output record has been created, go to “Display Details” and enter “#&&DOWNLOAD_FORM_DATA_XML&&#” in the Print Queue.
- Once the Print Queue has been assigned. Go back to the main output screen and select “Display PDF”. ** You may get an alert from the system stating that the Print Queue is not valid. This can be bypassed. **
- Once the .XML file is open, select “Download”.
You have successfully downloaded the .XML file that includes the sample data needed to test your development efforts. The next step is uploading the .XML file to Adobe Livecycle Designer.
Uploading the .XML File to Adobe Livecycle Designer
Prerequisites
- Must have Adobe Livecycle Designer ver. 11 ESP4 downloaded and installed on your machine.
- Must have downloaded the form template (in this case it’s a Delivery Note) that is being developed
- Open Adobe Livecycle Designer with the appropriate form template loaded.
- Go to “File” and select “Form Properties”
- Select “Preview”, upload the .XML file downloaded from SAP S/4 Hana Cloud and select “Dynamic XLM Form” as the Preview. Click OK
You have successfully loaded the .XML file to Adobe Livecycle Designer and you can begin testing your developments within the Designer. Go to the Preview PDF at any time during your development and the PDF will reflect your work based on the data made available thru the .XML file.
To sum this blog post up, we have learned of a new way to test forms in Adobe Livecycle Designer locally without having to upload our custom forms to SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, create test data and view the outputs. This new understanding will save multiple hours of testing and hundreds of clicks.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to adding more valuable content to the SAP S4Hana Cloud Community.
Hi Mark,
Very usefull article, it really helps when working on S/4 public cloud.
Thank you for sharing.
Kind Regards,
Wesley Massini
Hello Mark,
You've just made my day. It has been a struggle all along working with forms.
Thank you for sharing such useful piece of information.
Regards,
Lethuxolo Ntuli
Hi Mark,
Thanks for this awesome blog. Its really helpful.
For me there is one issue - while downloading the file using display PDF doc option, i am getting a .txt file instead of .xml file.
I tried to resolve the same but of no use.
Can you please help me here.
Regards,
Manish Kumar
Hi Manish,
Thanks for taking a look at my blog.
You should be able to save the .txt document as a .xml file. To do this, open the .txt file, go to File, select Save As and when saving the document change the file format in the name of the document to a .xml.
This should do the trick!
Take care,
Mark
Thanks Mark,
Actually the issue was with my XML editor app.Its resolved now.
Thanks again 🙂
Hi Mark,
I’m getting the following error when trying to click on “Display PDF”.
I changed the print queue to the value #&&DOWNLOAD_FORM_DATA_XML&&#. When trying to “Send Output” I get the error that this print queue does not exist therefore no print queue is valid.
Do I need to create a print queue with the name you specified?
Thanks and best regards,
Georg
Hi Georg,
You shouldn't have to "Send Output". Just click "Display PDF Document" and this will show you the .xml file for your current output and you can download that.
If you're looking to actually print the document or send it to a print queue. You would need to remove the code that you entered into the print queue field and replace it with either the default queue or a queue that has been setup.
Hope this helps!
Mark
Hi Mark,
Great blog! Do you know is it possible to customize fields in Adobe Livecycle designer?
Thanks
Oliver
Hi Oliver, thanks for reading my blog.
The short answer is yes. There are a lot of ways you can customize fields in Adobe Livecycle designer.
Mark
Hello Mark
Thanks for this awesome blog. Its really helpful.
For me there is one issue -- Can the XSD file of the standard print template be modified?
Hi Tongyong,
Thank you for reading my blog.
You can modify the .XDP file, but not the XSD.
The easy way to do this is to go to application Maintain Form Templates in Fiori Launchpad, download the content or master form, and then open it in Adobe LifeCycle Designer. Here you will have the ability to modify the standard template.
Hope that helps!
Mark
Dear Mark
Thanks for you reply.
Yeah, I konw modify XDP file it is easy way, and I have also modify some standard template. There was a issue for me modify someone tempalte.
I found that the value of a field in the print preview was truncated, and i check found that the length of the XSD file was limited to 12 bits, but in fact we needed to display 30 bits in the field, so I wondered if the XSD file for the standard template could be modified and how to upload to S4HC?
Sorry I missed your point, Tongyong.
I don't believe we can edit the .XDP file. My only other thought is maybe there is an SSCUI (config in Manage my Solution) that can control the .XDP format so that you have the correct character length.
Mark
Hi Mark
you can use fiori app "Maintain Form Templates" download a standard template, there are two files
.XDP and .XSD in download zip.
.XDP file can use FormDesigner modify, and then save as own template, then can thought SSCUI change configure template
.XSD file can modify use txt tool -- there is a issue for me, After I have modified the properties of the fields in the file， how do i upload this .xsd file to s4 hana cloud？
Hi Tongyong,
I know it is has been a long time since you asked, so you probably know by now...
But you can't upload the XSD back to S/4HANA Cloud.
The XSD is defined actually by the Form Data Provider (FDP) in the system - there are few FDP data sources that you can modify in Custom Data Source, but most are not available. The most common way it gets updated is via adding a custom field to the form in Custom Fields app.
Even if you modify the XSD and the Form XDP you will still be limited by what the system sends out in the form data provider...
thank you
Jerry
Hi Mark
Thanks for the great blog.
I however don't think all PDF documents allow us to download the data.
I've tried this with the Sales Order Confirmation and I keep getting the following error:
Do you know if there any other way to download the XML data?
Thanks
Hi Everyone
For completion sake I would like to inform everyone that I was able to download the XML data file following the information in this KBA https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2942798
Regards
Thanks for sharing the solution Faaiez.
Very useful blog, thank you for sharing.