Samples and examples in this document are only for AEM Forms on JEE environment.
The Forms service can render forms that are based on fragments that you create using Designer. A fragment is a reusable part of a form and is saved as a separate XDP file that can be inserted into multiple form designs. For example, a fragment can include an address block or legal text.
Using fragments simplifies and speeds up the creation and maintenance of large numbers of forms. When creating a form, you insert a reference to the required fragment and the fragment appears in the form. The fragment reference contains a subform that points to the physical XDP file. For information about creating form designs based on fragments, see Forms Designer
A fragment can include several subforms that are wrapped in a choice subform set. Choice subform sets control the display of subforms based on the flow of data from a data connection. You use conditional statements to determine which subform from within the set appears in the delivered form. For example, each subform in a set can include information for a particular geographic location and the subform that is displayed can be determined based on the location of the user.
A script fragment contains reusable JavaScript functions or values that are stored separately from any particular object, such as a date parser or a web service invocation. These fragments include a single script object that appears as a child of variables in the Hierarchy palette. Fragments cannot be created from scripts that are properties of other objects, such as event scripts like validate, calculate, or initialize.
Here are advantages of using fragments:
You can assemble a form design to pass to the Forms service based on multiple fragments. To assemble multiple fragments, use the Assembler service. To see an example of using the Assemble service to create a form design which is used by another Forms services (the Output service), see Creating PDF Documents Using Fragments. Instead of using the Output service, you can perform the same workflow using the Forms service.
When using the Assembler service, you are passing a form design that was assembled using fragments. The form design that was created does not reference other fragments. In contrast, this topic discusses passing a form design that references other fragments to the Forms service. However, the form design was not assembled by Assembler. It was created in Designer.
For more information about the Forms service, see Services Reference for AEM Forms.
For information about creating a web-based application that renders forms based on fragments, see Creating Web Applications that Renders Forms.
To render a form based on fragments, perform the following tasks:
Include project files
Include necessary files into your development project. If you are creating a client application using Java, include the necessary JAR files. If you are using web services, ensure that you include the proxy files.
Create a Forms Client API object
Before you can programmatically perform a Forms service Client API operation, you must create a Forms service client.
Specify URI values
To successfully render a form based on fragments, you must ensure that the Forms service can locate both the form and the fragments (the XDP files) that the form design references. For example, assume the form is named PO.xdp and this form uses two fragments named FooterUS.xdp and FooterCanada.xdp. In this situation, the Forms service must be able to locate all three XDP files.
You can organize a form and its fragments by placing the form in one location and the fragments in another location, or you can place all XDP files in the same location. For the purposes of this section, assume that all XDP files are in the AEM Forms repository. For information about placing XDP files in the AEM Forms repository, see Writing Resources.
When rendering a form based on fragments, you must reference only the form itself and not the fragments. For example, you must reference PO.xdp and not FooterUS.xdp or FooterCanada.xdp. Ensure that you place the fragments in a location where the Forms service can locate them.
Render the form
A form based on fragments can be rendered in the same manner as non-fragmented forms. That is, you can render the form as PDF, HTML, or form Guides (deprecated). The example in this section renders a form based on fragments as an interactive PDF form. (See Rendering Interactive PDF Forms.)
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
When the Forms service renders a form, it returns a form data stream that you must write to the client web browser. When written to the client web browser, the form is visible to the user.
See also
Render forms based on fragments using the Java API
Render forms based on fragments using the web service API
Including AEM Forms Java library files
Forms Service API Quick Starts
Rendering Interactive PDF Forms
Creating Web Applications that Renders Forms
Render a form based on fragments by using the Forms API (Java):
Include project files
Include client JAR files, such as adobe-forms-client.jar, in your Java project’s class path.
Create a Forms Client API object
ServiceClientFactory
object that contains connection properties.FormsServiceClient
object by using its constructor and passing the ServiceClientFactory
object.Specify URI values
URLSpec
object that stores URI values by using its constructor.URLSpec
object’s setApplicationWebRoot
method and pass a string value that represents the application’s web root.URLSpec
object’s setContentRootURI
method and pass a string value that specifies the content root URI value. Ensure that the form design and the fragments are in the content root URI. If not, the Forms service throws an exception. To reference the repository, specify repository://
.URLSpec
object’s setTargetURL
method and pass a string value that specifies the target URL value to where form data is posted. If you define the target URL in the form design, you can pass an empty string. You can also specify the URL to where a form is sent to perform calculations.Render the form
Invoke the FormsServiceClient
object’s renderPDFForm
method and pass the following values:
Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp
.com.adobe.idp.Document
object that contains data to merge with the form. If you do not want to merge data, pass an empty com.adobe.idp.Document
object.PDFFormRenderSpec
object that stores run-time options.URLSpec
object that contains URI values that are required by the Forms service to render a form based on fragments.java.util.HashMap
object that stores file attachments. This is an optional parameter and you can specify null
if you do not want to attach files to the form.The renderPDFForm
method returns a FormsResult
object that contains a form data stream that must be written to the client web browser.
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
com.adobe.idp.Document
object by invoking the FormsResult
object ‘s getOutputContent
method.com.adobe.idp.Document
object by invoking its getContentType
method.javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s content type by invoking its setContentType
method and passing the content type of the com.adobe.idp.Document
object.javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object used to write the form data stream to the client web browser by invoking the javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s getOutputStream
method.java.io.InputStream
object by invoking the com.adobe.idp.Document
object’s getInputStream
method.InputStream
object’s read
method and passing the byte array as an argument.javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object’s write
method to send the form data stream to the client web browser. Pass the byte array to the write
method.See also
Rendering Forms Based on Fragments
Quick Start (SOAP mode): Rendering a form based on fragments using the Java API
Including AEM Forms Java library files
Render a form based on fragments using the Forms API (web service):
Include project files
Create a Forms Client API object
Create a FormsService
object and set authentication values.
Specify URI values
URLSpec
object that store URI values by using its constructor.URLSpec
object’s setApplicationWebRoot
method and pass a string value that represents the application’s web root.URLSpec
object’s setContentRootURI
method and pass a string value that specifies the content root URI value. Ensure that the form design is in the content root URI. If not, the Forms service throws an exception. To reference the repository, specify repository://
.URLSpec
object’s setTargetURL
method and pass a string value that specifies the target URL value to where form data is posted. If you define the target URL in the form design, you can pass an empty string. You can also specify the URL to where a form is sent to perform calculations.Render the form
Invoke the FormsService
object’s renderPDFForm
method and pass the following values:
Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp
.BLOB
object that contains data to merge with the form. If you do not want to merge data, pass null
.PDFFormRenderSpec
object that stores run-time options. The tagged PDF option cannot be set if the input document is a PDF document. If the input file is an XDP file, the tagged PDF option can be set.URLSpec
object that contains URI values required by the Forms service.java.util.HashMap
object that stores file attachments. This is an optional parameter and you can specify null
if you do not want to attach files to the form.com.adobe.idp.services.holders.BLOBHolder
object that is populated by the method. This parameter is used to store the rendered form.javax.xml.rpc.holders.LongHolder
object that is populated by the method. This argument will store the number of pages in the form.javax.xml.rpc.holders.StringHolder
object that is populated by the method. This argument will store the locale value.com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object that will contain the results of this operation.The renderPDFForm
method populates the com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object that is passed as the last argument value with a form data stream that must be written to the client web browser.
Write the form data stream to the client web browser
FormResult
object by getting the value of the com.adobe.idp.services.holders.FormsResultHolder
object’s value
data member.BLOB
object that contains form data by invoking the FormsResult
object’s getOutputContent
method.BLOB
object by invoking its getContentType
method.javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s content type by invoking its setContentType
method and passing the content type of the BLOB
object.javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream
object used to write the form data stream to the client web browser by invoking the javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s getOutputStream
method.BLOB
object’s getBinaryData
method. This task assigns the content of the FormsResult
object to the byte array.javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse
object’s write
method to send the form data stream to the client web browser. Pass the byte array to the write
method.See also