Rendering Rights-Enabled Forms

The Forms service can render forms that have usage rights applied to them. Usage rights pertain to functionality that is available by default in Acrobat but not in Adobe Reader, such as the ability to add comments to a form or to fill in form fields and save the form. Forms that have usage rights applied to them are called rights-enabled forms. A user who opens a rights-enabled form in Adobe Reader can perform operations that are enabled for that form.

In order to apply usage rights to a form, the Acrobat Reader DC extensions service must be part of your AEM forms installation. Also, you must have a valid credential that enables you to apply usage rights to PDF documents. That is, you must properly configure the Acrobat Reader DC extensions service before you can render a rights-enabled form. (See About the Acrobat Reader DC extensions Service.)

Summary of steps

To render a rights-enabled form, perform the following tasks:

1. Include project files.
2. Create a Forms Client API object.
3. Set usage rights run-time options.
4. Render a rights-enabled form.
5. Write the rights-enabled form to the client web browser.

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.

Set usage rights run-time options

You must set usage rights run-time options to render a rights-enabled form. You must also specify the alias of the credential that is used to apply usage rights to a form. After you specify the alias value, you specify each usage right to apply to the form.

Render a rights-enabled form

To render a rights-enabled form, you use the same application logic as rendering a form without usage rights. The only difference is that you must ensure that the usage rights run-time options are included in your application logic.

Write the form data stream to the client web browser

When the Forms service renders a rights-enabled form, it returns a form data stream that you must write to the client web browser. Once written to the client web browser, the form is visible to the user. A user viewing the rights-enabled form in Adobe Reader is able to perform operations that are enabled for that form.

See also

Render rights-enabled forms using the Java API

Render rights-enabled forms using the web service API

Including AEM Forms Java library files

Setting connection properties

Forms Service API Quick Starts

Rendering Interactive PDF Forms

Creating Web Applications that Renders Forms

Render rights-enabled forms using the Java API

Render a rights-enabled form by using the Forms API (Java):

1. Include project files

   Include client JAR files, such as adobe-forms-client.jar, in your Java project’s class path.

2. Create a Forms Client API object

   • Create a ServiceClientFactory object that contains connection properties.
   • Create an FormsServiceClient object by using its constructor and passing the ServiceClientFactory object.

3. Set usage rights run-time options

   • Create a ReaderExtensionSpec object by using its constructor.
   • Specify the alias of the credential by invoking the ReaderExtensionSpec object’s setReCredentialAlias method and specify a string value that represents the alias value.
   • Set each usage right by invoking the corresponding method that belongs to the ReaderExtensionSpec object. However, you can only set a usage right if the credential that you reference allows you to do so. That is, you cannot set a usage right if the credential does not allow you to set it. For example. to set the usage right that enables a user to fill in form fields and save the form, invoke the ReaderExtensionSpec object’s setReFillIn method and pass true.
   NOTE

   It is not necessary to invoke the ReaderExtensionSpec object’s setReCredentialPassword method. This method is not used by the Forms service.

4. Render a rights-enabled form

   Invoke the FormsServiceClient object’s renderPDFFormWithUsageRights method and pass the following values:

   • A string value that specifies the form design name, including the file name extension. If you reference a form design that is part of a Forms application, ensure that you specify the complete path, such as Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp.
   • A 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.
   • A PDFFormRenderSpec object that stores run-time options.
   • A ReaderExtensionSpec object that stores usage rights run-time options.
   • A URLSpec object that contains URI values that are required by the Forms service.

   The renderPDFFormWithUsageRights method returns a FormsResult object that contains a form data stream that must be written to the client web browser.

5. Write the form data stream to the client web browser

   • Create a com.adobe.idp.Document object by invoking the FormsResult object ‘s getOutputContent method.
   • Get the content type of the com.adobe.idp.Document object by invoking its getContentType method.
   • Set the 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.
   • Create a 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.
   • Create a java.io.InputStream object by invoking the com.adobe.idp.Document object’s getInputStream method.
   • Create a byte array populate it with the form data stream by invoking the InputStream object’s read method and passing the byte array as an argument.
   • Invoke the 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

Quick Start (SOAP mode): Rendering a rights-enabled form using the Java API

Including AEM Forms Java library files

Setting connection properties

Render rights-enabled forms using the web service API

Render a rights-enabled form by using the Forms API (web service):

1. Include project files

   • Create Java proxy classes that consume the Forms service WSDL.
   • Include the Java proxy classes into your class path.

2. Create a Forms Client API object

   Create a FormsService object and set authentication values.

3. Set usage rights run-time options

   • Create a ReaderExtensionSpec object by using its constructor.
   • Specify the alias of the credential by invoking the ReaderExtensionSpec object’s setReCredentialAlias method and specify a string value that represents the alias value.
   • Set each usage right by invoking the corresponding method that belongs to the ReaderExtensionSpec object. However, you can only set a usage right if the credential that you reference allows you to do so. That is, you cannot set a usage right if the credential does not allow you to set it. To set the usage right that enables a user to fill in form fields and save the form, invoke the ReaderExtensionSpec object’s setReFillIn method and pass true.

4. Render a rights-enabled form

   Invoke the FormsService object’s renderPDFFormWithUsageRights method and pass the following values:

   • A string value that specifies the form design name, including the file name extension. If you reference a form design that is part of a Forms application, ensure that you specify the complete path, such as Applications/FormsApplication/1.0/FormsFolder/Loan.xdp.
   • A BLOB object that contains data to merge with the form. If you do not want to merge data with the form, you must pass a BLOB object that is based on an empty XML data source. You cannot pass a BLOB object that is null; otherwise, an exception is thrown.
   • A PDFFormRenderSpec object that stores run-time options.
   • A ReaderExtensionSpec object that stores usage rights run-time options.
   • A URLSpec object that contains URI values that are required by the Forms service.

   The renderPDFFormWithUsageRights method returns a FormsResult object that contains a form data stream that must be written to the client web browser.

5. Write the form data stream to the client web browser

   • Create a BLOB object that contains form data by invoking the FormsResult object’s getOutputContent method.
   • Get the content type of the BLOB object by invoking its getContentType method.
   • Set the javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse object’s content type by invoking its setContentType method and passing the content type of the BLOB object.
   • Create a 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.
   • Create a byte array and populate it by invoking the BLOB object’s getBinaryData method. This task assigns the content of the FormsResult object to the byte array.
   • Invoke the 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

Rendering Rights-Enabled Forms

Invoking AEM Forms using Base64 encoding

Business.Adobe.com resources

Automated Onboarding Mobile Forms Managed Cloud Content As A Service Web Content Management Digital Rights Management