TechNote

Scripting languages and resources (Adobe Designer 6.0, LiveCycle Designer 7.x)

What's covered

Technical support for Adobe Designer

Scripting languages supported by Adobe Designer

Scripting resources included with Adobe Designer

Online resources

In this document, Adobe Designer refers to both Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.x and Adobe Designer 6.0, unless specified otherwise.

Technical support for Adobe Designer

Adobe technical support programs offer different levels of assistance for troubleshooting Adobe certified language scripts, steps, and their expected behavior from within the Adobe application. For additional information and details about current Adobe Support programs, visit the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/ .

Scripting languages supported by Adobe Designer

Adobe Designer supports the JavaScript and FormCalc scripting languages. Adobe Designer uses FormCalc as its default scripting language, with JavaScript as the alternative. To read more about using calculations and scripts in Adobe Designer, see the "Overview of creating a calculation or script" topic in Adobe Designer Help and the "Online resources" section of this document.

Script Editor

The Script Editor in Adobe Designer is where you create, modify, attach, and view calculations and scripts. For information on setting the default scripting language and attaching a calculation or script to a form design object, see "Introducing the Script Editor" in Adobe Designer Help.

FormCalc

FormCalc is a simple calculation language whose roots lie in electronic form software from Adobe. It is an expression-based language used primarily to calculate the values of one field from the values of other fields, much like a spreadsheet formula language. FormCalc is tailored to the skills of the non-programmer who is comfortable with spreadsheet-class application software. With the use of a few of the built-in functions, you can quickly create forms that save end users from performing time-consuming calculations, validations, and other verifications. The built-in functions that make up FormCalc cover a wide range of areas including mathematics, dates and times, strings, finance, logic, and the web. These areas represent the types of data that typically occur in forms, and the functions provide quick and easy manipulation of the data in a useful way. For more information on the FormCalc language and available functions see "About Using FormCalc" and "FormCalc User Reference" in Adobe Designer Help.

JavaScript

To allow form designers more flexibility and scripting power, Adobe Designer supports JavaScript in all situations that support scripting. Form developers familiar with JavaScript will be able to take their existing expertise and apply it directly to Adobe Designer. Adobe Designer provides a number of properties and methods that enhance JavaScript to allow you access field and object values. These properties and methods combine with the Adobe Designer Scripting Object Model (SOM) to provide you with easy manipulation of form values and data. For more information, see "About using JavaScript" in Adobe Designer Help.

Although FormCalc and JavaScript are geared towards two different types of users, there is some overlap between the types of built-in functions they offer. For a table of all the available FormCalc functions and a list of comparable functions in JavaScript, see "Comparing FormCalc and JavaScript" and "Differences between FormCalc and JavaScript functions" in Adobe Designer Help.

Scripting resources included with Adobe Designer

Adobe Designer comes with documentation that provides basic instruction for writing and troubleshooting scripts. Use the Scripting Sample (Scripting.pdf) to experience scripting with FormCalc and JavaScript languages by entering and running scripts. The sample includes a variety of field types that can be used by the script. For more information, see the Scripting Readme.pdf that accompanies the sample form. The Samples Index (Samples Index.pdf) lists all the samples included with Adobe Designer, along with a brief description and links to the ReadMe and sample PDF output files for each sample.

You can find these sample resources in the following locations:

-- Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.x: Program Files\Adobe\Designer 7.0\EN\Samples

-- Adobe Designer 6.0: Program Files\Adobe\Designer 6.0\Samples

In addition, Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.x includes a reference guide (FormCalc.pdf) and additional Readme information to help you incorporate FormCalc calculations in Adobe Designer forms. The guide is located at Program Files\Adobe\Designer 7.0\Documentation\EN.

Online resources

Adobe provides the following scripting resources on the Adobe website.

Designing forms

Get started with form designs and features of Adobe LiveCycle Designer.

www.adobe.com/devnet/livecycle/designing_forms.html

Online sample forms

Use files that illustrate new PDF and XML technologies and how XML data can be integrated with PDF forms.

www.adobe.com/devnet/livecycle/samples.html

LiveCycle Designer scripting samples

Expand your knowledge of LiveCycle Designer by using sample forms that demonstrate quick and simple solutions.

www.adobe.com/devnet/livecycle/designer_scripting_samples.html

Developer tips & tricks

Review topics that provide information to assist in the development of Intelligent Documents (forms), form migration, script execution and XML data exchange.

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/tips

Adobe user to user forums

Post questions about scripting on the Adobe LiveCycle Designer user to user forums.

www.adobe.com/support/forums

Converting Acrobat JavaScript for use in LiveCycle Designer forms

Use this document if you are trying to convert JavaScript from Acroform to XFA form.

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/acrobat/sdk/AcroJS_DesignerJS.pdf

Calculations and scripts reference - Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Review this scripting reference guide.

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tips/CalcScripts.pdf

FormCalc specification, version 2.0

Review the description of how XML form-processing applications handle text content (rich-text and plain-text).