LiveCycle Barcodes dont work in Form Server

[Former Community Member]

Hi,



I've run into a strange problem. I designed a form using LC designer and added barcodes to it. The form is a multipage form and contains substantial amount of data. Since all this data cannot fit into one form, one the click of the submit button, the script reads all this data and breaks into smaller chunks which are then rendered as barcodes. In the PDF form this script does the job of generating barcodes on the click of the button. The same function is also called on the form load event to render the data incase the form is already populated (when viewed later).

However, when I deploy this form on Adobe form server, the bar codes are not generated properly. The PDF shows around 20 such barcodes, but when I run it through decoder, I only get one or two barcode tags which do not contain any data. Further, any app.alert() tags put in XDP can not make it the PDF generated by Form Server. The log from JBoss reports "app is undefined".

When I take the same XML file and specify it as the default XML file for the XDP template under properties and the test the form in Live Cycle designer, the form is rendered perfectly with all javascript alerts and barcodes with full XML data.



I'm totally stumped on this one. Any help will be greatly appreciated.



Best Regards,

Sanket

[Former Community Member]

Hi Sanket,



When you are trying to decode the barcodes, are you scanning an image of the printed and scanned document or are you trying to process an electronic version of the PDF that was simply filled in and saved?



If you are trying to scan the electronic document then the barcodes may not have been rendered correctly in Reader. The workflow of the barcode engine is that it expects printed and scanned images. If the document is still "electronic" then use Forms to read the field values themselves and not the barcode.



One other tip, do not put XML directly into the barcodes, use a delimited format and you will save a tremendous amount of space.

[Former Community Member]

Thank you very much for the response Lee!



I first tried printing the barcode directly to a TIFF Image using Microsoft Image writer as printer and when it did not work, tried scanning the document and then decoding the scanned image.



I have two questions - First, while the PDF shows as many as 24 barcodes, the decoder only shows two barcode tags. What may be causing this? Second, why is the Javascript lost in while conversion from XDP to PDF on form server? My guess is that the translation from XDP to PDF is not working as expected in AFS which is leading to this. Since the form is working fine in LiveCycle designer when previewed, there must be something in the conversion from XDP to PDF.



Indeed using delimited format will save a huge amount space and will definitely reduce the number of barcodes, but I'll have to carry on the legacy of a bad design!



Thank you once again for your reply.

[Former Community Member]

Hi Sanket,



It sounds like when you are generating the PDF you are not generating a "PDF Form" which may cause you to generate an almost-static PDF.



Which version of Forms do you have?



In regards to XML inside barcodes, PDF417 was invented almost 20 years ago by Symbol. I don't consider delimited text a bad design, it is certainly more efficient usage of space since the tags alone in XML can sometimes require more space than the data itself.



If you are using the Adobe Decoder, use tab-delimited including field names and the decoder will convert this to XML for you after the decode so you get the best of both worlds.

[Former Community Member]

Hi,



How do I differentiate between a static PDF and PDF form? Is there any option in AFS or XDP? There are actually two versions of the form from users perspective. One is used for offline submission where users can fill up the form offiline in Acrobat Reader and click on the submit button to submit it. This version is working fine with all barcodes being generated properly. The other version is where users fill up online JSP and gets to view a final Read only PDF. This version also uses the same XDP. The servlet calls the EJB method passing in XML and XDP name. However, in this case, barcodes are not being generated properly.



I think you got my comment wrong for the XML. What I mean was that in my project, the previous architect had already designed some forms that way - with XML encoded in barcodes instead of delimited values. Since the design cannot be changed now, I had to carry his legacy of bad design in whatever new forms that I create as I cannot change the rest of the application.

I do agree and understand that delimited values are far more effective and efficient.



I'll post some debug messages in my next post when I return to my office tomorrow.



Thank you for your response.

[Former Community Member]

Hi Sanket,



Yes, when you generate forms out of Forms Server you can have them generated as PDF or PDF Forms. If you don't use "Forms" then you won't get the right features in the form when the user sees it.



If you would like some guidance in regards to Forms, post your question to the LiveCycle Forms forum and you'll get the expertise you need in that area.



In regards to the XML, understood. :)

[Former Community Member]

Hi there,

i am using Adobe livecycle Designer 7.1 and i have created a from in

which i have used paperForm barcode. but i want that barcode to be changing as i change the values in the text fields.

[Former Community Member]

You can use JavaScript in background to generate Barcode dynamically. Thats how we achieved all our validations and bardcodes.

[Former Community Member]

By default with Designer 7.1 you have the option to encode the entire form or a specific subform. This can be figured in the "object" panel.

As Sanket had mentioned, you may want to simply use JavaScript to encode exactly the data and format you require.