Create New Fragment in Current Document

[Former Community Member]

Hi

I've got a section of my form that I'm going to use multiple times within the same form.  Now I know I could make an external fragment in a fragment library and reference that, the Create Fragment dialogue box has an option to "Create New Fragment in Current Document" which sounds ideal for my needs.

The only problem is I'm not sure how to use it once I've created it.  The Insert Fragment dialogue box will only let me insert fragments from libraries.  I could cut and paste the fragment and that looks like it works, but I'm not sure how to edit the fragment.  The only place I can find to edit them is in the places where they are used, but any changes made there aren't propogated out to the other instances of the same fragment.

Does anyone know how to use these?

Thanks

Dan

[Former Community Member]

I've just found a bit in the help file that says "When you create a fragment in the current form design and save it as an XDP  file, the fragment name appears in the Fragment Library when you save the file".

Unfortunately I've done this and the fragment hasn't appeared in my Fragment Library.

[Former Community Member]

Are you sure you are saving it in the right Fragment Library? You can create your own fragment library location as well. Do you know where the directory where your fragment is located?

Paul

[Former Community Member]

When you select "Create New Fragment in Current Document" it takes away the option to choose a location because it's saving the fragment within the current form.

[Former Community Member]

But then it is no longer a fragment ...it keeps the reference to the fragment in that particular form but the fragment components are turned into native objects. It acts just like an object in the Library.

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Then why does it give the option to "Create New Fragment in Current Document" and mark the selected item with the fragment symbol?

[Former Community Member]

This is from the Designer help:

Creating the fragment in the current file is useful when you want to define multiple fragments in one file. Creating multiple fragments in one file can make it easier to update multiple fragments, particularly when the fragments are similar.

I never use that option ...if I use fragments I want them as external references so that I can manage the fragments separately. Also that use of the fragment is only useful when rendering the template through Form Server. In that case the fragment reference is resolved at runtime and any updates to the fragment are picked up then. If you are simply saving PDF out of Designer this use of fragments is not very useful. TYou might as well simply create Custom Library objects and use those instead.

Hope that helps

Paul

[Former Community Member]

Okay, thanks a lot.

They looked like they might be useful, but I guess they aren't for my needs.