FAQ

Adobe LiveCycle Designer

®

TOPICS Q: What is Adobe LiveCycle Designer?

1 What is Adobe LiveCycle Designer? A: Adobe LiveCycle Designer is a point-and-click, graphical eXtensible Markup Lan-
1 How can Adobe LiveCycle Designer solve guage (XML) form design tool for easily creating sophisticated forms that can be
business problems for my organization? deployed as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or XML Data Package (XDP)
files. The easy-to-use graphical interface enables form authors to quickly create and
1 What are the key business benefits
maintain form templates, define a form’s business logic, make changes, and preview
of Adobe LiveCycle Designer? the document before it is deployed—all with a single, powerful solution.
1 What were the previous names of
Q: How can Adobe LiveCycle Designer solve business problems for my organization?
Adobe LiveCycle Designer?
A: Enterprises in many industries are looking for solutions that combine the powerful
1 What functionality does Adobe
data and business logic capabilities of XML with the rich presentation and enhanced
LiveCycle Designer provide? security capabilities of PDF to create Intelligent Documents. Many organizations
2 What is the value of XDP in relation to forms? are also looking for a powerful design tool that can publish both PDF and XML
forms, thus serving as a single “submit mechanism” for XML form data, XML form
2 What is user-defined (arbitrary) XML,
templates, and/or PDF files within a unified, readable XML wrapper.
and why is support of it important?
Q: What are the key business benefits of Adobe LiveCycle Designer?
2 Does Adobe support XForms?

2 Is Adobe LiveCycle Designer A: Creating forms with Adobe LiveCycle Designer enables enterprises to capture data
more efficiently and simplify data integration into enterprise applications. ROI
currently available for purchase?
comes from validating data at the source, eliminating rekeying and the associated
2 How does Adobe LiveCycle effort and mistakes.
Designer complement the Adobe
Using PDF instead of paper reduces transaction time significantly. PDF gives the
Intelligent Document Platform?
user instant access to the form from anywhere. The submission of complete and ac-
3 Where can I get more information curate data the first time avoids costly and time-consuming corrections.
about Adobe LiveCycle Designer?
Adding embedded validation and business logic to the form reduces cycle time
because the user can’t enter invalid data. Validation ensures data is in appropriate
ranges and correct formats; business logic ensures that calculated fields are correct.
Digital signatures may be applied, and the form is submitted electronically.

Finally, adding XML data directly to the form reduces cycle time because data can
be automatically extracted and integrated with back-end systems. Integration re-
duces rekeying of data, resulting in significant reduction of data entry errors.

Q: What were the previous names of Adobe LiveCycle Designer?

A: Adobe LiveCycle Designer previously carried the names Adobe Designer, XML/PDF
designer (in beta), and Adobe Form Designer.

Q: What functionality does Adobe LiveCycle Designer provide?

A: The major capabilities of this product include:

• Enabling intelligent form creation through point-and-click tools and powerful

scripting capabilities

• Providing precision form layout tools

• Managing form content and business logic in a single form template

• Creating forms and binding data fields on the form to fields in arbitrary schemas
and XML sample data

• Easily integrating forms with enterprise databases and applications through XML

• Supporting data exchange through Web services

• Efficiently importing PDF files and legacy forms

Q: What is the value of XDP in relation to forms?

A: With the Adobe XML architecture, depending on the process requirements, documents can
be created in Adobe PDF and then processed as Adobe PDF is today or expressed in an XDP
file and processed as XML. An XDP file is simply an XML file that packages a PDF file in
XML, along with XML form and template data.

Because an XDP file is an XML file, standard XML tools, system interfaces, and Web services
can work with it, and the XML data is directly accessible. Additionally, the user can view and
interact with the PDF file contained in the XDP file using the free Adobe Reader or the Adobe
Acrobat® family of products.

Q: What is user-defined (arbitrary) XML, and why is support of it important?

A: Arbitrary XML is the term for user-defined XML schemas. An XML schema specifies how to
formally describe the elements in an XML document. This description can be used to verify
that each item of content in a document adheres to the description of the element in which the
content is to be placed. For example, a financial services provider may have its own schema to
describe how the XML data that makes up a financial statement is structured. Fully support-
ing user-defined XML schemas is important because it means that forms created using Adobe
LiveCycle Designer can leverage virtually all XML data residing in enterprise applications.

Q: Does Adobe support XForms?

A: Yes, Adobe supports XML Forms (XForms). XForms clients and servers can read XML data
generated using a PDF form. Likewise, XML/PDF forms can read and process XForms data.
PDF forms and XForms can be used interchangeably in an XML workflow. In addition,
Adobe supports importing user-defined XML schemas to create an XML/PDF form.

Q: Is Adobe LiveCycle Designer currently available for purchase?

A: Yes, Adobe LiveCycle Designer has been available since March 2004 and can be purchased
through any authorized Adobe reseller or through your Adobe account manager.

Q: How does Adobe LiveCycle Designer complement the Adobe Intelligent

Document Platform?

A: The Adobe Intelligent Document Platform enables enterprises to facilitate information shar-
ing and business transactions that extend beyond core applications and users. The three key
components are Intelligent Documents, the universal client, and Adobe Document Services.

An Intelligent Document enables organizations to connect enterprises to people, and people

to one another, both inside and outside the enterprise. The Intelligent Document has three
components: the presentation component that supports rich content; the business logic
component that can do calculations such as currency conversions; and the XML transport
and schema component that has the ability to capture XML data and move it between
people and applications.

The Intelligent Document architecture provides access to Intelligent Documents through uni-
versal clients—the free Adobe Reader® and Web browsers. The universal client enables users
inside and outside the firewall to interact with Intelligent Documents on any platform, over
any device—from desktop and laptop computers to PDAs, mobile phones, and kiosks.

Adobe Document Services enable users to create and integrate Intelligent Documents with
enterprise applications and business processes. Key capabilities include collaboration, docu-
ment generation, document control and security, and process management.

Adobe LiveCycle Designer is part of the document generation service. It enables the creation of
Intelligent Documents that are the foundation of the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform.

Adobe LiveCycle Designer 2

 Q: Where can I get more information about Adobe LiveCycle Designer?

A: Test drive the product: A trial version of Adobe LiveCycle Designer is available at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/server/adobedesigner/main.html

Developer resources for Adobe LiveCycle Designer can be found at:

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/livecycle/topic_designer.html

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