XDP or PDF

[Amal Elaine]

As much as I've been reading, I am still confused as to when one would use an XDP file or a PDF file.  We will be using workspace to fill out forms, and workbench to design the workflow that occurs to the form after it is submitted.

 

The training manuals use both XDP and PDF files in their examples, and I am struggling to understand when we would use one over the other.

 

Thank you for your assistance!

Amal Elaine

[Kumaresan Raju]

Hi,

 

   The size of XDP file is very small compare to PDF.

 

Regards,

Kumaresan.R

 

[Dave Venance]

The difference between the XDP and the PDF is that the XDP has the
template definition (the XML that describes how to make the form) and
the PDF has a PDF rendering (as well the XML template). This is why
the PDF is much larger than the XDP. As for when you would use one
over the other, typically you would use the XDP if you were going to
be using LiveCycle Forms as part of your process for rendering the PDF
version of the form on the fly. If your form was dynamic or you
wanted to prepopulate it with data, you might want to do this. If you
are not using LiveCycle Forms, then you would want to save the PDF
(rendering) as the server component (LC Forms) will not be there to do
that. The samples are made with the assumption that a customer has
access to all of the different LiveCycle components which is why you
see examples using both. I hope this helps explain things a bit
more.

Dave

[Bob Bailey]

Also, if you are using the Default Render service to render the forms
inside the Workspace, you want to save the forms as PDF files. Like
Dave mentions, you would need LiveCycle Forms to render the XDP file
out as a PDF inside the Workspace.

Bob