Adobe form single/mass printing

[Former Member]

Hi all

I am currently faced with following request/idea. I would like to convert one of the correspondence forms (SmartForm) into PDF format. I am not after simple conversion using standard SAP FM. I am planning to create an Adobe form template with XML schema. I want to store this template and XML schema in Records Management. I want to be able to call my form rendering routine when using mass printing Tx (FPCOPARA) but instead of calling common FMs to render SmartForm or Adobe print form I want to do following:

1. Retrieve from RM corresponding Adobe template and XML schema

2. Populate XML schema with appropriate data from SAP (financial information)

3. Merge XML populated in step 2 with Adobe template retrieved in step 1 and print it

4. Save XML populated in step 2 in RM (for future reference)

This solution will naturally require 3 separate containers in RM (form templates, xml schemas, xml data).

Please note that we are successfully using similar solution for processing of tax declarations. I am not sure how to implement it in context of mass printing (Tx FPCOPARA) though.

I want users to be able to print resulting Adobe form during mass print but I also want them to be able to retrieve form (merging data saved in step 4 with corresponding Adobe template retrieved in step 1) at any point using custom application (Web Dynpro).

Now, as far as I understand Adobe print forms are very similar to Smart Forms. We need to design interface and template and later call corresponding FM passing all the data we want to display on the form. This solution is much more straight forward than the one I am interested in but it has a few serious flaws, namely:

1. Content of spool is being deleted frequently (users wonu2019t be able to re-print forms in the future)

2. Size of rendered PDF will be tens of times bigger than size of XML data (essential information)

3. Accessing XML data is much more convenient to access (if necessary) than trying to access content of PDF

4. I would probably have to store these forms outside of the system (flat files on Application Server for instance) which would make accessing them a rather tedious exercise

I hope I have been clear in specifying what I am hoping to achieve, however if further clarification is necessary please let me know.

All the input will be highly appreciated

Regards

Michael

[Sandra_Rossi · Accepted solution]

I think I don't understand everything but it sounds promising

I just wanted to say (not sure if it is interesting for you) that SAP (or Adobe) has taken into consideration the issue of PDF size: when you generate an Adobe form, ADS returns a CFG file containing the corresponding Adobe form version as an url (to ADS cache) and an XFD file containing the XML data, in the global directory.

Now the problem is that these 2 files are linked to a spool and deleted at the same time.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Sandra

Thanks for your suggestions.

I know that my requirement is overcomplicated to say the least but it would be great to be able to store correspondence for future reference without having to buy additional hard disks to accommodate them:)

I just found some example of Adobe print form with XML data as input parameter so I am getting closer. I hope to be able to design my form without using Tx SFP (I prefer standalone form Designer, ES2 for instance). I think I will simplify my solution and store XML schemas and XML data in Z-table (no need to use such a robust solution as RM for a fairly simple requirement as this one).

Will keep you all updated but please do send your ideas in the meantime especially if you know (from your own experience) that the road I am taking is long and might not lead anywhere, or simply if you know some shortcut.

Regards

Michael

[VeerleDeSmet · Accepted solution]

Hello Michael,

unfortunately I can not help you with your questions but I am very interested in the progress of the solution. If I understood your problem well, I think we struggle with kind of simular problem.

We started the implemetnation of our forms with the smartform technology. Part of the variable content is SAP transaction data but another (essential) part of the data is coming from another (non-SAP) system in xml format. We thought to solve that non-SAP part by saving the xml data in Z-tables. But this is not very flexible and so we thought it would be better to design the form as an Adobe form based on xml. The design is (so far) not any problem. But we are now faced with another problem, namely the repriint and massprint afterwards.

But if I understood your last answer well, you will need to store the xml data in Z-tables. Can you explain why you have to do that ? Can you also tell me the Adobe print form with xml data as input parameter ?

Thanks in advance,

Veerle.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Veerle

Sorry to reply with such a delay but work does not seem to be slowing down even for a moment. Today its a first day in a long time I have visited SDN. I had to put this requirement on hold until further notice. Just to quickly answer your question about storing data in Z-tables its mainly to support versioning (trace of each re-rendering/re-printing). We want to be able to see earlier version of assessment (sent to client for instance) which might have contained some error. Bare in mind that content of assessment is changing (not only layout but also presentation of data ... in some cases even calculation). Content of spool is being deleted on a regular basis not to mention that linking spool to actual assessment could prove to be a very tedious exercise.

Anyway, I hope I have made myself a bit clearer. I am going to update this message if I will get a chance to resume work on that requirement. Good luck with your work.

Regards

Michael

[OttoGold]

Hello there,

just to make sure the problem is THAT complicated:

1) your concern is the size, is that so? Most of my forms were under 50 kbs each. I don´t see any problem regarding the size.

2) your concern is about deleting the spool. But you can easily store the generated files in some content server/ GOS or something. Or in RM of course. The size should not be an issue if these solutions work for pictures, videos and stuff.

3) of course you can work with XML files. I don´t understand the problem. Example:

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/c2567f2b-0b01-0010-b7b5-977cbf806...

In this easy tutorial you get the XML string from the binary PDF file. I am sure it works the other way round when the form is generated. So should be able to create a XML file and the merge it with the form template (of course you must NOT change the template in future, but you can always copy a template into a new one and restrict the use of the old XML files to be used with the old template, right?).

I hope that helps a little. By the way there is Adobe forms dedicated forum under NetWeaver.

Regards Otto

[OttoGold]

To be precise: please check FP_CHECK_DESTINATION_SERVICE report in your ERP.

At the top of the code you can see the XML file and at the bottom there is

 
l_pdfobj->set_data( formdata = l_xdata ).

That is the whole magic. Hope that will solve your problem.

Regards Otto

[Former Member]

Otto

I never have claimed that its THAT complicated. I created that message simply to run it by experts to make sure that my solution is not over-engineered, thats all.

The only tricky part is the context in which I will be performing all the steps and that is going to be a mass print. Thanks for sharing links and code samples but I have come across this magic back in February (mentioned in my message) when first faced with this request. And to address you remarks yes size (and later access to generated data) is my main concern, I recon that invoice will probably reach 100kb in oppose to 5-10kb for XML data.

Anyway, I am going to close this message as I wont be able to update it for quite some time (more important things are in pipeline at the moment).

Thanks all for the input.

Regards

Michael