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Choosing between PDF and Designer/XFA forms
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Our monthly newsletter, “Ask the PDF Expert”, offers an opportunity for your questions about PDF to be answered with a serious, well-considered (and if necessary, long-winded) reply. Sign up now!
In the December issue of “Ask the PDF Expert”, we answered a question posed by Owen W., of Oak Ridge, TN. Owen asked simply:
“Is there an easy way to choose between Designer/XFA and regular PDF forms?”
Choosing between XFA and Acroforms ("classic PDF" forms) technologies has to start with a sorrowful glance at the need to choose at all. It should not be this way. These technologies should not compete, but they do, and that's the way it is (for now).
Ask yourself some questions
Anyhow - when thinking about your project, there are a few simple questions that can often quickly resolve the dilemma.
What version of Acrobat or Reader do you need to support?
If your end-users might have (for whatever reason) Acrobat 5 or 6, then forget about Designer / XFA forms - PERIOD. Not all Designer/XFA forms will work with Acrobat 7 (XFA "integration" was significantly improved starting with Acrobat 8). The safest bet is to be willing to INSIST that all users upgrade to at least Adobe Reader or Acrobat 8.x or higher. With third-party viewers, you're even less likely to be able to use XFA forms.
Advantage: Standard Acrobat Forms
Do users need to markup the form in addition to filling fields?
Some situations require markup (drawing) on the form page in order to highlight text, circle an item on a diagram, or draw ad hoc shapes, for example, to sketch a street-corner in a police report. LiveCycle forms have no concept of markup.
Advantage: Standard Acrobat Forms
Do you need your form to dynamically re-write page content based on user input?
Sounds like an XFA form to me. Standard PDF can do this - to an extent - but it's not easy and requires someone who really understands the capabilities of Acrobat. There are such people - we're just saying it's non-trivial.
Advantage: Designer/XFA Forms
Do you need your forms to be maximally accessible?
Acrobat forms have a well-established accessibility model, and when properly tagged, offer excellent performance in terms of accessibility to users with disabilities and compliant with Section 508. By contrast, Designer/XFA forms (both static and dynamic) have a number of accessibility limitations.
Advantage: Standard Acrobat Forms
Do you need functions in Acrobat JavaScript that aren't available in LiveCycle Designer?
Acrobat and Reader include an extensive, mature JavaScript API which can access many aspects of PDF files, including content, annotations file appearance and behavior when opened, and more.
If you've already figured out how to get everything you need using the regular Acrobat JavaScript Reference then you are probably all set, and there's no need to go try to replicate it all in a Designer/XFA form. .
Advantage: Standard Acrobat Forms
Do you need to manage your form design and contents with XML?
Some institutional users find an advantage in dynamically authored and maintained forms. If this is you, then Designer/XFA forms might be the way to go. If only the form-field data is required, conventional AcroForms can use XFDF, a (slightly) less capable variation on simple FDF, and it's "real" XML.
Advantage: Designer/XFA Forms
What's your budget for the server implementation?
If you are thinking of taking your PDF forms online with webservers, then you need to think VERY carefully. Standard PDF Acroforms are supported by dozens of different companies (yes, including Appligent Document Solutions).
Loading data into an XFA form on the server, however, remains an Adobe-only thing, and as things stand, you'll pay, pay and pay again.
For small and medium size businesses, departments and many (ok, almost all) enterprises, standard PDF server forms applications offer remarkably cost-effective solutions in most "static page" forms implementations.
Advantage: Standard Acrobat Forms
