Testing PDF production

Availability

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2021.1]

How to test PDF production

There are two ways to access the "Test PDF" function:

  1. directly from the Form Builder's main window's "Test" menu

  2. from the "Test Form" window

The "Test" menu

When accessed directly, "Test PDF" shows the following dialog:

The "Test PDF Production" dialog

When accessed from the "Test Form" window, "Test PDF" shows the following dialog:

The "Test PDF Production" dialog

You have access to the following options:

  • Use entered form data

    • This option only shows when accessed from the "Test Form" window.

    • When selected, any data currently entered in the form will be used to produce the PDF.

  • Disable the evaluation of "Initial Values" formulas

    • If "Use entered form data" is selected, this option is disabled as the form data takes precedence.

    • When selected, all "Initial Value" formulas are disabled, as if they were not present.

  • Disable the evaluation of "Initial Values" formulas

    • When selected, all "Initial Value" formulas are disabled, as if they were not present.

  • Disable the evaluation of "Calculated Values" formulas

    • When selected, all "Calculated Value" formulas are disabled, as if they were not present.

  • Show controls, grids, and sections with dynamic visibility

    • When selected, all controls, grids, and sections that can be dynamically shown are shown.

    • This means that those with visibility "Yes" or "Formula" are always shown. Controls with visibility "No" remain not visible.

    • Use cases include:

      • Verifying that every control, grid, or section that can appear in the PDF appears correctly.

      • Exporting the PDF file for printing and manual filling.

  • Use PDF template

    • This only shows if the form has attached PDF templates.

    • See below for details.

Selecting "Continue" opens the resulting PDF, which will show in your browser window.

PDF templates

The "Test PDF" dialog lets you choose between the automatic PDFarrow-up-right or one of the available PDF templatesarrow-up-right when testing.

Selecting a PDF template for PDF testing

Showing hints and alerts

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]

Two options allow you to show controls hints and alerts in the resulting PDF:

Options to show hints, alerts, and required

This is an example of the resulting PDF with hints and alerts:

PDF output with alerts and hints

See also The open-rendered-format() action.

See also

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