Automatic PDF

Introduction
The PDF is produced based on the appearance of the form in your web browser. This is similar to printing a read-only version of your form. As a form author, you do not need to take any action to enable this mode. In addition, a header and footer is provided by default.
Header and footer configuration
Introduction
[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]
By default, Form Runner produces automatic PDF files with the following header and footer:
Header: Form Runner logo, form title
Footer: Form title, page number
Starting Orbeon Forms 2023.1, header and footers are entirely configurable and you can control exactly what is shown in all six header or footer positions:
Header left
Header center
Header right
Footer left
Footer center
Footer right
Additionally, you can configure different headers and footers for the first page and subsequent pages, as well as for odd and even pages (also known as "left" and "right" pages).
For each position, you can specify:
that it should remain blank
that it should use the default
that it should use custom content
Custom content is based on the Form Runner system of templates with parameters. For more information, see Template syntax.
Example of header and footer configurations
The default global configuration is expressed in JSON Format and is as follows:
{
  "pages": {
    "all": {
      "header": {
        "left": {
          "values": {
            "_": "{$fr-logo}"
          }
        },
        "center": {
          "values": {
            "_": "{$fr-form-title}"
          }
        }
      },
      "footer": {
        "left": {
          "values": {
            "_": "{$fr-form-title}"
          }
        },
        "center": {
          "values": {
            "_": "{$fr-page-number} / {$fr-page-count}"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "parameters": {
    "fr-logo": {
      "type": "image"
    },
    "fr-form-title": {
      "type": "form-title"
    },
    "fr-page-number": {
      "type": "page-number",
      "format": "decimal"
    },
    "fr-page-count": {
      "type": "page-count",
      "format": "decimal"
    }
  }
}
The following is an example of custom configuration that updates the default configuration to add a submission date in the footer's right position:
<property as="xs:string" name="oxf.fr.detail.pdf.header-footer.*.*">
    {
      "pages": {
        "all": {
          "footer": {
            "right": {
              "values": {
                "_": "Submitted on: {$current-dateTime}",
                "fr": "Envoyé le: {$current-dateTime}"
              }
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "parameters": {
        "current-dateTime": {
          "type": "formula",
          "value": "format-dateTime(current-dateTime(), '[D]/[M]/[Y] [h]:[m]:[s] [P,*-2]', xxf:lang(), (), ())"
        }
      }
    }
</property>
Header and footer configuration JSON format
The top-level is a JSON object with the following properties:
"pages": contains zero or more page configurations
"parameters": contains zero or more parameters
The "pages" property is a JSON object with the following properties:
"all": configuration for all pages
"first": optional configuration for the first page only
"odd": optional configuration for odd pages
"even": optional configuration for even pages
Each page configuration is a JSON object with the following properties:
"header": configuration for the header
"footer": configuration for the footer
Each header or footer configuration is a JSON object with the following properties:
"left": configuration for the left position
"center": configuration for the center position
"right": configuration for the right position
Each position configuration is:
"none": the position is blank
"inherit": the position is the same as the default
this is the same behavior if the position is not specified, but it is more explicit
a JSON object with the following properties:
"values": a JSON object with the following properties:
each property name represents a language code
the language code can be "_" to represent any language
each property value is a template string
"visible": a formula that determines whether the position is visible
"css": a CSS string that is applied to the position
this is because custom CSS in a separate file doesn't impact positions in PDF headers and footers
The "parameters" property is a JSON object with the following properties:
each property name represents a unique parameter name
each property value is a JSON object with the following properties:
"type": the type of parameter, one of:
"formula": the parameter value is a formula (XPath expression) (with the required "value" parameter)
"control-value": the parameter value is the value of a control (with the required "control-name" parameter)
"form-title": show the form title (no additional parameters)
"image": show an image (the form logo, no additional parameters)
"page-count": show the page count (with the optional "format" parameter)
"page-number": show the page number (with the optional "format" parameter)
links (no additional parameters)
"link-to-edit-page"
"link-to-view-page"
"link-to-new-page"
"link-to-summary-page"
"link-to-home-page"
"link-to-forms-page"
"link-to-admin-page"
"link-to-pdf"
"value": the required formula (XPath expression) to evaluate, if the type is "formula"
"control-name": the name of the control to use, if the type is "control-value"
either one of "control-name" or "control-css-class" is required for the type "control-value"
"control-css-class": or the name of a custom CSS class for the control to use, if the type is "control-value"
if multiple controls has this CSS class, the first one is used
either one of "control-name" or "control-css-class" is required for the type "control-value"
"format": the optional format to use, if the type is "page-count" or "page-number"
defaults to "decimal"
The "format" property is a JSON string with the following format, as used in CSS:
"decimal"
"decimal-leading-zero"
"lower-roman"
"upper-roman"
"lower-greek"
"lower-alpha"
"upper-alpha"
Font configuration and embedding
Overview
These properties allow specifying fonts to embed in PDF files. You do this with 2 properties, which are tied together by a name you choose, and which doesn't have any significance outside the properties-local.xml. For instance, say you want to use the Roboto font. You first map the family name, which you use in your CSS (here Roboto, with an uppercase R) to the name you chose (here roboto, with a lowercase r):
<property
    as="xs:string"
    name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.family.roboto"
    value="Roboto"/>
Then you indicate where the TTF file for the name you chose is located on disk, using either one of the following two properties. Use the first [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2019.2] if you want to place your font inside the Orbeon Forms WIB-INF/resources directory, or use the second if you want to place it somewhere else, referring to the file using an absolute path.
<property
     as="xs:string"  
     name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.resource.roboto"                                  
     value="/forms/resources/Roboto-Medium.ttf"/>
<property
    as="xs:string"
    name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.path.roboto"
    value="/absolute/path/to/Roboto-Medium.ttf"/>
Changing the default font
To change the main font, you must map your TTF file to the Helvetica Neue family. You often need to do this if you are using characters that are not included in the default font used by the PDF engine, for instance to have Chinese characters show in the PDF. To change this, you need to obtain a Unicode font, and configure it as follows, here assuming the file is named arialuni.ttf:
<property
     as="xs:string"  
     name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.resource.arial-unicode"                                  
     value="/absolute/path/to/arialuni.ttf"/>
<property 
    as="xs:string"  
    name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.family.arial-unicode"                            
    value="Helvetica Neue"/>
New default font
[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2022.1]
Orbeon Forms now includes the Inter font by default. This provides more characters out of the box (see Language support).
PDF color mode
[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]
By default, the PDF is output with most colors removed and a black-and-white scheme. With the oxf.fr.detail.pdf.color-mode, you can change that default to allow field colors to be used. This impacts the following form controls:
Explanatory Text
Formatted Text
Calculated Value (if the value is in HTML format)
<property
    as="xs:string"
    name="oxf.fr.detail.pdf.color-mode.*.*"
    value="keep-field-colors"/>
Accessibility and PDF/A support
[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2022.1.5 and 2023.1]
Experimentally, the following properties allow enabling accessibility and PDF/A support:
<property as="xs:boolean" name="oxf.fr.pdf.accessibility" value="true"/>
<property as="xs:string"  name="oxf.fr.pdf.pdf/a"         value="3u"/>
oxf.fr.pdf.accessibility
enable or disable accessibility support
values: true or false
default: false
oxf.fr.pdf.pdf/a
enable or disable PDF/A support
values:
none: disabled
1a: PDF/A-1a – Level A (accessible) conformance
1b: PDF/A-1b – Level B (basic) conformance
2a: PDF/A-2a
2b: PDF/A-2b
2u: PDF/A-2b plus Unicode
3a: PDF/A-3a
3b: PDF/A-3b
3u: PDF/A-3b plus Unicode
default: none
Note that the values above are simply passed to the PDF renderer library used by Orbeon Forms. There is currently no guarantee of compliance with the PDF/A standard.
See also
​PDF Production​
​PDF Templates​
​PDF configuration properties​
​Testing PDF production​
​Automatic PDF styling and CSS​
​TIFF Production​
​Sending PDF and TIFF content: Controlling the format​
Blog post: New layout choices for PDF and browser views​
PDF production
PDF templates
Last modified 2mo ago