Automatic PDF
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.
[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.
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>
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"
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"/>
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"/>
[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).
[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"/>
Last modified 9d ago