© 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction to Lotus Forms Viewer
Lotus Forms Technical EnablementAugust 2009
IBM Software Group
IBM Confidential | September 2007
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IBM Software Group
Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Outline
What’s new in 3.5.1 Using the Viewer Setting the Preferences Smartfill Form-based Viewer Settings
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
What’s new in 3.5.1
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IBM Software Group
Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
What’s new in 3.5.1
Improved Performance– The speed increase is most noticeable when rendering forms with many items or
forms with items that are refreshed such as tables and panes
Added support for Business Spaces 6.2.0.1 Numerous bug fixes
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Using the Viewer
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
What is the Viewer?
Client-side application for viewing and filling Lotus Forms– Installed on the end-user’s computer
– Draws the visual form based on the XFDL source code
– Allows user to interact with and fill form
– Enforces and maintains the internal logic of the form
Works in two modes: as a stand-alone application or as a browser plug-in
– Stand-alone – Viewer opens by itself to show form
– Plug-in – Viewer opens embedded in a web browser to show the form
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Stand-alone Viewer
Viewer opens by itself to display form
Default behavior when double-clicking form on local file system
Can email and submit forms across the network, even though browser is not open
Viewer Toolbar
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Plug-in Viewer
Viewer opens embedded in a browser
Default behavior when opening a form from a website
Viewer Toolbar
Browser Toolbar
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Using the Viewer Toolbar
Provides quick access to commonly used features
Some buttons may be missing or grayed out, depending on the form– Some buttons are not always active
– Font and Paragraph buttons only available if page contains rich text– Check spelling button only available if focus is in a field or combobox– Help mode button only available if page contains help messages
– Form itself can dictate which buttons are available (discussed later)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Toolbar Buttons Open
Save
Save As
Preferences
Font (rich text only)
Paragraph (rich text only)
Check spelling (current item)
Check spelling (all items)
Zoom out
Zoom in
Zoom Factor
Context Help
Help
About
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Filling Forms: Dates
To enter today’s date, type an asterisk and tab out of the field
The asterisk is automatically replaced with today’s date
– The date is retrieved from your computer’s system clock
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Filling Forms: Mandatory Input
Mandatory input is shown by a yellow color
If you don’t enter something, you will be prompted when you try to tab out of the field
Tab a second time to leave the field without entering anything– You can change this through a preferences setting
Users who try to submit/save/sign/print without all mandatory information are warned, and asked to confirm their action
– You can override this behavior on a form-by-form basis (discussed later)
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Filling Forms: Input Checking
You can set the Viewer to use predictive input checking
When predictive input checking is enabled (default) the Viewer checks for errors as you type
You can turn off predictive input checking by de-selecting the Do Predictive Input Checking checkbox in the Input panel of the Viewer Preferences
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Filling Forms: Predictive Input Checking
This means the Viewer checks your input as you type
A field may restrict data entry to numbers that follow a phone number pattern
In this case, the Viewer will not let you enter invalid data
– Typing “250 asd” will only enter “250”
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Filling Forms: Regular Input Checking
The Viewer checks your input when you try to tab to the next item
For example, consider the same phone number field
You can type invalid data, but it is flagged when you try to tab out
– You can’t tab out the first time
– You can tab a second time to leave the field with bad data
– Number of tabs required can be configured in preferences
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Filling Forms: Help Messages
Each item in a form can have a help message (depends on form design)
To see the help message, you must:
– Enter help mode by clicking the Help Mode button in the toolbar
– Move the pointer over an item with help
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Help Messages
Help messages are also shown with error messages– Shown even if you do not have Help Mode turned on
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Setting the Preferences
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
About the Preferences
The Viewer Preferences set default behavior for the Viewer
The Preferences are divided into four sections:– Basic – browser accessibility setup
– Input Options – type checking, date format, tabbing, and Smartfill
– Printing Options – page layout and other options
– Advanced – locale setting, security options, and others
Some changes are applied as soon as you save the Preferences; other changes are applied once you close then re-open your form
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Preferences: Basic (1/4)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Basic (2/3)
WWW Browser Configuration– Network access – sets how submitted forms are handled:
– Online – forms are submitted and closed.
– Online with backup – forms are submitted, backed up locally, then closed.
– Offline – you cannot submit forms.
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Preferences: Basic (3/3)
Accessibility Configuration– Enhanced Focus Indicator
– Viewer uses a small black square in addition to the normal cursor to show the location of the focus on the form
– Square appears at top left of item that has focus
– Operating System Colors
– Viewer uses the colors defined by the OS
– This does not affect the form itself, only the windows and dialogs around it
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Input Options (1/3)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Input Options (2/3)
Type Checking Options– Predictive Input Checking
– When on, Viewer checks input as the user types and prevents bad input
– When off, Viewer checks input when the user tabs out of the item and alerts user if input is bad
Date Formats– Sets the format the user prefers to use when typing in a date
– Viewer will automatically convert user’s input to field’s format, if different
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Input Options (3/3)
Tabbing Options– When on, stops user from tabbing out of invalid or empty items; user must tab a
second time to leave item
– When off, user can leave item normally (with single tab)
Smartfill– Enables/Disables Smartfill feature
– Discussed in more detail later
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Printing Options (1/3)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Printing Options (2/3)
Conversion Options– Use these options to print items differently than they show on-screen
– Includes:
– Radios as check boxes
– Radios without values
– No scroll bars on fields
– Fields as blank lines
– Border around entire form
Page Layout Defaults– Sets default page layout for printing (eg. Fit to page, tile, etc.)
– The printsettings option in individual forms can override this
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Printing Options (3/3)
Miscellaneous Options
– Print each page as a separate job
– Used for printers that do not have enough memory for the whole form as a single print job
– Print black and white (excluding images)
– Corrects problems printing color forms
– Prints the form in grayscale
– Images remain in color
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Advanced (1/4)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Advanced (2/4)
Form Appearance Options
– Show boundary
– Draws a boundary around all items (bounding box)
– intended to help when designing forms
– Use ‘X’ style check boxes
– Check boxes display an X rather than a check when selected
– Scroll fields on zoom
– Zooming sometimes makes small changes to word-wrapping, which can cause a few words to extend beyond bottom of field
– Adds scrollbars to zoomed fields when required to show all text
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Advanced (3/4)
Viewer Language
– Locale
– Sets the default locale for the Viewer
– Affects the Viewer’s dialogs, tooltips, and so on
– Does not affect the form itself
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Preferences: Advanced (4/4)
Security Options
– Identity filter
– Filters digital certificates on the local computer based on the user’s identity
– Check CRL Distribution Points
– Checks certificate revocation lists online to be sure latest lists are used
– Can slow down signing process
– Must be connected to network
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Smartfill
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
What is Smartfill?
Automatically completes sections of the form for the user– Simple pre-population
– Loads information from the user’s computer
– Must be built in to the form the user is completing
Useful for adding commonly used information to the form– Name
– Address
– Telephone
– Etc.
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
How Smartfill Works
When you first save or submit a form that uses Smartfill, it will offer to save your information
This information is saved to a file on the user’s computer– Written as an XML fragment in a text file
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How Smartfill Works
The next time you load a form that uses that information, the Viewer will offer to load the information for you
If you accept, the Viewer reads this information from the file already stored on the user’s computer
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Smartfill: Uses and Limitations (1)
Smartfill has some limitations– Each form must be individually set to use Smartfill
– Each form must use the same data structure for common information
Because of this, Smartfill is most useful for:– A set of forms from the same organization (such as a corporation or government),
where you have centralized control over data re-use between forms
Because data is written to a file on disk, Smartfill is not suitable for:– Sensitive data, such as credit card information
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Smartfill: Uses and Limitations (2)
Smartfill requires XML Data Model– Only forms with an XML Data Model can use Smartfill
XForms forms can simulate Smartfill by using an XForms submit– Can write data to/read data from disk just like Smartfill
– Does not show the load/save dialogs to the user
– User has no warning that data is being read from or written to disk
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Form-based Viewer Settings
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IBM Software Group
Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
About Form-based Viewer Settings
Individual forms can control the Viewer in various ways. For example, they can affect:– The color used for error messages
– Whether the user can submit a form with a formatting error in it
– Which toolbar buttons are available in the Viewer
– And others…
These settings are specific to a single form– The form itself controls the Viewer
– The next form in the sequence can make different settings if desired
Can include as many settings as needed
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
Adding Form-based Settings
... <globalpage sid="global"> <global sid="global"> <ufv_settings> setting1
setting2 ... </ufv_settings> </global> </globalpage>...
Settings are placed within the ufv_settings option
Each setting is a child of the ufv_settings
option
ufv_settings is a child of the global item in the global page (or the
global item of any page)
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Viewer 3.5.1 | Training | IBM Confidential © 2009 IBM Corporation
More on ufv_settings
Pages inherit ufv_settings from the form global
ufv_settings on individual pages override any form global settings– Note that ufv_settings acts as a single option for inheritence – either all settings are
inherited or no settings are inherited
– This means that a single setting on a page will override all settings in the form global
Not all settings are valid at the page level
See the product documentation for descriptions and examples of the various ufv_settings that affect how the form is handled in the Vieiwer