> 1) Can LCDS take XDP files made in LiveCycle Designer > and intelligently merge them with XML to create PDFs? > (I notice in the java code in the LCDS sample, the pdf > is hard coded as a '.pdf' file.)
[Pete] You need a valid LCDS license to do PDF generation in general, however, in the final release you will be able to use raw XDP files as inputs too (a new API was added after Beta 2 to allow this). So, to summarize, you have to options: A. Use LiveCycle Designer to create a PDF shell document (containing XDP + XFA template), import XFA dataset and generate a PDF that can target Acrobat Reader 7 and later. B. Use LiveCycle Designer OR your own method to create a raw XDP document that contains an XFA template. You import the XFA dataset and generate a PDF that can target Acrobat Reader 8 (and later). The restrictions are that you cannot use PDF chunk elements in your XDP and you must specify the dynamicRender option in your XFA. > 2) Is there any other way to make the PDF/XDP > templates other than LiveCycle Designer? [Pete] You could construct these yourself, depending on how good your XFA knowledge is. Wrapping an XFA inside an XDP is simple enough. > 3) Does the client need Acrobat Reader to open the > generated PDF's or will Mac Preview open them? > (I had trouble opening them with Preview) [Pete] It depends on whether the non-Acrobat reader can support XFA templates + dynamic datasets.
