During a recent working session with SAP's Lukas Bretschneider, an SAP S/4 Hana Outputs expert, my colleagues and I have learned of a new way to test form developments in Adobe Livecycle Designer. Previously it was understood that in order to test a form development, one must first upload the form into SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, create new data and view the output in the forms corresponding application. This process would be repeated for each development leading to hours of testing and hundreds of unnecessary clicks.
Currently, SAP has not created a KBA to explain this process, so, in this blog post, I'm going to explain how to download the document's .XML file from SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, upload it to Adobe Lifecycle Designer and test developments locally in Adobe Lifecycle Designer.
Downloading the forms.XML file
In this example, I'm going to be using a Delivery Note.
Prerequisites
- There must be a valid test sample in the system that covers all of the data needed to support your development efforts.
- The following statement will serve as the designated print queue. This statement will be the same across all systems. #&&DOWNLOAD_FORM_DATA_XML&&#
- Once the sample document has been created with all of the data needed to test your development efforts. Go to the document and select the output screen.
- Create a new output record.
- Once the output record has been created, go to "Display Details" and enter "#&&DOWNLOAD_FORM_DATA_XML&&#" in the Print Queue.
- Once the Print Queue has been assigned. Go back to the main output screen and select "Display PDF". ** You may get an alert from the system stating that the Print Queue is not valid. This can be bypassed. **
- Once the .XML file is open, select "Download".
You have successfully downloaded the .XML file that includes the sample data needed to test your development efforts. The next step is uploading the .XML file to Adobe Livecycle Designer.
Uploading the .XML File to Adobe Livecycle Designer
Prerequisites
- Must have Adobe Livecycle Designer ver. 11 ESP4 downloaded and installed on your machine.
- Must have downloaded the form template (in this case it's a Delivery Note) that is being developed
- Open Adobe Livecycle Designer with the appropriate form template loaded.
- Go to "File" and select "Form Properties"
- Select "Preview", upload the .XML file downloaded from SAP S/4 Hana Cloud and select "Dynamic XLM Form" as the Preview. Click OK
You have successfully loaded the .XML file to Adobe Livecycle Designer and you can begin testing your developments within the Designer. Go to the Preview PDF at any time during your development and the PDF will reflect your work based on the data made available thru the .XML file.
To sum this blog post up, we have learned of a new way to test forms in Adobe Livecycle Designer locally without having to upload our custom forms to SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, create test data and view the outputs. This new understanding will save multiple hours of testing and hundreds of clicks.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to adding more valuable content to the SAP S4Hana Cloud Community.