PDF Receipt Options

   Journey Manager (JM) The transaction engine for the platform.  |    System Manager / DevOps  |   19.11 This feature was updated in 19.11.

Manager gives you a number of options to generate a PDF receipt or document of records. The options are:

• Transact PDF Receipts
• XFA Receipts
• Field Overlay Receipts
  • using Acrobat
  • using LiveCycle Designer  |  19.11 This feature was removed in 19.11
  • using Texcel
• Custom Receipt Generation

We not recommend one of these approaches over another - the choice will depend on the requirements of each situation. Each solution has its own pros and cons. In addition, each tool used has a learning curve, and productivity will be determined by the skills of those using it.

Manager PDF Receipts

Manager is able to create a PDF receipt directly from the form design UI. This receipt is very similar to the interactive form, but with a number of modifications to optimize it for printing. These modifications include:

• Reducing the use of color (users often complain that it uses up too much printer ink)
• Removal of the navigational menu, so that the form becomes a single long multi-page document.
• Removal of all interactive features such as buttons and drop-down lists.

The exact optimizations used can be modified by adjusting a Composer skin.

Pros

• Requires no additional configuration or effort. (It is built into the product.)
• Honors all business rules in the form, such as hide-show logic and repeats.

Cons

• Does not generate PDF/A compatible PDFs. This may be a requirement for some organizations.
• Has limited support for headers, footers, and pagination options.
• Some problems have been reported with layouts, particularly character spacing on Linux.
• Since interactive forms tend to be quite spaced out, this can result in lengthy receipts with multiple pages and low field densities.
• Has a different layout to existing paper forms. (This may be an issue for downstream systems or people. This may also result in additional approval steps.)
• Not suitable for the case where a customer partially completes a form interactively, prints it out, and then completes the rest of the form using ink. (This can be achieved with additional effort in the form design.)
• Since the length and layout of the document may vary based on hide-show rules and repeats, the location of fields on the page cannot be guaranteed. This may impact downstream systems such as OCR, imaging, or digital signatures.

XFA Receipts

Composer is able to generate a PDF in XFA format. This is a format suited to high-fidelity PDF documents.

Pros

• Has strong capabilities for producing high-fidelity PDF documents, including headers, footers, and pagination options.
• Text formatting and layout is good.
• Produces PDF/A receipts.
• Honors all business rules in the form, such as hide-show logic and repeats.

Cons

• Requires Adobe LiveCycle. This incurs additional costs, and additional effort to provision and maintain.
• Since interactive forms tend to be quite spaced out, this can result in lengthy receipts with multiple pages and low field densities.
• Has a different layout to existing paper forms. (This may be an issue for downstream systems or people. This may also result in additional approval steps.)
• Not suitable for the case where a customer partially completes a form interactively, prints it out, and then completes the rest of the form using ink. (This can be achieved with additional effort in the form design.)
• Since the length and layout of the document may vary based on hide-show rules and repeats, the location of fields on the page cannot be guaranteed. This may impact downstream systems such as OCR, imaging, or digital signatures.

Field Overlay Receipts

Instead of generating a complete form, it is possible instead to import an existing (flat) PDF form, and lay the data fields over the top of this existing form. Regardless of the technology used to do this field overlay, there are some pros and cons.

Pros

• High fidelity - the receipt will look the same as the existing PDF.
• No need for additional approval steps, as the receipt is the same as the existing document.
• Information density is high, because the existing PDF has probably already been designing to minimize the number of pages.
• This type of form can be used if there is a need to partially complete the form, print it out, and then complete it with pen and ink.
• Receipt PDF is identical to the existing PDF, which will minimize downstream implications, including retraining. It also eliminates the need for additional approvals.
• PDF/A supported.

Cons

• Additional development effect is required to perform the task of overlaying the data fields over the top of the existing PDF.
• Additional development effort is required to map the XML data fields into a flat field naming structure. This can be done either within Composer, or using a mapping file in Manager.
• Hide or show rules are not honored. All fields are always displayed.
• Repeats are only honored to the extent that they are repeated on the original form. The form designer must be careful not to allow more repeats that are presented on the PDF. Mapping of repeats can be complicated.
• Field lengths must be limited in the interactive form to ensure that they don't overflow the space allocated on the PDF.
• Multi-line text must be controlled carefully to ensure they they don't overflow the space allowed in the PDF.
• Requires very detailed work to accurately size and place fields so that they match the underlying PDF.
• To some extent, the ability to re-design the data entry experience is limited. In particular, no new fields can be added, since there is nowhere to place them.

Field Overlay Receipts Using Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat has the ability to overlay fields over the top of an existing flat PDF. This uses a technology known as AcroForms.

Pros

• Relatively inexpensive per-seat development license.
• Makes no modifications to underlying PDF, and so the receipt maintains 100% fidelity with the original PDF.
• Manager supports AcroForms technology with no additional provision or configuration.
• Has a field recognition feature, which allows fields to be automatically recognized. This can save a lot of time, particularly when large numbers of PDF forms need to be converted. The effectiveness of this feature varies widely, based on the specifics of particular documents. It is suggested that this feature be tested against a representative sample of documents before being used on large scale.

Cons

• The field creation and editing environment within Acrobat is considered by many to be quite rudimentary, particularly for larger forms, though this is subject to personal preferences.
• No ability to modify the underlying PDF document. For example, to remove explanatory text that may be inappropriate, or to make minor modifications to the form.
• If a new version of the underlying PDF document is produced, then the entire process needs to be repeated on the new document. Copying and pasting fields may help in some cases.

Field Overlay Receipts Using Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Adobe LiveCycle Designer has the ability to overlay fields over the top of an existing PDF document.

Pros

• Relatively inexpensive per-seat development license.
• Makes no modifications to underlying PDF, and so the receipt maintains 100% fidelity with the original PDF.
• The field editing and creation environment is reportedly better than Acrobat, though this is subject to personal preferences.

Cons

• Requires Adobe LiveCycle. This incurs additional costs, and additional effort to provision and maintain.
• No ability to modify the underlying PDF document. For example, to remove explanatory text that may be inappropriate, or to make minor modifications to the form.
• If a new version of the underlying PDF document is produced, then the entire process needs to be repeated on the new document. Copying and pasting fields may help in some cases.

Field Overlay Receipts Using Texcel

Texcel FormBridge is a third-party product that can intelligently recognize fields in an existing PDF document. In many cases, this results in a very quick conversion of existing PDF documents into AcroForms which can then be imported into Manager. Some manual cleanup is almost always required. This is particularly useful when large numbers of PDFs need to be converted.

In addition, Texcel will also produce a list of fields and their attributes. These field definitions can be imported into Composer, and uses as the basis for the form design in Composer. This can accelerate the production of forms in Composer, as well as automate the mapping of fields between Composer and the generated AcroForm.

The effectiveness of the conversion is dependent on the structure of the original PDF documents. It is suggested that this feature be tested against a representative sample of documents before being used on large scale.

Pros

• Automated recognition of fields can save a lot of time.
• The recognized fields are used both to generate a AcroForm PDF, and to import into Composer as a starting point for building the interactive form.
• In addition, the boilerplate text such as instructions, product disclosures and legal copy are also able to be imported into Composer, reducing the amount of effort in doing this.
• Strong and capable editing environment.
• The underlying PDF document is converted into lines and text. This means that the PDF itself is editable, if this is required.

Cons

• Texcel incurs additional cost to convert each page of the original PDF.
• Because the underlying PDF is converted, there may be some differences between the original PDF and the generated one. The differences, if any, will depend on how the original PDF was constructed. Some configuration options in Texcel can be tuned, but ultimately, Texcel should be tested on sample documents.

Custom Receipt Generation

Any third-party tools or systems can be used to generate PDF receipts, as long as these systems have an interface that can be invoked from Manager.

Pros

• No limits as to what can be achieved.

Cons

• The third-party tools systems must be purchased, provisioned and managed.
• A Manager service must be developed that can invoke the receipt service.
• PDF receipts can be quite large. If the system is not hosted close to Manager, this may incur processing delays or bandwidth costs.

Next, learn how to configure receipts server node.