Using Adobe Offline Forms

1. Designing and Storing the Form Template

You store form templates in a dedicated ECM DC which you create first. For schema-based Adobe forms, you define the form data structure at design time using the XML Schema Designer. You determine the form data with the XML schema and save it as an XSD file. Next, you create an XDP file which you can edit in the ALD. You bind the XDP file to the XML schema and you can further modify the form data and appearance by adding buttons and other elements, for example a picture. The association (bindings) between the field and the form context entry is automatically maintained and can be used for prefilling the form. Only template elements from the XML schema can be prefilled. You can also simply drag and drop a form context entry into the form template to create the relevant input field.

Finally, you have to build and deploy the ECM DC to transport its content into a runtime repository and to be able to browse its content and assign the form to a task.

For more information, see:

• Creating and Editing XSD Files

• Designing and Storing an Offline Form

2. Assigning the Adobe Offline Form to a Task

In design time, after creating a human activity and assigning a task to it, you define a UI component by starting the Offline Form Import Wizard . Next, to assign a form to the task, you browse the ECM repository and select a form template file and an XML schema file to which the form template is bound. In addition to the interface description of the form template's XML schema, the task interface in BPM has form-related input and output parameters separated on a different hierarchical level used in offline form processing, for example e-mail addresses of recipients, text of message, locale, time, and others.

For more information, see Assigning an Offline Form to a Task .

3. Configuring E-mail Submission of Forms

You receive and submit forms as attachments to e-mail messages. BPM framework sends a notification e-mail message to each potential owner of the task. However, there is only one processor of the form who fills and submits the offline form. All other potential owners of the task are notified by e-mail that the task is already completed. The submitted form must be sent to a configured BPM dedicated mailbox. This can be supported by the use of a submit button for e-mail delivery inside the form.

To easily configure the mail and server connectivity properties for BPM notifications and offline forms, you use the Configuration Wizard in SAP NetWeaver Administrator.

For more information, see:

• Configuring Mail, Notification Messages and Forms Services

4. Runtime and Task Management

After the process is initiated, all tasks related to it can be monitored in the  SAP NetWeaver Administrator  Operation Management . You can check the business log and all important events in the history of the process, as well as in the task. For example, in Task Management , you can view details of task instances and check the status of the offline form task. The offline form task can have one of the following statuses:

• Active

• Successfully completed

• Expired - when the task reached the due date

Active state begins with the task initiation and continues until the task is successfully completed or expires. When the potential owner claims and submits the form and it is processed without any errors, the task state becomes Successfully completed .

You can also download as attachments the forms that are sent and submitted back. To do that, in SAP NetWeaver Administrator navigate to  Troubleshooting  Processes and Tasks  Business Logs , select a task that has an offline form assigned to it and use the Attachments tab to download the form.

For more information, see:

• Managing and Monitoring the Processes

• Managing and Monitoring the Tasks