To use forms, you must install an Perceptive Content Forms license. If you need a Forms license, contact your Perceptive Software representative.
Using standard HTML, XSL, and XML, you can use external editing tools, such as Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver to extend the functionality of forms that you create using Form Designer. Form Designer builds a Presentation Template and one Data Definition file. You can expand this by building multiple Presentation Templates for each Data Definition file. You can provide external Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files or add in-line CSS to the XSL file. In addition, you can use JavaScript files for standard numeric functions, data validation functions, or other common functions, such as context-sensitive help.
You deploy a modified form by loading the form files onto the Perceptive Content Forms Server. If you are deploying a form to use with the Perceptive Content Forms Server, you associate the form with a folder type or document type. If you are deploying a form to use in the Forms pane, you can optionally associate the form with any appropriate workflow queues.
The following files are used in forms in Perceptive Content, although you can optionally use CSS, graphics, and JavaScript.
- Presentation Template. This XSL file describes how to present the XML data in the form. You can use many presentations with a single XML source file, so you can create different formatting or views of the data for each form you create. Each presentation can have different security settings. Through these settings, you can control access to your forms. Additionally, external ODBC access is provided through iScript, a scripting language available with Perceptive Content.
- Data Definition. This XML file contains the schema used to save data instances in data content record files. You can also add data to elements in this file to pre-populate fields in your form the first time it is displayed to a user.
- Data Content Record. This XML file contains individual instances of form data based on a corresponding data definition file. The data captured during form processing is stored for viewing, editing, searching, and archiving purposes. Perceptive Content creates and maintains the data content record files for you based on your data definition file. Perceptive Content stores these records as sub-objects.
If you choose not to use Form Designer to create your initial form files, you can use external editing tools to customize example forms. If you are using external editing tools to create form files, the system does not support files encoded with UTF-8 with BOM.