Macromedia LiveCycle - ES3 User Guide

ADOBE® LIVECYCLE® ES3 OVERVIEW

Legal notices

For legal notices, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/legalnotices/index.html.

Last updated 3/7/2012

Chapter 1: About This Document

Who should read this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Key LiveCycle components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

LiveCycle example scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Adobe Correspondence Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 3: Foundation

Process coordination and service management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Common architectural foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

User management and authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Launch Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

iii

Chapter 4: LiveCycle Development Tools

LiveCycle Application Development Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Model and create processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Design forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Build components and client applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 5: LiveCycle Modules

Enterprise Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 6: Business Process Management

Process Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Content Services (Deprecated) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 7: Forms automation

Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Reader Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 8: Document information and security

Rights Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Digital Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Chapter 9: Communications management

Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Production Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

PDF Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Correspondence Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

Contents

Chapter 10: Content Management

Connectors for ECM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 11: Services for LiveCycle Modules

Common category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Connector for EMC Documentum category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Connector for IBM Content Manager category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Connector for IBM FileNet category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Connector for SharePoint category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Content Services category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Digital Signatures category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Forms category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Foundation category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Output category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

PDF Generator category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Reader Extensions category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Rights Management category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Output category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Process Management category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Last updated 3/7/2012

Chapter 1: About This Document

Adobe® LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite 3 (ES3) software enables organizations to automate and accelerate the flow of business-critical information among employees, customers, suppliers, and constituents.

This document provides an overview of Adobe LiveCycle.

Who should read this document

This document is intended for business analysts, form authors, process developers, and programmers who need to know how they can use LiveCycle to accomplish the following:

• Design business processes

• Create forms

• Develop process diagrams or client applications to start the business processes

This document is also useful to administrators who plan to install, configure, or administer LiveCycle.

Additional information

The resources in this table can help you learn more about LiveCycle.

For information about See

Preparing to install LiveCycle Preparing to Install LiveCycle (Single Server)

Preparing to Install LiveCycle (Server Cluster)

Installing and deploying LiveCycle Installing and Deploying LiveCycle Using JBoss Turnkeyor Installing

Installing and configuring LiveCycle Workbench 10 Installing LiveCycle Workbench 10

How to create your first LiveCycle application Creating Your First LiveCycle Application

Descriptions of LiveCycle services Services Reference for LiveCycle

Other services and products that integrate with LiveCycle www.adobe.com

Patch updates, technical notes, and additional information about this product version

and Deploying LiveCycle for JBoss

Installing and Deploying LiveCycle for WebSphere

Installing and Deploying LiveCycle for WebLogic

Adobe LiveCycle Technical Support

Last updated 3/7/2012

Chapter 2: About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3 (ES3) is an enterprise server platform that enables organizations to automate and streamline business processes that span systems, business rules, and departments. The platform provides all the tools required to design, implement, and automate the documents and processes that are used by your organization. Your organization can use these processes internally and with external customers and stakeholders.

Faster time-to-value

LiveCycle provides a faster time-to-value through a seamless, tightly integrated development environment that utilizes LiveCycle for faster development.

Model-driven application development in LiveCycle enables business analysts or developers to graphically define data objects and their behaviors. They can use these definitions to create rich user interfaces with little or no coding. Services for managing these objects are automatically generated; user interfaces are bound to these services by using a simple drag-and-drop interface. The common data model allows modular building blocks to be built for use in common workflows, resulting in consistency and efficiency. The common data model also allows developers to create applications faster and collaborate more effectively. Developers can view data across processes or components and identify the relationships between them.

LiveCycle provides streamlined development with the reduced number of steps it takes to complete development tasks. Team-based features allow administrators to control which developer or development team can access which assets. Control and collaboration is possible through check-in and check-out capabilities.

Rich user experiences

LiveCycle combines Adobe PDF and Adobe Flex® technology to provide a unified developer experience for creating applications that can provide more engaging user experiences.

Guides (deprecated) minimize the skill set required for building processes and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). For example, business analysts can now create Guides (deprecated) based on the data model they define without help from a developer. Business analysts can preview and quickly create Guides (deprecated) and submit them to a workflow with virtually no coding or Java™ skills. Guides (deprecated) also provide support for built-in validation and formatting styles for data such as credit card numbers.

Important: Effective March 10th, 2012, Adobe is deprecating the Guides capabilities of Adobe® LiveCycle® ES. The Guides functionality is available for upgrade purposes only and will be removed from the product after two major releases.

Performance and productivity

Application building blocks allow developers to reuse components in repeatable tasks. Business users can simplify daily tasks, customize their workspace, collaborate with others through screen sharing, VoIP, or instant messaging.

Workbench is an Eclipse-based development environment you can use to create and manage business processes and the forms that are used in those processes.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Key LiveCycle components

LiveCycle provides the resources that business analysts, form and application developers, and administrators require to create and deliver applications that support user interaction in cross-platform technologies, including Adobe Reader®, HTML, and Adobe Flash®.

Foundation and modules are installed and deployed by using a single installation and deployment framework. The resultant suite integrates into a unified solution, which plugs into an enterprise back-end environment and supports various cross-platform clients for end-user interaction.

Foundation

Foundation provides the underlying server capabilities that enable the deployment, execution, and management of modules. Foundation consists of several pieces.

Foundation components

Components that enable the LiveCycle Server to integrate with a common IT infrastructure. For example, these components can enable the following tasks:

• Querying a directory through LDAP

• Sending and receiving email

• Querying a relational database

• Writing files to the file system

Service container

The service container provides the common run-time environment to support all modules and associated services.

Administration tools

Foundation includes several administration tools:

LiveCycle Administration Console: A web-based interface that system administrators use to manage a LiveCycle

deployment. The key features are as follows:

• Administration pages for modules and services

• Configuration of server settings, such as port numbers

• Configuration of users, user groups, roles, and associated permissions

• Deployment and configuration of LiveCycle applications

See LiveCycle Administration Console.

Configuration Manager: Enables the configuration and deployment of the product, including adding service packs

and patches.

LiveCycle Launch Pad: An Adobe AIR® client application that provides access from your desktop to the services on

your LiveCycle Server.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

LiveCycle modules

Modules provide the functional services that are required to build customer engagement applications that can be deployed to the LiveCycle Server. Here are examples of some of the business functions module offer:

• Capturing data in Guides (deprecated)

• Encrypting PDF documents

• Applying policies or usage rights to PDF documents

• Converting an image to PDF

• Remote invocation of services

Any additional modules you deploy provide the specific business functions that you build LiveCycle applications on. Some modules, such as LiveCycle Rights Management and LiveCycle Reader Extensions, include web-based interfaces that let users interact with components. For example, users can use the interfaces to apply policies or usage rights to documents that are part of a business processes. LiveCycle Workspace lets end users initiate and participate in formbased business processes.

Modules typically consume documents or produce documents. Module components can perform any of the following tasks:

• Render PDF forms

• Encrypt PDF documents with passwords

• Apply digital signatures to PDF documents

• Merge data into a simple PDF form

• Assemble information from multiple PDF documents into a single document

Using development tools, you can combine process management with electronic forms, document security, and document generation into a LiveCycle application. The application integrates components to ensure that business processes work inside and outside the firewall, and for users in online and offline environments.

Enterprise Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)

Data Services Integrate RIAs with LiveCycle, Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications, and business

logic.

Business process management

LiveCycle Process Management Streamline human-centric business processes across your firewall.

Forms automation

LiveCycle Forms Deploy interactive XML-based forms in Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, or web browsers.

Reader Extensions Fill, sign, comment on, or save PDF files using only Adobe Reader.

Document and information security

Rights Management Manage usage rights to protect sensitive documents in PDF, Microsoft Office, or CAD formats.

LiveCycle Digital Signatures Automate the signing, certification, and validation of digital signatures in PDF

documents.

Communications management

LiveCycle Output Dynamically generate personalized documents on demand in print and electronic formats.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

LiveCycle Production Print Dynamically generate personalized documents for high-volume printing and enveloping

LiveCycle PDF Generator Automate the creation and assembly of PDF documents from virtually any file format.

Correspondence Management enables you to quickly assemble correspondence from both pre-approved and custom-

authored content in a streamlined process from creation to archival.

Content management

Connectors for ECM Extend your LiveCycle applications to connect with industry-leading enterprise content

management (ECM) systems.

LiveCycle development tools

LiveCycle provides development tools so that various users, from business analysts to (J2EE) developers, can collaborate on the design, development, testing, and deployment of a LiveCycle application.

LiveCycle Workbench ES3: An Eclipse-based development environment that lets users build applications that consist

of forms and business processes. Form developers can create forms that have either a fixed layout or a flowable layout. A fixed layout remains exactly as it was designed; it does not change to accommodate the amount of incoming data). A flowable layout expands or shrinks to accommodate the amount of data being merged or entered. These forms can be rendered by using a number of client technologies, such as PDF, HTML, and Flash. Business analysts and process developers can use Workbench to design and deploy business processes that leverage the modules.

LiveCycle Designer: A graphical form design tool that simplifies the creation of forms. Form designers can create

applications that generate dynamic, data-driven documents and produce customized business documents for print, web, or archival. They can build and maintain data capture solutions that read from, validate against, and add to corporate data sources. With Designer, form developers can integrate PDF documents into existing workflows by binding forms to XML schemas, XML sample files, databases, and web services. They can merge forms and documents that are created in Designer with business data and render them as many file types. Some of these file types are PDF and printing for PCL, Adobe PostScript® and Zebra (ZPL) printers.

Adobe Flash® Builder™: An Eclipse-based development environment for developing RIAs with the Flex framework.

Using Flash Builder 4.5, developers can quickly build and deploy applications that are expressive, intuitive, and interactive. Using Flash Builder, they can also customize their applications to ensure an appearance that represents the needs of end users.

LiveCycle SDK: Provides developers with samples and tools that they can use to build new LiveCycle applications or

integrate with existing applications.

Architecture

LiveCycle implements a service-oriented architecture that relies on loosely coupled software services to support business processes and perform operations on documents. Services run within the service container.

The service container is an extensible component model based on software-oriented architecture (SOA) principles; components can be added, upgraded, reused, or removed with minimal administration. Components are independent units of functionality that plug into the service container for deploying, orchestrating, and executing services. The service container coordinates and monitors the components.

The service container can host any number of services and provides the infrastructure necessary to discover, execute and deploy, secure, run, and configure the services.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

The service container provides a consistent way to interact with the services within the container, repository, and enterprise integration, regardless of the invocation method. Services can be called by using Java APIs, web services, watched folders, or email. Service endpoints are also exposed as destinations that RIAs can easily call.

This illustration provides a closer view of how the key product components fit together within the server architecture.

User Interface Technologies

PDF + XML

Flash® and Flex®

HTML + AJAX

Development Tools

Workbench

Design Forms Model and Create Processes

Flash® Builder™

Programming Languages

ActionScript/Flex

Java™

.Net

Cross-platform Clients and Enterprise Portals

Adobe Reader®

Flex

Standards, Technologies, and Protocols

HTML Mobile

Consistent Object and Event Models

Consistent Architectural Models

Service Container

Repository

Forms

Processes

Mortgage

Loan

Flex

Applications

Service Provider Interf ace — Foundation Components — JCA Adapters — ECM Connectors

Invocation Layer

Web Services | Java APIs | Remoting | Email | Watched Folders

LiveCycle Services

Customer-Dened Services

Data Management

Messaging

Forms

Process Engine

Job Management

Rights Management

Signature

Output

Monitoring

Event Framework

Reader Extensions

Generate PDF

Versioning

Auditing

. . .

Component Framework

Service Registry

End-User Applications

Workspace

Start Processes To Do Tracking

Contentspace (deprecated)

Shared Spaces Content library

Rights Management Console

Manage Policies Audit Documents

Reader Extensions Console

Apply Usage Rights

Administrative Tools

Administration Console Conguration Manager User Manager

Customer Applications, Systems, and Devices

Fax Servers and Devices Enterprise Information Systems Databases Directories ECM Repository Message Queues Legacy SystemsPrinters

The development area includes Workbench tools and the repository. Development of forms and Guides (deprecated), process flows, and related collateral is done in Workbench. The Eclipse-based development environment can also include Flash Builder (available separately). You can use Flash Builder to develop RIAs, create custom components for use in Guides (deprecated), customize Workspace, and more. (See

LiveCycle Workspace Help.)

The resultant design assets are stored in the repository, which provides versioning and maintains resource dependencies. This central storage and maintenance model promotes the reusability of artifacts, enables developers to collaborate on application development, and provides security within the development environment.

The common invocation layer ensures consistent interaction with the server through various invocation methods. It supports programmatic and non-programmatic invocation methods, including web services, Java APIs, watched folders, and email-based invocation methods. All of these invocation methods are available to use with any service.

LiveCycle provides integration adapters to ensure compatibility with your enterprise back-end systems. These backend systems include user directories, authentication systems, ECM systems, web services, JMS, Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), and email.

The LiveCycle service-oriented architecture maximizes the scalability and reusability of services. It ensures that you can easily add, remove, and upgrade services. User authentication, service deployment, and invocation are all managed within a common server infrastructure to ensure system security and performance.

Using cross-platform clients, such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, and Adobe AIR™, you can ensure that your applications will be easily accessible, immediately usable, and consistent across platforms and devices.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

The Adobe AIR run time lets developers use proven web technologies to build RIAs that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems. Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way to engage customers with innovative, branded, desktop applications without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes.

LiveCycle example scenarios

Submit and approval using a Guide (deprecated)

In this example, a bank client applies for a loan through a bank portal. The client fills, signs, and submits an application through a Guide (deprecated), and then Workspace is used to review the loan application. When approved or rejected, the application is sent back to the client.

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LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Submit and approve a PDF form using Workspace

In this example, a loan application form is submitted, reviewed, and approved using Workspace.

Generate customer correspondence

Adobe Correspondence Management

Adobe™ provides frameworks that bundle the LiveCycle modules required to develop solutions, together with readyto-use solution-specific components. These include solution-specific documentation and templates to use as sample implementations. These solution templates assist with the building of proof of concept projects and accelerate development of production solutions.

Correspondence Management: Automates various types of correspondence, from welcome packages and confirmations to proposals and claim letters. Business users can intuitively assemble individualized customer correspondence with pre-approved content blocks, interactive media elements, and pre-filled electronic forms. The letter is delivered securely to the customer, enabling them to fill in and submit the appropriate information, eliminating wasteful paper submissions.

Deployment

Deployment possibilities for LiveCycle are flexible. You can deploy it as a single stand-alone server running single or multiple modules or as a volume production system running multiple modules on clustered servers.

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Web

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

The following sections describe single-node deployment for a small production system, clustered deployment for volume production in an enterprise environment, and an example of deployment phases.

Single node deployment

A single node deployment is useful for running simple jobs. For example, PDF Generator can be deployed to a single node for converting Microsoft Office documents to PDF documents.

You can install and deploy LiveCycle on a single application server instance by using the turnkey method. Installing on a single application server installs and deploys an instance of the Red Hat® JBoss Application Server and the MySQL database server. It also deploys LiveCycle to the application server as a complete and ready-to-use application.

You can configure and deploy LiveCycle automatically to IBM® WebSphere Application Server or Oracle® WebLogic Server if they are already set up. In this case, you must also install a database server. You can install the database, as well as Workbench or the LiveCycle SDK, on the same computer or a separate computer.

External clients

Fill forms

Sign docs

Submit data

Firewall• Firewall • Firewall

Web server

Firewall• Firewall • Firewall

J2EE Application Server

Web

Workspace

Rights Management

Reader Extensions

Administration Console

EJB

Modules

User management

Email, watched folders

Processes repository

LDAP congurations

Internal browser clients

Administer product

Create policies

Apply usage rights

Customize Workspace

Design forms

Develop processes

Create Guides

(deprecated)

Workbench

Clustered deployment

The structure of the single node deployment is replicated in a clustered enterprise deployment but on a larger scale. In larger scale deployments, database and LDAP servers are typically located remotely, and a more rigorous distinction between development, testing, and production environments is implemented. (See

(Server Cluster) .

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Preparing to Install LiveCycle

LIVECYCLE ES3 OVERVIEW

About Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Deployment phases

In an enterprise-wide deployment, the system is set up so that several people have different roles in the system. For example, an IT administrator installs and deploys the production system (and possibly the testing system), and sets up the security infrastructure. Form developers design forms and Guides (deprecated); process developers design processes; administrators deploy services, manage server performance, and so on. The system integrates with the organization’s back-end database infrastructure.

Typically, various users use LiveCycle in three phases:

Development: Form authors, process developers, or programmers use the development and programming tools to

create processes and custom applications for deployment.

Staging: Administrators and testers deploy and test the applications in a system that mimics the final production

deployment scenario.

Production: Administrators deploy, monitor, and maintain services and applications. End users interact with services

within and outside your organization (and within and outside the firewall).

Staging Production

Permanent

Storage

LC 2

LC 3

LC 1

LC 2

Customers

beyond rewall

LiveCycle

SDK

Workbench

Development

LiveCycle

Chapter 3: Foundation

Foundation provides the underlying server capabilities on which LiveCycle solutions can be built. Included in every LiveCycle installation, Foundation provides all the tools required for application development, invocation, management, and administration. It also integrates with your organization’s existing infrastructure of databases and LDAP systems, and works to assemble the services invoked by deployed processes.

Foundation includes the following services and components that integrate so that you can deploy and manage business documents and processes:

• Process coordination and service management

• Common architectural foundation

• User management

• Event management

• Administration Console

• Launch Pad

Process coordination and service management

Foundation provides a common run-time environment, or service container, for all services that run in LiveCycle. This common environment facilitates process coordination, enabling developers to link multiple modules in a process.

Backup and restore

LiveCycle is designed to be deployed in a mission-critical environment, where appropriate disaster-recovery procedures are in place. To help ensure recovery from failure, you can now back up the LiveCycle system while it is running. This feature allows maintenance of longer up times while at the same time minimizing data loss in the event of a disaster.

IPv6 support

LiveCycle now provides support for Internet Protocol version v6 (IPv6), the successor to the current Internet protocol version in general use on the Internet.

JMX support

To enable system administrators to fine-tune their environment and view availability through tools, such as HP OpenView or IBM Tivoli, using LiveCycle, you can view system level metrics. For example, you can view the number of invocations per second through the Java Management Extensions (JMX) standard.

Job management and monitoring

The Job Manager service can asynchronously invoke a component and retrieve the persisted results as well as monitor the execution of each invocation.

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Foundation

Using the Job Manager service API, developers can do these tasks:

• Create a new asynchronous job using the specified invocation request.

• Complete an existing job using the specified invocation response.

• Terminate, suspend, or resume an existing job identified by the specified job ID.

• Get the job ID that represents the status of a long-lived process. The job status indicates whether a job was queued,

running, completed, terminated, suspended, or resumed. The status can also indicate whether a request was issued to complete, terminate, suspend, or resume a job.

For more information about invoking long-lived processes, see Programming with LiveCycle

For information about managing processes using Administration Console, see the LiveCycle Administration

Console Help.

Process archive and deletion

LiveCycle now provides a set of APIs and sample scripts so that administrators can delete completed processes, including the ability to define queries. An example is deleting all purchase order processes with a value under $10,000 completed more than 6 months ago. With this feature, you can better manage the process data and audit information within the database.

Repository and service registry

The repository provides the capability to manage the assets that developers create as part of their LiveCycle applications.

Developers can access the repository by using the Form Design perspective in Workbench or programmatically using the repository API. A developer must be granted access before accessing the repository. Each time a developer uses Workbench, a connection to the repository is made. The repository is exposed as a hierarchical directory structure. One or more developers can share the repository from Workbench.

Staging and production systems each have their own repository. For example, an organization’s quality assurance team tests a service in their staging environment. When the tests are successful, the team deploys the service into their production environment. When a service is deployed into production, it has no dependency on any design-time assets in the staging environment’s repository. The organization can optionally use the service registry’s access control mechanisms to restrict access to the service deployed in the production environment. This enables the organization to pilot a deployment with a restricted group of users.

Registering assets and services

The repository provides storage capabilities. When a developer creates an application, the developer can deploy the assets in the repository instead of deploying them on a file system. The assets may consist of XML forms, PDF forms (including Acrobat forms), fragments, images, processes, profiles, policies, DDX files, XML schemas, WSDL files, SWF files, and test data.

The repository tracks the version of each asset in a LiveCycle application. At run time, services can retrieve assets from the repository as part of completing an automated business process.

Creating LiveCycle applications

The repository maintains dependency relationships among all the assets it manages. LiveCycle uses these dependency relationships to assemble all the necessary assets into a LiveCycle application.

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Foundation

The application manager supports packaging the assets that are part of a LiveCycle application into a LiveCycle archive file. The archive file facilitates the transfer of an application from development to staging to production.

When a LiveCycle application is deployed, all the assets within it are also deployed. The process of deploying some of those assets results in services being registered in the service registry, which can be invoked by the Invocation framework.

For example, when a process is deployed, a service entry is created in the service registry that allows the process to be invoked as a service. If the service is published, a WSDL file is created and added to the service registry, along with the necessary metadata that the LiveCycle SDK framework uses to invoke the service.

Service registry

The service registry is used at run time to resolve the name of a service to an actual endpoint in the service container. Many different versions of a service can be deployed at any one time in the service registry. The Invocation framework, along with version information provided by the calling application, is used to bind the correct version of the service.

Services require a service container to run, similar to how Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) require a J2EE container. LiveCycle includes only one implementation of a service container. This implementation is responsible for managing the life cycle of a service, including deploying it and ensuring that requests are sent to the correct service. The service container is also responsible for managing documents that are consumed and produced by a service.

For more information about the service container, see Programming with LiveCycle.

Scripted deployment

Scripted deployment lets you automate the deployment of applications from a development environment to a staging or production environment.

The contents of a LiveCycle archive are extended to include service configurations, endpoint information, and security profiles. A set of sample scripts are available to use as a starting point when modifying environmental parameters. With these scripts you can modify such parameters as port numbers and host names that differ from one environment to another.

Common architectural foundation

Foundation provides a common architectural foundation that enables a solution component to participate in processes. It provides a common invocation mechanism that ensures consistent access to components, services, and processes. This access is accomplished using the following methods:

• Java API

• Web services

• Watched folders

• Flex Remoting Service

• Representational State Transfer (REST)

• Email

Foundation also provides a consistent set of public APIs and SPIs. Strongly-typed Java libraries are consistent regardless of the transport protocol used (RMI or SOAP).

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Foundation

Services can be programmatically invoked from client applications that are developed by using a Java integrated development environment (IDE). You can also invoke services from a Flex or Ajax RIA by using Data Services.

To develop a client application in a Java development environment, use Java APIs. LiveCycle also enables client applications to invoke its services by using web services:

Invocation API: A Java API that can be used to programmatically invoke any service. Use the Invocation API to

invoke services, such as coordinate services that do not have strongly-typed APIs.

Strongly-typed Java API: A Java API that is used to invoke a specific service. A strongly-typed API is known as a

service client and is used to invoke only a specific service. That is, you cannot use a service client that belongs to one service to invoke another service. These APIs can use RMI or SOAP as the communication protocol between the client and the LiveCycle server.

Web services: Services in the service container that can be configured to expose a web service, with full support for

Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) generation. You can create a proxy library from any service’s WSDL and, using the proxy library, you can invoke a service.

Watched folders: A service that can be invoked from a network folder that an administrator configured as a

watched folder through the Administration Console. When a file is placed in the folder, a service operation that manipulates the file is invoked.

REST endpoints: LiveCycle creates REST endpoints. If you can design your short-lived orchestrations in such a

way that all input is programmatically picked up by actions within the orchestration, and if the output is a single document, you can invoke the orchestration and get the output by using just a web browser.

Email: A service that can be invoked when a configured email account receives an email message, typically with a

PDF document as an attachment. A LiveCycle administrator configures the email account details through the Administration Console. After LiveCycle performs the operation, it sends an email message to the recipient with a modified PDF document attached.

For more information about invoking services, see Programming with LiveCycle.

For information about enabling the invocation of processes, see the Installing LiveCycle Workbench 10

For more information about configuring watched folders and email accounts for invoking services, see the

LiveCycle Administration Console Help.

User management and authentication

Foundation includes the User Manager component, which allows administrators to maintain a database for all users and groups. This database is synchronized with one or more third-party user directories. User Manager provides authentication, authorization, and user management for services.

User Manager enables Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO allows users to log in by using the Microsoft Windows® authentication mechanism without needing to authenticate. The users can use out-of-box LiveCycle user interfaces such as Workspace or Administration Console. SSO extends to PDF forms rendered within Adobe Reader that leverage web services for prepopulation, look-ups, and data submission. In these cases, the authentication token is leveraged to authenticate the web service call. The same pattern is applied to applications that are built using Flex and remoting to call services that are part of LiveCycle.

Foundation authenticates any user who works with LiveCycle. User Manager implements role-based access control so that administrators can associate users and groups with roles that are already part of the User Manager database. Rolebased access control requires access rights to be assigned to roles instead of to individual users. Using the User Management pages in Administration Console, administrators assign appropriate roles to users or groups.

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Foundation

Administrators can create custom roles and associate them with existing permissions. They can also add new users to the database through the Administration Console.

Event management

LiveCycle provides the capability to create and receive business events that occur in processes. It stores events and delivers them to the interested parties as defined in the system through callbacks to event handlers.

LiveCycle supports several event types:

Asynchronous events: A business analyst or developer can define asynchronous events such as Cancel Order or New

Order. These events can be linked to processes either to enable the initiation of a process or to handle a complex process flow within an existing process. A process can be initiated based on a New Order event and, while it is running, can receive a Cancel Order event that enables it to change its flow of execution based on its state. If the order was not fulfilled, the process could refund the customer. If the order was shipped, the process could send an invoice to the customer.

Exception events: Are usually defined by component developers and allow handling of errors during process

execution. For example, the server is unavailable and triggers an alert to an administrator, or a transaction failure allows the developer to define a compensating transaction.

Timer events: Allow processes to wait a period of time or can be associated with activities so that a different process

flow is executed if they are not completed on time.

Event filtering

Processes can look for events that contain specific data. For example, a process can send a document for signature to a customer and then wait for an event when the customer returns a signed document. Event filters can filter the event based on data such as the process ID or customer reference.

Dynamic groups

You can create dynamic groups that automatically include all users who meet a specified set of rules. In a dynamic group, you do not individually select the users who belong to the group. Instead, you specify a set of rules, and all users who adhere to those rules are automatically added to the dynamic group. You can create dynamic groups in either of these two ways:

• Enable the automatic creation of dynamic groups based on email domains, such as @adobe.com

• Create a dynamic group based on specified criteria, including the user's email domain, common name, canonical

name, and domain name.

Delta directory synchronization

Delta directory synchronization improves the efficiency of directory synchronization. When delta directory synchronization is enabled, User Management synchronizes only users and groups that are added or updated since the last synchronization.

Improved certificate mapping

One of the steps required to enable certificate-based authentication for users is to create a certificate mapping. A certificate mapping defines a map between the attributes of a certificate and the attributes of users in a domain. If the content of these attributes differ, you can use a Java Regular Expression (regex) to match the attributes.

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Foundation

Administration Console

The Administration Console gives administrators access to tools so that they can perform these tasks such as:

• Configure and manage users, groups, and server authentication settings through the User Management pages

• Create and manage invocation endpoints and deploy LCA files without the need for developer tools

• Set up watched folders and email providers for non-programmatic process invocation

• Administer module properties and server settings such as port numbers and log files

For more information, see the documentation available for the LiveCycle Administration Console.

Launch Pad

Launch Pad is an Adobe AIR® client application that provides access from your desktop to the services on your LiveCycle server. Using Launch Pad, you can accomplish these tasks:

• Convert files to PDF documents

• Export PDF documents to other file formats

• Rights-protect documents

• Create PDF packages

• Create custom Launch Pad components efficiently invoke Orchestrations.

• Efficiently roll out service updates/additions/changes from the server, without administering any clients

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Chapter 4: LiveCycle Development Tools

LiveCycle provides a set of tools that developers can use to define, design, and develop applications. Workbench includes prebuilt components and other application building blocks so that developers, designers, and business analysts can work together to create user interfaces and process flows. Designer is the graphical form design tool that simplifies the creation of forms. The LiveCycle SDK provides a set of samples and tools that developers can use to build new LiveCycle applications or integrate with existing applications.

LiveCycle Application Development Workflow

This illustration shows an example of the application development workflow of a LiveCycle application. Some steps are optional, and the order of the steps is suggested.

LiveCycle Application Development Workow

1. Create a data model

applications. The order of the steps is only a suggestion. Also, applications do not typically require each step or all the listed items.

2. Create client applications

Optional StepOptional Step Optional Step

Java

Web Service

REST

Flex Application

3. Create custom LiveCycle components

4. Congure the environment

Watched

Folder

Users

Policies

Watched folders

5. Develop and test application assets

Process

Form

Guide

Flex app

6. Package for deployment

Model and create processes

Workbench is an integrated development environment (IDE) that process developers, form developers, and form authors use to model, create, or automate processes and forms. Workbench includes the tools necessary for designing Guides (deprecated), PDF forms, process flows, and output templates in a collaborative environment. The Eclipsebased development environment can also include Flash Builder, which developers can use to develop RIAs that facilitate end-user participation in business processes. With Flex components, developers can extend the functionality of Guides (deprecated) and customize Workspace.

Note: Flash Builder is a separate development tool which is licensed with Foundation.

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