Form Content

This property box lets you specify which PDF fields the Retrieve PDF Form Contents activity will retrieve information from. The activity will store the retrieved information as tokens.

To configure Form Contents

  1. Add the Retrieve PDF Form Content activity to your workflow definition by dragging it from the Toolbox Pane and dropping it in the Designer Pane.
  2. Select the activity in the Designer Pane.
  3. Under ClosedForm Content in the Properties Pane, select a master PDF form from the Choose a file drop-down list. (A master PDF form is a blank PDF form that serves as a template for retrieving content from PDF forms processed by the workflow.) The list contains the PDF documents attached to the Workflow Server.

    4. Note: If the master PDF form you want is not in the drop-down list, you will need to attach the PDF to the Workflow Server. After you attach the desired master PDF to the Workflow Server, it will appear in the drop-down list.

  4. Click Select Fields, and the Retrieve PDF Field Values dialog box will open.

    5. Note: If your master PDF is more than 50 pages long, the ClosedPDF Page Selection dialog box will appear. Select to load all of the PDF's pages or to only load the first ___ number of pages. If you choose to load only a specific number of pages, type in a number of pages or use the scroll box (up-and-down arrows) to specify a number. If you choose to load all pages, loading may take a long time or cause performance problems.

    Note: If the master PDF is password protected, you must enter a password before you can view the PDF.

    • To select individual fields to retrieve values from, select the Individual tab.
      1. Navigate to the page you want to retrieve information from using the green arrows at the top of the left pane. Clicking a field in this pane will highlight the field in the right pane.
      2. Optional: You can select, grab, zoom, or navigate to pages in your PDF master form using the Closedtoolbar at the top of the left pane. Click the arrow button to use the selection tool, the hand button to grab and drag PDF pages, the plus and minus magnifying glass buttons or the drop-down menu to zoom, or the green arrows to navigate to different pages. Alternatively, you can zoom in by holding down the left mouse button and drawing a rectangle around the region you want to zoom in on. Double-click to zoom out. 

      3. In the Available Fields Pane, click the Add link next to the fields you want to retrieve values from. You can also choose fields to retrieve values from by double-clicking fields, dragging and dropping fields in to the upper-right pane, or selecting fields and pressing ENTER or the spacebar. (Hold down the CTRL key to select more than one field at once.) The fields will appear in the upper-right pane.

        4. Note: The Retrieve PDF Field Values dialog box only lists the fields shown on the PDF page in the left pane. To view the fields on additional pages of a PDF, navigate to the other pages using the toolbar at the top of the left pane.

      4. The text under Name in the upper-right pane will become the name of the token that stores the field's value. You can change this name by clicking the name and typing a new name.
      5. Optional: When you choose to retrieve values from a field, those values will be stored in a token. If the retrieved field is blank, you can specify a default value for it by typing a value in the Default Value column next to the corresponding field in the upper-right pane. Alternatively, click the Token button (right arrow) to use tokens in the default value.

        6. Note: PDF Combo Box fields will display a drop-down list of possible default values that you can choose from. Depending on how the PDF Combo Box field was configured when the PDF form was created, you may be able to specify a default value that is not on the list.

      6. Optional: Remove an added field by clicking Remove next to the corresponding field in the upper-right pane.
    • To retrieve field values from tables and to store those values in a multi-value token, select the Table tab.

      Example: Jim uses the Table tab to retrieve a table of prices and store those prices in a multi-value token. He then puts that token in an e-mail to send out the list of prices. Later in the workflow, he uses the Token Calculator activity to sum all the prices to get the total cost.

      1. Under Name, type a name for the multi-value token that reflects the fields you want to retrieve values from. As you type a name, the Pattern column will try to guess what fields you want to include in the multi-value token.
      2. Under Pattern, change the pre-configured regular expression or type a new regular expression that specifies which fields will be retrieved and stored as a multi-value token's values. The pre-configured regular expression expects the fields in a column to have the same name and to be numbered sequentially (i.e., Field_1, Field_2, Field_3, etc.). Click the regular expression button to choose from a list of regular expressions.
      3. The Fields Included in Current Group shows the fields that will have their values added to the multi-value token. The order of the fields in this section reflects the order in which they will add their values to the multi-value token. If the fields have numbers in their names, those numbers will be used to determine the order of the values. (You can use sub-expressions in your pattern to specify which numbers in the field name will be used to order the fields.) Otherwise, the fields will be ordered based on where they appear in the PDF. More specifically, their order will be based on the tab order in the PDF.
      4. Optional: Set a default token value for any blank field by typing a value in the Default Value column next to the corresponding token in the upper-right pane. Alternatively, click the Token button (right arrow) to use tokens in the default value.
      5. Optional: Check the box under All Pages to retrieve fields that match the specified pattern from all pages of the document instead of only the page displayed on the left. Clear this box to only retrieve fields from the current page.
      6. Optional: Remove a row by clicking Remove next to the pattern.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Optional: In the Form Content property box, you can remove fields and change how the fields are displayed in the property box.
    • Click the red X next to a field to not retrieve values from that field and to remove it from the list.
    • Click Hide Details to see a list of only the token names for the fields. Alternatively, if the details are hidden, click Show Details to show the default token value for the listed fields.