Developing with Output and Forms Services in AEM Forms developing-with-output-and-forms-services-in-aem-forms
Learn about developing with Output and Forms Service API in AEM Forms.
In this article we will take a look at the following
- Output Service - Typically this service is used to merge xml data with xdp template or pdf to generate flattened pdf.
- FormsService - This is a very versatile service which allows you to render xdp as pdf and export/import data from and into PDF file.
The following code snippet exports data from PDF file
javax.servlet.http.Part pdfPart = request.getPart("pdffile");
String filePath = request.getParameter("saveLocation");
java.io.InputStream pdfIS = pdfPart.getInputStream();
com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document pdfDocument = new com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document(pdfIS);
com.adobe.fd.forms.api.FormsService formsservice = sling.getService(com.adobe.fd.forms.api.FormsService.class);
com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document xmlDocument = formsservice.exportData(pdfDocument,com.adobe.fd.forms.api.DataFormat.Auto);
Line 1 extracts pdffile from the request
Line2 extracts the saveLocation from the request
Line 5 gets hold of FormsService
Line 6 exports the xmlData from the PDF File
To test the sample package on your system
Download and install the package using the AEM package manager
After you install the package you will have to allowlist the following URLs in Adobe Granite CSRF Filter.
- Please follow the steps mentioned below to allowlist the paths mentioned above.
- Login to configMgr
- Search for Adobe Granite CSRF Filter
- Add the following 3 paths in the excluded sections and save
- /content/AemFormsSamples/mergedata
- /content/AemFormsSamples/exportdata
- /content/AemFormsSamples/outputservice
- /content/AemFormsSamples/renderxdp
- Search for “Sling Referrer filter”
- Check the “Allow Empty” check box. (This setting should be for testing purposes only)
Testing the samples
There are a number of ways to test the sample code. The quickest and easiest is to use Postman app. Postman allows you to make POST requests to your server.
- Install Postman app on your system.
- Launch the app and enter the the appropriate URL
- Make sure you have selected “POST” from the drop down list
- Make sure you specify “Authorization” as “Basic Auth”. Specify the AEM Server username and password
- Specify the request parameters in the body tab
- Click the Send button
The package contains 4 samples. The following paragraphs explain when to use the output service or Forms Service, the url of the service ,input parameters that each service expects
Using OutputService to merge data with xdp template
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Use Output Service to merge data with xdp or pdf document to generate flattened pdf
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POST URL: http://localhost:4502/content/AemFormsSamples/outputservice.html
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Request Parameters -
- xdp_or_pdf_file : The xdp or pdf file that you want to merge data with
- xmlfile: The xml data file that is merged with xdp_or_pdf_file
- saveLocation: The location to save the rendered document on your file system. For example c:\documents\sample.pdf
Using FormsService API
Import Data
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Use FormsService importData to import data into PDF file
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POST URL - http://localhost:4502/content/AemFormsSamples/mergedata.html
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Request Parameters:
- pdffile : The pdf file that you want to merge data with
- xmlfile: The xml data file that is merged with pdf file
- saveLocation: The location to save the rendered document on your file system. For example
c:\\outputsample.pdf.
Export Data
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Use FormsService exportData API to export data from PDF File
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POST URL - http://localhost:4502/content/AemFormsSamples/exportdata.html
-
Request Parameters:
- pdffile : The pdf file that you want to export data from
- saveLocation: The location to save the exported data on your file system. For example c:\documents\exported_data.xml
Render XDP
- Render XDP template as static/dynamic pdf
- Use FormsService renderPDFForm API to render xdp template as PDF
- POST URL - http://localhost:4502/content/AemFormsSamples/renderxdp?xdpName=f1040.xdp
- Request parameter:
- xdpName: Name of the xdp file to render as a pdf
You could import this postman collection to test the API