General Concepts
The webMethods BPM suite supports e-forms created with the following applications:
Adobe LiveCycle
Microsoft Office InfoPath
Each of these applications enables you to create the following objects:
An e-form
template—one or more files that describe the form structure, appearance, and behavior. A template carries no user-entered form data (although sample data may be present).
An e-form
instance—a published version of the template, containing specific form data in a single file.
For more information about templates and instances, see the documentation for your e-form application.
Supported e-form templates can be imported into Software AG Designer where they are converted to a standard IS document type. You can use the IS document type to describe the input for a business process, as the business data for a task that expects an e-form document, or for any other supported IS document type use.
E-form templates and instances are also accessed at run time by the webMethods run-time components (Process Engine and Task Engine).
You can store your e-form templates in a content repository, in a file system, or even on a Web server. In all cases, Software AG Designer must have network access to the storage location at design time. Using a content repository for both templates and instances is the most straightforward approach.
During run time, the template and instance location must be available to the Task Engine if you have implemented the ability for a user to download an e-form from an e-form enabled task instance running in My webMethods. You can omit the requirement for access to the templates folder by attaching a copy of the template to the task application during design time; for more information, see the webMethods BPM Task Development Help.
If Integration Server is connected to a webMethods Broker at the time you create an IS document type from an e-form template, the resulting IS document type will be publishable to the webMethods Broker and will have an associated webMethods Broker document type.
To use an e-form instance as a run-time IS document type source that starts a business process, the following requirements apply:
Your e-form instances must be kept in a content repository folder.
You must not store instances and templates in the same folder.
You must create a separate instances folder for each e-form you work with.
A
webMethods e-form environment must be configured and deployed to the
Integration Server host where the process will run.
For more information about configuring and deploying an e-forms environment, see
Setting up an E-form Repository.
For more information about working with IS document types, see the webMethods Service Development Help.
