Learn Variables Scope in LiveCycle Process Design

In the process design, we define variables for accessing a value within multiple operations. The value can be any data type (String, int, long, boolean, etc). Besides common datatypes, Adobe LiveCycle ES comes with several Service specific data types such as ReaderExtensionsOptionSpec, RenderOptionSpec, PDFOutputOptionSpec, etc.

A variable in LiveCycle process can be defined in two different purposes - a) Process Varibale b) Configuration Parameter.

We will discuss Process Variables in this tutorial. A variable can be input, output or required type to the process. What does it mean when you say INPUT or OUTPUT variable? If a variable is an input then that variable has to be passed to the process when it is invoked through LiveCycle workbench/web browser. And it is the same case with the OUTPUT variable type. The process would respond with a result of that output variable type.

Now, just like the process variables, we need to define variables for each operation within the process design. If we look at the figure renderPDFForm2 Operation, we need to specify input and and output parameters for this operation. These are different from the above image. LiveCycle beginners can get confused easily with the terms Input variables for process and operations.

The parameters for an operation can be passed in serveral ways like a Literal Value, Variable, X-Path Expression, and Templates. If you choose a variable type for either Input or Output parameter, you need to specify the process variable. In the same figure, formData and outTSPDFForm are two process variables and their parameter type is variable but for Input>>Form parameter the type is Literal Value and you can see the value is a String.