Your second PDF form with Scribus (and Javascript)

Work in progress!

=Introduction=

=JavaScript functions in a PDF document= Teaching material will be made available for download asap.

Adding new functions
Go to Edit/Javascripts... and click on Add. Choose a name for your new function and click on OK to launch the built-in JavaScript editor.



Let us call our first function RunOnLaunch and start with a simple alert that will be displayed on launching the PDF formular in Adobe Reader:

function RunOnLaunch { app.alert('Welcome to the Scribus Demo Form!'); }

Launching JavaScript functions while opening documents
Go to File/Export/Save as PDF and click on the Viewer tab. Choose the JavaScript to be executed from the Special Actions drop down list. Save the PDF document and open in with the Adobe Reader to see how it works.



=Adding JavaScript actions to form field events=

Validate form fields
if(!this.getField('field1').value) { app.alert('Please fill a number into field 1'); } else if (!this.getField('field2').value) { app.alert('Please fill a number into field 2'); }



Calculate form field values
if(!this.getField('field1').value) { app.alert('Please fill a number into field 1'); } else if (!this.getField('field2').value) { app.alert('Please fill a number into field 2'); } else {

app.alert('Adding field1 to field2 and putting the result into field3'); this.getField('field3').value = this.getField('field1').value + this.getField('field2').value;

app.alert('and now add 20% VAT to the result, if checkbox1 is checked '); var v = this.getField('checkbox1'); if(v.value=='Yes') var vat = this.getField('field3').value * 0.2; else var vat = 0;

this.getField('field3').value = this.getField('field3').value + vat; }

=Changing field properties with a document wide script executed on button click=

Create list boxes and combo boxes




Add a new JavaScript function
function SetFieldValues { app.alert('Running a document wide script SetFieldValues. To see how it works, open the  source document in Scribus and go to  Edit/JavaScripts.');

app.alert('Changing the values of the combobox and the listbox');

//setting combobox value to 12 this.getField("combobox1").value = '12';

//setting listbox value to option 3 this.getField("listbox1").value = 'option 3';

// Get the current date and time var rightNow = new Date; rightNow 	= rightNow.toLocaleDateString;

var fld = this.getField("date"); //Change the date field border to dark blue app.alert('Changing the date field border to dark blue, setting the date to current value, and changing the date text color to purple.'); fld.strokeColor = ["RGB",0.5,0.5,1];

//Change fill to light blue, won't work for unknown reason fld.Color = ["RGB",0,0,0.7];

//set the value of the date field to current date fld.value 	= rightNow;

//Change text of the date field to purple fld.textColor = ["RGB", 0.5, 0, 0.5];

}