Adobe LiveCycle is a suite of mostly server-based software products from Adobe Systems Incorporated centred around its PDF (Portable Document Format) technology. Current shipping version is 7.2.2. Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for desktop publishing use. ...

The products can be broadly classified into desktop products and server products.

Desktop Products

Designer [1] - Adobe LiveCycle Designer is a form design tool. It can be used for creating electronic forms based on Adobe's XML [2] specifications. Adobe LiveCycle Designer is a forms authoring tool published by Adobe Systems. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. ...

Workflow Designer - This is a business process modeling tool. It can be used to create digital process management maps that capture physical business workflows. This product is tightly coupled with the Workflow (server) product and can only be used along with it. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Process Modeling. ... A digital system is one that uses discrete values (often electrical voltages), especially those representable as binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (ie, as in an analog system). ... Process management is the ensemble of activities of planning and monitoring the performance of a process, especially in the sense of business process, often confused with reengineering. ... Workflow at its simplest is the movement of documents and/or tasks through a work process. ...

Server Products

The majority of these products are J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) products which require a J2EE application server (AS) to run. Currently supported J2EE application servers are IBM [3] WebSphere Application Server, BEA Systems [4] WebLogic Application Server and Red Hat [5] JBoss [6] Application Server. Currently supported operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server 2000 [7] and 2003 [8], IBM AIX [9] 5.2 and 5.3, Sun Microsystems Solaris [10] 8 and 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux [11] 2.1 and 3.0, Novell SuSE Enterprise Linux [12] 9.0. Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or J2EE is a Standard (albeit with no ISO or ECMA standard) for developing distributed Multi-tier architecture applications, based on modular components running on an application server. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... IBM WebSphere Application Server is built using open standards such as the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), XML and Web Services. ... BEA Systems, Inc. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... JBoss (pronounced Jay Boss) is an open source Java EE-based application server implemented in Java. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... Novell, Inc. ...

These products are enterprise software-class products capable of being deployed on a large scale. They can be deployed either individually or integrated with other products in the suite. They are full-fledged J2EE applications requiring the services of the Web Container, the EJB Container as well as both point-to-point and publish-subscribe Java Message Service (JMS) messaging. Most have programmable APIs (Application Programming Interface). Enterprise Software is software that solves an enterprise problem (rather than a departmental problem) and usually enterprise software is written using Enterprise Software Architecture. ... Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition or J2EE is a Standard (albeit with no ISO or ECMA standard) for developing distributed Multi-tier architecture applications, based on modular components running on an application server. ... The Enterprise Java Beans specification is one of the several Java APIs in the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. ... It has been suggested that Openjms be merged into this article or section. ... A application programming interface (API) is the interface that a computer system, library or application provides in order to allow requests for services to be made of it by other computer programs, and/or to allow data to be exchanged between them. ...

PDF Form Products

Barcoded Forms [13] - this is a non-J2EE product. This technology is useful when users have to send back filled out forms in paper format. During the design of a form, a PDF417 2-Dimension Barcode is embedded in a certain part of the form. When a user fills out the form electronically, the entered data in encoded in the 2D barcode. When the filled out form is printed on paper, the 2D barcode will contain all of the data entered in the form. At the processing facility, the printed forms are scanned and processed through the Adobe® LiveCycle® Barcoded Forms server to retrieve the data. This avoids re-keying of the data which consumes time, effort and money, and is also highly error-prone. PDF417 is a 2-dimensional barcode (also known as matrix code) used in a variety of applications, including Transport, Identification cards, and Inventory management. ... :For other senses of this word, see dimension (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Forms [14] - formerly called 'Form Server', this product lets you convert Adobe's XDP [15] (XML Data Package) electronic form templates to other formats like HTML, PDF etc. It can merge external data into the fields inside the form as well as extract data from the fields inside the form. HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

Form Manager [16] - lets you organize your electronic forms into intuitive hierarchies. It also serves as a user interface for the LiveCycle® Workflow product.

PDF Creation Products

PDF Generator [17] - formerly called Acrobat Elements Server, this product lets you create documents in the PDF format from other native document formats such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, AutoCAD etc. PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... Microsoft Office Word is Microsofts flagship word processing software. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Microsoft Visio is diagramming software for Microsoft Windows. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Powerpoint Microsoft Office PowerPoint is a presentation program developed for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS computer operating systems. ... WordPerfect is a word processing program; at the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was the de facto standard word processor, but has since been eclipsed in sales by Microsoft Word. ... AutoCAD 2006 drawing. ...

PDF Assembly Products

Assembler [18] - lets you assemble multiple PDF documents. PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

PDF Process Management Products

Workflow [19] - After the organization's document processes have been mapped into electronic workflow processes using LiveCycle® Workflow Designer, this product executes them. Workflow at its simplest is the movement of documents and/or tasks through a work process. ...

PDF Security Products

Document Security [20] - lets you apply security to PDF documents. PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

Policy Server [21] - This Digital Rights Management product lets you apply security policies to PDF documents as well as other document formats. A "policy" is essentially multiple document security controls combined into a single entity. The product also offers audit trails for policy-applied documents. Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

Reader Extensions [22] - lets you add additional information to a PDF document so that when users open that PDF document in the free Adobe® Reader® [23], certain functionality which is usually available only in the full Adobe Acrobat®, becomes available to them. This includes, among other things, the ability to submit a form electronically rather than print it out and send it back by mail. PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software by Adobe Systems. ...

Competing Products and Technologies

Adlib Software's Express Server [24] is a server-based competitor. Microsoft InfoPath [25] is a competing product. So is IBM Workplace Forms [26]. Also, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) [27] XForms [28]. Microsoft Office 2003 InfoPath - Basic Information Microsoft Infopath is a tool used to develop XML based user forms that can be distributed through a network so that user information can be quickly and easily obtained and stored. ... IBM Workplace, sometimes called Lotus Workplace, is a proprietary software product from IBM that aims to help workers, especially in business and government offices, communicate and collaborate. ... The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (W3). ... XForms is two things: 1. ...

External links=

• Adobe LiveCycle