LiveCycle Help Content Team

Did you know that you can invoke a LiveCycle ES service directly from a client application built with Flex? That is right – you can develop a client application, such as an AIR application, and perform LiveCycle ES operations. For example, you can protect a PDF document by developing the client application to invoke LiveCycle ES and encrypt the PDF document. For complete details, check out the Encrypting PDF documents using Remoting article.

Adobe LiveCycle Data Services allows Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), developed using the Adobe Flex SDK, to communicate seamlessly with LiveCycle ES. Flash Builder 4 (beta), as previously discussed, is available on Adobe Labs.
Both Flash Builder and LiveCycle Data Services are important parts of the LiveCycle ES ecosystem because they allow you to rapidly develop RIAs to leverage LiveCycle ES services.

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LiveCycle ES enables you to invoke processes created in Workbench ES using a client application built with Flex. A benefit of creating a client application with Flex and using it to invoke a process is that you have access to a rich set of Flex controls. That is, you can display process data in controls such as a pie chart or bar graph.

The Displaying LiveCycle ES process data in Flex graphs article discusses how to display process data in a client application built with Flex. Basically, you have to first create a process using Workbech ES. Then you can invoke the process from the client application and retrieve the process data. You can then use the process data to populate a control. For more information, check out Displaying LiveCycle ES process data in Flex graphs.

This article assumes that you have some knowledge of programming concepts and are familiar with web services and LiveCycle Remoting. For information about using web services and LiveCycle Remoting, see "Invoking LiveCycle ES Using LiveCycle Remoting" and "Invoking LiveCycle ES Using Web Services" in Programming with LiveCycle. The Backup and Restore service lets you put LiveCycle ES into backup mode, which enables hot backups to be performed. Hot backups permit you to backup the LiveCycle server while it is running, eliminating any downtime. The Backup and Restore service does not actually perform a backup of LiveCycle ES or restore your system. Instead, it puts your server in a state that enables you to perform consistent and reliable backups while your server continues to run. You are responsible for backing up the Global Document Storage (GDS) and the database connected to the LiveCycle ES server. The GDS is a directory used to store files, such as files used with long-lived processes.

As an administrator, you can use the LiveCycle Administration Console to put LiveCycle ES into backup mode. You can also programmatically put LiveCycle ES into backup mode using the Java API and web services, but because the Backup and Restore service cannot be used in a process created using Workbench ES, it cannot be invoked using LiveCycle Remoting as described in Programming with LiveCycle ES. To invoke the Backup and Restore service using LiveCycle Remoting, you must invoke the service directly. You may want to invoke the Backup and Restore service programmatically because you want to build software applications for backing up your server.

The trick to invoking a service directly using LiveCycle Remoting is to know the name of the service and the string values to refer to types, methods, and properties. To determine the string values, you can look at the WSDL on the server by referring to the WSDL by its name. (See the table at Invoking LiveCycle ES Using APIs > Invoking LiveCycle ES using Web Services). For example, to use the Backup and Restore service, you type the following in a web browser:

http://localhost:8080/soap/services/BackupService?wsdl&lc_version=8.2.1

From returned WSDL, you can then determine the string names of the types, methods, and properties to use as values for accessing the remote objects for your ActionScript and MXML code. Alternatively, you can also determine the values to use by stepping through accessed objects using the debugger in Flex Builder and see the results from the ResultEvent.result property.

This blog entry, describes how to write ActionScript and MXML code to invoke the Backup and Restore service using LiveCycle Remoting to do the following tasks:

• Enter backup mode.
• Leave backup mode.

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