XFA Specification
Chapter 21, XDP Specification
About the XDP Grammar
786
Packaging of XFA form components into XDP or PDF
XFA form components
XFA
datasets
template
PDF
Other
XFA-related
packages
XML
Submit or export as XDP
data
Submit, export, or save as PDF
XDP
An XML document
PDF
datasets
template
PDF
Other
XFA-derived
packages
XML form data
template
FDF (annots)
Other
objects
data
Data
The most common use of XDP is to submit data to a server that expects to process XML.
Such a data-only XDP document is shown at right.
The types of XFA components packaged within XDP is discretionary. It can be used to
submit any combination of packages containing XFA components. Packages may
include custom XFA components, provided those components comply with the
guidelines described later in this section.
XDP
datasets
data
Overview of Packaging a PDF Document in XDP Format
While the PDF format may be most recognized as a visual representation of a document, PDF is also a
packaging format that encloses many different types and ranges of content. Each of these units of content
is referred to as a subassembly by this document. For example, a PDF document representing an
interactive form may enclose an XML fragment representing the form-data subassembly of the document.
Consider an XML processing application that wishes to process the XML form-data subassembly of a PDF
form. Such an application could not directly consume this XML-based subassembly of the PDF because it is
enclosed within a non-XML format: PDF.