Retrieve data from XML file

Question

How can I import a XML file into pdf doc and how can I retrieve its data as string, in order to populate a drop down List, without using XML Schema Data Connection.
Thank you for your time!

Answer 1

First of all you cannot load an XML file in Designer without Reader Extensions, either using xfa.host.importData or any or the import methods in AcroForm javascript. Also, since the XML objects where not available in 6, you cannot parse an XML file in anything other than version 7 of Reader/Acrobat.
So, if you do have Reader 7 (Reader-Enabled) or Acrobat 7, you could use the Attachment object to load the XML file and in turn use the XML object to parse and extract the XML data.
For example, placing the following code on a button will prompt the user to select an XML data file and manually parse it for data.
if (app.viewerVersion >= 7)
event.target.importDataObject("XMLData");
var oData = event.target.getDataObjectContents("XMLData");
var sData = util.stringFromStream(oData);
var oXML = XMLData.parse(sData, true);
event.target.removeDataObject("XMLData");
// Populate Fields
TextField3.rawValue = oXML.MyField1.value;
TextField4.rawValue = oXML.MyField3.value;
TextField1.rawValue = oXML.MyField2.value;
else {
app.alert("Acrobat 7.0 or later is required");
My external XML file is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MyProperties>
<MyField1>A</MyField1>
<MyField2>B</MyField2>
<MyField3>C</MyField3>
</MyProperties>
Once the data is parsed, you can access it through the same hierarchy as Designer. It actually generates an XFAObject to represent each data node within the XML Document.
The other thing to note is that you cannot load data automatically from an init or calc event. You MUST have some user interaction (i.e. on the click event of a button)