Microinput Corporation - [ADOBE EXPERTS]

Why the new name? And what does ES mean?

Enhancements to LiveCycle between version 7 and ES were so significant that simply giving it a new version number didn't adequately emphasize its real business value. ES stands for Enterprise Suite. The word enterprise was chosen because LiveCycle ES is designed to address specific problems within large-scale enterprise IT environments. The word suite reflects the transition of LiveCycle from a family of individual products to a unified, integrated system for developing and delivering applications.

How is LiveCycle ES Update 1 different from LiveCycle 7?

LiveCycle ES Update 1 offers a single integrated environment to design, implement, and automate the documents and processes that reach across your organization as well as to customers and other external team members. LiveCycle 7 was a set of individual products deployed across mixed platforms and languages; LiveCycle ES Update 1 has the advantage of powerfully integrating data capture, process management, content services, information assurance, and document output technologies. There are also significant enhancements, including a central repository for sharing assets, an integrated development environment, a user portal for participating in LiveCycle processes, and enhanced output capabilities in LiveCycle ES Update 1.

With support for ubiquitous, cross-platform Adobe clients, Adobe PDF and Flash®, LiveCycle ES Update 1 delivers an excellent user experience, so you can fully engage end users in your organization's business processes. LiveCycle ES Update 1 helps you create a new class of customer engagement applications. These applications connect people outside your organization to your internal applications, and they help you manage information more quickly and accurately, improve the quality of your services, and decrease costly cycle times.

How do I identify the next generation for my LiveCycle version 7 product?

The following chart maps previous-generation products with LiveCycle ES solution components.

Previous-generation Adobe products	Adobe LiveCycle ES upgrade path*
LiveCycle Forms 7.x	LiveCycle Forms ES ¹
LiveCycle Print 7.x	LiveCycle Output ES ²
LiveCycle PDF Generator 7.x (all editions)	LiveCycle PDF Generator ES
LiveCycle Assembler 7.x	LiveCycle PDF Generator ES ³
LiveCycle Barcoded Forms 7.x	LiveCycle Barcoded Forms ES
LiveCycle Barcoded Forms 7.x ST	LiveCycle Barcoded Forms 7.5 ST and LiveCycle Reader® Extensions 7.2.2
LiveCycle Reader Extensions 7.x	LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES
Flex® Data Services 2 Departmental	LiveCycle Data Services ES
Flex Data Services 2 Enterprise	LiveCycle Data Services ES
LiveCycle Policy Server 7.x	LiveCycle Rights Management ES
LiveCycle Document Security 7.x	LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES
LiveCycle Workflow 7.x	LiveCycle Process Management ES ⁴
LiveCycle Designer 7.x	LiveCycle Designer ES ⁵

Footnotes highlight key differences only. Follow the links to Need to Know More? about the advantage of upgrading to each of the solution components.

* This chart reflects only the immediate previous versions of the software. Upgrade options are available for older versions as well.

¹With the introduction of LiveCycle ES, LiveCycle Forms ES is dedicated to interactive forms generation in PDF, FLV, or HTML. Includes form guides based on Flash technology and LiveCycle Assembler software.

² With the introduction of LiveCycle ES, LiveCycle Output ES is dedicated to the dynamic generation of noninteractive documents in PDF, PostScript®, PCL, or ZPL.

³ This is the standard upgrade target for LiveCycle Assembler, which is included. Adobe LiveCycle Forms ES and Adobe LiveCycle Output ES software are optional upgrade targets.

⁴LiveCycle Process Management ES includes Adobe LiveCycle Workbench ES, LiveCycle Business Activity Monitoring ES Standard, LiveCycle Workspace ES, and much of the functionality of LiveCycle Forms Manager software.

⁵LiveCycle Designer ES is included with LiveCycle Workbench ES, which is included with all solution components. LiveCycle Designer 8 is also sold separately and bundled with Adobe Acrobat® 8 software.

What is included with LiveCycle ES?

LiveCycle ES includes foundation technology, development tools, and solution components. The suite has been developed as a single integrated product, and the solution components are deployed on the network through a single installer. The purchase of most solution components includes Adobe LiveCycle ES Foundation, LiveCycle Workbench ES, and LiveCycle Designer ES software⁶.
LiveCycle ES Foundation includes several integrated capabilities to help you deploy and manage business documents and processes. These include process orchestration, user management, service management, a central repository, and a common invocation layer — all managed using the intuitive interface of the Adobe Administration Console.

LiveCycle Workbench ES serves as the primary tool for designing business processes and is used in conjunction with LiveCycle Designer ES to create personalized documents, PDF forms, and interactive form guides based on Flash technology. Both tools are included with all LiveCycle ES implementations.

Solution components can be purchased individually or as part of bundled editions. These solution components sit on a common architectural foundation, so you can install, configure, and deploy LiveCycle ES applications with the least amount of time and effort.

⁶ LiveCycle ES Foundation is not included with LiveCycle Production Print ES, which runs in a standalone (non-J2EE) environment and provides its own unique development and integration tools.

How is the LiveCycle ES Update 1 development environment different from LiveCycle 7?

In LiveCycle 7, developers previously used different tools for various tasks — creating forms and output templates, designing processes, managing process orchestration, and so on. This multitool environment complicated collaboration for development teams. With LiveCycle ES, all development tasks come together in the familiar Eclipse™ based development environment of LiveCycle Workbench ES.

LiveCycle Workbench ES boasts many significant improvements, including the integration of LiveCycle Designer ES and Guide Builder. It also adds a design/development repository so teams doing user interface design, business process analysis, and data binding can work together on a LiveCycle application within a staged environment. And the functionality for debugging and testing is much stronger. All this new functionality addresses the various roles involved in developing applications, which speeds the time and reduces the costs of getting applications into production.

The finished application — which includes forms, panels, processes, dashboards, other rich Internet applications (RIAs), and service components — is exported as a single LiveCycle archive (LCA) file by a developer and passed on to a system administrator, who can then deploy the application in a production environment.

How does LiveCycle ES Update 1 compare with other application development tools?

LiveCycle ES is the only solution that offers a comprehensive platform for customer engagement. LiveCycle ES blends industry-leading tools and services with best-in-class partner solutions and enterprise standards to transform business processes that extend to customers, partners, and suppliers. LiveCycle ES encompasses the following areas:

- Ubiquitous, cross-platform runtimes, including Adobe Reader and Flash Player: With Adobe client software currently running on more than 700 million computers and 200 million other devices worldwide, no other vendor offers a more robust and ubiquitous platform. Future support for Adobe AIR™ — the cross-operating system runtime to deploy persistent desktop applications — will extend rich application experiences beyond the browser to the desktop.

- Standards-based frameworks and tools, including Flex, XML, and PDF: With LiveCycle ES user interface technologies, you can create a user experience with a consistent definition language and data model, and deploy the user interface in the format that makes the most sense for users, including FLV, PDF, or HTML. These technologies can also be used to extend rich user experiences to the desktop, using the Adobe AIR cross-platform runtime.

- Scalable solution components: LiveCycle ES Update 1 provides the necessary functionality to manage and optimize customer engagement processes, including data capture, process automation, information assurance, data output, and document generation.

How does LiveCycle ES Update 1 compare specifically with other business process management (BPM) solutions?

BPM solutions are used by many organizations to automate many processes. These systems typically offer process design, integration to data sources, business rules, activity monitoring, and reporting. Where they often have difficulty is in the capture of information needed to start a process, such as a form that is filled out by a customer. This part of the process, the trigger, is often manual, paper-based, or so poorly automated that users provide poor-quality data or abandon the process and revert to a more expensive, non-automated process such as contacting a customer service rep by phone.

On the other end of a process is output, when a response of some type is presented to users. This could be a loan packet or claims approval or some other document that must be routed in a secure manner. This part of the process is rarely integrated with the automation system and often remains manual and inefficient, even in very sophisticated and complex processes.

It is the combination of the LiveCycle services — data capture, process management, content services, information assurance, and document output technologies — that makes LiveCycle ES unique. No other integrated system provides the same level of automation and integration for these functional areas.

What are form guides?

LiveCycle ES Update 1 provides developers with the ability to deploy interfaces based on Flash technology, called form guides, which help users step through a process in a logical sequence. This helps to ensure that the information entered is valid, accurate, and complete. Form guides can be used with PDF to deploy a data capture process online, or they can be taken offline by the respondent to complete the form when convenient. By providing an attractive and engaging interface, form guides help eliminate confusion and frustration, so users are more likely to complete the process.

How does Adobe Flex Builder™ fit into LiveCycle ES Update 1?

The three primary uses for Adobe Flex Builder software in the context of LiveCycle ES are:

- Creating Flex based RIAs that extend LiveCycle business processes

- Creating Flex components that extend the functionality of form guides

- Customizing LiveCycle Workspace ES to meet business requirements

Flex Builder is used to develop RIAs, which often serve as the front end for customer engagement applications. Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES software allows these RIAs to easily integrate with LiveCycle ES, extending business processes outside the firewall and creating more engaging, cross-platform customer experiences.

Designers and developers can use Flex Builder to create rich, interactive components used by form designers to extend the functionality of form guides to further enhance user interaction and productivity. Leveraging the rich Flex component library, these components can include charts, data grids, and FLV files, as well as custom components that harness the power of LiveCycle Data Services ES, such as click-to-chat, live help, or real-time data streaming.

Developers can also use Flex Builder to customize LiveCycle Workspace ES, the intuitive Flex based application that lets end users initiate and participate in form-based business processes through a web browser. Using Flex Builder to customize the LiveCycle Workspace ES interface that end users see, organizations help ensure it is branded appropriately and customized to meet business requirements. LiveCycle Workspace ES also integrates with LiveCycle Data Services ES to automatically synchronize data with the LiveCycle server.

Flex Builder is sold separately.

What is involved in upgrading from LiveCycle 7 to LiveCycle ES Update 1?

The effort you've invested in creating forms and processes will be preserved. With few exceptions, your organization will be able to upgrade from LiveCycle 7 to LiveCycle ES Update 1, and all of your existing assets will continue to function within the new infrastructure without any changes.

LiveCycle upgrades fall into two major categories: an upgrade event or upgrade project. An upgrade event is an administrative effort, while an upgrade project is a development effort. If you're upgrading from LiveCycle 7 to LiveCycle ES Update 1, you will need to plan an upgrade project.

Forms, processes, and applications should continue to work without modification. You will have to test them to determine if they require changes. A major update to your infrastructure may be required. A team consisting of developers and administrators will be necessary to upgrade, validate, and perhaps make minor changes to your existing applications to make sure processes behave in the same way as they did prior to the upgrade.

Moving from LiveCycle 7 to LiveCycle ES Update 1 may also require the update of components that make up the LiveCycle infrastructure. You may have to move to a more recent major version of your operating system, database, or application server. For example, WebSphere users will have to upgrade to WebSphere 6.1. Adobe has made every effort to minimize these types of complexities, but changes to underlying JDK specifications and implementations necessitate some accommodations.

A development team will need to work with your administration team to upgrade your LiveCycle 7 system to LiveCycle ES Update 1. If your LiveCycle processes and applications require changes, the development and administration teams will work with you to help ensure your LiveCycle ES environment works like your LiveCycle 7 environment. For details about upgrading, see the Planning your upgrade to Adobe LiveCycle ES Update 1 technical guide (PDF, 1.3M) and the LiveCycle ES upgrade documentation (PDF, 822k).

If I upgrade to LiveCycle ES Update 1, does everyone in my organization need to upgrade to Reader 9?

No. When you upgrade your server to LiveCycle ES Update 1, users inside and outside your organization who use PDF forms created by LiveCycle will not have to upgrade to Adobe Reader 9 software. LiveCycle ES Update 1 has been designed to work with Reader 7.0.5 and later, Reader 8, and Reader 9. The only reason users may be required to upgrade their version of Reader is if your form authors choose to use some of the new form features provided by LiveCycle ES Update 1.

If my organization is upgrading to Adobe Reader 9, do I need to upgrade to LiveCycle Update 1?

No. Adobe Reader can be upgraded independently of LiveCycle. Reader 9 has been tested with LiveCycle ES and LiveCycle 7. As long as your users don't use any special features of Acrobat or Reader 9, they can use the newer version of the client with the old version of the server.

Will I need to retrain my Form Manager end users when I upgrade from LiveCycle 7 to LiveCycle ES Update 1?

Yes. LiveCycle Form Manager 7 has been replaced by LiveCycle Workspace ES. LiveCycle Workspace ES gives users the same functionalities of Form Manager. LiveCycle Workspace ES presents a modern, Flex based RIA that lets your users more easily create and manage their LiveCycle tasks. The LiveCycle upgrade documentation contains a brief document that describes the major differences between Form Manager 7 and LiveCycle Workspace ES. You can use it as the basis for your training.

How long will the LiveCycle 7 compatibility layer be supported?

The intent is to support the LiveCycle 7 compatibility layer for two major versions of LiveCycle. It should be available in LiveCycle ES and LiveCycle ES2. By the release of LiveCycle ES3, the LiveCycle 7 compatibility layer will be no longer available, so you'll need to port your LiveCycle 7 applications and processes to run natively in LiveCycle ES.

If you're using LiveCycle Workflow 7, LiveCycle Workbench ES contains tools that help you semi-automatically port your processes to use native ES services.

If you're using the LiveCycle 7 APIs, consult the API guide in the upgrade documentation that describes how each LiveCycle 7 API maps to the new LiveCycle ES APIs.

I am upgrading from LiveCycle Workflow 7. Will my in-flight processes still be present in LiveCycle ES Update 1?

Yes. When you upgrade from LiveCycle Workflow 7 to LiveCycle Process Management ES, your users' in-flight processes will be preserved. If you upgrade your systems over the weekend, when users return on Monday morning, their inboxes will be unchanged.

My organization uses Policy Server 7. Will our protected documents still be protected by LiveCycle ES Update 1?

Yes. When you upgrade to LiveCycle ES Update 1, your protected documents should continue to be safeguarded in the same way they always have.

How do I prepare to upgrade to LiveCycle ES?

Please contact Microinput representative for more information.

How do I request an upgrade?

If your organization holds a current maintenance and support contract, your designated point-of-contact receives an e-mail containing a complementary upgrade coupon and detailed instructions on the process when each new version is released. If you don't have access to this e-mail or if you would like to Need to Know More? about the process, contact Microinput customer service.

Can I get a trial version of LiveCycle ES Update 1?

Yes. Please contact Microinput representative for more information.