Adobe® LiveCycle® Foundation provides the underlying server capabilities that enable the deployment, execution, and management of LiveCycle ES3 modules. Included with the purchase of most1 LiveCycle ES3 modules, LiveCycle Foundation consists of:
Use LiveCycle Foundation to deploy short-lived processes that combine a number of modules. For example, you can create a PDF form, apply a security policy to it, certify the document, and enable the form for basic form fill-in and import/export of data using Adobe Reader® software. A short-lived process can be reused in other processes once it has been created. It can also be invoked by a number of different mechanisms. For developers, a process can be invoked through a Java™ API, web services, and Microsoft .NET. LiveCycle software supports the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 standard and has tested interoperability with .NET and the web services stacks supported by the major application server vendors as well as that found within the Sun™ Java Software Development Kit (SDK). LiveCycle ES also allows developers of Adobe Flex® software using ActionScript® to directly invoke processes (as well as modules) through the Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES3 module. Other common forms of invocation include watched folders and e-mail.
Service container
The service container provides the common runtime environment to support all solution components and associated services. It provides an event framework that enables business events to be defined. LiveCycle ES3 supports a number of different event types, such as asynchronous events, exception events, and timer events. Events can be raised or received within processes or linked to external events on a messaging bus through integration with Java Message Service (JMS).
Foundation services
LiveCycle Foundation has a number of out-of-box services that allow integration with common IT infrastructures. Common services include the ability to:
- Query a user directory through LDAP
- Invoke web services
- Read/write data to a relational database through SQL queries
- Send/receive e-mail through common standards such as SMTP, POP3, and IMAP
- Send/receive messages over a JMS queue
- Read/write files from a file system or using FTP protocol
Administration tools
To simplify the management of your LiveCycle deployment, LiveCycle Foundation includes:
- LiveCycle Configuration Manager
- LiveCycle Administration Console
LiveCycle Configuration Manager is used to configure and deploy LiveCycle solution components, including applying service packs and emergency patches.
LiveCycle Administration Console is a web-based portal used by system administrators to manage the deployment and configuration of LiveCycle applications, configure users and groups and their associated permissions, and configure and fine-tune the server settings such as port numbers and log files. LiveCycle Administration Console also provides the ability to manage each module, such as configuring polices for LiveCycle Rights Management ES3 and reassigning tasks as part of LiveCycle Process Management ES3.
Central repository
When you deploy an application, all of the information goes in the LiveCycle Foundation central repository, and all of the systems in a single or clustered J2EE system get their components from the repository. This greatly simplifies application deployment and enables many timesaving capabilities, such as form fragment libraries for reuse, auditing for management, and versioning for structured development and deployment. The ability to move archives (groups of related assets that can be packaged together) eliminates many manual tasks. And by relating assets in the repository, these applications can be exported and transferred to other LiveCycle systems including LiveCycle Content Services ES3.
1. LiveCycle Foundation is not included with LiveCycle Production Print ES3, which runs in a standalone (non-J2EE) environment and provides its own unique development and integration tools.
