Adobe LiveCycle ES Foundation

Adobe LiveCycle ES Foundation software provides the underlying server capabilities that enable the deployment, execution, and management of LiveCycle ES solution components. Included with the purchase of most* LiveCycle ES solution components, LiveCycle ES Foundation consists of:

• Service container
• Foundation services
• Administration tools
• Central repository

Use LiveCycle ES Foundation to deploy short-lived processes that combine a number of solution components. For example, you can create a PDF form, apply a security policy to it, certify the document, and finally 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 solution components) through Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES software. 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 ES 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 ES Foundation has a number of out-of-box services that allow integration with common IT infrastructures. Common services include:

• 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 ES Foundation includes:

• LiveCycle Configuration Manager
• LiveCycle Administration Console

LiveCycle Configuration Manager is used to configure and deploy LiveCycle ES solution components, including applying service packs and emergency patches.

LiveCycle Administration Console is a web-based portal used by systems administrators to manage the deployment and configuration of LiveCycle ES 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 solution component, such as configuring polices for Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES software and reassigning tasks as part of Adobe LiveCycle Process Management ES software.

Central repository

When you deploy an application, all of the information goes in the LiveCycle ES 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 time-saving 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 Adobe LiveCycle Content Services ES.