SAP Adobe Forms is a technology for forms development - the current standard in SAP. Adobe Forms for SAP was launched in 2005. Prior to that, SAP and Adobe began working together in 2002 as part of a strategic partnership.
With the help of Adobe Forms for SAP (officially: SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe or IFbA for short), forms can be created in companies, filled out, output as print forms, displayed on the screen as a pdf file, or even sent. Such forms include orders, purchase orders, and invoices.
Adobe Forms reads the associated master and transaction data from the SAP system. The application then displays the data in the desired and predefined form, for example, as a print form. It is also possible to enter data in forms.
SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe is the successor to SAPscript and SmartForms. The technology surpasses its two predecessors in many areas - such as design and performance. And unlike SAPscript and SmartForms, Adobe Forms is still under development.
With Adobe Forms for SAP, there is a clear separation of design and programming. In addition, SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe offers various suitable functions and tools to make forms easy to design.
For example, users have access to numerous ready-made templates - with the SAP S/4HANA 1909 release alone, more than 5,000 form templates.
Forms can also be customized by form developers using their own programming. This is possible in the two script languages JavaScript or Adobe FormCalc. The developer tool for Adobe Forms is accessed via the SFP transaction.
In order to use Adobe Forms for SAP, a Java stack (a so-called stack) must first be installed in SAP Basis. In addition, developers must configure the Adobe Document Service (ADS). Adobe LiveCycle Designer (LCD) - the graphical user interface for Adobe Forms - must also be installed separately because the application runs on Windows.