SECTION 8.6
709
Interactive Forms
JavaScript Actions
A
JavaScript action (PDF 1.3)
causes a script to be compiled and executed by the
JavaScript interpreter. Depending on the nature of the script, various interactive
form fields in the document may update their values or change their visual ap-
pearances. Netscape Communications Corporation’s
Client-Side JavaScript Refer-
ence
and the Adobe
JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference
(see the Bibliography)
give details on the contents and effects of JavaScript scripts. Table 8.90 shows the
action dictionary entries specific to this type of action.
TABLE 8.90 Additional entries specific to a JavaScript action
KEY
TYPE
VALUE
S
name
text string or
text stream
(Required)
The type of action that this dictionary describes; must be
JavaScript
for a JavaScript action.
(Required)
A text string or text stream containing the JavaScript script to be exe-
cuted.
Note:
PDFDocEncoding
or Unicode encoding (the latter identified by the Unicode
prefix
U
+
FEFF
) is used to encode the contents of the string or stream. (See imple-
JS
To support the use of parameterized function calls in JavaScript scripts, the
JavaScript
entry in a PDF document’s name dictionary (see Section 3.6.3, “Name
JavaScript actions. When the document is opened, all of the actions in this name
tree are executed, defining JavaScript functions for use by other scripts in the
document.
Note:
The name strings associated with individual JavaScript actions in the name
dictionary serve merely as a convenient means for organizing and packaging scripts.
The names are arbitrary and need not bear any relation to the JavaScript name
space.