Data binding options enable you to build a form that captures data for enterprise infrastructures and/or use an external data source to populate a form at run time. For example, given appropriate binding information (see About binding fields to a data source) and access to the data source (see About data sources), Acrobat and Adobe Reader can import and display data from an OLEDB database when the form is opened. Objects can also be bound to an XML schema, an XML file, or a WSDL data source.Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and LiveCycle Forms ES interpret the data-binding properties to store captured data and parse retrieved data. By default, an object’s data is stored and merged according to Adobe data-merging rules. When a form opens in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, or is rendered by LiveCycle Forms ES, the field values are populated from the data source. Any changes to a field’s value by the user are committed to the associated data source when the form is saved in Acrobat or Adobe Reader or the data is submitted to LiveCycle Forms ES.If the data is not bound to a data source (for example, if the form data will be returned by email), the data pattern specifies the format that the data is saved in. If you do not create a data pattern, the data will be saved in canonical format. If a form may be filled by end users in a variety of locales or if the data may be returned to more than one locale, having the data in canonical format helps ensure that it is interpreted the same way by all users.You can specify data patterns for date/time fields, numeric fields, text fields, and password fields. If the data pattern prevents Acrobat or Adobe Reader, or LiveCycle Forms ES from parsing a retrieved value, the value appears in the form unchanged (it is not formatted for display).