SmartTransformer – FileConverterPro integrated with Alfresco ECM

SmartTransformer is an integration of FileConverterPro (FCpro) with Alfresco ECM / DMS. The SmartTransformer consists of an Alfresco extension, an own, lean server that knows the context of the Alfresco documents and handles the processing and updating as well as the FileConverterPro.

High-quality previews and better alfresco performance:

Why does viewing previews affect Alfresco performance? Alfresco automatically generates document thumbnails and previews from Office documents. This mechanism leads to complaints among the users, especially in larger environments. On the other hand, Alfresco becomes unstable and slow because it is busy with conversions or even waiting for stuck conversion jobs. On the other hand, the users are dissatisfied with the quality of the previews – the presentation mostly does not correspond to the one in MS-Office or its expression.

The Smart Transformer tackles the problem at its roots and store any office conversion to an independent, robust and scalable transformation of service that converts Office documents with MS Office libraries. The previews are as if the user had saved the document in Microsoft Office as PDF.

There is avoidance of multiple conversions, through intelligent caching in the SmartTransformer. In the same process, it is also a real relief to the Alfresco server (repository) by outsourcing all transformation tasks (text extraction, preview, thumbnail generation) to a standalone service / server. No CPU is loaded on the Alfresco server. Thus it is reliable and robust: conversion jobs are managed by the SmartTransformer of a database.

The SmartTransformer solves bottlenecks in the Alfresco architecture:

  • Transformation tasks that can be performed by FCPro are simulated in Alfresco by placeholder documents and are instead entered as a “job” in a persistent job queue and transferred to the FCPro. As soon as FCPro has completed the transformation, the placeholder is replaced by the real transformation. From the point of view of Alfresco no load is created by the transformation since the result is immediately returned by the placeholder. The job queue also reboots and possible problem documents can be easily identified. In the Alfresco standard, transformations are implemented by Java threads, which can lead to scaling problems on a regular basis.
  • Multiple transformations of the same binary object as the Alfresco Transformer are avoided because they are recognized by the SmartTransformer. In the same way, jobs are automatically deleted during fast updates on an Alfresco document, if they have not yet started, or the jobs are replaced by new ones.
  • Unlike the Alfresco standard implementation, the transformation is already proactive when creating or modifying a document, not just when Alfresco Share is accessed. In this case, identically configurable sets are created with only one transformation (thumbnail, preview, gallery-view, …) so that the Office document has to be opened only once.

In Alfresco, a JavaScript Api is also available for the SmartTransformer.

The SmartTransformer was developed by our Alfresco development partner ECM4u.

Inquiries about the product can be directed directly to:

ecm4u GmbH
Heiko Robert [heiko.robert@ecm4u.de]
http://www.ecm4u.de
Hölderlinplatz 2b
70193 Stuttgart

t: +49 (711) 912775-72
m: +49 (176) 347475-72
f: +49 (711) 912775-80

eDocPrintPro free and PDF/A-1b, 2b, 3b & ZUGFeRD Version 3.25.3 available

Create several printers – With the “eDocPrintPro Tool”, additional additional printers with any names can be created.

With version 3.25.2, there were 2 errors that were fixed with version 3.25.3:

  1. When the first additional printer was created, a new printer monitor application was created and started automatically. This additional printer monitor, however, has 100% loaded the computer until the restart.
  2. Only a second additional printer could be created and no more. The other printers were created, but the required monitor application was not automatically started and not entered in the registry. Thus these printers were present in the printer list, but could not be used because no output file was created or the save under dialog was not high.

Create several eDocPrintPro printers – please note:

  1. The default printer created by the setup – “EDocPrintPro” must not be renamed or removed
  2. Additional printers can be created with any names and settings – The program “eDocPrintPro Tool” must be used to create this printer.
  3. For each additionally created printer a <print name> Monitor.exe is created, started and entered in the registry under “RUN”.
  4. If no PDF file is created for one of the created printers or if there is no “Save as” dialog, check whether the xxxMonitor.exe is present and started, or if the start has been entered correctly under the RUN key in the registry.

      

Download – eDocPrintPro free Version

Download – eDocPrintPro PDF/A & ZUGFeRD

GhostScript 9.21 Setup

eDocPrintPro Plugin – ExtRen Version 1.1.0 available

With the ExtRen plugin, information about definable delimiters can be read from the PDF and can be used via variables for naming and sending emails.

InnovationsVersion 1.1.0:

  • Now works with the PDF / A-3b and ZUGFeRD output format
  • The ExtRen plugin is always executed as the last processing step using the INI file entry PROCESS = LAST
  • New HTML editor for creating templates for email messages
  • Automatically embed external images into the HTML message to be sent

Example – Read out the invoice number and use it as the file name for the PDF file:

         

Download – Example and ZUGFeRD result>>>
Download – eDocPrintPro ExtRen Plugin >>>

eDocPrintPro – EMail Plugin Version 5.6.5 – Search attachments

Innovations eDocPrintPro EMail Plugin Version 5.6.5:

Search attachments – In addition to the function to read email addresses or the subject of the email message to be generated from the PDF document, there is now also a function to add an additional variable document attachment to the email message automatically. The file path or name is searched for and read out in the document.

Features:

  • Enable / Disable Search & reading attachments
  • Set the beginning / end – search delimiter characters
  • Set default folders for the attachments if only the name should be read out or to display the file selection of this folder.
  • Option to display the file selection if the specified path / name can not be found.

 

New HTML Editor – with significantly more functions. Likewise, inserted images which are located on the local computer are encoded accordingly and automatically embedded in the HTML message without external references.

Download – eDocPrintPro – EMail Plugin für 32bit & 64bit OS >>>

PDFmdx Version 3.2.7 available

Innovations PDFmdx Version 3.2.7:

  • Multiline Edit Box for Barcode- and Text-stamp – Create QR code for payment instructions – Up to now, only a single-line string could be specified for the text and barcode stamping. CR / LF was not considered.  Now there is a multi-line input field for capturing the texts. Line breaks (CR / LF) and blank lines are transferred correctly to the stamps and barcodes. Now QR codes can also be generated for the creation of SEPA payment instructions – See QR-Code “Zahlen mit Code”.  The basis for this QR code is a standard of the European Payments Council. Many banks offer eBanking apps for smartphones with the functionality of which such QR code can be read. The information is automatically transferred to a transfer.

    

  • Identify the same receivers – Up to now, every PDF file created could only be sent in a separate email message. Now it is also possible, when processing a job, to collect all documents with the same recipient address and send in only one message. The recipient receives an email, which contains all documents, instead of several mails with only one attachment.

  • Remove characters – So far there have been only the function to remove at the beginning and end of a field read certain characters. Now there is also the possibility to remove one or more fixed characters from the whole extracted string – no matter where they are.

  • Replace several characters at once – There was already the function to define several characters which should be replaced.However, the function was not executed “one at a time” but one after the other. Thus, for example, not possible to convert 1.234.56 to 1.234.56. This has been changed and the function is executed with all defined replacement characters at once, which makes such conversions possible now.

  • XLSX instead of XLS – as well as sheet name configurable – The MS-Excel XLS format has been replaced by the XLSX format. The sheet name can now be assigned freely. Previously, the sheet name in the XLS was fixed with “PDFmdx” fixed.

  • Run Job weekly – Time-controlled execution of a job – In addition to the “Daily” option, there is now also the option “Weekly”

 

  • Email Address Search – Document / Page – Troubleshooting – In addition to reading e-mail addresses via fields, there is also the possibility to search all e-mail addresses from the document or on certain pages and to use it for sending.

  • HTML Body – Embed images –  Troubleshooting HTML EMail Sharing – For some EMail Clients / Web-based EMail services (eg Web.de), if images were embedded in the body, the message was displayed as HTML code / text and thus not correctly displayed .

Download – PDFmdx Template Editor & Processor >>>

eDocPrintPro PDFSign – Signatur Plugin Version 3.0.1 available

Based on our new PDFSign .NET signature component, we have implemented the eDocPrintPro signature plugin as the first application. This means that we are now also able to print PDF / A or ZUGFeRD printouts without losing the PDF / A & ZUGFeRD conformity.

General Features:

  • Signing (visible / invisible) of PDF, PDF / A and ZUGFeRD Output as plug-in function for all eDocPrintPro versions.
  • The eDocPrintPro plugin also supports several PDF printers with different settings.
  • Chained deployment with other plugins possible – The signature is always executed as the last processing step.
  • All settings can be saved and retrieved as PDFSign profiles. Profiles can be preselected or interrogated interactively.
  • PDFSign profiles can be exported or imported as XML (* .psnx) files.
  • Plugin SDK – incl. C # sample project – Available PDFSign profiles can be selected and activated depending on the eDocPrintPro printer.

    

Signature functions:

  • All kinds of certificates – PFX file, USB token, SmartCard, Hardware Security Module (HSM) – are supported
  • PDF/A or ZUGFeRD Documents remain valid (invoice signatures)
  • PAdES LTV Standard – Enables the long-term validation of the signature
  • Time stamp function – A time stamp helps to clearly determine whether a document has not been modified after the signature
  • Long and thus more secure keys (SHA512 algorithm and RSA2048) are supported.
  • Encryption of PDF documents.
  • Function to confirm PDF documents.
  • Visible signature – page, position, image, font, signature box, signature labels – are configurable.
  • Certificate Generator – Allows you to create self-signed software certificates.

Download – eDocPrintPro PDFSign Plugin >>>
Download – eDocPrintPro SDK & sample project PDFSign Plugin >>>

EMail Archiver for FCpro – Version 4.4.4

Innovations Version 4.4.4:

  • Save settings in the registry – So far, all configuration settings have been stored in XML files. Now there is also the possibility to specify during the installation whether these are stored as before or in the registry of the computer (standard).

The setup writes certain general presets to the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\MAY Computer\EmailArchiver

When MS-Outlook is started for the first time, these general settings are copied into the local user’s key and administered there for the logged-on user.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\May Computer\EMailArchiver

  • The configuration can also be set to “Read-only” – so the user himself can not make any configuration changes and only use the predefined profiles.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\MAY Computer\EmailArchiver

Name: “read-only” value:”yes”

  • ToRegistry.exe – To facilitate the transition, there is the tool “ToRegistry.exe”. This allows existing XML configuration files to be read out and transferred to the registry.

  1. Transmits all settings from the Config folder specified in the SettingsFolderInfo.xml file to the registry
  2. Transmits a single selected configuration or login file (XML) into the registry – The type is automatically detected and written to the correct node.
  3. If the application is run as an administrator, you can select whether the configuration is transferred to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” or “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”. If “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” is used, the key “use-registry” is also set to “yes”.

Download – EMail Archiver MS-Outlook Plugin für FileConverterPro >>>

Download – ToRegistry.exe >>>

For tests, the FileConverter Pro Testserver hosted by us can be used – this is already pre-set in the EMail Archiver after installation.

PDFSign – .NET Signature component including C # Sample project for PDF, PDF/A and ZUGFeRD

PDFSign is used to sign PDF documents with an X.509 certificate. In addition to the single signature, larger quantities of documents can also be signed in the stack in a time-saving manner. Since the signing also guarantees that a document has not been changed afterwards, the signing must always be the last step of the document creation. A subsequent change would render the signature invalid.

   

PDFSign features:

  • PKI compatibility: PDFSign is completely PKI neutral and works with PKI components from any vendor, including CAs, certificates, CRLs, SmartCards, etc. The access and use of the certificates and associated private keys can be done via SmartCards, USB Token or PFX files. Also, a signature processing is supported via Hardware Security Module (HSM), provided that they have an MS-CAPI or PKCS # 11 interface.
  • PDF/A or ZUGFERD documents remain valid: PDFSign ensures that the PDF/A or ZUGFeRD compliance is maintained even when applying the (visible) signature.

  • Billing signatures: The PDF / A and ZUGFeRD PDFSign compatible signatures can be used to digitally sign both individual (interactive) and larger quantities (batch processing) of invoices. An EU Directive states that invoices sent electronically by all Member States are to be accepted if the authenticity (origin) and integrity (unalterability) can be ensured.
  • PAdES Standard: PDFSign is compatible with PAdES part 2 and PAdES-LTV (long-term validation) standard. The revocation information of the certificates is embedded (PAdES-LTV).
  • Long-term validation: With PDFSign, a long-term validation document can be signed and stamped with a time stamp. PDFSign supports advanced digital signatures that contain embedded RFC 3161 compliant secure time stamps. Such certificates may also be verified after expiry of the validity and after revocation of the certificate.
  • CAdES-T (time stamp) Support – CMS Advanced Electronic Signature (CAdES) – CAdES-T (Timestamp), inserts trustworthy time stamps to protect against repelability. Signing and verifying very large CAdES signed files (100 MB and more).  A time stamp helps to determine whether a document has not been modified after the signature. Like signatures, timestamps are easier to verify if they are associated with a certificate of a trustworthy time stamp instance.

  • SHA256, SHA512 Algorithm and RSA2048: PDFSign also supports the SHA256 and the SHA512 hash algorithm (known as SHA2) as well as RSA2048 as well as longer keys.
  • Encryption of PDF documents

  • PDF Document confirmation: This electronic confirmation can be used to indicate that the content of the document has been checked and approved.
  • Signature display configurable: PDFSign offers all possibilities to configure the visual representation of the visibly displayed signature. In addition to a number of parameters, the position as well as the pages – first, last, all – can be defined.

PDFSign – X.509 Certificate Generator:

X.509 certificates form the basis of a public-key infrastructure (PKI). These are electronic legitimations, issued by a certification body (CA) and linked to a key pair consisting of a private and public key.

Digital certificates are typically issued by a trusted and certified institution (CA) that guarantees identity. These are delivered both on secure hardware such as SmartCard’s or USB token or as software certificates.  With PDFSign it is also possible to create self-signed certificates. These can be used exactly as official certificates, but they do not have any certification or assurance. Signed documents are technically equivalent could be rejected by third parties but not as trustworthy and reliable.

Functions – Certificate Generator:

  • Self-signed certificates, root or user certificates can be created and stored either in the Microsoft certificate store or as a PFX file.
  • SHA 256, SHA 512, RSA 2048, RSA 4096 Algorithms and key lengths can be used.
  • Key usage and extended key usage can be easily configured.
  • X.509 Certificates and their properties can be displayed.

PDFSign .NET component: The PDFSign .NET component can be used to develop Windows Server and desktop applications.

  • Visual Studio 2005 – 2012
  • Visual Studio 2013
  • Visual Studio 2015

programming languages: 

  • C#,
  • VB.NET,
  • ASP.NET,
  • Visual C++,
  • Windows PowerShell.

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows 7 or higher, including Windows Server 2012/2016 and Windows 10. PDFSign .NET component requires .NET Framework 3.5 or higher.

Download – executable PDFSign 30 days test and demo application incl. C # project in SourceCode >>>

Download – PDFSign – X.509 Certificate Generator – Standalone Version >>>

PDFAttex – .NET / COM extract component to ZUGFeRD XML and other attachments from a PDF

PDF, PDF / A-3 as well as the ZUGFeRD format make it possible to use PDF documents as containers to embed any files into the PDF. The recipient needs a way to extract the embedded files. This can be done interactively, eg. through the Adobe Reader. However, if you want to automate this process, you need an appropriate software component, which can be integrated into an application to read and save the attachments.

For the ZUGFeRD format, there is a free CommandLineTool – ExtractZUGFeRD-XML as well as a .NET / COM component with PDFAttex. This is now included as an extension in the eDocPrintPro SDK.

PDFAttex features:

  • .NET / COM component
  • C# Sample / test application with source code
  • Read how many attachments are included in the PDF
  • Read and save individual or all attachments (name, extension) from a PDF, PDF / A-3 or ZUGFeRD file
  • Read out with which PDF / A level the file was created – PDF / A-1b, 2b, 3b

PDFAttex as a 32bit COM component:

VisualBasic6 (VB6) requires, for example, a 32bit component.By default, VB can not deal with .NET components created for a mixed-32 / 64bit environment. Therefore, we provide a 32bit variant of the DLL. To be able to be addressed, this DLL must first be registered with the 32bit RegAsm.exe from .NET 2.0. For this, the following command should be executed as an administrator via a CMD file: “C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\VB Sample\RegAsm.exe” “C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\VB Sample\PDFAttex.dll” /codebase. Then, in VisualBasic, the component is available in the list of existing references and can be used.

PDFAttex is part of the eDocPrintPro SDK and requires .NET Runtime version 2.0.

PDFmdx-CL Version 1.0.25 – Commandline application available for PDFmdx

PDFmdx-CL is a command line application that allows to transfer PDF documents or whole folder structures to a PDFmdx service via the Web service interface and to store the results of the processing in a target folder.

PDFmdx-CL is a free add-on for the PDFmdx server, can be installed on any MS Windows workstations and requires no additional licensing.

PDFmdx-CL scope of application:

  • recognize PDF documents across fields and their contents by means of stored criteria
  • Split of document stacks into single documents by criteria
  • Read out field information from the documents and write it as a metadata (ASCII-TXT) file
  • PDF stationery underlay / overlay controlled via field contents
  • Sign PDF documents
  • Create PDF / A-1b or PDF / A-3b compliant documents
  • Fill PDF Infofelder with the read metadata
  • Copy text / watermark – fixed or via contents / variables from the document
  • 1D / 2D Barcodes – fixed or via contents / variables from the document

The PDFmdx server also offers the possibility to re-name the documents, save them on the server in a folder structure, send them by e-mail, or print them using the PDF2Printerprint server. These functions can only be used directly at the PDFmdx server, but not yet via the PDFmdx-CL application.

PDFmdx-CL features:

  • Command line application for PDFmdx.

 

  • Web service communication (SOAP) – local (host) or remote PDFmdx processing service.
  • Processing of individual PDF files as well as all PDFs of a folder / ZIP file or folder structures.
  • User interface for the configuration as well as to set default settings.

  • Create job templates (name / description) and select the processing template (s). Processing templates are created via the PDFmdx editor and are stored on the PDFmdx server.

  • New processing jobs can be created using an already created job template and filled with documents (individual or entire folders) – Required parameters are either specified or are defaulted by default.

  • The results documents (PDF’s + metadata) are downloaded to the specified destination folder
  • Job details can be displayed through the job list.

 

Download – PDFmdx-CL Commandline Add-on Client für PDFmdx >>>

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