Innovations PDFmdx Version 2.8.1:

Template synchronization:

The PDFmdx template editor can now match the locally created templates and layouts via a web service connection to one or more PDFmdx servers. This allows templates to be developed and tested locally, to be replicated to the processing servers later. Communication is via SOAP via http / https. This considerably simplifies and accelerates the matching and distribution of new and updated templates.

 

Textstamp with rotation angle: 

To apply a text not only horizontally, but at any angle, there is now the additional “angle” parameter.

 

Anchor Field Search – New Features:

So far, the string for the positioning of the anchor field on the entire page has been searched (from top) and the first reference was assumed as the position for the anchor field. However, it may occur that the term is not the first but the next occurrence is the search position, and there is no other unique way to position the field over a search string. Therefore the function was extended.

By default, the anchor field search is now performed from the field position of the template. The next matching string is taken as the position for the anchor fields. A new addition is the ‘hit’ option. If it is activated and a number is specified, the page is scanned from top to bottom and left to right for the anchor text. The number indicates the number of hits as an anchor field position. So eg. the 2nd hit can be found on a page as an anchor field position.

AutoScale-function:

Especially in the case of scanned documents it can happen that the contents of the documents on the page vary not only in their positioning horizontally or vertically, but documents can also have different scaling and sizes. Z.B. For example a scanned expression with different scales was created. Although the relative position and size of the fields to be read is the same between the documents, the absolute values are different. The layout for the reading of the fields is created using a typical document and so far only considered the absolute distances and sizes of the fields. A document that appears about 10% smaller on the A4 page could not be processed, because the fields compared to the created layout both of the position so synonymous of the size does not fit. For this, we have now implemented an AutoScale function, which is able to automatically compensate for such different scaling to a certain extent.

What is to be considered:

• The layout should be created from the “largest” version
• An anchor field must be used that can be found without partial string search. E.g. Via the string “Invoice” but not via “* Invoice *”
• The “AutoScale” option must be activated.

Detect and remove blank pages:

When scanning documents, duplicate scans may contain blank pages (partially unprinted backs) in the document. Scanners do not always have a function to automatically remove them during the scanning process. For the further processing and archiving, empty pages are disturbing and should be able to be removed. With the current PDFmdx version 2.8.1 there is now a function to automatically detect and remove blank pages. The criterion for detecting a blank page is a threshold value which is set to 95% by default. We recommend a value between 95 and 98%. The value specifies the percentage of the “white pixels” on a page. A page is identified as “empty” as soon as the proportion of white pixels is greater than or equal to the set value, e.g. 95%. Blank pages are removed before all other PDFmdx processors are started.

Remove sides / blank pages after the separation pages:

If a document is split, the found separator page can also be deleted. New addition is now also a function to delete the following pages of the separation page. In this case, either a certain number of subsequent pages to be removed can be defined, or the function for automatic page identification / removal with threshold values can be used.

 

Regular Expression Parameters to selectively extract numbers from a field:

RegEx expression “\ d +” can be used to return numbers of a field. If no parameter is specified, we automatically return the “first of the longest of the found numbers”. (E.g., the read-out field content is “page 15/110”, “110” is returned). Together with the “Hits” parameter, a number of a specific position can be extracted from the string. With parameter = 1, the first number found in the string “15” is returned with 2 the second “110” and so on.

RegEx can also be used in combination with the additional string formulations:

Up to now, only the RegEx processing or alternatively the other string processing functions could be used. Now it is also possible to combine these two functions – RegEx can therefore be used together with the functions – partial string, remove – left / right / space / leading zeros as well as the function characters and type selection. The RegEx processing is executed first, regardless of the type of the field.

%TIME% Variable – Now in 24 hour format

Update to SQL Compact Version 4.x – The version is now already included in the setup and does not have to be reloaded and installed as usual with version 3.5.

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Innovations PDFmdx Version 2.7.1:

1. Web interface via SOAP / REST – PDFmdx can therefore be integrated into other applications and services. To test which functions via the web services are available, a test client and the source code of this application is installed as a C # project with the Setup.

Features Web-Service Test-Client:

• List of available templates – Refresh / upload / download / delete
• edit job – description, selection of layouts, processing without conditions – Yes / No, preliminary parts – by templates, by pages, by field change or when it changes the layout or template.
• With the “Upload” function a created job is “filled” with PDF files for processing
• “Start” – processing the uploaded PDFs with the job settings on PDFmdx server
• “Download”: After processing, the results can completely downloaded or viewed on Job Info details and result Files downloaded separately.
• For the “Download” can be selected if only the PDF output files, only the metadata, or both should be downloaded together.Other data to be processed can be recharged via “upload“ in a created job and “Restart” will also be processed.
• “Delete” allows delete existing jobs
• Jobs can be queried and displayed as a list – ID, status (created, uploaded, started, finished, downloaded), user, description – are displayed. The job list can be filtered by the user and the status.

       

2. EMail attachment negative list – External list of email recipients to whom the additional selected attachment should not be sent. The recipients listed only receive the resulting document from the processing. An additionally configured attachment is not sent. All other e-mail recipients receive the additional attachments.

3. eMail replacement list – An E mail address of “To:”, “CC:” and “BC” may be replaced by an external ASCII / TXT list with another email address.

The attachment negative list and the replacement list can be defined generally or per template. The lists of templates override the general conditions laid down in the e-mail configuration lists.

 

4. Condition Editor has been extended to copy / cut and paste to existing conditions. Conditions can therefore be exchanged between the templates.

5. The choice of 1D / 2D bar code types for the detection can be set individually for each template and field –So far, the barcode types were set uniquely only in general for the whole application and therefore for all the templates and for all fields – now it is individually possible to field level.

6. 2D barcode recognition for fields or across the entire page.  2D barcodes of types DataMatrix, PDF417, Micro QR Code and QR Code can be recognized and read through the whole page or in a field area now.

7. Get the PDF information fields, obtaining date / time – The PDF information fields as well as the creation and modification date of the source file can be copied to the output file. Without this option, this information will be rewritten.

8. Suppressing the documents record in XLS / CSV output because with the gliding group (single position data sets) fields all document fields can be output as well.

9. The XML output format has been improved and implemented correctly – The document fields and the records for the fields of “gliding group” (item fields) are output separately in the XML structure. The used unit “mm” is output as an XML element.

 

 10. Search function in the PDF preview – therefore texts in PDF prototype currently displayed file can be searched and highlighed. The search can be carried forward / reverse and runs automatically as a substring search. This feature facilitates checking the conditions and the anchor Search function.

11. The default preview has been set to maximum width at the upper edge of documents – previously the default view was the vertical center of the document.

12. The test function been revised and extended. The defined condition can be switched off for the test. The layout to be used can be selected manually. So can be displayed regardless of the defined condition, the read-out fields. So the analysis and fine-tuning will be easier. The document fields and the fields of the gliding group are now properly evaluated during the test function and display correctly.

 

13. Set Default / default values for fields – they can be accessed and used via the% variables. So values can be assigned even if the field is not positioned or if the read-out area is empty.

14. Extensive corrections and bug fixes have been made in the range of page numbers in the conditions field–search anchors, and at page function  of the search anchor definitions. It is now reliably the first search string found found on the specified page and used as an anchor reference for the fields. Likewise, improvements in the text extraction were made – especially with regard to the correct order of the extracted words. With these improvements PDFmdx has been optimized for the processing of scanned or OCR documents.

15. Show/Hide of jobs in the executable PDFmdx processing. In order to increase the clarity of a large number of configured jobs, job definitions can have a checkbox “hidden” and therefore hidden on the user interface.

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Innovations PDFmdx Version 2.5.0:

• pmdx – template Export / Import – The PDF prototype files of all layouts are now included in the file PMDX. Was previously a template from the PDFmdx Editor exported and imported on another computer again, so the PDF prototype file had copied separately and be available on the target computer in the correct path before calling. Was it not present, the position was lost and the fields had to be re-inserted. The PDF prototypes are now included in the PMDX file and will no longer be stored externally. This simplifies the exchange, as well as run the PDFmdx Editor and PDFmdx processor on different computers.

• Sites and Dividers (advance) delete – Via conditions pages and Dividers can be detected and be deleted before or during processing. If the deleted page will not be used for the detection of the layout or to split, there is a separate function to delete the recognized side “before processing”. In this case, first all pages to be deleted are searched and the further detections and divisions for the “remaining document“ carried out only in a second passage. The criterion can be set on a selected field or “the whole page”. Also the search can be done on a particular page, a series of pages, or all pages. It is possible to work with an exact string, or by using wildcards as #,? and *.

   

• Pre-split of document stack with reference to layout or template – Are different layouts or templates contained in a stack of documents, and the various documents to be recognized on the basis of criteria and divided into individual documents, so this should be done in PDFmdx processor using the “up-front parts, if the layout or template changes “. A in a layout defined “S = Split” condition affects the stack of documents only with the same layout, not across different layouts and templates. Exist the documents to be processed already as separate individual documents, so this option is not needed.

 

• Barcode – Recognition – The field types, there is now the option of selecting “barcode”. So 1D barcodes can be recognized within the marked field area. The bar code value is returned as a field content. On the bar code settings can be set which barcode types to be detected. The barcode recognition is performed directly at the field position and in test function. So is immediately visible whether the bar code is recognized and what is the value of the barcode.

   

• Date- and Time-Format of the Output-Variables configurable – The format for output variables% DATE% and% TIME% can now be specified individually on the variables “dd” “mm” “yyyy” and “hh”, “mm”, “ss”.

• Test function displays the extracted and conditioned field contents – For the test function the display of the PDF Extract, and also conditioned by the field definition Field contents, which are used by PDFmdx for further processing.

 

• Text bzw. 1D/2D Barcode Stempel aufbringen – PDFmdx can read texts from PDF documents and it may text or barcode stamp applied to the pages. In this case, fixed text, standard variables such as date, time, calculator, user, template name, layout page number, page number overall but also read out field values are used on configured variables. For text-stamp font style, font size, color, and formatting are – bold, italic, outline, underline, strikethrough as parameters available. The text alignment can be selected within the position box – Left / Center / Right, Top / Center / Bottom. A value can also be applied as a 1D / 2D barcode stamp. There are 36 types of bar codes to choose from. Another parameter determines whether the stamp to be applied to specific pages in a page area, on all pages or only on the last page.

     

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