FileConverter – processing of folders and subfolders – configuration and features

The FileConverter (FC) has several options to control the processing via folders and subfolders.

The first thing important to know is that the processing takes place “transaction oriented”. That means the FC needs to know when the processing of the files from the in-folder and the subfolders it possibly contains can be started – because there could be new files added any time.

FileConverter Verarbeitungsoptionen für Unterordner

Trigger to start the processing – there are 2 possibilities for this:

  • The time of the last writing process of the files is used plus a setable delay. If there are no new files added in this period of time all files of the in-folder get recognized as a transaction and the processing starts.

Caution: If an entire folder or folder structure is copied into the in-folder the “old” creation date of the single documents will be preserved. It only gets set newly if the files and not the entire folder gets copied. In this case “ready” files have to be used or the processing can also be initiated with a “stop” and new “start” of the FC-services.

  • A “ready” file (ready.rd) is used. As soon as this file appears the available content of the in-folder at this moment is recognized as transaction and processed. The contents of the ready file don’t matter – it also can be empty. The name is configurable. If a ready file is used it has to be available in every folder which should be processed – therefor also in the subfolders of the subfolder processing was activated.

Process subfolders – yes / no:

  • If this option is not active only files from the root-in-folder get processed. Possibly underlying subfolders get ignored. Inside the out-folder an unique with date and time as name gets created for every transaction. All files created from the transaction get put into this folder.
  • If this option is active and the option subfolder processing from level” is inactive – all subfolders inside the in-folder get processed also. For each folder / subfolder from the in-folder, independent from the level in which it is located a folder with the same name gets created in the root level of the out-folder. In this case a possibly present folder structure from the in-folder isn’t created in the out-folder. This only happens if the option “subfolder processing from level” was activated.

Process all files – yes / no:

  • With this option it can be controlled what is going to happen of a file from a transaction couldn’t be converted or creates an error. If this option is active all files get processed – if an error occurs the concerning file gets marked (renamed with .err or moved to an error folder). All other files from the transaction get processed though.
  • If this option is not active the whole transaction gets aborted and “faulty” with the occuring of the first error. No other files get processed.

Subfolder processing from level:

With this option it can be controlled from which level the subfolder-processing should start. If e.g. 1 is configured all folders and underlying levels inside the in-folder get processed. The files which are located in the input-folder directly don’t get processed however.

  • If this option is active the same folder structure as in the in-folder (beginning at the defined level) gets build in the out-folder.
  • If this option is not active the folder structure doesn’t get taken over from the in-folder to the out-folder. For every folder (level-independent) a new folder with the same name gets created in the root of the out-folder. Therefor all in-folders get created in one level in the out-folder.

Download – FileConverter – documentc & e-mails to PDF, PDF/A and TIFF >>>

PDFmdx version 1.2.6 – automatic printouts via PDF2Printer – integration

PDFmdx version 1.2.6 now has an integration with the PDF printer-service – PDF2Printer. With that the created documents can be put out on printers automatically.

The printing output occurs for all single documents created within the scope of the PreSplit function. The information on which printer the output should take place, can be read out from the single documents via a data field of the PreSplit templates and used for the control of PDF2Printer.

Via alias assignement it is possible to determine and assign a physical printer from a field read out from the document. If no suitable alias can be found or the information is missing in the document, the set “default printer” is used. The printing function can be activated and deactivated generally or per processing definition.

PDFmdx - Processor - Print Funktion aktiviert  PDFmdx - Service Client - Print Funktion aktiviert  PDFmdx - Processor - PDF2Print Integration - Konfiguration

PDFmdx  creates a unique subfolder inside the print-input-folder for each processing job (input document). The PDF single documents created from the splitting process get copied there.

At the start of the further processing = printing process a “PDFmdx.pcf” (Print Control File) ASCII file gets genereted and copied into the subfolder at the end. The PCF contains the names of the PDF’s which should be printed and specifies the printing order as well as the printer which should be used. The PDF2Printer server recognizes the available “PDFmdx.pcf” file and starts the printing process. After the print was successful the subfolder gets deleted.

The PCF – file triggers and controls the print-output:

Subfolder processing with pcf - print control file

Download – PDFmdx template editor & processor >>>

PDF2Printer – MS-Windows service for printing PDF’s automatically

PDF2Printer is an application, installed as MS-Windows service, to output PDF’s from a monitored folder to various printers automatically.

Functions:

  • PDF-print-service for 32 and 64bit Windows operating systems
  • Folder-monitoring prints all PDF’s which a folder contains and all newly added ones
  • Configuration of in- / archiv- and error-folder
  • After the printing process – move the PDF into the archiv / error folder or delete the file
  • Selection – standard printer from the list of the available printers if no PCF printer-control-file is passed
  • Service – start / stop
  • Display log file
  • Configuration – Windows service account – as system or user account.

PDF2Printer - Config User interface  PDF2Printer - icon tray functions

  • With start / stop of the service an ASCII file (printers.pnames) containing the names of the available printers is created and written into the monitored in-folder. With that, integrated applications (e.g. PDFmdx) are able to read out, display and use the names of the available printers..

Start-stop of service writes an ascii file with the name of the available printers to the in-folder

  • Sub-folder monitoring with PCF trigger-file (Print Control File) allows the triggered beginning of the print of PDF’s contained in the sub-folder. The printing process starts with the occuring of the *.pcf file. The PDF’s listed in the pcf-file get printed in the defined order on the also defined printers.

Subfolder processing with pcf - print control file

Download – PDF2Printer –  Service for printing PDF’s automatically >>>

ifresco Tools – RepoWorker scripts – convert Alfresco documents to searchable PDF or PDF/A automatically

The module ifresco Tools offers the following functions for the Alfresco ECM / DMS:

  • ifresco-RepoWorker – enables time-controlled execution of a repository-JavaScript on a definable amount of documents.
  • ifresco-ScriptAction – enables the definition of share-actions which execute Repository-JavaScript on documents.

RepoWorker – scripts integrate AutoOCR and FileConverterPro:

With the RepoWorker we created an extension for the ifresco Transformer based on scripts. With that all existing and / or newly added documents of specific content- or MIME-types of an Alfresco server are converted to searchable PDF or PDF/A documents. The user doesn’t has to be concerned with it, the conversion takes place at the server automatically, indepent of how the documents are added into the ECM / DMS.

Functions:

  • time-controlled execution of JavaScript on a definable amount of documents
  • existing documents of a specific content- and MIME-type get converted to searchable PDF or PDF/A and replace the source-documents.
  • processed documents get marked with the “Transform” aspect to prevent a repeated processing.
  • singular or in definable time intervals repeated execution of scripts e.g. every 5 min
  • scripts can easily and quickly be adjusted to new conditions and requirements.
  • easy installation and configuration

Description – RepoWorker scripts for AutoOCR / FileConverterPro >>>

GitHub – RepoWorker scripts for AutoOCR / FileConverterPro >>>

Requirements:

  • Alfresco 4.x,
  • AutoOCR or FileConverterPro ,
  • ifresco Transformer (AMP).
  • ifresco Tools (AMP)

A demo installation can also be found on our ifresco / Alfresco testserver (admin / admin)

1_TIFF Datei in einen Alfresco Folder kopiert    2_TIFF Datei wird gefunden in ein durchsuchbares PDF konvertiert und ersetzt die Ursprungsdatei

PDFMerge Client for FileConverterPro (FCpro) – extends the PDF(/A) converter-service by new functions

Based on PDFMerge we brought out a PDFMerge Client for the FileConverterPro (FCpro) Server. It makes it possible to produce document conversions and compilations as PDF or PDF/A from any workplace. The PDF-conversion and processing of the documents is done via a FileConverterPro Server-service reachable in the local network or via the internet, which is addressed with SOAP / REST through HTTP(S). With that resources can be used collectively more efficient: the local computers get relieved, applications installed centrally (MS-Office, DWG/DXF converter or an Abbyy OCR Engine) get installed centrally and used together and don’t have to be installed on the local workplaces.

Differences to a local installation of PDFMerge:

  • The PDF or PDF/A conversion doesn’t take place locally but via HTTP(S) communication through a central FCpro service.
  • No local installation of MS-Office, DWG/DXF converter and Abbyy OCR Engine needed – because the central FCpro service is used.
  • No configuration of own local conversion profiles needed – selection of centrally predefined FCpro profiles.
  • Document preview only possible for image and PDF documents.
  • More compact setup – 65MB to 240-500MB – because the PDF converter and the OCR engine aren’t installed locally.
  • Simplified usage because less configuration possibilities are available.
  • Cost-effective option to produce PMT / PMTX files on any workplace to process them via a FCpro Server or PDFMerge.

1_PDFMerge für FCpro - Auswahl der FileConverterPro Verarbeitungsprofile  2_Context Menü für die eingefügten Dokumente  3_Kommunikations Einstellungen und Default Profilauswahl für den FileConverterPro Server

New features for the FileConverter Pro through the PDFMergeClient _ FCpro

The PDFMerge Client for the FCpro not only allows pure PDF or PDF/A conversions but also offers the following functions:

  • Creates merged PDF and PDF/A documents from single documents which are structured via bookmarks
  • Setting of the PDF info fields, PDF-open parameters and PDF rights and opening password.
  • Pagination and text stamp with a multiplicity of variables and configuration options.
  • Underlay / Overlay of PDF stationery
  • TOC – table of contents generated from the bookmarks automatically (planned).

After the installation of the PDFMerge Client for the FileConverterPro (FCpro) Server the processing can be tested immediatly with our FCpro testserver which is freely reachable via the internet, because the connection data needed is already predefined in our setup. The commandline parameters of PDFMerge are also valid, whereby the profiles refer to the FileConverterPro profiles of the configured FCpro server.

Download – PDFMerge Client for FileConverterPro (FCpro) – about 60MB >>>

FileConverter – Version 1.0.40 available – new additional HTML converter

Innovations & improvements – FileConverter 1.0.40:

  • With the processing of e-mails (EML, MSG) now also e-mails which contain MSG or EML attachments themselves can be converted
  • An error at the processing of MS-Exchange e-mail boxes via the webservice interface was fixed – the error blocked the service at times by which the service had to be restarted.
  • The underlying converter component was actualized and adjusted to the current state of the FileConverterPro.
  • Especially for the HTML conversion a new converter engine (ASP-direct) was implemented. There are now 3 for choice
  • HiQ-direct = previous „direct conversion“
  • ASP-direct = new HTML converter
  • MS-Office – same as so far

We recommend to use ASP-direct as standard because this converter displays the fonts bigger and therefor the created PDF’s are more readable.

Download – FileConverter – documents & e-mails to PDF, PDF/A and TIFF >>>

FileConverterPro & AutoOCR – test website available

To test the functions of FileConverterPro and AutoOCR and to run own conversion without having to install the software we made a server with FileConverterPro and AutoOCR, accessible via the internet for free.

Under MS-Windows the applications DropConvert (for FileConverterPro) and/or DropOCR (for AutoOCR) can be installed to carry out processings and to be able to run tests with these applications.

These Services can be used without installation of a client software and from any platform with only a browser. Therefor we have set up own test-websites to upload documents and convert them to PDF or PDF/A and/or run a PDF-OCR conversion.

FileConverterPro – test website:

URL: http://autoocr.may.co.at:3000/fcpro

Supported input-document formats:

  • DOC, DOCX, DOCM, RTF, TXT, ODT
  • XLS, XLSX, XLSM
  • PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPSX,
  • FDF, XFDF (Adobe Formulare),
  • XML
  • PNG, BMP, TIF, TIFF, JPG, JPEG, GIF
  • ZIP, RAR, 7Z,
  • MSG, EML,
  • PDF,
  • HTM, HTML, MHTML,
  • PMTX (PDFMerge)
  • DWG, DXF, DWF
  • Abbyy: PDF, TIF, TIFF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, DCX, JP2, JPC, DJV, DJVU, WDP
  • iOCR:  PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG

Processing profiles:

At all profiles placeholder pages get inserted when conversion errors occur and for not convertible file formats.

  • Default – direct conversion without MS-Office 2010, no OCR processing
  • Direct + iOCR German – direct conversion without MS-Office 2010, iOCR german
  • Direct – no OCR – PDFA – direct conversion without MS-Office 2010, PDF/A, no OCR processing
  • Direct – no OCR – with draft stamp and overlay – direct conversion without MS-Office 2010, stamps top left with filename / date / time, watermark (stamp) “Draft”, Sample stationery is underlayed, no OCR processing
  • MS-Office + Abbyy + PDFA – conversion of the Office documents via MS-Office 2010, PDF/A-1b output, Abbyy OCR – german & english
  • MS-Office + Abbyy – conversion of the Office documents via MS-Office 2010, Abbyy OCR – german & english
  • MS-Office – no OCR – PDFA – conversion of the Office documents via MS-Office 2010, PDF/A-1b output, no OCR processing

 

AutoOCR – test website:

URL: http://autoocr.may.co.at:3000/autoocr

Supported input-document formats:

  • Abbyy: PDF, TIF, TIFF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, DCX, JP2, JPC, DJV, DJVU, WDP
  • iOCR:  PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG

Processing profiles:

  • Abbyy PDFA – German & English – PDF/A output, languages – english & german
  • AbbyyFR10 – english & german – no PDF/A, languages – english & german
  • iOCR – English – PDFA – PDF/A – output, language – english
  • iOCR – English – no PDF/A, language – english
  • iOCR – German no PDF/A, language – german

On the test-sites it can be switched between the FileConverterPro and the AutoOCR test-site directly.

 

Node.js as base for the test websites:

For the implementing of the test websites for the FileConverterPro and AutoOCR we used the currently most modern tools for web-software-development. The programming was realized with JavaScript only, client- as well as server side.

The following components come to use:

  1.  Node.js – JavaScript for the server – http://nodejs.org/
  2. Node.js  FileConverterPro / AutoOCR Libraryhttps://github.com/XKEYGmbH/node-fcpro
  3. Bootstraphttp://getbootstrap.com/
  4. AngularJShttps://angularjs.org/

1_FileConverterPro - Test Site - Dokumente hochladen und nach PDF bzw. PDFA konvertieren3_Die eingefügten Dateien werden in der Liste angezeigt - die Auswahl des Verarbeitungsprofils ist pro Datei möglich   4_Mit Start der Konvertierung - werden die Dateien auf den Testserver hochgeladen und gleich konvertiert  5_Nach der Konvertierung können die erzeugten PDFs über den Download Link abgerufen werden  2_AutoOCR Test Site - Scans, Images und PDF hochladen und in durchsuchbare PDF bzw.PDFA konvertieren

DropOCR – version 1.2.5 available

Innovations DropOCR version 1.2.5:

  • Direct selection of the AutoOCR processing profile through the context menu of the icon tray application
  • function “Cancel all jobs” – with that currently running transfers and processes can be canceled immediatly
  • The “AutoStart” Option is now activated by default
  • The max. page amount is now preset to 1000 by default
  • The connection data of the AutoOCR testserver are already preassigned with the installation

DropOCR - Context Menu - Icon Tray Anwendung  DropOCR - Konfigurationseinstellungen 1.2.5

Download – DropOCR >>>

DropConvert – version 1.0.6 available

New features DropConvert version 1.0.6:

  • selection of the FCpro processing profile directly via the icon tray menu
  • display of the currently chosen processing profile as tool-tip text over the icon tray
  • function to cancel all open jobs
  • improved error handling with conversion errors without placeholder page

DropConvert - Auswahl des Verarbeitungsprofils über das Icon Tray Menü  Tooltip Text des Icon Trays zeigt das aktuell ausgewählte Verarbeitungsprofil

For tests without own installation of the FCpro server the testserver provided by us in the internet can be used.

Download – DropConvert – windows client for FCpro >>>

eDocPrintPro Plugin – ExtRen – extract and rename – extract information from the PDF – attachment name, path, subject, e-mail addresses

The existing eDocPrintPro e-mail plugin can search and extract e-mail addresses and subject via configurable delimiter in the created PDF and use them for the distribution of the e-mail. What has been missing yet however was the possibility to also redefine the name of the created PDF and use it as attachment name.

The eDocPrintPro “ExtRen” plugin now offers this possibility and combines the reassigning of the file name via extracts from the PDF document with the skills of the existing e-mail plugin.

Functions:

  • definition of variables for the destination file name / attachment name and path – delimiter – beginning / end, search in – first page / all pages / last page.
  • determining of name rules for the new file / attachment name via fixed (date, time, workstation name, username, origin name, counter) or free defined variables whose values get extracted from the PDF.
  • start folder if the file is only stored and not sent as attachment.
  • path configuration via variables like for the file name incl. free defined variables whose values get extracted from the PDF.
  • start value – counter
  • if destination file already exists – overwrite, append counter
  • delete document after processing – yes / no
  • all other functions see eDocPrintPro e-mail plugin.

1_After install of the plugin - a plugin set has to be to create and the plugin set has to be activated 2_To do not get the save as dialog the options shoud be changed - the file is saved without dialog 3_Here you can define the variables which should be read out from the document and which can be used to create the file- and attachment name 4_Config how the name of the file and attachment should be created 5_EMail settings - to cc and bcc can be fix configured or read out from the document 6_EMail settings - read out the email address from the document 7_EMail settings - configure the subject text label and read out the subject from the document 8_EMail settings - config the way how the email is sent out 9_Print from applicaiton to the eDocPrinter driver - information from document is read out - email message is created

Download eDocPrintPro “ExtRen” plugin >>>

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