BPA Platform. White Paper. PDF Tools. Version 1.0

Transcription

1 BPA Platform White Paper PDF Tools Version 1.0

2 Copyright The copyright in this document is owned by Orbis Software T/A Codeless Platforms All rights reserved. This publication may not, in whole or part, be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Orbis Software T/A Codeless Platforms. Head Office: Codeless Platforms Suite 1 & 2 Bourne Gate 25 Bourne Valley Road Poole BH12 1DY United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) enquiries@codelessplatforms.com Trademarks Orbis Software T/A Codeless Platforms owns the registered Trademark TaskCentre. All other Trademarks used within this documentation are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners. The information provided in this publication may contain errors, omissions, or typographical errors or may be out of date. Orbis Software T/A Codeless Platforms may change, delete, or update any published information at any time and without prior notice. The information published in this document is provided for informational purposes only and is not binding on Orbis Software T/A Codeless Platforms in any way except to the extent that it is specifically indicated to be so. 1

3 Contents Introduction... 3 The PDF Tools Pack... 3 System Requirements... 3 About the PDF Edit tool... 4 Step Configuration... 4 General Tab... 4 Main Tab... 5 Security Tab... 7 Options Tab... 8 Working with Other Steps... 9 Consuming Recordset from Other Tools... 9 Exposing to Other Tools... 9 Tool Output About the PDF Extract Data tool Step Configuration General Tab Main Tab Options Tab Working with Other Steps Consuming Recordset from Other Tools Exposing to Other Tools Tool Output Error Handling

4 Introduction The PDF tools allow communication between TaskCentre and PDF documents. The PDF Tools Pack The tool pack consists of: PDF Edit This tool is used to edit PDF documents. PDF documents can be merged, a background can be added, or the document s security properties can be changed. It must be installed on the TaskCentre machine, and on any TaskCentre client machines. PDF Extract Data This tool is used to extract data from a PDf document. It must be installed on the TaskCentre machine, and on any TaskCentre client machines. System Requirements The PDF tools require TaskCentre 4.6 or above. 3

5 About the PDF Edit tool Step Configuration When creating new tasks, the PDF Edit tool is located under General of the Task Browser. General Tab Figure 1 - PDF Edit - General tab Provide a meaningful Name and Description for this step. Choose your Data source. This can either be: No data source If you don t make use of a dedicated input source, unselect checkbox Read data from a source. Source The data source can be set to an available Recordset data source. Only those steps that are capable of natively exposing a Recordset at runtime are listed. 4

6 Main Tab You specify the Select mode, the PDF source and PDF destination files here. Depending on the Select mode, define the details as well. Figure 2 - PDF Edit - Main tab For the PDF source you can define a file path or use file content. The file content can be a binary field, a Base64 string, or an ASCII string. When Select mode is set to Merge, specify the PDF file(s) to add. Figure 3 - PDF Edit - Main tab - Merge details 5

7 When Select mode is set to Add background, specify the PDF file(s) to use as background. Figure 4 - PDF Edit - Main tab - Add background details When Select mode is set to Add barcode, select a barcode type and define the options and advanced settings that are enabled for this barcode type. Figure 5 - PDF Edit - Main tab - Add barcode details 6

8 Security Tab Here you define the security settings and the digital signature that are used when editing or saving a PDF document. Figure 6 - PDF Edit - Security tab In the Source settings, you can provide a password, used to open the source PDF when it is protected. The Security options and the Digital signature are optional. These are set when saving the PDF document. When signing a PDF document, define a Certificate filepath and the Certificate password. Fields Location, Reason and Contact info are optional. 7

9 Options Tab The Options tab allows you to define how errors in this step are handled at task runtime. Figure 7 - PDF Edit - Options tab If an error occurs, you can decide whether the step should Continue processing, or terminate the step immediately (Abort Step). If the step is aborted, you can choose to Continue processing onto the next step in the task or terminate the whole task immediately (Abort Task). All errors are recorded to the TaskCentre Event Log (Manage > Event Log). 8

10 Working with Other Steps PDF Edit can directly interact with the following steps: Consuming Recordset from Other Tools Step Icon Name Step Type Call Procedure (OLEDB), Output, Execute Database Query (ODBC) Database Query (OLEDB) Import Flat File Convert XML to Recordset Format Data Filter General PDF Extract Data Exposing to Other Tools The PDF Edit step exposes no objects that can be utilised by other steps. 9

11 Tool Output The PDF Edit tool outputs: RecordSource Figure 8 - PDF Edit tool outputs The RecordSource data contains the input data for the PDF document, see GENERAL TAB GENERAL TAB. 10

12 About the PDF Extract Data tool Step Configuration When creating new tasks, the PDF Extract Data tool is located under General of the Task Browser. General Tab Figure 9 - PDF Extract Data - General tab Provide a meaningful Name and Description for this step. Choose your data Source. The data source can be set to an available Recordset data source. Only those steps that are capable of natively exposing a Recordset at runtime are listed. 11

13 Main Tab You specify the PDF source here. Figure 10 - PDF Extract Data - Main tab For the PDF source you can define a file path or use file content. The file content can be a binary field, a Base64 string, or an ASCII string. Optionally define a password that will be used to open the source PDF when it is protected. Define the items to extract. This can be the text of the PDF file, the metadata ( Author, Creator, Keywords, Subject and Title ), and the form data. The xml schema that is used to extract the form data can be viewed by clicking the Show schema button. 12

14 Options Tab The Options tab allows you to define how errors in this step are handled at task runtime. Figure 11 - PDF Extract Data - Options tab If an error occurs, you can decide whether the step should Continue processing, or terminate the step immediately (Abort Step). If the step is aborted, you can choose to Continue processing onto the next step in the task or terminate the whole task immediately (Abort Task). All errors are recorded to the TaskCentre Event Log (Manage > Event Log). 13

15 Working with Other Steps PDF Extract Data can directly interact with the following steps: Consuming Recordset from Other Tools Step Icon Name Step Type Call Procedure (OLEDB), Output, Execute Database Query (ODBC) Database Query (OLEDB) Import Flat File Convert XML to Recordset Format Data Filter General PDF Extract Data General Exposing Recordset to Other Tools Step Icon Name Step Type Call Procedure (OLEDB), Output, Execute Database Query (ODBC) Database Query (OLEDB) Import Flat File Format As Text Format Format As HTML Format Merge MS Word Document Format Run Crystal Report Format Create Workflow Job Format 14

16 Step Icon Name Step Type Convert Recordset to XML Format Save As File Output File Transfer (FTP) Output Run Program Execute Call COM Object Execute Run VB Script Execute Data Filter General PDF Edit General PDF Extract Data General 15

17 Tool Output The PDF Extract Data tool outputs: RecordSource RecordSet Figure 12 - PDF Extract Data tool outputs The RecordSource data contains the input data for the PDF document, see GENERAL TAB 11. The RecordSet data contains data from the output PDF document, for instance the filename, author, or title. Error Handling Errors are written to the TaskCentre Event Log (Manage > Event Log). You define how errors are handled in the Options tab of the PDF Edit and the PDF Extract Data tools see OPTIONS TAB ON PAGE 8 and OPTIONS TAB