Adobe PDF Services

With the Adobe Workfront Fusion Adobe PDF Services, you can extract data from a PDF file, or generate a new PDF file from data you supply. In addition, you can convert a variety of file types to PDFs, or PDFs to other file types. PDF Services also allow you to combine, compress, or read metadata for a PDF file, as well as control password protection on the file.

If you need instructions on creating a scenario, see Create a scenario in Adobe Workfront Fusion.

For information about modules, see Modules in Adobe Workfront Fusion.

For information on the API used for PDF Services, see Adobe Document Generation API.

Security considerations when using Adobe PDF Services

The Adobe PDF Services can read, convert, or modify your files, but neither Adobe nor Workfront Fusion store your files or data. This means that:

  • You maintain control over your files, including their security
  • You do not need to have an Adobe storage or cloud storage account to use the PDF Services.

Access requirements

You must have the following access to use the functionality in this article:

Adobe Workfront plan*
Pro or higher
Adobe Workfront license*
Plan, Work
Adobe Workfront Fusion license**

Current license requirement: No Workfront Fusion license requirement.

Or

Legacy license requirement: Workfront Fusion for Work Automation and Integration

Product

Current product requirement: If you have the Select or Prime Adobe Workfront Plan, your organization must purchase Adobe Workfront Fusion as well as Adobe Workfront to use functionality described in this article. Workfront Fusion is included in the Ultimate Workfront plan.

Or

Legacy product requirement: Your organization must purchase Adobe Workfront Fusion as well as Adobe Workfront to use functionality described in this article.

To find out what plan, license type, or access you have, contact your Workfront administrator.

For information on Adobe Workfront Fusion licenses, see Adobe Workfront Fusion licenses.

Prerequisites

To create an OAuth Server-to-Server, you must add the Adobe PDF Services API in your Adobe Developers Console. When adding the API, select the OAuth Server-to-Server option.

For instructions, see Add API to project using OAuth In the Adobe developer documentation.

Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services

To create a connection for your Adobe PDF Services modules:

  1. In any Adobe PDF Services module, click Add next to the Connection box.

  2. Fill in the following fields:

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    Connection type Select whether you want to create a server-to-server connection or a JWT connection.
    Connection name Enter a name for this connection.
    Client ID

    Enter your Adobe Client ID. This can be found in the Credentials details section of the Adobe Developer Console.

    For instructions locating credentials, see Credentials in the Adobe developer documentation.

    Client Secret

    Enter your Adobe Client Secret. This can be found in the Credentials details section of the Adobe Developer Console.

    For instructions locating credentials, see Credentials in the Adobe developer documentation.

    Technical account ID (JWT only)

    Enter your Adobe Technical account ID. This can be found in the Credentials details section of the Adobe Developer Console.

    For instructions locating credentials, see Credentials in the Adobe developer documentation.

    Organization ID (JWT only)

    Enter your Adobe Organization ID. This can be found in the Credentials details section of the Adobe Developer Console.

    For instructions locating credentials, see Credentials in the Adobe developer documentation.

    Meta scopes (JWT only) Enter any meta scopes needed for the connection.
  3. Click Continue to save the connection and return to the module.

Adobe PDF Services modules and their fields

When you configure PDF Services, Workfront Fusion displays the fields listed below. Along with these, additional fields might display, depending on factors such as your access level in the app or service. A bold title in a module indicates a required field.

If you see the map button above a field or function, you can use it to set variables and functions for that field. For more information, see Map information from one module to another in Adobe Workfront Fusion.

Generate document

The Generate document module is a powerful way to create a PDF that contains data you select. You can format it by using a Microsoft Word template, or by providing data in JSON format.

For more information on the Adobe PDF Services Generate document functionality, see the Overview of Document Generation in the Adobe Document Services documentation.

Use the Generate document module with a Microsoft Word template

To use the Generate document module with a Microsoft Word template, you must first create the template. For instructions, search for “Create a template” in the Microsoft Office documentation.

Fill in the Generate document module fields as follows:

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source File

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

This source file is the Microsoft Word template that the module uses to generate the new PDF.

We recommend creating a project in Workfront for the Microsoft Word templates that you use in Workfront Fusion. You can then use the Workfront > Download document module to pull the appropriate template into your scenario.

Output Format

Select the format for the generated document.

  • PDF

  • DOCX

Data for merge

For each value tag in your template that you want to replace with text, fill in the following:

  • Key

    Enter a key. In the template, the key is the text shown in the value tag. For example, if you want to place text in the value tag {{name}}, enter name in the key field.

  • Value Type

    Select whether the data in the value field is a value, an object, or an array of objects.

  • Value

    Enter or map the text that you want to appear in the generated document in place of the value tag.

Use the Generate document module with JSON

To use the Generate document module with JSON, fill in the fields as follows:

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source File
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.
Output Format

Select the format for the generated document.

  • PDF

  • DOCX

Data for merge

To use JSON in this module, you must enable mapping on this field.

Enter or map the JSON to generate the document from.

You can type JSON directly into this field, or map JSON output from a JSON module.

Extract Text / Table

This action module allows you to extract data from a PDF file. The module outputs individual text elements, such as a paragraph or the text in a single cell of a table.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.
Elements that should be extracted as JSON
  • Text

  • Tables

Extract Bounding boxes?
Enable this option to extract data about the bounding box of the text.
Include styling information for output?
Enable this option to add styling information to the output JSON.

Combine PDF files

This action module takes multiple PDF files and combines them into a single PDF file. For example, this module could combine all of the documents in a Workfront project into a single PDF upon completion of the project.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Documents

You can use an aggregator module to gather documents to combine into a PDF, or you can add the documents manually.

We recommend using an Array Aggregator module to aggregate output from a previous module. By using an aggregator, you do not need to know the names, locations, or numbers of files to combine. Using an aggregator is therefore much more flexible and scalable than manually entering the documents to be combined.

To use the Combine PDF files module with an aggregator, you must enable mapping on the Documents field.

In this example, the Read Related Records module identifies documents associated with a project, and the Download Documents module downloads each one. All of the PDFs are aggregated into an array, which is passed into the Combine PDF files module.

You can also enter documents manually.

For each document to include in the combined PDF:

  1. Click Add a Document

  2. In the Source file field, select the module that outputs the document you want to include, or map the source file's name and data.

  3. (Optional) If you want to include only certain pages from the source file, for each page range that you want to add, click Add item in the Pages field, then enter the first and last pages of the page range to include, and click Add. You can include more than one page range from a single document.

  4. Click Add.

Compress PDF files

This action module takes a PDF file and compresses it. This can be useful for conserving bandwidth or memory.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Compression level
Select the compression level that you want to use.

Convert document to PDF file

This tool converts a document to a PDF file. The source file must be one of the following document formats:

  • DOC
  • XLS
  • PPT
  • TXT
  • RTF
Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in one of the following formats:

  • DOC

  • XLS

  • PPT

  • TXT

  • RTF

Language

Select the default language for the source document. This allows the module to select an appropriate font, if not font is included in the source file.

Select from the following languages:

  • en-US (Default): English (United States of America)

  • ca-ES: Catalan (Spain)

  • cs-CZ: Czech (Czech Republic)

  • da-DK: Danish (Denmark)

  • de-DE: German (Germany)

  • en-AE: English (United Arab Emirates)

  • en-GB: English (United Kingdom)

  • en-IL: English (Israel)

  • en-US: English (United States of America)

  • es-ES: Spanish (Spain)

  • es-MX: Spanish (Mexico)

  • eu-ES: Basque (Spain)

  • fi-FI: Finnish (Finland)

  • fr-CA: French (Canada)

  • fr-FR: French (France)

  • fr-MA: French (Morocco)

  • hr-HR: Croatian (Croatia)

  • hu-HU: Hungarian (Hungary)

  • it-IT: Italian (Italy)

  • ja-JP: Japanese (Japan)

  • kr-KR: Korean (South Korea)

  • nb-NO: Norwegian Bokmål (Norway)

  • nl-NL: Dutch (Netherlands)

  • pl-PL: Polish (Poland)

  • pt-BR: Portuguese (Brazil)

  • pt-PT: Portuguese (Portugal)

  • ro-RO: Romanian (Romania)

  • ru-RU: Russian (Russia)

  • sk-SK: Slovak (Slovakia)

  • sl-SI: Slovenian (Slovenia)

  • sv-SE: Swedish (Sweden)

  • tr-TR: Turkish (Turkey)

  • uk-UA: Ukrainian (Ukraine)

  • zh-CN: Chinese (Mainland China)

  • zh-TW: Chinese (Taiwan)

Convert HTML to PDF file

This tool converts an HTML file to a PDF file.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

Important: Source file must be in HTML or ZIP format.

JSON

If your HTML references JavaScript variables, you can include those variables here.

For each variable, click Add item and include the variable's key and value.

Note:

  • When creating a PDF from a ZIP file, the source collateral must include a script element such as: <script src='./json.js' type='text/javascript'></script>

  • When creating a PDF from a URL, the content of this JSON object is injected into the browser VM before the page is rendered.

Include header and footer

Enable this option to create headers and footers for the PDF document.

  • The header includes a date and the document title.

  • The footer includes the file name and a page number.

Page width
Enter the width of the paper, in inches. The module uses this information to format the pages in the created PDF file.
Page height
Enter the height of the paper, in inches. The module uses this information to format the pages in the created PDF file.

Convert image to PDF file

This tool converts an image to a PDF file.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and image file.

Convert PDF to document

This tool converts a PDF file to a document. You can select one of the following formats for the output file.

  • DOC
  • DOCX
  • PPTX
  • XLSX
  • RTF
Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Output Files Format

Select the format that you want the files to be output as:

  • DOC

  • DOCX

  • PPTX

  • XLSX

  • RTF

Convert PDF to image

This tool converts a PDF to an image in PNG or JPEG format., which is then output as a ZIP. The PDF is converted into one image per page, and each image ends with the page number. The image files are then combined into a ZIP file.

For example, a file called “TestFile” with 8 pages would produce 8 images, named “TestFile_1” through “TestFile_8.” The module’s output is a ZIP file containing the 8 images.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Output Files Format

Select the format that you want the files to be output as:

  • PNG
  • JPEG

Linearize a PDF file

This tool linearizes a PDF document to create a web-optimized PDF document. A linearized PDF document can be viewed page-by-page without needing to download the entire document.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

OCR for PDF file

This tool performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on a file and produces a PDF.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.
OCR type
  • Modified original image type ensures that text is searchable and selectable, but modifies the original image during the cleanup process (for example, deskews it) before placing an invisible text layer over it. This type removes unwanted artifacts and may result in a more readable document in some scenarios.

  • Unchanged original image type also overlays a searchable text layer over the original image, but in this case, the original image is unchanged. This type produces maximum fidelity to the original image.

Language
Select the language of this document.

Page manipulation

This module allows you to selectively rotate or delete pages in a PDF document. For example, you can change portrait view to landscape view or remove certain pages from the PDF document.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.
Action

Select the action you want to perform on the file.

  • Delete

    Select this option to delete pages from the document.

  • Rotate

    Select this option to rotate pages, then enter the angle, in degrees clockwise, that you want to rotate the document pages relative to their starting orientation.

    To rotate from portrait to landscape or vice versa, rotate the page 90 or 270 degrees.

    If a page is upside down, rotate it 180 degrees.

Pages

For each page range you want to delete, click Add and then enter the page range's first and last page.

Note:

  • You can use negative numbers to count back from the end of the document. The last page of a document is -1, the second to the last page is -2, and so on.

  • To delete a single page, set the same page number as both the start and end of the range.

Limit
Enter or map the maximum number of records you want the module to work with during each scenario execution cycle.

PDF accessibility auto-tag

This action module creates a PDF that is tagged for accessibility use cases. It also creates an optional Microsoft Excel report that lists problems and suggests fixes.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.
Shift Headings

Enable this option to shift headings on the document.

  • Generate Report

    Enable this option to generate a report that lists accessibility problems in the PDF along with their location, and gives suggestions on how to fix these problems.

PDF file properties

This tool extracts basic information about the document, such as:

  • Page count
  • PDF version
  • Whether the file is encrypted
  • Whether the file is linerarized
  • Whether the file contains embedded files
Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file
Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

Protect PDF file

This tool secures a PDF document with a user or owner password. It also sets restrictions on certain features like printing, editing, and copying in the PDF document. You select the type of content to be encrypted and the encryption algorithm.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Password Protection Type

Enable this option to use passwords to encrypt the input PDF document. If you enable this option, you must specify and enter a value for one or both of the following:

  • userPassword

  • ownerPassword

Each password can be up to 128 characters in length.

Encryption Algorithm

Select the encryption algorithm.

  • AES-128 encryption

    The password supports LATIN-I characters only.

  • AES-256 encryption

    The password supports Unicode character set

Content to Encrypt

Select the type of content to be encrypted.

  • All content

  • All content except metadata

  • Only embedded data

Selecting "Only embedded data" renders any provided access permissions as ineffective.

Permissions

Select any permissions you want to include to allow printing, editing, or content copying.

Permissions settings are only used if the ownerPassword is set in the Password Protection Type field.

Remove protection of a PDF file

This tool removes security (password protection) from a PDF document.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Password
Enter the password that currently protects the file.

Split a PDF file

This action module splits a PDF document into multiple smaller documents. You specify whether to split it by number of files, pages per file, or page ranges.

Connection

Select the connection to use for this module.

For instructions on creating a connection to Adobe PDF Services, see Create a connection to Adobe PDF Services in this article.

Source file

Select a source file from a previous module, or map the source file's name and data.

The source file must be in PDF format.

Split option

Select how you want to split the file.

  • Page Ranges

    For each page range that you want to split into a separate document, click Add and enter the page on which you want to start and the page on which you want to end.

  • Page Count

    Enter the number of pages that you want to include in the new documents.

  • Number of files

    Enter the number of evenly sized files that you want to split the document into.

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