Documentation

PDF upload fails

Last update: Thu Nov 07 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

There are several reasons why a PDF upload into Dynamic Media Classic or a sync from AEM to DMS7 could fail. This article explores common issues such as security settings, non-standard PDF formats, and resource limitations, and provides solutions to ensure successful uploads and syncs.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Dynamic Media Classic

Issue/Symptoms

PDF processing at the DM side has historically been used to generate eCatalogs. There is still an HTML5 viewer to show those kinds of assets. The processing would rip the PDF into page images and assemble all these page images in an eCatalog asset where the viewer allows the user to flip through the pages, just like you would with a paper magazine. This workflow has some issues that occur from time to time:

  1. PDFs that have any form of security, such as password protection or restrictions on extraction, will not allow the PDF parser to extract page images from the PDF. This will fail processing. In such a case, if a PDF fails to process once, it will consistently fail in the future.
  2. PDFs, even though not protected, might have been generated with an application that does not fully adhere to the PDF standard. The DM PDF parser is a bit picky. If a PDF fails to parse correctly once, it will consistently fail every time.
  3. PDF processing is resource intensive, and it can be that the DM PDF processing service is overloaded or running into issues. If that happens, the behavior would be intermittent, sometimes the PDFs work, sometimes they don’t.

Resolution resolution

  • For 1, the solution would be to upload non-secured PDFs so the thumbnail and possibly page images can be extracted. If this is not an option, modify the Mimetype node for PDF processing to indicate pdfprocessing=none, which should result in the PDF successfully uploading without generating a thumbnail. Refer to this document for more information.
  • For 2, the solution would be to open the PDF in Acrobat Professional, run some preflights to make it more compatible, and then re-upload.
  • For 3, support will investigate and escalate the issue to the engineering team if necessary.
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