ConvertPDF Service

Last update: June 24, 2024

CREATED FOR:

  • Admin
  • User
  • Developer

Overview

The Convert PDF service converts PDF documents to PostScript or image files (JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, and TIFF). Converting a PDF document to PostScript is useful for unattended server-based printing on any PostScript printer. Converting a PDF document to a multipage TIFF file is practical when archiving documents in content management systems that do not support PDF documents.

You can accomplish the following with the Convert PDF service:

  • Convert PDF documents to PostScript. When converting to PostScript, you can use the conversion operation to specify the source document and whether to convert to PostScript level 2 or 3. The PDF document you convert to a PostScript file must be non-interactive.
  • Convert PDF documents to JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, and TIFF image formats. When converting to any of these image formats, you can use the conversion operation to specify the source document and an image options specification. The specification contains various preferences, such as image conversion format, image resolution, and color conversion.

Configure properties of the service  

You can use the AEMFD ConvertPDF Service in AEM Console to configure properties for this service. The default URL of AEM console is https://[host]:'port'/system/console/configMgr.

Using the service

The ConvertPDF service provides the following two APIs:

  • toPS: Converts a PDF document to a PostScript file.

  • toImage: Converts a PDF document to an image file. Supported image formats are JPEG, JPEG2000, PNG, and TIFF.

Using toPS API with a JSP or Servlets 

<%@ page import="java.util.List, java.io.File,

                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ConvertPdfService,
                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ToPSOptionsSpec,
                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.enumeration.PSLevel,

                com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document" %><%
%><%@taglib prefix="sling" uri="https://sling.apache.org/taglibs/sling/1.0" %><%
%><sling:defineObjects/><%

 // Get reference to ConvertPdfService OSGi service.
 // Within an OSGi bundle @Reference annotation
 // can be used to retrieve service reference

 ConvertPdfService cpdfService = sling.getService(ConvertPdfService.class);

 // path to input document in AEM repository
 // replace this with path to your document
String documentPath = "/content/dam/formsanddocuments/ExpenseClaimFlat.pdf";

 // Create a Docmanager Document object for
 // the flat PDF file which needs to be converted
 // to PostScript

 Document inputPDF = new Document(documentPath);

 // options object to pass to toPS API
 ToPSOptionsSpec toPSOptions = new ToPSOptionsSpec();

 // mandatory option to pass, sets PostScript language
 toPSOptions.setPsLevel(PSLevel.LEVEL_3);

 // invoke toPS method to convert inputPDF to PostScript
 Document convertedPS = cpdfService.toPS(inputPDF, toPSOptions);

 // save converted PostScript file to disk
 convertedPS.copyToFile(new File("C:/temp/out.ps"));

%>

Using toImage API with a JSP or Servlets 

<%@ page import="java.util.List, java.io.File,

                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ConvertPdfService,
                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ToImageOptionsSpec,
                com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.enumeration.ImageConvertFormat,

                com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document" %><%
%><%@taglib prefix="sling" uri="https://sling.apache.org/taglibs/sling/1.0" %><%
%><sling:defineObjects/><%

 // Get reference to ConvertPdfService OSGi service.
 // Within an OSGi bundle @Reference annotation
 // can be used to retrieve service reference

 ConvertPdfService cpdfService = sling.getService(ConvertPdfService.class);

 // path to input document in AEM repository
 // replace this with path to your document
 String documentPath = "/content/dam/formsanddocuments/ExpenseClaimFlat.pdf";

 // Create a Docmanager Document object for
 // the flat PDF file which needs to be converted
 // to image

 Document inputPDF = new Document(documentPath);

 // options object to pass to toImage API
 ToImageOptionsSpec toImageOptions = new ToImageOptionsSpec();

 // mandatory option to pass, image format
 toImageOptions.setImageConvertFormat(ImageConvertFormat.JPEG);

 // invoke toImage method to convert inputPDF to Image
 List<Document> convertedImages = cpdfService.toImage(inputPDF, toImageOptions);

 // save converted image files to disk
 for(int i=0;i<convertedImages.size();i++){
     Document pageImage = convertedImages.get(i);
     pageImage.copyToFile(new File("C:/temp/out_"+(i+1)+".jpeg"));
 }

%>

Using ConvertPDF Service with AEM workflows

Running the ConvertPDF service from a workflow is similar to running from JSP/Servlet.

The only difference is on running the service from JSP/Servlet the document object automatically retrieves an instance of ResourceResolver object from the ResourceResolverHelper object. This automatic mechanism
does not work when the code is called from a workflow. For a workflow, explicitly pass an instance of the ResourceResolver object to the Document class constructor. Then, the Document object uses
provided ResourceResolver object to read content from the repository.

The following sample workflow process converts the input document to a PostScript document. The code is written in ECMAScript and the document is passed as workflow payload:

/*
 * Imports
 */
var ConvertPdfService = Packages.com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ConvertPdfService;
var ToPSOptionsSpec = Packages.com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.ToPSOptionsSpec;
var PSLevel = Packages.com.adobe.fd.cpdf.api.enumeration.PSLevel;
var Document = Packages.com.adobe.aemfd.docmanager.Document;
var File = Packages.java.io.File;
var ResourceResolverFactory = Packages.org.apache.sling.api.resource.ResourceResolverFactory;

// get reference to ConvertPdfService
var cpdfService = sling.getService(ConvertPdfService);

/*
 * workflow payload and path to it
 */
var payload = graniteWorkItem.getWorkflowData().getPayload();
var payload_path = payload.toString();

/* Create resource resolver using current session
 * this resource resolver needs to be passed to Document
 * object constructor when file is to be read from
 * crx repository.
 */

/* get ResourceResolverFactory service reference , used
 * to construct resource resolver
 */
var resourceResolverFactory = sling.getService(ResourceResolverFactory);

var authInfo = {
    "user.jcr.session":graniteWorkflowSession.getSession()
};

var resourceResolver = resourceResolverFactory.getResourceResolver(authInfo);

// Create Document object from payload_path
var inputDocument = new Document(payload_path, resourceResolver);

// options object to be passed to toPS operation
var toPSOptions = new ToPSOptionsSpec();

// Set PostScript Language Three
toPSOptions.setPsLevel(PSLevel.LEVEL_3);

// invoke toPS operation to convert inputDocument to PS
var convertedPS = cpdfService.toPS(inputDocument, toPSOptions);

// save converted PostScript file to disk
convertedPS.copyToFile(new File("C:/temp/out.ps"));

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