Programmatically Assembling PDF Documents

When you add headers and footers during the assembling of large documents, you may encounter an OutOfMemory error and the files will not be assembled. To reduce the chance of this problem occurring, add a DDXProcessorSetting element to your DDX document, as shown in the following example.

<DDXProcessorSetting name="checkpoint" value="2000" />

You can add this element as a child of the DDX element or as a child of a PDF result element. The default value for this setting is 0 (zero), which turns checkpointing off and the DDX behaves as if the DDXProcessorSetting element is not present. If you have encountered an OutOfMemory error, you may need to set the value to an integer, typically between 500 and 5000. A small checkpoint value results in more frequent checkpointing.

To assemble a single PDF document from multiple PDF documents, perform the following tasks:

1. Include project files.

2. Create a PDF Assembler client.

3. Reference an existing DDX document.

4. Reference input PDF documents.

5. Set run-time options.

6. Assemble the input PDF documents.

7. Extract the results.

Assemble a PDF document by using the Assembler Service API (Java):

1. Include project files.

   Include client JAR files, such as adobe-assembler-client.jar, in your Java project’s class path.

2. Create a PDF Assembler client.

   • Create a ServiceClientFactory object that contains connection properties.

   • Create an AssemblerServiceClient object by using its constructor and passing the ServiceClientFactory object.

3. Reference an existing DDX document.

   • Create a java.io.FileInputStream object that represents the DDX document by using its constructor and passing a string value that specifies the location of the DDX file.

   • Create a com.adobe.idp.Document object by using its constructor and passing the java.io.FileInputStream object.

4. Reference input PDF documents.

   • Create a java.util.Map object that is used to store input PDF documents by using a HashMap constructor.

   • For each input PDF document, create a java.io.FileInputStream object by using its constructor and passing the location of the input PDF document.

   • For each input PDF document, create a com.adobe.idp.Document object and pass the java.io.FileInputStream object that contains the PDF document.

   • For each input document, add an entry to the java.util.Map object by invoking its put method and passing the following arguments:

     • A string value that represents the key name. This value must match the value of the PDF source element specified in the DDX document.

     • A com.adobe.idp.Document object (or java.util.List object that specifies multiple documents) that contains the source PDF document.

5. Set run-time options.

   • Create an AssemblerOptionSpec object that stores run-time options by using its constructor.

   • Set run-time options to meet your business requirements by invoking a method that belongs to the AssemblerOptionSpec object. For example, to instruct the Assembler service to continue processing a job when an error occurs, invoke the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s setFailOnError method and pass false .

6. Assemble the input PDF documents.

   Invoke the AssemblerServiceClient object’s invokeDDX method and pass the following required values:

   • A com.adobe.idp.Document object that represents the DDX document to be used

   • A java.util.Map object that contains the input PDF files to be assembled

   • A com.adobe.livecycle.assembler.client.AssemblerOptionSpec object that specifies the run-time options, including default font and job log level

   The invokeDDX method returns a com.adobe.livecycle.assembler.client.AssemblerResult object that contains the results of the job and any exceptions that occurred.

7. Extract the results.

   To obtain the newly created PDF document, perform the following actions:

   • Invoke the AssemblerResult object’s getDocuments method. This returns a java.util.Map object.

   • Iterate through the java.util.Map object until you find the resultant com.adobe.idp.Document object. (You can use the PDF result element specified in the DDX document to get the document.)

   • Invoke the com.adobe.idp.Document object’s copyToFile method to extract the PDF document.

   Note: If LOG_LEVEL was set to produce a log, you can extract the log by using the AssemblerResult object's getJobLog method.

Assemble PDF documents by using the Assembler Service API (web service):

1. Include project files.

   Create a Microsoft .NET project that uses MTOM. Ensure that you use the following WSDL definition: http://localhost:8080/soap/services/AssemblerService?WSDL&lc_version=9.0.1 .

   Note: Replace localhost with the IP address of the server hosting LiveCycle.

2. Create a PDF Assembler client.

   • Create an AssemblerServiceClient object by using its default constructor.

   • Create an AssemblerServiceClient.Endpoint.Address object by using the System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress constructor. Pass a string value that specifies the WSDL to the LiveCycle service (for example, http://localhost:8080/soap/services/AssemblerService?blob=mtom ). You do not need to use the lc_version attribute. This attribute is used when you create a service reference.

   • Create a System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding object by getting the value of the AssemblerServiceClient.Endpoint.Binding field. Cast the return value to BasicHttpBinding .

   • Set the System.ServiceModel.BasicHttpBinding object’s MessageEncoding field to WSMessageEncoding.Mtom . This value ensures that MTOM is used.

   • Enable basic HTTP authentication by performing the following tasks:

     • Assign the AEM forms user name to the field AssemblerServiceClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName .

     • Assign the corresponding password value to the field AssemblerServiceClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password .

     • Assign the constant value HttpClientCredentialType.Basic to the field BasicHttpBindingSecurity.Transport.ClientCredentialType .

     • Assign the constant value BasicHttpSecurityMode.TransportCredentialOnly to the field BasicHttpBindingSecurity.Security.Mode .

3. Reference an existing DDX document.

   • Create a BLOB object by using its constructor. The BLOB object is used to store the DDX document.

   • Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the DDX document and the mode in which to open the file.

   • Create a byte array that stores the content of the System.IO.FileStream object. You can determine the size of the byte array by getting the System.IO.FileStream object’s Length property.

   • Populate the byte array with stream data by invoking the System.IO.FileStream object’s Read method and passing the byte array, the starting position, and the stream length to read.

   • Populate the BLOB object by assigning its MTOM property with the contents of the byte array.

4. Reference input PDF documents.

   • For each input PDF document, create a BLOB object by using its constructor. The BLOB object is used to store the input PDF document.

   • Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the input PDF document and the mode in which to open the file.

   • Create a byte array that stores the content of the System.IO.FileStream object. You can determine the size of the byte array by getting the System.IO.FileStream object’s Length property.

   • Populate the byte array with stream data by invoking the System.IO.FileStream object’s Read method. Pass the byte array, the starting position, and the stream length to read.

   • Populate the BLOB object by assigning its MTOM field with the contents of the byte array.

   • Create a MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType object. This collection object is used to store input PDF documents.

   • For each input PDF document, create a MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType_Item object. For example, if two input PDF documents are used, create two MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType_Item objects.

   • Assign a string value that represents the key name to the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType_Item object's key field. This value must match the value of the PDF source element specified in the DDX document. (Perform this task for each input PDF document.)

   • Assign the BLOB object that stores the PDF document to the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType_Item object's value field. (Perform this task for each input PDF document.)

   • Add the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType_Item object to the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType object. Invoke the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType object's Add method and pass the MyMapOf_xsd_string_To_xsd_anyType object. (Perform this task for each input PDF document.)

5. Set run-time options.

   • Create an AssemblerOptionSpec object that stores run-time options by using its constructor.

   • Set run-time options to meet your business requirements by assigning a value to a data member that belongs to the AssemblerOptionSpec object. For example, to instruct the Assembler service to continue processing a job when an error occurs, assign false to the AssemblerOptionSpec object’s failOnError data member.

6. Assemble the input PDF documents.

   Invoke the AssemblerServiceClient object’s invoke method and pass the following values:

   • A BLOB object that represents the DDX document.

   • The mapItem array that contains the input PDF documents. Its keys must match the names of the PDF source files, and its values must be the BLOB objects that correspond to those files.

   • An AssemblerOptionSpec object that specifies run-time options.

   The invoke method returns an AssemblerResult object that contains the results of the job and any exceptions that may have occurred.

7. Extract the results.

   To obtain the newly created PDF document, perform the following actions:

   • Access the AssemblerResult object’s documents field, which is a Map object that contains the result PDF documents.

   • Iterate through the Map object until you find the key that matches the name of the resultant document. Then cast that array member’s value to a BLOB .

   • Extract the binary data that represents the PDF document by accessing its BLOB object’s MTOM property. This returns an array of bytes that you can write out to a PDF file.

   Note: If LOG_LEVEL was set to produce a log, you can extract the log by getting the value of the AssemblerResult object's jobLog data member.