Generate PDF

The Generate PDF service converts native file formats to PDF. It also converts PDF to other file formats and optimizes the size of PDF documents.

The Generate PDF service uses native applications to convert the following file formats to PDF. Unless otherwise indicated, only the German, French, English, and Japanese versions of these applications are supported. Windows only indicates support for only Windows Server® 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 to convert DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, VSD, MPP, MPPX, XPS, and PUB (Windows only)

Note: Acrobat® X or later is required to convert Microsoft XPS format to PDF.
Autodesk AutoCAD 2008 and 2009 to convert DWF and DWG (English only)
Corel WordPerfect 12 and X4 to convert WPD, QPW, SHW (English only)
OpenOffice 3.1 and 3.3 to convert ODT, ODS, ODP, ODG, ODF, SXW, SXI, SXC, SXD, DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, VSD, MPP, MPPX, and PUB

Note: The Generate PDF service does not support the 64-bit versions of OpenOffice.
Adobe Photoshop® CS2 to convert PSD (Windows only)

Note: Photoshop CS3 and later versions are not supported because they do not support Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008.

Note: PDF Generator does not support DWF and DWG files created with AutoCAD 2013.
Adobe FrameMaker® 7.2 and 8 to convert FM (Windows only)
Adobe PageMaker® 7.0 to convert PMD, PM6, P65, and PM (Windows only)
Native formats supported by third-party applications (requires development of setup files specific for the application) (Windows only)

The Generate PDF service converts the following standards-based file formats to PDF.

Video formats: SWF, FLV (Windows only)
Image formats: JPEG, JPG, JP2, J2Kí, JPC, J2C, GIF, BMP, TIFF, TIF, PNG, JPF
HTML (Windows, Sun™ Solaris™, and Linux®)

The Generate PDF service converts PDF to the following file formats (Windows only):

Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)
HTML 3.2
HTML 4.01 with CSS 1.0
DOC, DOCX(Microsoft Word format)
RTF
Text (both accessible and plain)
XML
PDF/A-1b that uses only the DeviceRGB color space
PDF/E-1 that uses only the DeviceRGB color space

The Generate PDF service requires that you perform these administrative tasks:

Install required native applications on the computer hosting LiveCycle
Install Adobe Acrobat Professional or Acrobat Pro Extended 9.2 on the computer hosting LiveCycle
Perform post-installation setup tasks

These tasks are described in Installing and Deploying LiveCycle Using Turnkey.

For information about using the Generate PDF service, see Services Reference for LiveCycle .

Note: You cannot use the Shared Printer protocol for the sendToPrinter operation when the LiveCycle runs on Windows 2008 and has the PDF Generator service deployed. Use alternate protocols like CIFS or Direct IP.

Generate PDF service configuration

The following properties can be configured for the Generate PDF service.

Adobe PDF Settings:

The name of the pre-configured Adobe PDF settings to apply to a conversion. The Adobe PDF settings are configured in Administration Console. (See Configuring Adobe PDF settings in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

Security Settings:

The name of the pre-configured security settings to apply to a conversion job. The security settings are configured in Administration Console. (See Configure security settings in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

File type Settings:

The name of the pre-configured File Type Setting to apply to a conversion job. The file type settings are configured in Administration Console. (See Configuring file type settings in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

Use Acrobat WebCapture (Windows Only):

When this property is true, the Generate PDF service uses Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0 for all conversions from HTML to PDF. Using Acrobat Pro Extended can improve the quality of the PDF files, though performance can be slightly lower. The default value is false.

Use Acrobat Image Conversion (Windows Only):

When this setting is true, theGenerate PDF service uses Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0 for all conversions from image to PDF. This setting is useful only if the Generate PDF service’s conversion mechanism cannot successfully convert a significant proportion of input images. The default value is false.

Enable Acrobat-based AutoCAD Conversions (Windows Only):

When this setting is true, the Generate PDF service uses Acrobat Pro Extended 9.0 for all conversions from DWG to PDF. This setting is useful only if AutoCAD is not installed on the server or the AutoCAD conversion mechanism is unable to convert files successfully.

Regular Expressions For Finding Out Prohibited Special Characters In User Name (Windows Only):

A regular expression that specifies characters that interfere with the Export PDF and Optimize PDF operations when the characters appear in a user’s name. The following default value removes $, \, /, ?, @, *, +, ", |, :, ;, =, >, <, [, and ] characters:

[\\$,\\,\/,\?,\@,\*,\+,\",\|,\:,\;\,\=,\>,\<,\[,\]]

ImageToPDF Pool Size:

The pool size of the Generate PDF service’s Image-to-PDF converter. This number represents the maximum simultaneous Image-to-PDF conversions that the Generate PDF service performs. The default value of 3 is recommended for single-processor systems. Increase this value for multi-processor systems.

HTML to PDF Pool Size:

The pool size of the Generate PDF service’s HTML-to-PDF converter. This number represents the maximum simultaneous HTML-to-PDF conversions that the Generate PDF service performs. The default value of 3 is recommended for single-processor systems. Increase this value for multi-processor systems.

Fallback font family for HTML to PDF conversions:

The font to use in PDF documents when the font used in the original HTML is not available to the LiveCycle Server. Specify a font if you expect to convert HTML pages that use unavailable fonts. For example, pages authored in regional languages could use unavailable fonts.

CreatePDF operation

Converts different file formats into PDF documents. The supported file formats are Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher, and AutoCAD. In addition, any third-party generic application type for which you have a PDF generating application can be converted.

The file name of the PDF that is created must be provided as input data. The file name can be specified in either of the following locations:

The file attribute of the Input Document property
The Filename With Extension property

Security permissions, PDF output settings, and metadata information can optionally be applied to the resultant PDF document.

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify the file to convert and the conversion parameters.

Input Document

A document value that represents the file to convert.

If no value is provided for the Filename with Extension property, the file attribute of this document value must be set to the name of the input file. To set the file attribute, use the setDocAttribute XPath function.

Use the setDocAttribute function in an execute operation that the Set Value service provides. The execute operation must be used before the CreatePDF operation on the process diagram.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Conversion Options properties

Properties for specifying how to convert the file to PDF.

Filetype Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the settings to apply to the generated PDF document. The following values are provided by default:

Standard
Standard OCR
Standard OpenOffice

You can create custom file type settings using the Administration Console. (See Generate PDF Administration Help.) To specify a literal value, select a setting name from the list. The names of available settings that have been created using Administration Console appear in the list.

Adobe PDF Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the PDF output settings to apply. The following values are valid by default:

High Quality Print
Oversized Pages
PDFA1b 2005 CMYK
PDFA1b 2005 RGB
PDFX1a 2001
PDFX3 2003
Press Quality
Smallest File Size
Standard

You can create custom settings using the Administration Console and specify those settings here. (See Generate PDF Administration Help.)

To specify a literal value, select a setting name from the list. The names of available settings that have been created using Administration Console appear in the list.

Advanced Options properties

Properties for specifying optional properties for the generated PDF document.

File Extension

(Optional) A string value that represents the file name, with the appropriate extension, of the document to convert. Provide this value only if the file attribute is not set for the document value specified for Input Document.

Security Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the security settings. The only available default value is No Security. You can create custom settings using the Administration Console.

To specify a literal value, select a setting name from the list. The names of available settings that have been created using Administration Console appear in the list.

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that contains settings to apply while generating the PDF document. For example, these settings can optimize the PDF for viewing on the web. Some settings are applied after the PDF document is created, such as initial view and security settings.

This XML file must conform to the XML Schema Definition (XSD) for Generate PDF configuration files.

To see an example XML configuration file, use Administration Console to export one. (See Importing and exporting PDF Generator configuration files in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

XMP Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the file that contains metadata information to apply to the generated PDF document. Only UTF-8 encoded XMP metadata is supported.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Output properties

Property for saving the output PDF document.

Created Document

The location to store the output PDF document. The data type is document.

Optional Output properties

Property for saving a log of the service activity.

Log Document

The location to store an optional log file. The log file is a plain text file that contains error or diagnostic messages. The log file is not generated under all circumstances. The presence of a log file is not an indication of an error in the conversion because a log file could contain only diagnostic messages. The data type is document.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

CreatePDF operation (Deprecated)

Note: This operation is deprecated in LiveCycle. It is recommended that you change processes that you upgrade to use the CreatePDF operation operation.

Converts different file formats to PDF documents. The supported file formats are Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher, and AutoCAD. In addition, any third-party generic application type for which you have a PDF generating application can be converted.

The file name of the PDF that is created must be provided as input data. The file name can be specified in either of the following locations:

The file attribute of the Input Document property
The Filename With Extension property

Some of the properties are optional, which means that null values can be provided. Security permissions, PDF output settings, and metadata information can optionally be applied to the resultant PDF document.

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify the file to be converted and the conversion parameters.

Input Document

A document value that represents the content to convert. If no value is provided for the Filename with Extension property of this operation, the file attribute of this document value must be set to the name of the input file, such as input.doc.

To set the file attribute, you use the setDocAttribute XPath function.

Use the setDocAttribute function in an execute operation that the Set Value service provides. The execute operation must be used before the CreatePDF operation in the process diagram.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

Filename With Extension

(Optional) A string value that represents the file name, with the appropriate extension, of the document to convert. You must provide this value only if the file attribute is not set for the document value specified for Input Document.

Filetype Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the settings to be applied to the generated PDF document. You can create custom file type settings using the Administration Console. (See Generate PDF Administration Help.) The available value is Standard.

Adobe PDF Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the PDF output settings to apply. The following values are valid:

High Quality Print
Oversized Pages
PDFA1b 2005 CMYK
PDFA1b 2005 RGB
PDFX1a 2001
PDFX3 2002
Press Quality
Smallest File Size
Standard

You can also create custom settings using the Administration Console.

Security Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the security settings. The default is No Security. You can also create custom settings using the Administration Console.

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that contains settings to be applied while generating the PDF document, such as optimization for web view, as well as the settings that are applied after the PDF document is created, such as initial view and security.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

XMP Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the file that contains metadata information to be applied to the generated PDF document. Only UTF-8 encoded XMP metadata is supported.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

Output properties

Property for specifying the output PDF document.

Result

The location to store the resulting PDF document. The data type is map. The map value contains two items:

The key ConvertedDoc is associated with a document value, which represents the PDF document that the operation generates.
The key LogDoc is associated with a document value that represents a log file that can be generated during the execution of the operation. The log file is a plain text file that contains error messages and diagnostic messages.

For information about retrieving values from a map, see Accessing data in data collections.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

ExportPDF operation

Converts a PDF document to a different file type according to the supported applications, which is based on the file name extensions. This operation is supported on Windows platforms only.

The file name of the PDF that is created must be provided as input data. The file name can be specified in either of the following locations:

The file attribute of the Input Document property
The Filename With Extension property

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify a PDF document and the required output format.

Input Document

A document value that represents the PDF document to convert. If no value is provided for the Filename with Extension property of this operation, the file attribute of this document value must be set to the name of the input file, such as input.pdf.

To set the file attribute, you use the setDocAttribute XPath function.

Use the setDocAttribute function in an execute operation that the Set Value service provides. The execute operation must be used before the ExportPDF2 operation in the process diagram.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

File Extension

(Optional) A string value that represents the name of the input document. Type a value such as .doc, .xls, or .txt. Provide this value only if the file attribute is not set for the document value specified for Input Document.

Format Type

(Optional) A string value that represents the target file format to which the PDF document is converted. No default is provided. The following values can be specified:

EPS
HTML32
HTML40
DOC
RTF
Accessible-Text
Plain-Text
XML10
PDF/A-1a(sRGB)
PDF/A-1b(sRGB)
PDF/E-1(sRGB)

To specify a literal value, select a format from the list.

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the configuration file that contains the settings to apply to the target document. It is typically an XML file.

This XML file must conform to the XML Schema Definition (XSD) for Generate PDF configuration files.

To see an example XML configuration file, use Administration Console to export one. (See Importing and exporting PDF Generator ES2 configuration files in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Output properties

Properties to specify the converted document.

Converted Document

The location to store the exported document. The data type is document.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

ExportPDF operation (Deprecated)

Note: This operation is deprecated in LiveCycle. It is recommended that you change processes that you upgrade to use the ExportPDF operation operation.

Converts a PDF document to a different file type according to the supported applications, which is based on the file name extensions.

The file name of the PDF that is created must be provided as input data. The file name can be specified in either of the following locations:

The file attribute of the Input Document property
The Filename With Extension property

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify a PDF document and the required output format.

Input Document

A document value that represents the PDF document to be converted. If no value is provided for the Filename with Extension property of this operation, the file attribute of this document value must be set to the name of the input file, such as input.pdf.

To set the file attribute, you use the setDocAttribute XPath function.

Use the setDocAttribute function in an execute operation that the Set Value service provides. The execute operation must be used before the ExportPDF operation in the process diagram.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

Filename With Extension

(Optional) A string value that represents the name of the input document. You must provide this value only if the file attribute is not set for the document value specified for Input Document.

Format Type

(Optional) A string value that represents the target file format to which the PDF document will be converted. The following values can be specified:

EPS
HTML32
HTML40
DOC
RTF
Accessible-Text
Plain-Text
XML10

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the configuration file that contains the settings to be applied to the target document. It is typically an XML file.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

Output properties

Property for specifying the converted document.

Result

The location to store the map value that contains the exported document. The key ConvertedDoc is associated with a document value, which represents the document that the operation generated.

For information about retrieving values from a map, see Accessing data in data collections.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

HtmlFileToPDF operation

Creates a PDF document from an HTML file or archived file (ZIP).

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify the HTML file and the conversion settings.

Input Document

A document value that represents the HTML or ZIP file to convert to a PDF document.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Filetype Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the settings for handling how a conversion of supported file types occurs. The default is Standard. The following values are valid by default:

Standard
Standard OCR
Standard OpenOffice

Custom file type settings can be created in Administration Console. (See Generate PDF Administration Help.) To specify a literal value, select a setting name from the list. The names of available settings that have been created using Administration Console appear in the list.

Security Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the security settings for the generated PDF document. The default is No Security. You can also create custom security settings using the Administration Console. (See Generate PDF Administration Help.)

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the file that contains settings to apply while generating the PDF document. For example, these settings can optimize the PDF for viewing on the web. Some settings are applied after the PDF document is created, such as initial view and security settings.

This XML file must conform to the XML Schema Definition (XSD) for Generate PDF configuration files.

To see an example XML configuration file, use Administration Console to export one. (See Importing and exporting PDF Generator ES2 configuration files in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

XMP Document

(Optional) A document value that contains metadata information to apply to the generated PDF document. Only UTF-8 encoded XMP metadata is supported.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Output properties

Properties for specifying the converted document and the result of the operation.

Created Document

The location to store the resulting PDF document. The data type is document.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

HtmlToPDF operation(Deprecated)

Note: This operation is deprecated in LiveCycle. It is recommended that you change processes that you upgrade to use the Html URL To PDF operation operation.

Creates a PDF document from an HTML file located at a given URL.

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify the HTML file and the conversion settings.

Input URL

A string value that represents the URL of the HTML file.

Filetype Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the settings to be applied to the generated PDF document. The available value is Standard. You can also create custom file type settings using the Administration Console.

Security Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the security settings for the generated PDF document. The single available option is No Security. You can also create custom settings using the Administration Console.

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the file that contains settings to be applied while generating the PDF document, such as optimization for web view, as well as the settings that are applied after the PDF document is created, such as initial view and security.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

XMP document

(Optional) A document value that contains metadata information to apply to the generated PDF document. Only UTF-8 encoded XMP metadata is supported.

If you provide a literal value, clicking the ellipsis button displays the Select Asset dialog box. (See About Select Asset.)

Output properties

Property for specifying the converted document.

Result

The location to store the map value that contains the generated PDF document. The key ConvertedDoc is associated with a document value, which represents the PDF document that the operation generated.

For information about retrieving values from a map, see Accessing data in data collections.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

Html URL To PDF operation

Creates a PDF document from an HTML file that is located at a given URL.

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties to specify the HTML file and the conversion settings.

Input URL

A string value that represents the URL of the HTML file to convert.

Filetype Settings

(Optional) A string value that represents the settings for handling how a conversion of supported file types occurs. The default is Standard. The following values are valid by default:

Standard
Standard OCR
Standard OpenOffice

Security Settings

Settings Document

(Optional) A document value that represents the file that contains settings to use for generating the PDF document. For example, you can apply settings for optimizing the PDF for viewing on the web. Some settings are applied after the PDF document is created, such as initial view and security settings.

This XML file must conform to the XML Schema Definition (XSD) for Generate PDF configuration files.

To see an example XML configuration file, use Administration Console to export one. (See Importing and exporting PDF Generator ES2 configuration files in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

XMP Document

(Optional) A document value that contains metadata information to apply to the generated PDF document. Only UTF-8 encoded XMP metadata is supported.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Output properties

Property for specifying the converted document.

Created Document

The location to store the output PDF document. The data type is document.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

Optimize PDF operation

Optimizes a PDF document by reducing the file size. This operation can also convert the PDF document to a different PDF version. This operation supports the same optimization settings that Adobe Acrobat supports.

For information about the General and Route Evaluation property groups, see Common operation properties.

Input properties

Properties for specifying the PDF document to optimizes well as the optimization settings.

Input document

A document value that represents the PDF document to optimize.

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Filetype settings

A string value that represents the name of the Generate PDF File Type settings to use. The LiveCycle Server administrator uses Administration Console to configure the conversion settings. (See Configuring file type settings in LiveCycle Administration Help.) The following setting names are provided by default:

Standard
Standard OCR
Standard OpenOffice

LiveCycle administrators can create new setting names in addition to these ones.

If you specify conversion settings using the Settings document property, do not specify a value for Conversion Setting Name. If you provide values for both properties, the settings in the Settings document value are used. If you provide no values for either property, the File Type setting that is selected in the default settings on the LiveCycle Server is used. (See Change the default settings in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

Settings document

(Optional) A document value that represents a Generate PDF XML configuration file that contains the file type settings to use. Only the information in the filetype-settings element of the XML is used for this operation.

The XML file must conform to the XML Schema Definition (XSD) for Generate PDF configuration files.

To see an example XML configuration file, use Administration Console to export one. (See Importing and exporting PDF Generator ES2 configuration files in LiveCycle Administration Help.)

To provide a literal value, click the ellipsis button and select an asset from an application.

Output properties

Property for specifying where to save the optimized PDF document.

Converted Document

The location in the process data model to save the optimized PDF. The data type is document. For example, to save the optimized PDF in a variable, select a document variable from the list.

Exceptions

This operation can throw ConversionException, FileFormatNotSupportedException, and InvalidParameterException exceptions.

Generate PDF exceptions

The Generate PDF service provides the following exceptions for throwing exception events.

ConversionException

Thrown if conversion fails because of an underlying exception.

FileFormatNotSupportedException

Thrown when a given file format is not supported.

InvalidParameterException

Thrown when a given parameter is not valid.