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bbender4-Participant
4-Participant
November 17, 2011
Question

usedistiller switch

  • November 17, 2011
  • 20 replies
  • 3505 views

Hi folks,


I'm using Arbortext PE 5.4 with a FOSI. I have a publish job that needs to use DirectPDF to add custom PDF metadata including document properties and bookmarks, which is not possible using Adobe Distiller. Can I dynamically switch the usedistiller=off from usedistiller=on without a Tomcat/services restart to register the change? Is there a way to support Distiller and DirectPDF configuration on the same PE server? If not, the obvious choice is to move away from Distiller. But are there any benefits to using Distiller instead of DirectPDF? The reasons we use Distiller is unknown to me.


Thanks in advance,


Bryan

    20 replies

    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 17, 2011
    I haven't run PE with Distiller in quite some time but it used to be that
    Distiller produced PDFs were smaller than DirectPDF PDFs. PTC/Arbortext
    closed the gap appreciably by 5.3 m110 and may have made further gains by
    5.4.

    I don't know about dynamically assigning the usedistiller mode or
    supporting both Distiller and DirectPDF on the same PE Server.

    We're not setting usedistiller so I don't remember where it goes ... client
    / server / editinit / init. If it's server-side, you could try placing the
    use distiller command in an ACL in either editinit or init (whichever is
    correct) below PE's custom folder and running the PE init function:
    A
    AndyEsslinger1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 17, 2011
    The usedistiller option is set in the preference file.

    <option name="usedistiller" value="on"/"> = Distiller.

    <option name="usedistiller" value="off"/"> = Direct PDF.

    I only looked at the Direct PDF once (years ago) and there were so many differences between its output and Acrobat distiller output that I never looked again. Also, Direct PDF requires a styler license.

    -Andy
    \ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero - Tech Order Data
    _____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
    \_\/_/ (817) 777 3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

    B
    bbender4-ParticipantAuthor
    4-Participant
    November 17, 2011

    Thanks, Paul!


    The custom/init folder on the server side stores the usedistiller setting (if it isn't defined the default is off). I tried the init function call, and that sucessfully registered my manual edit to init.acl usedistiller (on --> off) without a service restart. Luckily, the init call doesn't kill jobs that are running already it appears.To make this run without human interface, I must first programatically set usedistiller to the appropriate value and then run the init function call, and then finally publish the PDF. Any recommendations on running the first change via the servlet?



    1. (usedistiller switch done via servlet?)

    2. http://peservername:8080/e3/servlet/e3?f=init

    3. http://peservername:8080/e3/servlet/e3?file=d:\test.xml&type=pdf&f=convert

    Bryan

    B
    bibach1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 17, 2011
    I'd be worried about this approach affecting other workers besides the
    one handling the specific print job for which you want to change the
    setting, or possibly the reverse, where you get a worker that was not
    affected by the change. I'd guess you might be better off, and
    programmatically cleaner, setting up a composition framework hook to
    change the setting, run the job, then put it back as it was.

    The trick would be, how would you identify that a particular job
    required the setting change?

    -Brandon 🙂


    B
    bibach1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Hey, Andy...

    The preference file would be one option, though usedistiller can be
    set just about anywhere you can execute some ACL code, as the value is
    examined and acted upon at the time of each print job. In other
    words, it isn't a "one-time configuration at startup" type of thing,
    but can change from one print job to the next within a session.

    I could be mistaken, but I believe Direct PDF only requires a Styler
    license for local composition. Print composition with a PE
    installation should be able to use Direct PDF without any additional
    license.

    -Brandon Smiley Happy


    On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 5:43 PM, Esslinger, Andy W
    <-> wrote:
    > The usedistiller option is set in the preference file.
    >
    >
    >
    > <option name="usedistiller" value="on"/"> = Distiller.
    >
    >
    >
    > <option name="usedistiller" value="off"/"> = Direct PDF.
    >
    >
    >
    > I only looked at the Direct PDF once (years ago) and there were so many
    > differences between its output and Acrobat distiller output that I never
    > looked again. Also, Direct PDF requires a styler license.< /font>
    >
    >
    >
    > -Andy
    >
    > \/ AndyEsslinger LM Aero–Tech& nbsp;OrderData
    >
    > _____-/\-_____ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd,MZ4285
    >
    > \_\/_/ (817) 777 3047 For tWorth,TX 76108-3916
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    B
    bbender4-ParticipantAuthor
    4-Participant
    November 18, 2011

    Yes, Brandon, good point. I'm uncertain of the effects, and I'm running initial tests and analysis to determine if this would be possible at all. I'll have to dig into our PE servlet interface code, since I'm not too familiar with it right now. This interface could define the different composition framework. 🙂


    Thanks,


    Bryan

    B
    bibach1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    This should be doable without getting into the servlet stuff or
    anything PE-specific, really. The composition framework hook is
    usable even without PE (as long as you have some type of local
    composition license) and would just involve some ACL code to identify
    the need for changing the usedistiller setting and resetting the value
    after the job is complete.

    There doesn't appear to be a help "number" for this topic, but I found
    an overview (it's actually called the "Publishing Framework Hook" in
    the 5.4 help center I'm looking at) under "Programming", "Arbortext
    Publishing Engine Programmer's Guide", "Arbortext Publishing", "The
    Publishing Framework", "The Publishing Framework Hook".

    -Brandon 🙂


    B
    bbender4-ParticipantAuthor
    4-Participant
    November 18, 2011

    Brandon, great! This helps a lot and I can foresee using this hook for other tasks. I'll start looking into it.


    Bryan

    N
    naglists1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    Looks like you have a good avenue or two of research.

    The only other observation I have is that you only need to set
    usedistiller, init, and start your job. You do not need to wait for it to
    complete before switching usedistiller off and re-init-ing back to your
    "default" usedistiller setting. That would still expose other jobs that
    started in the window between setting, init-ing, starting, re-setting, and
    re-init-ing to the wrong usedistiller mode, but it wouldn't have to then
    include the entire length of the job itself.

    That's worth contemplating if you can't find a way to set usedistiller
    logically/programatically per job.


    P
    ptc-9539261-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    November 18, 2011
    With AE 5.4, a print composer license enables you to do local direct PDF (as also does a Styler license).

    Dave
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