Introduction:

The following document will go through the functionality found within JetTrac PDFCombine. This module is used to combine two or more AcroForm PDF’s into a single forms package.

Please note that any files edited while setting up JetTrac PDFCombine should be edited using Notepad or Notepad++. Do not use Microsoft Word or Wordpad as these text editors will add formatting that will interfere with the program reading the files.

Technical Support:

If you need assistance in installing and configuring JetTrac PDFCombine™, call Pro Technology Automation, Inc. at 805-527-1248 or email us at support@protechinc.com. Please note that the JetTrac PDFCombine™ license fee does not cover configuration services and technical support so there may be an additional charge. Please ensure you read these instructions carefully before calling for technical support.

How to run JetTrac PDFCombine:

To run the program, you will need to have the following files located in the same folder:

• JTPDFCombine.exe
• ExitHandler.dll
• DebenuPDFLibraryDLL1112.dll

Executable files and dll files should not be edited for any reason.

Default Functionality:

JetTrac PDFCombine takes an imput of multiple AcroForm PDF’s and combines them in the order listed into a single forms package. For example, if you list a PDF that contains two pages and another that contains three, the output from JetTrac PDFCombine will be a single form that contains both forms and five total pages.

There are two ways to list the AcroForm PDF’s to combine. The first is to simply list all of the PDF’s to combine directly in the command line which will be explained in the next section of this guide. The second way to list your PDF’s to combine is to use an optional config.ini file and reference a field within a input XML that contains the list of forms.

When setting up a job step using JTPDFCombineFromCommand in JobConfig the only lines of the config you need to worry about are the first two and the last. The first two are the pdf files you want to combine and the last is the desired location and name for the output PDF. All fields should be filled with the fully qualified path to the intended file. Eg: C:\JetTrac\…\output.pdf
In JobConfig, file paths entered should not be in quotes.

As with all modules, there is a dropdown to select whether or not the job should stop completely if this step fails. If you select Yes, any error will terminate the job process and write to the log file what happened, if no, then the job will try to continue anyways. However if any steps further down the line rely on the output of a job set to not stop on error, they may not work properly.

JetTrac PDFCombineFromXML does exactly the same thing just from a list of PDF’s to combine that is in an XML file.

The Input XML is the file that holds the list of forms to combine and the Output PDF is the desired location and name of the combined PDF’s.

For more specifics go to the JetTrac Field ServiceJobConfig page.

JetTrac PDFCombine Command Line:

There are two options for the command line for PDFCombine. The first is if you are combining PDF’s and listing them directly on the command line itself, and the second is if you are using a config.ini file to reference a field within the input XML with the list of PDF’s. Here is an example of the first:

“C:\JTPDFCombine.exe” “C:\Input1.pdf” “C:\Input2.pdf” “C:\Input3.pdf” “C:\Output.pdf” “C:\JTPDFCombine.log”

In this first example command line, we are referencing the executable for the module to run, then the three PDF’s we wish to combine into a single form in the order we wish to combine them, the output PDF forms package, and finally the log file.

In addition, there is an optional parameter that can be added to the command line. This parameter, if included, will add bookmarks to the Output.pdf at the beginning of each form that was combined using the name of the form file. In this example, the forms are called Input1.pdf, Input2.pdf, and Input3.pdf. If each of these forms were two pages the output PDF forms package would have a bookmark on page 1 named “Input1”, page 3 named “Input2”, and page 5 named “Input3”. This feature allows for easier navigation of larger forms packages that include a large number of different forms that contain different numbers of pages. The command line for this would be:

“C:\JTPDFCombine.exe” “C:\Input1.pdf” “C:\Input2.pdf” “C:\Input3.pdf” “C:\Output.pdf” “C:\JTPDFCombine.log” –Bookmarks=true

On the occasion that the list of forms can change and therefore a static list within the command line will not work, you also have the option to pull the list of forms from an XML file. The following is the command line to do this:

“C:\JTPDFCombine.exe” “C:\Input.xml” “C:\Output.pdf” “C:\Config.ini” “C:\JTPDFCombine.log”

In this command line we have the executable, the xml file that contains a single field with the list of forms to be combined, the output PDF forms package, the configuration file used to specify the name of the field in the XML that contains the list of PDF forms, and then the log file. In addition to this, you can also add the bookmarks option to the end of this version of the command line:

“C:\JTPDFCombine.exe” “C:\Input.xml” “C:\Output.pdf” “C:\Config.ini” “C:\JTPDFCombine.log” –Bookmarks=true

The following section will go over how to set up the node within the input XML file as well as the configuration file for JetTrac PDFCombine.

Optional XML Input and Config.ini:

When using the option to specify the list of forms in the XML file, the node within the XML file should be formatted in the following way:

<FormsInPackage>C:\Input1.pdf| C:\Input2.pdf| C:\Input3.pdf</FormsInPackage>

Somewhere in the XML that you input into this module, you will need to contain a line similar to the example provided. The field name of the node as well as the delimiter between each form name can be different than what is in the example; however, they must match what you set up in the Config.ini file. The following is an example Config.ini file:

FormsToCombine=FormsToSend
Delimiter=|

On the first line put the name of the field within the XML that contains the list of forms. In this example it is FormsToSend. Then on the second line, add the delimiter found between each input PDF form within the field which is a pipe for the example.

Additional Notes:

The bookmarks functionality simply adds bookmarks to the output forms package, but will not remove any preexisting bookmarks that were on the individual forms themselves. If you combine multiple forms and notice that there are bookmarks other than what JetTrac PDFCombine should have added, this is likely due to these bookmarks already being added to the individual input PDF’s themselves.

Please also note that the XML input file can contain any amount of additional data, however, it must be well formatted XML to function. This includes the delimiter that you use to separate the input PDF’s. We recommend using a pipe “|” as this is not a special character within XML and makes the list easily readable.