About assembling PDF documents
You use the cfpdf tag to assemble PDF
documents in Adobe ColdFusion. The tag provides several actions
for creating unified output files from multiple sources, as the
following table shows:
Action
|
Description
|
|---|
addWatermark
|
Adds a watermark image to one or more pages
in a PDF document.
|
deletePages
|
Deletes one or more pages from a PDF document.
|
addheader
|
Adds header to a PDF document.
|
addfooter
|
Adds footer to a PDF document.
|
removeheaderfooter
|
Removes header and footer from a PDF document.
|
optimize
|
Reduces the quality of PDF documents by
image downsampling and removing unused objects.
|
extracttext
|
Extracts text from the specified pages or
the entire PDF documents
|
extractimage
|
Extracts images from the specified pages
or the entire PDF document
|
transform
|
Performs page level transformations
|
getInfo
|
Extracts information associated with the
PDF document, such as the author, title, and creation date.
|
merge
|
Assembles PDF documents or pages from PDF
source files into one output file.
|
processddx
|
Extends the cfpdf tag by
providing a subset of Adobe® LiveCycle™ Assembler functionality. This action is
the default.
|
protect
|
Password-protects and encrypts a PDF document.
|
read
|
Reads a PDF document into a ColdFusion variable.
|
removeWatermark
|
Removes watermarks from specified pages
in a PDF document.
|
setInfo
|
Sets the Title, Subject, Author, and Keywords
for a PDF document,
|
thumbnail
|
Generates thumbnail images from specified
pages in a PDF document.
|
write
|
Writes PDF output to a file. Also use to
flatten forms created in Acrobat and linearize documents.
|
Note: You cannot use the cfpdf tag
to create a PDF document from scratch. To create a PDF document
from HTML content, use the cfdocument tag. Also,
you can use Report Builder to generate a report as a PDF document.
Instead of writing a PDF document to file, you can specify a PDF
variable generated as the source for the cfpdf tag.
All but one of the cfpdf tag actions provide
shortcuts to common tasks; for example, with one line of code, you
can add a watermark image to one or more pages in an output file,
merge all the PDF documents in a directory into a single output
file, or password-protect a PDF document. ColdFusion provides two
ways to extend the functionality of the cfpdf tag:
the cfpdfparam tag and the processddx action.
You use the cfpdfparam tag only with the merge action
of the cfpdf tag. The cfpdfparam tag
gives you more control over which files are included in the output
file; for example you can merge pages from multiple files in different directories.
The processddx action extends the cfpdf tag
by providing a subset of Adobe LiveCycle Assembler functionality.
You use the processddx action to process Document
Description XML (DDX) instructions explained in Using DDX to perform advanced tasks. Using DDX instructions requires
more coding, but it lets you perform complex tasks, such as generating
a table of contents and adding automatic page numbers.
Also, ColdFusion provides three functions for PDF file, DDX file,
and PDF variable verification:
Function
|
Description
|
|---|
IsDDX
|
Determines whether a DDX file, path, and
instructions are not null and are valid. Also verifies that ColdFusion
supports the schema used for the DDX instructions.
|
IsPDFFile
|
Determines whether a PDF source file, path,
and version are valid and supported on the server running ColdFusion.
Also verifies whether a PDF file is corrupted.
|
IsPDFObject
|
Determines whether a PDF object stored in
memory is valid. Also verifies the contents of PDF variables generated by
the cfdocument and cfpdf tags.
|
The following table describes a few document assembly tasks that
you can perform with ColdFusion:
Task
|
Action
|
|---|
Add a generated table of contents to a PDF
document
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with
the TableOfContents DDX element
cfpdf action="extracttext" can
also be used.
|
Add automatic page numbers to a PDF document
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with
the _PageNumber and _LastPagenumber built-in
keys. Valid only in the Header and Footer DDX elements.
|
Add headers and footers to a PDF document
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with the Header and Footer DDX
elements
or
cfpdf action="addheader" and cfpdf action="addfooter"
|
Add or remove watermarks
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with
the Watermark and Background DDX elements
cfpdf action="addWatermark" and cfpdf action="removeWatermark"
|
Change the encryption algorithm for PDF
documents
|
cfpdf action="protect" encrypt="encryption algorithm"
|
Change user permissions on a PDF document
|
cfpdf action="protect" newOwnerPassword="xxxxx"permissions="comma-separated list"
|
Delete pages from a PDF document
|
cfpdf action="deletePages"
|
Extract text from a PDF document and export
it to an XML file
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with
the DocumentText DDX element
|
Flatten (remove interactivity from) forms
created in Acrobat
|
cfpdf action="write" flatten="yes"
|
Generate thumbnail images from PDF document
pages
|
cfpdf action="thumbnail"pages="page
numbers"
|
Linearize PDF documents for faster web display
|
cfpdf action="write" saveOption="linear"
|
Merge pages and page ranges from multiple
documents in different locations into one PDF document
|
cfpdf action="merge" with
multiple cfpdfparam tags
|
Merge PDF documents in a directory into
one PDF document
|
cfpdf action="merge" directory="path"
|
Password-protect PDF documents
|
cfpdf action="protect" newUserPassword="xxxx"
|
Set the initial view for a PDF document
|
cfpdf action="processddx" with
the InitialViewProfile DDX element
|
Create different versions of a PDF document
|
Duplicate function to clone
PDF variables
|
