PDF to Spool file

[ted]

I have used the convert spool to pdf tool off this site, thanks very much, but is there a tool out there that converts pdfs to spool file?

[jamief]

Re: PDF to Spool file

Yes there is Ted, But its bundled with a tool that converts dogs into dinosaurs.....

On a serious note you would need to get a freeware/shareware converter
and run from IFS converts to a text document. Then take that text document and read/write your spooled file.

Seems like it would be better just to email the PDF to whoever needs
it...

jamie

[ted]

Re: PDF to Spool file

Yes, i know it is a step backwards, but our version of RVI does not include the PDF conversion tool therefore we need to convert the pdf to a spool file prior to bringing it into the fold. Could you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the freeware tool that does that conversion?

[tomholden]

Re: PDF to Spool file

there is a java library that you could use called iText. it's been around for a while and is pretty much the "de facto" standard PDF creation tool for Java programming, etc. you can find it at http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ i've been working (in my spare time...yeah right!) on creating a RPG service program to accommodate the functionality by leveraging this library. it's my first try at implementing a RPG/Java service program and i must say...i sucks. mostly due to RPG's lack of handling overloaded procedures. be that as it may, the only thing i've gotten around to so far is creating PDFs so i haven't really even looked and the reading/parsing of PDFs yet.

[tomholden]

Re: PDF to Spool file

another "small" way that the interfacing sucks is RPG not supporting dynamic arrays:

 // Unless your program uses only 7 columns then you will have     
 //  to copy this method definition into your program with         
 //  a different name and change the number of array elements      
 //  to be equal to the number of columns in the PTable            
 //  the java method requires that the number of elements be       
 //  equal to the number of table columns...you will get a         
 //  compiler error if they do not match.  for an example of this  
 //  see the program source TEST4.                                 
dPTable_setWidths...                                               
d                 pr                  ExtProc(*JAVA                
d                                     :'com.lowagie.text.pdf-      
d                                     .PdfPTable'                  
d                                     :'setWidths')                
d prWidth                       10i 0 Dim(7)

using that example if you have multiple tables with a different number of columns you would have to copy that prototype, give it a different name and changed the DIM() to match the number of columns for the appropriate tables...ick...

[jamief]

Re: PDF to Spool file

you could try this one

http://www.simpopdf.com/pdf-to-text.html

it looks to be interactive

I would think youd need to find one like Tom
suggested using JAVA to allow this to work in batch
automagically.

[GLS400]

Re: PDF to Spool file

Hi Ted:

I got this:

You can use ftp to create a spool file with the PDF in it. For example: 

1. crtprtf mylib/myprtf *usrascii 
2. ftp loopback 
user password 
bin 
cd mylib 
put mypdf myprtf 
quit 

This creates a new spool file with the PDF file in it.

from here:

http://search400.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,289625,sid3_gci1160304,00.html

Best of luck
GLS