Action manager: Add script to change initial view

[korbinian.g]

Hi there,

I'm using a content management systems to create PDF files. These can either be single-page manuals or printed double-page quick guides.

Problem: By default all PDFs are opened in single-page view. I'd like to provide comfort to the user and thus include a custom meta information regarding the initial view:

document-defaultview = single-page

or

document-defaultview = double-page

Now, my problem is the realization in the action manager. My best bet would be to include some JavaScript within the PDF that sets the initial view.

When I ran those commands in the JavaScript console they worked fine.

this.zoom=100;
this.viewState = {overViewMode:3};
this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:4};

Now, the one-million-dollar-question is: How do I attach these to the PDF that's being processed?

I stored those in variables for easier handling:

var setzoomscript = "this.zoom=100;";
var setoverviewmodescript = "this.viewState = {overViewMode:3}";
if(initialview="single-page"){
    var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:2};"
}else{
    var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:4};"

I've found out that there is a addScript()-method to do this, but I am lacking the knowledge to assemble a working command here.

This didn't work: this.addScript(setzoomscript, setoverviewscript, setviewscript);

When I open the modified PDF, the settings are not applied. Can someone help?

Thanks!

[korbinian.g]

Sorry, just read through it and maybe it's not really clear: The metadata is already included in the PDF, I just need to process the PDF depending on them.

[korbinian.g]

Figured it out, a case of RTFM (although I didn't find much info on addScript).

I had a typo and added a = between this.addScript and the (.

This works:

/* stores view scripts to variables */
var setzoomscript = "this.zoom=100;";
var setoverviewmodescript = "this.viewState = {overViewMode:3}";
if(initialview="single-page"){
var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:2};"
}else{
var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:4};"
}

/* adds view scripts to PDF */
this.addScript("Initial view settings", setzoomscript, setoverviewmodescript, setviewscript);

[try67 · Accepted solution]

This code will not work (correctly), because it contains errors. You didn't define the initialview variable anywhere, and when you're trying to compare it to a string you're using the wrong operator, whereby you're assigning a value to it, not comparing the two.

[korbinian.g]

Hi there,

thanks for your feedback. It's not the complete code, sorry for that. Currently the complete code looks like this.

/* PDF preparation for upload except compression*/

/* Assumption: PDF was previously compressed */

/* reads document creation date */
var creationdate = this.info["creationdate"];

/* convert creationdate to ISO-String */
creationdateISO=creationdate.toISOString();

/* extracts year from creationdate-ISO */
var creationyear = creationdateISO.substr(0,4);
/* extracts month from creationdate */
var creationmonth = creationdateISO.substr(5,2);
/* extracts day from creationdate */
var creationday = creationdateISO.substr(8,2);

/* rearranges date */
creationdatefinal = creationday+"."+creationmonth+"."+creationyear;

/* reads meta document-newfilename */
var newfilename = this.info["document-newfilename"];

/* replaces INSERTDATE with creationdatefinal */
var newfilename=newfilename.replace(/INSERTDATE/i, creationdatefinal);
this.info["document-newfilename"]=newfilename;

/* changes document-status to upload_web */
this.info["document-status"] = "upload_web";

/* reads desired initial view from metadata */
var initialview=this.info["document-defaultview"];

/* stores view scripts to variables */
var setzoomscript = "this.zoom=100;";
var setoverviewmodescript = "this.viewState = {overViewMode:3}";
if(initialview="single-page"){
    var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:2};"
}else{
    var setviewscript = "this.viewState = {pageViewLayoutMode:4};"
}

/* adds view scripts to PDF */
this.addScript("Initial view settings", setzoomscript, setoverviewmodescript, setviewscript);

/* Saves PDF in same directory with document-newfilename as filename */
this.saveAs(this.path.replace(this.documentFileName, newfilename + ".pdf"));

I guess you're right regarding the operator, I can remember that from other programming languages. It should have been ==, not =. I'll fix that.

[JR Boulay]

You don't need to reinvent the wheel, you can duplicate and customize this Preflight fixup.
It can then be used in an Action or in a Droplet.

[korbinian.g]

This method can't automatically change it's output in relation to single-page oder double-page. Thus, it's not suitable for my purposes, sorry.

Plase correct me if I am wrong, though.

[JR Boulay]

I don't know what criteria you use for this but an Action and a droplet can sort files in a "success" folder and in a "error" folder.