Adobe ColdFusion 8

About assembling PDF documents

You use the cfpdf tag to assemble PDF documents in 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.

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 is the default action.

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 in PDF format. 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, pathname, and instructions are not null and are valid. Also verifies that the schema used for the DDX instructions is supported by ColdFusion.

IsPDFFile

Determines whether a PDF source file, pathname, 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

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

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="pathname"

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