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Attachments in pdf ?

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Jan

Dec 14, 2017; 8:16am

Attachments in pdf ?

4 posts

Is it possible to generate a pdf containing attachments ? That is, embedding files into the document.

My specific case is a generated pdf based on a data set. I'd like to include the csv of the data set into the document. So they always stay together.

Thx,

Jan

mojavelinux

Dec 14, 2017; 8:35am

Re: Attachments in pdf ?

Administrator

2681 posts

The only way I know to do this is to put the CSV in a listing block, though I wouldn't recommend it if the data is large.

I found some mentions of embedded files in the PDF/A specification discussions, but I don't know if it was accepted. Even if so, prawn / pdf-core (https://github.com/prawnpdf/pdf-core) would have to support it in order for us to make use of it in Asciidoctor PDF. (Though, there's also the possibility of adding prawn extension in Asciidoctor PDF, if someone was able to figure it out).

Cheers,

-Dan

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 1:16 AM, Jan [via Asciidoctor :: Discussion] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Is it possible to generate a pdf containing attachments ? That is, embedding files into the document.

My specific case is a generated pdf based on a data set. I'd like to include the csv of the data set into the document. So they always stay together.

Thx,

Jan

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abelsromero

Dec 14, 2017; 9:51am

Re: Attachments in pdf ?

242 posts

I am thinking this could be done with a Java Postprocessor and PdfBox. But the PostProcessor (https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctorj/blob/master/asciidoctorj-core/src/main/java/org/asciidoctor/extension/Postprocessor.java) uses Strings, which I don't think works for PDFs.

Btw, attachments are not supported by PDF/A standard. You can create a PDF/A with attachments and PDF readers will say it's fine, but is not legal according to specification.

mojavelinux

Dec 14, 2017; 9:56am

Re: Attachments in pdf ?

Administrator

2681 posts

Thanks for the insight, Abel!

Actually, the Postprocessor works on the output of convert, which is only guaranteed to be an object. In the PDF converter, this is the Prawn document object. I remember discussing this with Robert at some point, but I'm not sure if it ever got mapped in AsciidoctorJ that way.

Cheers,

-Dan

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 2:51 AM, abelsromero [via Asciidoctor :: Discussion] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I am thinking this could be done with a Java Postprocessor and PdfBox. But the PostProcessor (https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctorj/blob/master/asciidoctorj-core/src/main/java/org/asciidoctor/extension/Postprocessor.java) uses Strings, which I don't think works for PDFs.

Btw, attachments are not supported by PDF/A standard. You can create a PDF/A with attachments and PDF readers will say it's fine, but is not legal according to specification.

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:
http://discuss.asciidoctor.org/Attachments-in-pdf-tp6083p6086.html

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Dan Allen | @mojavelinux | https://twitter.com/mojavelinux

abelsromero

Dec 14, 2017; 10:38am

Re: Attachments in pdf ?

242 posts

OK, short answer: NO is not possible to write a Java PDF Postprocessor to manipulate the PDF.

Found the issue, (https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctorj/issues/387) and it discusses the exact issue we have here. And it still happens with Asciidoctor 1.6.0.x, I wrote an extension for PDF and it fails with:

org.jruby.exceptions.RaiseException: (TypeError) cannot convert instance of class org.jruby.RubyObjectVar9 to class java.lang.String

Since the ouput object received is a #<Asciidoctor::Pdf::Converter>, the only way to interact with it is via Prawn or as Robert mentioned writting a whole PDF wrapper in Java. Last options is just reivneting the wheel to me, way out of our scope.
But if instead of String it provided a Stream with the processed data, one could redirect it to any other API to manipulate it.

Btw, I am laughing at Robert's sentece:

I'm also fine to stay with the current situation as it seems that no one really had these problems yet.

Sooner or later, `yet` alwasy gets you.

Jan

Dec 14, 2017; 1:56pm

Re: Attachments in pdf ?

4 posts

Never say "never" indeed. :-)