Converting AFP spool files to PDFs

[Bill]

Hello all....

I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic and I have a question. Is
it possible to convert AFP spool files to PDFs for the purposes of
archiving them (creating some sort of index over them) without a)
having InfoPrint for Iseries or b) purchasing a third-party product to
do it? We currently have the LaserVault software package for our
archiving and have converted our invoices over to using an AFP overlay.
However, because we are using positioning within the spool file (the
POSITION keyword in the DDS specs) the spooled file has some
overlapping of data, which, when carried through to LaserVault, shows
up in the archived document. This is why I am looking to somehow
archive the documents in their printed form, hence the interest in PDF.
I've read some of IBM's manuals on the topic, and it sounds like the
PDF transform portion of the process requires InfoPrint. Any advice?
We're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, since the conversion
of the invoices over to AFP is allowing us to get rid of of another
software package. I don't want to see us throw good money after bad.
All advice is appreciated!

Bill

[Pjotr]

http://www.pdfing.com will do it all, and it's for free.

Pjotr

Post by Bill
Hello all....
I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic and I have a question. Is
it possible to convert AFP spool files to PDFs for the purposes of
archiving them (creating some sort of index over them) without a)
having InfoPrint for Iseries or b) purchasing a third-party product to
do it? We currently have the LaserVault software package for our
archiving and have converted our invoices over to using an AFP
overlay. However, because we are using positioning within the spool
file (the POSITION keyword in the DDS specs) the spooled file has some
overlapping of data, which, when carried through to LaserVault, shows
up in the archived document. This is why I am looking to somehow
archive the documents in their printed form, hence the interest in
PDF. I've read some of IBM's manuals on the topic, and it sounds like
the PDF transform portion of the process requires InfoPrint. Any
advice? We're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, since the
conversion of the invoices over to AFP is allowing us to get rid of
of another software package. I don't want to see us throw good money
after bad. All advice is appreciated!
Bill

[GB]

Free? Not according to the web site it ain't...

Post by Pjotr
http://www.pdfing.com will do it all, and it's for free.
Pjotr

[Pjotr]

You should read well. I am sure you can use is for free, because I do.

=================================================================
A license-code for the "interactive" version of PDFing costs 399.00 US
Dollars. You may purchase the license-code on-line using a credit-card or by
purchase-order. Registering your copy of PDFing gives the following
benefits:
Removes the "tickler" graphic from PDF document pages.
Removes the "tickler" message from email body text.
Allows complete conversion of "un-transformed" *SCS spooled-files to ACSII
and RTF files.
Allows complete conversion of multi-page AFP spooled-files.
Priority technical support via email or telephone for one year from the date
of purchase.
Email notifications of problems, and upgrades to our products for one year
from the date of purchase.
===============================================================
But if you do not buy a license you can use it for free, OK, having the
tickler, but that's no problem at all.

Pjotr

Post by GB
Free? Not according to the web site it ain't...

Post by Pjotr
http://www.pdfing.com will do it all, and it's for free.
Pjotr

[Charles Wilt]

Bill,

If you use iSeries Access for Windows, see if you also have iSeries
Access for the Web installed. If not install it.

It allows you to create PDFs from spool files.

But I don't know of any way to call it outside of the iSeries Access for
the Web product. You may be able to find away.

It might be cheaper in the long run to simply buy a third party product.

Brad Stone's works well and is pretty cheap:
http://www.bvstools.com/afptool.html

Also, I've used and am happy with the following:
Spool-A-Matic from Gumbo
http://www.gumbo.com/Licpgm/Spool-a-Matic.html

CoolSpools from Ariadne Software
http://www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk/CoolSpls.htm


Note, what ever you pick. Make sure you understand the format of the
resulting PDF. It will either be 100% graphical or a combination of
graphics and text. The 100% graphical PDFs larger and you can't search
for text in them. But they tend to be more of an exact replica.

HTH,
Charles

Post by Bill
Hello all....
I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic and I have a question. Is
it possible to convert AFP spool files to PDFs for the purposes of
archiving them (creating some sort of index over them) without a)
having InfoPrint for Iseries or b) purchasing a third-party product to
do it? We currently have the LaserVault software package for our
archiving and have converted our invoices over to using an AFP overlay.
However, because we are using positioning within the spool file (the
POSITION keyword in the DDS specs) the spooled file has some
overlapping of data, which, when carried through to LaserVault, shows
up in the archived document. This is why I am looking to somehow
archive the documents in their printed form, hence the interest in PDF.
I've read some of IBM's manuals on the topic, and it sounds like the
PDF transform portion of the process requires InfoPrint. Any advice?
We're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, since the conversion
of the invoices over to AFP is allowing us to get rid of of another
software package. I don't want to see us throw good money after bad.
All advice is appreciated!
Bill

[Bill]

Charles,

Do you know of any helpful articles/redbooks that discuss doing this?
Most of the things that I have read to this point reference InfoPrint.
Thanks.

Bill

Post by Charles Wilt
Bill,
If you use iSeries Access for Windows, see if you also have iSeries
Access for the Web installed. If not install it.
It allows you to create PDFs from spool files.
But I don't know of any way to call it outside of the iSeries Access for
the Web product. You may be able to find away.
It might be cheaper in the long run to simply buy a third party product.
http://www.bvstools.com/afptool.html
Spool-A-Matic from Gumbo
http://www.gumbo.com/Licpgm/Spool-a-Matic.html
CoolSpools from Ariadne Software
http://www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk/CoolSpls.htm
Note, what ever you pick. Make sure you understand the format of the
resulting PDF. It will either be 100% graphical or a combination of
graphics and text. The 100% graphical PDFs larger and you can't search
for text in them. But they tend to be more of an exact replica.
HTH,
Charles

Post by Bill
Hello all....
I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic and I have a question.

Is

Post by Charles Wilt

Post by Bill
it possible to convert AFP spool files to PDFs for the purposes of
archiving them (creating some sort of index over them) without a)
having InfoPrint for Iseries or b) purchasing a third-party product to
do it? We currently have the LaserVault software package for our
archiving and have converted our invoices over to using an AFP overlay.
However, because we are using positioning within the spool file (the
POSITION keyword in the DDS specs) the spooled file has some
overlapping of data, which, when carried through to LaserVault, shows
up in the archived document. This is why I am looking to somehow
archive the documents in their printed form, hence the interest in PDF.
I've read some of IBM's manuals on the topic, and it sounds like the
PDF transform portion of the process requires InfoPrint. Any advice?
We're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, since the

conversion

Post by Charles Wilt

Post by Bill
of the invoices over to AFP is allowing us to get rid of of another
software package. I don't want to see us throw good money after bad.
All advice is appreciated!
Bill

[p***@aurora-il.org]

I believe that iSeries Access for the Web uses iText
(found here: http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ )
to do the conversion. Several other AS/400 packages use that as well.
Someone once posted some code using iText to convert to .pdf, but I
lost the link.
If anyone knows where that was posted, I sure could use it......
Pete

[Tim Swearingen]

Bill,

go to this website http://homepage1.nifty.com/uzaemon/

download the SPL2STMF and the libtiff utilities.... SPL2STMF will
provide the functionality to convert AFP spool files to TIFF images the
libtiff utilities will convert the TIFF images to PDF.

My company uses these utilities and they are free and very robust. We
have been using them in production for about 4 years now.

Regards,
Tim Swearingen

Post by Bill
Hello all....
I've seen a lot of discussion on this topic and I have a question. Is
it possible to convert AFP spool files to PDFs for the purposes of
archiving them (creating some sort of index over them) without a)
having InfoPrint for Iseries or b) purchasing a third-party product to
do it? We currently have the LaserVault software package for our
archiving and have converted our invoices over to using an AFP overlay.
However, because we are using positioning within the spool file (the
POSITION keyword in the DDS specs) the spooled file has some
overlapping of data, which, when carried through to LaserVault, shows
up in the archived document. This is why I am looking to somehow
archive the documents in their printed form, hence the interest in PDF.
I've read some of IBM's manuals on the topic, and it sounds like the
PDF transform portion of the process requires InfoPrint. Any advice?
We're wanting to do this as cheaply as possible, since the conversion
of the invoices over to AFP is allowing us to get rid of of another
software package. I don't want to see us throw good money after bad.
All advice is appreciated!
Bill

[Walter Nasich]

look at this article
http://recursos-as400.com/como154.shtml

[Bill Howie]

Is there any possible way to do this that doesn't make the AFP file a
TIFF file as the interim step on the way to a PDF? We would like to be
able to search the finished PDF for text if possible. With making it a
TIFF first, the finished PDF is just an image that you can't search for
text.

Bill

Post by Walter Nasich
look at this article
http://recursos-as400.com/como154.shtml

[Rodney Johnson]

I Believe some of the newer versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader are
capable of text searches of image only PDFs. Might want to check that out.

Post by Bill Howie
Is there any possible way to do this that doesn't make the AFP file a
TIFF file as the interim step on the way to a PDF? We would like to be
able to search the finished PDF for text if possible. With making it a
TIFF first, the finished PDF is just an image that you can't search for
text.
Bill

Post by Walter Nasich
look at this article
http://recursos-as400.com/como154.shtml

--
Rodney A Johnson
Technical Team Lead for AS/400 Spool
Dept GJC
IBM Rochester, Minnesota

The contents of this message express only the sender's opinion.
This message does not necessarily reflect the policy or views of
my employer, IBM. All responsibility for the statements
made in this Usenet posting resides solely and completely with the
sender.

[Bill Howie]

Rodney,

I have set up my logic for this process to do this: I have existing
AFP spool files that I want to archive and have a utility that creates
PDFs from them. I have a program that I pieced together from different
sources that reads an output queue (using the QUSLSPL API) and "looks"
into the spool files (uses the QSPOPNSP and QSPGETSP APIs) to pull out
some pertinent data. I am using format SPFR0300 to display just the
raw data itself. I can pick out where my pertinent pieces of data are
when I run the program in debug mode and look at the user space. What
I'm curious about is, since this is an AFP spool file, is there is a
definitive source of info (other than the IBM API reference manual)
that says, if I have a certain capability set up in the spool file,
that it will translate to a certain set of characters in the user space
each and every time I retrieve it. I am basically trying to determine
whether pulling this data out through a static process will always find
the data in the same place. In my experience today the data seemed to
"float" a little bit. I ended up setting up a couple of the fields to
be found based on using the SCAN opcode to find the same particular
character immediately before the piece of data I was looking for.

Any thoughts you might have on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Bill

[Rodney Johnson]

Not sure I quite understand the question...

When the spooled file data stream is generated, that remains static
(unless someone outside the operating system is mucking around with the
internals....*ALLOBJ creates lots of potential problems in the wrong hands).

If you open the spooled file with a different number of buffers to read,
then the location could be different in the user space based on what
buffer the data you are interested in is located. If you always read
with the same number of buffers requested each time you access that
specific spooled file, then what you are looking for should always be in
the same spot.

Unless a spooled file is exactly the same as another, it is unlikely the
information you want is in the same location. There are too many
possibilities to look out for even if the same printer file is used.
Multiple record formats, optional keywords, etc all can dictate what the
OS will generated for AFPDS.

Your best bet is to continue the scan. Thus if application changes are
made, data contents are different, or printer file changes, you might
not have to change your sniffer.

Post by Bill Howie
Rodney,
I have set up my logic for this process to do this: I have existing
AFP spool files that I want to archive and have a utility that creates
PDFs from them. I have a program that I pieced together from different
sources that reads an output queue (using the QUSLSPL API) and "looks"
into the spool files (uses the QSPOPNSP and QSPGETSP APIs) to pull out
some pertinent data. I am using format SPFR0300 to display just the
raw data itself. I can pick out where my pertinent pieces of data are
when I run the program in debug mode and look at the user space. What
I'm curious about is, since this is an AFP spool file, is there is a
definitive source of info (other than the IBM API reference manual)
that says, if I have a certain capability set up in the spool file,
that it will translate to a certain set of characters in the user space
each and every time I retrieve it. I am basically trying to determine
whether pulling this data out through a static process will always find
the data in the same place. In my experience today the data seemed to
"float" a little bit. I ended up setting up a couple of the fields to
be found based on using the SCAN opcode to find the same particular
character immediately before the piece of data I was looking for.
Any thoughts you might have on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Bill

--
Rodney A Johnson
Technical Team Lead for AS/400 Spool
Dept GJC
IBM Rochester, Minnesota

The contents of this message express only the sender's opinion.
This message does not necessarily reflect the policy or views of
my employer, IBM. All responsibility for the statements
made in this Usenet posting resides solely and completely with the
sender.