FAQ – Questions and answers about AFP2web® functionality
Below you will find questions about AFP2web that we have been asked frequently by our customers and partners over the past few years.
The index creation is part of the conversion. AFP2web creates index files either based on ACIF output or based on arbitrary rules you define using the AFP2web Scripting Facility option. The rule case for the flow of processing in AFP2web is to first set an identification for the document, extract the data and also the associated index data to the document, convert the document to PDF (or to any output format) and finally output the associated index file. AFP2web can create one index file per document or just one index file for all documents.
Our trial version offers full functionality. The difference is the limitation of the trial version in the following points:
- A watermark is placed over each individual document page
- The name of our company and copyright information is printed in the footer of each page
- The output is restricted to a maximum of 50 pages per sec.
We offer two SDKs: one for Java and one for C. Both can be used depending on the requirements of your system environment and are used to integrate AFP2web functionality.
The size of our AFP file is approximately 60 GB (a single file). Do you think your product can handle a file of this size? OR do we need to split the file first before using AFP2web?
AFP2web handles very large AFP spool files without problems. Any limitations are more likely to be caused by the server on which AFP2web is running (CPU, main or disk space). However, we recommend that you split the file into several jobs to speed up processing.
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In most cases, you will get a same-day response to your problem. Depending on the scope of the problem, it may take a maximum of 2 to 3 days before you receive a response.
You will get the best performance in terms of speed if you run AFP2web on a system with a fast CPU (the faster the CPU, the better the performance). The times for input and output are usually not significant. However, a fast hard drive will also contribute to the performance increase here. Under these conditions, AFP2web can achieve a conversion rate of 2000 to 4000 pages per minute or even beyond.
Yes. The trial version can generate XML. Test this using the Scripting Facility module afp2xml.pm, which is supplied as an example.
AFP2web handles various input formats, such as Line Printer Data, Mixed Mode Data MO:DCA-P, and others. The AFP spool does not have to be generated on a mainframe. If the AFP spool is generated on the mainframe, please make sure that you download the data in binary format. Please do not perform an EBCDIC to ASCII conversion.
In most cases, the AFP spool also contains the resources. We also call these resources “inline resources”. If your spool file does not contain inline resources, you can configure AFP2web to access “external resources” as well.
You can insert bookmarks into any PDF file using the Scripting Facility option. You can find more information in the addBookmarks.pm example in section A.2 of the Scripting Facility Tutorial, which can be found in the AFP2web User’s Guide and Reference.
It is easy to insert a text or graphic into any output document. To do this, use the Scripting Facility option
I would like to know how you split a large AFP file into individual PDF files, outputting index files (“idx files”) associated with each file. Are you using the text “Insured” as a marker? In the example “eyecatacher.pm” it has no effect if I change the string “Insured” for the search. So what do I need to know if I want to split and index AFP files, assign names or IDs in a data set?
The sample module “eyecatcher.pm” of the Scripting Facility defines a string – in this case as a condition for detecting the first page in a document and for extracting index data. We call this string “Eyecatcher” for this purpose and define its position and value, or content. If you want more information, see the documentation for the eyecatcher.pm module in Appendix A.2 of the AFP2web User’s Guide and Reference.
You can redirect the output to STDOUT at any time using the -so command line option. Furthermore, you can use the -si command line option to configure AFP2web to read the input from STDIN.
You have two options to integrate AFP2web into your VB application:
- Call AFP2web as a batch process. The system call for this can be made from your VB application.
- Use the AFP2web SDK. The SDK is a static library that you include in your VB application.
Yes, sales and support for our products go from Germany to companies all over the world. Some of our customers are major players in their industry, such as AXA in the insurance industry or AT&T in the telecom industry.
AFP2web always generates the oldest PDF format. However, some features lead to the use of a newer version of the PDF format (for example, for PDF/A). Nevertheless, the goal is to generate the PDF version that are readable in older versions of Acrobat Reader.
AFP2web can convert any standard AFP spool. Other output formats are possible, regardless of the system that generates them.
It is possible to convert, print or display AFP/IPDS data with AFP2web without any problem. Barcodes (BCOCA) and also vector graphics (GOCA) are embedded in the PDF files.
We offer an AFP2web client that can be easily integrated into any application. We have already successfully implemented such an integration. One example is a dedicated AFP viewer (IWP2web) that supports the IWP protocol used within IBM Image+.