Getting started with PDFix SDK

PDFix SDK is a cross-platform PDF processing tool, that offers various ways of the integration. A Command-line interface PDFix CLI is a quick and easy way to add PDF processing functionality into various workflows without coding.

Developers can use the PDFix SDK with programming languages to take advandatage of the full control over the PDF documents.

Check the system requirements to avoid any problems with running PDFix SDK on your system.

Integration using the CLI

PDFix offers straightforward, rapid, and automated PDF processing via the command-line interface.

$ ./pdfix_app make-accessible -i test.pdf -o output.pdf

For more CLI options please check the PDFix SDK Command-line interface. The CLI application is part of the downloadable package available on website.

Integration using the SDK

c#

Import NuGet package PDFix.SDK

using PDFixSDK.Pdfix;

static void Main() {
   var pdfix = new Pdfix();
   var doc = pdfix.OpenDoc("Sample.pdf", "");
   // do your stuff
   doc.Close();                                       
}

Check more github examples on https://github.com/pdfix/pdfix_sdk_example_dotnet

c++

#include "Pdfix.h"

Pdfix_statics;

int main() {
   if (Pdfix_init(Pdfix_MODULE_NAME))) {
      auto pdfix = GetPdfix();
      auto doc = pdfix->OpenDoc(L"Sample.pdf", L"");
      // do your stuff
      doc->Close();                                   
   }
}

Check more github examples on https://github.com/pdfix/pdfix_sdk_example_cpp

java

import net.pdfix.pdfixlib.*;

public static void main() {
   Pdfix pdfix = new Pdfix();   
   PdfDoc doc = pdfix.OpenDoc("Sample.pdf", "");      
   // do your stuff
   doc.Close();
}

Check more github examples on https://github.com/pdfix/pdfix_sdk_example_java

python

Import Python Package pdfix-sdk

from pdfixsdk import *

pdfix  = GetPdfix()
doc = pdfix.OpenDoc("Sample.pdf", "")
// do your stuff
doc.close()

Check more github examples on https://github.com/pdfix/pdfix_sdk_example_python

Multi-threaded environments

The SDK is designed for single-threaded processing, meaning only one API method can be executed at a time within a single process. Any methods invoked from other threads will wait until the preceding one completes.

If there's a need to handle multiple concurrent calls, it's advised to utilize separate processes instead.

Prerequisites

• Windows 7 and newer, Windows Server 2016 and newer (The latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2019)
• macOS 10.15 and newer
• Ubuntu 16.04 and newer, Debian 10 and newer, CentOS 8 and newer

Trial/Lite license limitations

• Methods extracting text from the PDF content randomly replace characters with "*"
• Rasterized images may contain logo watermark
• Saved PDFs may have redacted parts of the content

License Management

PDFix SDK can be autorized using an activation key or using the name, key pair.

Standard License Activation

Software can be authorized using an activation key. After activating the software operates on the computer according to the license. Internet connection is necessary for occasional license updates.

Online Activation

Using the command line:

$ ./pdfix_app license --activate XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Code example: c++, c#

Note to PHP users: Depending on the configuration the PHP may operate in a safe mode under a virtual user (e.g. www-data). In such a case the license should be activated separately with PHP.

Offline activation

Step 1: Create activation request file

./pdfix_app license --activate XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX --request --license-path license.req

Step 2: Upload the license.req file to https://pdfix.net/offline-licensing/ to create a license activation file. You receive a license.lic upon submission and follow to the next step.

Step 3: Activate the license from file

./pdfix_app license --activate XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX --license-path license.lic

Code examples: (follow the same steps as with CLI)

c++ samples StandardLicenseCreateOfflineActivationFile.cpp, StandardLicenseActivateOffline.cpp

Deactivating the standard license

Note: When moving license to another computer the license should be deactivated.

Online deactivation

Command line example:

$ ./pdfix_app license --deactivate

Code example: c++

Offline deactivation

Command line example:

$ ./pdfix_app license --deactivate --license-path deactivate.req

Code example: c++

License file local storage

The activated license information is stored on computer under the current user account. The default local license storage is in the following directories:

• Windows: <user>\AppData\Local\.pdfixsdk
• MacOS: <user>/Library/Application Support/.pdfixsdk
• Linux: <user>/.pdfixsdk

Custom location can be set by setting the license data path and file name in the settings JSON as follows:

{
    "user": {
        "license_data_path" : "<local_folder>",
        "license_file_name" : "MyLicenseLey.txt"
    }
}

Command-line use:

$ ./pdfix_app [SUBCOMMAND] [OPTIONS] --settings-path <path_to_json>

Updating the standard license

The license is updated automatically when running the software. When an instant update is needed the following command should be executed:

Command line example:

$ ./pdfix_app license --update

Code example: c++

Account license authorization

Software can be authorized using a name and key. The name key pair should be used every time the PDFix SDK is used.

Command line example:

$ ./pdfix_app extract-data --input test.pdf --email your@email --key XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Code example: c#

License Status

The current license status can be saved into JSON.

Command line example:

$ ./pdfix_app license --status 

Code example: c++

Satus output:

{
    "product": {
        "name": "PDFix SDK",
        "option": "Enterprise",
        "version": "6.4.0"
    },
    "status": {
        "authorized": "true"
    },
    "license": {
        "type": "standard",
        "active": "true",
        "key": "XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX",
        "max_activations": "5",
        "total_activations": "2",
        "days_remaining": "51",
        "expired": "false",
        "expiration_date": "2021-01-09",
        "days_since_last_check": "1",
        "pages": {
            "type": "2",
            "max_consumption": "300000",
            "total_consumption": "37024",
            "local_consumption": "5"
        },
        "enterprise": {
            "type": "1"
        }
    }
}

Support

In case of any questions please contact support.