General Info

From PDF XChange PDF SDK
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With over 17 years of experience offering solutions to both End Users and Software Developers - specifically for Imaging and PDF file manipulation - few companies have a better pedigree and our PDF-XChange range of products has been satisfying client needs for since 2001, winning the plaudits of developers and client end users alike from the very first product releases.   
 
With over 17 years of experience offering solutions to both End Users and Software Developers - specifically for Imaging and PDF file manipulation - few companies have a better pedigree and our PDF-XChange range of products has been satisfying client needs for since 2001, winning the plaudits of developers and client end users alike from the very first product releases.   
  
This document is intended to act as resource for experienced developers and some basic knowledge of the PDF format will be required to fully benefit from the extensive features and functions available. We strongly recommend all developer to use this document in tandem we the PDF  
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This document is intended to act as resource for experienced developers and some basic knowledge of the PDF format will be required to fully benefit from the extensive features and functions available. We strongly recommend all developer to use this document in tandem we the PDF reference available freely from Adobe
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(see [http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/PDF32000_2008.pdf Online PDF-Reference]) or the latest PDF specification from the ISO standards (for a fee). Please also note this product contains 1000's of functions, methods and properties - all listed here, but documented on varying degree's of detail due to the sheer volume of options and it is not possible to create an online help going into minutia of detail - so we have instead concentrated on those area's likely to be of interest to the majority and will expand as time and demand justifies us doing so. Where this document does not go into detail the Adobe reference document will in many cases act as a viable alternative and thus we have not duplicated - allowing us to concentrate most where we believe help is most needed.
  
(see [http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/PDF32000_2008.pdf Online PDF-Reference]) and images under OS Windows. That toolset includes features for creation and editing, searching, rendering and printing, importing and exporting PDF documents, decoding, viewing and saving images.  Using your favourite programming environment with the SDK you can create your own application that would be able to work with PDF files and images – easily viewing existing documents, create new ones, etc.
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That toolset includes features for creation and editing, searching, rendering and printing, importing and exporting PDF documents, decoding, viewing and saving images.  Using your favourite programming environment with the SDK you can create your own application that would be able to work with PDF files and images – easily viewing existing documents, create new ones, etc.
PDF-XChange SDK consists of two different libraries:
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The full PDF-XChange Editor SDK License provides functionality in 2 specific libraries:
  
 
* '''PDF-XChange Core API SDK'''
 
* '''PDF-XChange Core API SDK'''
  
* '''PDF-XChange Editor SDK'''
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* '''PDF-XChange Editor SDK''' itself.
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'''PDF-XChange Core API SDK''' – this library provides all available features to work with files in the PDF format and some additional extensions. Unlike the '''PDF-XChange Editor SDK''' this library has no UI layer and just one DLL - but in 2 versions - the '''PDFXCoreAPI.x86.dll''' for 32-bit Windows systems and the '''PDFXCoreAPI.x64.dll''' for 64-bit Windows Installations.
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The '''PDF-XChange Editor SDK''' – itself also includes the entirety of the '''PDF-XChange Core API SDK''' functionality and additional layers that provide functionality similar to our own end-user version - the '''PDF-XChange Editor'''. As this SDK has an ability to optionally load of Editor’s plugins (with some possible limitations, dependent on the plugin itself and the plugin authors licensing) the set of features provided by the SDK may be dramatically increased by the use of plugins.
  
'''PDF-XChange Core API SDK''' – this library provides all features to work with files in PDF format and some additional extensions. Unlike '''PDF-XChange Editor SDK''' this library has no UI layer. This library contains one DLL file named '''PDFXCoreAPI.x86.dll''' for 32-bits version and '''PDFXCoreAPI.x64.dll''' for 64-bits version.
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This library consists of one DLL module (again offered in both 32 and 64 bit versions -: '''PDFXEditCore.x86.dll''' for 32-bit and '''PDFXEditCore.x64.dll''' for 64-bit use) and a mandatory resource file named '''Resources.dat''' that should always reside in the same folder as the afore mentioned library DLL being distributed.
  
'''PDF-XChange Editor SDK''' – this library includes entirely the '''PDF-XChange Core API SDK''' and additional layers that provides functionality similar to the end-user version of the '''PDF-XChange Editor'''. As this SDK has an ability to optionally load of Editor’s plugins (with some possible limitations, depends of the plugin) the set of features provided by the SDK may be dramatically increased by the plugins. This library consists of one DLL module ('''PDFXEditCore.x86.dll''' for 32-bits, or '''PDFXEditCore.x64.dll''' for 64-bits) and a mandatory file named '''Resources.dat''' that should be located in the folder with the DLL file.
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Please see the diagram below showing the relationship between PDF-XChange Editor SDK and PDF-XChange Core API SDK and illustrating the internal arrangement and use of the API-layers:
  
Look to diagram below that shows the relationship between PDF-XChange Editor SDK and PDF-XChange Core API SDK and explains an internal arrangement and using of the API-layers:
 
 
<graphviz format='svg'>
 
<graphviz format='svg'>
 
digraph SDKLayers
 
digraph SDKLayers
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</graphviz>  
 
</graphviz>  
  
Both of these libraries are developed as COM-servers, so, they provide a set of ActiveX object and COM interfaces which can be accessed via standard COM mechanism as well as using other methods:
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Both of these libraries are developed and offered as COM-servers, so, they provide a set of ActiveX object and COM interfaces which may be accessed via standard COM technology as well as using other methods:
  
 
* using registration of the COM-server on destination system;
 
* using registration of the COM-server on destination system;

Revision as of 11:38, 6 June 2015


Overview

PDF-XChange SDK is our latest and most ambitious product offering to date - allowing 3rd party MS Windows software developers to incorporate Portable Document Format (PDF) creation and manipulation within their own software applications for provision to client End Users. Providing a wide range of features and functions such as PDF creation, printing, viewing and even page and object editing - the possibilities are almost endless and limited only by the developers imagination and creativity.

With over 17 years of experience offering solutions to both End Users and Software Developers - specifically for Imaging and PDF file manipulation - few companies have a better pedigree and our PDF-XChange range of products has been satisfying client needs for since 2001, winning the plaudits of developers and client end users alike from the very first product releases.

This document is intended to act as resource for experienced developers and some basic knowledge of the PDF format will be required to fully benefit from the extensive features and functions available. We strongly recommend all developer to use this document in tandem we the PDF reference available freely from Adobe (see Online PDF-Reference) or the latest PDF specification from the ISO standards (for a fee). Please also note this product contains 1000's of functions, methods and properties - all listed here, but documented on varying degree's of detail due to the sheer volume of options and it is not possible to create an online help going into minutia of detail - so we have instead concentrated on those area's likely to be of interest to the majority and will expand as time and demand justifies us doing so. Where this document does not go into detail the Adobe reference document will in many cases act as a viable alternative and thus we have not duplicated - allowing us to concentrate most where we believe help is most needed.

That toolset includes features for creation and editing, searching, rendering and printing, importing and exporting PDF documents, decoding, viewing and saving images. Using your favourite programming environment with the SDK you can create your own application that would be able to work with PDF files and images – easily viewing existing documents, create new ones, etc.

The full PDF-XChange Editor SDK License provides functionality in 2 specific libraries:

  • PDF-XChange Core API SDK
  • PDF-XChange Editor SDK itself.

PDF-XChange Core API SDK – this library provides all available features to work with files in the PDF format and some additional extensions. Unlike the PDF-XChange Editor SDK this library has no UI layer and just one DLL - but in 2 versions - the PDFXCoreAPI.x86.dll for 32-bit Windows systems and the PDFXCoreAPI.x64.dll for 64-bit Windows Installations.

The PDF-XChange Editor SDK – itself also includes the entirety of the PDF-XChange Core API SDK functionality and additional layers that provide functionality similar to our own end-user version - the PDF-XChange Editor. As this SDK has an ability to optionally load of Editor’s plugins (with some possible limitations, dependent on the plugin itself and the plugin authors licensing) the set of features provided by the SDK may be dramatically increased by the use of plugins.

This library consists of one DLL module (again offered in both 32 and 64 bit versions -: PDFXEditCore.x86.dll for 32-bit and PDFXEditCore.x64.dll for 64-bit use) and a mandatory resource file named Resources.dat that should always reside in the same folder as the afore mentioned library DLL being distributed.

Please see the diagram below showing the relationship between PDF-XChange Editor SDK and PDF-XChange Core API SDK and illustrating the internal arrangement and use of the API-layers:

This is a graph with borders and nodes. Maybe there is an Imagemap used so the nodes may be linking to some Pages.

Both of these libraries are developed and offered as COM-servers, so, they provide a set of ActiveX object and COM interfaces which may be accessed via standard COM technology as well as using other methods:

  • using registration of the COM-server on destination system;
  • using COM-server via Click-Once technology: the standard registration of the COM-server isn't required, only special two manifest files must be added during installation on the client's machine;
  • using a special function exported by libraries DLLs, that creates and returns a main object of the libraries; the standard registration of the COM-server isn't required and additional manifest files are not necessary too;

For more information about redistribution, please refer to Redistribution to Clients.

For more information about licensing, look to Licensing.

Installation

The latest version of the SDK is available from there. The SDK installer will install SDK files, and will register COM-server (on 64-bit OS, both 32- and 64-bits COM-servers will be registered). That will allow starting using of the SDK easy and quick. In addition, sample projects, created on different programming languages, will be installed. These samples will help make the process of learning new SDK more productive.

All samples are also available on a github repository.

Development

PDF-XChange SDK provides you access to ActiveX Objects, and consists of several infrastructure API-layers:


Full index of PDF-XChange SDK types : IndexTypeLibrary