Posted at: 12:03 on 22 October 2021 by Muhimbi

Like our range of SharePoint products, after years of mammoth releases, we are changing our cadence to smaller and more focussed releases. We will still add big features, just fewer at a time, but more frequently.

Version 10.1.2 of the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is the first of these focussed releases. Don't be thrown off by the small (sub) point release, we are adding a major new feature; the ability to extract data from PDF Forms using the FDF, XFDF and XML standards. Absolute brilliant new functionality for organisations and teams looking to automate PDF Form processing. Extract data using code, and store the results in a database, lists or make decisions based on the value of a field.

For details about this new functionality, check out this blog post.

We love our American friends, but the sooner this form disappears, the better. At least we can process it automatically now.

A quick introduction for those not familiar with the product: The Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is an ‘on premises’ server-based SDK that allows software developers to convert typical Office files to PDF format using a robust, scalable but friendly Web Services interface from Java, .NET, Ruby & PHP based solutions. It supports a large number of file types including MS-Office and ODF file formats as well as HTML, MSG (email), EML, AutoCAD and Image based files and is used by some of the largest organisations in the world for mission critical document conversions. In addition to converting documents, the product ships with a sophisticated watermarking engine, PDF Splitting and Merging facilities, an OCR facility and the ability to secure PDF files. Separate SharePoint and Cloud-based Subscription services are available as well.  

When upgrading from a previous version, read this Knowledge Base article first.

 
Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Administration Guide.
• User & Developer Guide.
• All PDF Converter Services related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (183MB). .

.

Labels: Forms, News, PDF Converter Services, PDF Forms

Posted at: 11:34 on by Muhimbi

After years of mammoth releases, we are changing our cadence to smaller and more focussed releases. We will still add big features, just fewer at a time, but more frequently.

Version 10.1.2 of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint is the first of these focussed releases. Don't be thrown off by the small (sub) point release, we are adding a major new feature; the ability to extract data from PDF Forms using the FDF, XFDF and XML standards. Absolute brilliant new functionality for organisations and teams looking to automate PDF Form processing. Extract data using workflows or code, and store the results in a database, SharePoint lists or make decisions based on the value of a field.

For details about this new functionality, check out this blog post.

We love our American friends, but the sooner this form disappears, the better. At least we can process it automatically now.

For those not familiar with the product, the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email), MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call, without the need to install any client-side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, K2, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007-2019 & SharePoint Online and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. This ‘on-premise’ version of the PDF Converter requires software to be installed on the SharePoint server. Please note that if you have no server access, there is always the option to deploy our SharePoint Online App to on-premise versions of SharePoint 2013, 2016 and 2019. For details see this blog post.

When upgrading from a previous version, read this Knowledge Base article first.

 
Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (195MB).

.

Labels: Forms, News, PDF Converter, PDF Forms

Posted at: 15:08 on 08 October 2021 by Muhimbi

Muhimbi's range of PDF Conversion products are primarily used for ... well ... as the name says .... conversion of various file formats to PDF. This all works great, but once you start generating PDF files, you start to get a lot of questions from customers about other PDF facilities. As a result, over the years we have added PDF merging, splitting and securing.

Happy customers all around, but there is always room for improvement and additional features. As we are very active in the Electronic Forms market (InfoPath to PDF, Microsoft Forms, Nintex Forms, etc.) we decided to add support for the most popular form filling technology, PDF Forms.

As a result it is now possible to take a typical PDF form, being it a government issued W9, or a form specific to your industry or organisation, and use our existing conversion facilities to extract forms data in the FDF, XFDF and XML standards.

Just use our existing conversion facilities, being it our API, Nintex Workflow, or SharePoint Designer and pass in a PDF file containing form data. Select FDF, XFDF or XML as the output format and the form data is extracted in the desired format. Once you have the extracted data, use it in whatever way is required. Save it in a SharePoint column, insert it into a database, make a decision in your code based on the value of a field, etc.

Please note that at the time of writing (version 10.1.2) we support the AcroForms standard, which has broad support across the PDF Market. Support for the XML Forms Architecture standard will not be available until the 10.2 release.

So let's have a look at what this looks like in the real-word. In this case via Nintex Workflow.

Assuming that the Muhimbi PDF Converter is deployed in your environment, and the Nintex Workflow Integration has been activated, it is a matter of adding Muhimbi's Convert Document action to the workflow. Fill in the blanks and make sure you set the Output Format to something that is relatively easy to 'parse', in this example XFDF. In this particular case we capture the Output Item ID, which is the ID of the generated XFDF file. We need this so we can read the content of the generated file in the next step.

The Convert Document action generates XFDF, an XML based format specific to the form fields defined in the source PDF file. An example can be found below:

In the next step we want to extract data from the generated XFDF file, so we can use it in the rest of our workflow. Insert Nintex' standard Query XML action and specify the ItemURL, which is based on the Item ID captured in the previous step. Then use the XPath builder to generate a path to the field to extract. (Please ignore the XPath in the screenshot below, it will be different for your particular document).

This is a very high-level example, which assumes you are familiar with how to create workflows and parse XML.

If you have any questions or comments, leave a note below or reach out to our support desk. We love to help!

.

Labels: Articles, Forms, Nintex, pdf, PDF Converter, PDF Converter Services

Posted at: 11:41 on 09 July 2021 by Muhimbi

The Muhimbi PDF Converter Online is constantly being improved and extended. Similar to many other online services, when a new version is rolled out there is nothing to do for our users. New functionality just shows up, existing functionality continues to work as expected.

Since our previous formal announcement, we have added some interesting new facilities, and fixed / improved existing logic.

The full list of changes can be found further down, but the key highlights for versions 9.14.1 are as follows:

• Securing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF Files.
• Watermarking Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files.
• Support for EAN and UPC barcodes.
• Experimental PDF/A-2u and A-3u Support.
• Many improvements to our unique real-time watermarking and security facility.

Please note that all SharePoint Online versions are numbered in the 9.X range. At the time of writing the most recent version of the on-premise software is 10.1.1.         
 

A simple 'Confidential' watermark applied to MS-Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF

 
For those not familiar with the product, the Muhimbi PDF Converter Online is a lightweight subscription based solution that allows users to convert merge, split, watermark, secure, and OCR common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF using SharePoint Online through a friendly user interface or via workflows, without the need to install any client-side software or Adobe Acrobat. A REST based API as well as Power Automate (Flow), Azure LogicApps and Microsoft Power Apps integration is included in the service. More details can be found on the product page.  An on-premise version for SharePoint 2007-2019 is available separately. 

In addition to the changes listed above, the key changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• Documentation & FAQ
• Knowledge Base.
• Product videos.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.
 

Start your 30-day trial by installing the App and Workflow Actions, or just start

using it from Power Automate (Flow), there is nothing to install.

Labels: Barcode, News, Office 365, PDF/A, SharePoint Online, Watermarking

Posted at: 13:16 on 17 June 2021 by Muhimbi

Every once in a while you need to pause and look back. Stop adding endless new functionality and address some of the lesser exciting issues that have been accumulating over time. Bug fixes that only affect a very small number of operations or happen under an extremely rare combination of circumstances. Issues that no one has really complained about, but we feel need addressing.

In other words, a service release, which is what we are announcing today. A brand new release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services, version 10.1.1, that adds almost no new functionality, but fixes a number of issues that may be important depending on your use case. When you run a product at scale, like we do in the Muhimbi PDF Online cloud service, even issues that happen in fewer than 0.01% of the operations add up.

A quick introduction for those not familiar with the product: The Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is an ‘on premises’ server based SDK that allows software developers to convert typical Office files to PDF format using a robust, scalable but friendly Web Services interface from Java, .NET, Ruby & PHP based solutions. It supports a large number of file types including MS-Office and ODF file formats as well as HTML, MSG (email), EML, AutoCAD and Image based files and is used by some of the largest organisations in the world for mission critical document conversions. In addition to converting documents, the product ships with a sophisticated watermarking engine, PDF Splitting and Merging facilities, an OCR facility and the ability to secure PDF files. Separate SharePoint and Cloud-based Subscription services are available as well.  

When upgrading from a previous version, read this Knowledge Base article first.

Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Administration Guide.
• User & Developer Guide.
• All PDF Converter Services related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (183MB). .

.

Labels: News, PDF Converter Services

Posted at: 12:31 on by Muhimbi

Every once in a while you need to pause and look back. Stop adding endless new functionality and address some of the lesser exciting issues that have been accumulating over time. Bug fixes that only affect a very small number of operations or happen under an extremely rare combination of circumstances. Issues that no one has really complained about, but we feel need fixing.

In other words, a service release, which is what we are announcing today. A brand new release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint, version 10.1.1, that adds almost no new functionality, but fixes a number of issues that may be important depending on your use case. When you run a product at scale, like we do in the Muhimbi PDF Online cloud service, even issues that happen in fewer than 0.01% of the operations, add up.

For those not familiar with the product, the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint is a lightweight solution that allows users to merge, split, watermark, secure, OCR and convert common document types - including InfoPath, AutoCAD, MSG (email) MS-Office, HTML and images - to PDF as well as other formats from within SharePoint using a friendly user interface, workflows or a web service call, without the need to install any client-side software or Adobe Acrobat. It integrates at a deep level with SharePoint and leverages facilities such as the Audit log, Nintex Workflow, K2 blackpearl, localisation, security and tracing. It runs on SharePoint 2007-2019 & SharePoint Online and is available in English, German, Dutch, French, Traditional Chinese and Japanese. This ‘on-premise’ version of the PDF Converter requires software to be installed on the SharePoint server. Please note that if you have no server access, there is always the option to deploy our SharePoint Online App to on-premise versions of SharePoint 2013, 2016 and 2019. For details see this blog post.

When upgrading from a previous version, read this Knowledge Base article first.

 
Some of the main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Installation & Administration Guide.
• User Guide.
• Product videos.
• Related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (195MB).

.

Labels: News, PDF Converter

Posted at: 16:56 on 29 January 2021 by Muhimbi

Time for a brand-new release of the Muhimbi PDF Converter Services (See this post for the new SharePoint version), version 10.1 already!

A full list of changes and additions can be found below, but the main highlight is the ability to use our powerful PDF watermarking facilities on MS-Word, Excel and PowerPoint files as well.

As always, when we introduce new functionality like this, we do so in our core processing engine. That way all our product lines benefit, being it SharePoint on-premise and its many integration facilities including Nintex Workflow, our API for Java, C# and PHP developers, or our Online Service.

There are many improvements and refinements, but also some great new features, specifically:

• Securing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF Files
• Watermarking Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files
• Support for EAN and UPC barcodes
• Experimental PDF/A-2u and A-3u Support
  

A simple 'Confidential' watermark applied to MS-Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF

A quick introduction for those not familiar with the product: The Muhimbi PDF Converter Services is an ‘on premises’ server based SDK that allows software developers to convert typical Office files to PDF format using a robust, scalable but friendly Web Services interface from Java, .NET, Ruby & PHP based solutions. It supports a large number of file types including MS-Office and ODF file formats as well as HTML, MSG (email), EML, AutoCAD and Image based files and is used by some of the largest organisations in the world for mission critical document conversions. In addition to converting documents, the product ships with a sophisticated watermarking engine, PDF Splitting and Merging facilities, an OCR facility and the ability to secure PDF files. Separate SharePoint and Cloud-based Subscription services are available as well.     
 

When upgrading from a previous version, read this Knowledge Base article first.

 
The main changes and additions in the new version are as follows:

For more information check out the following resources:

• Product Page.
• Brochure.
• FAQ & Knowledge Base.
• Release Notes.
• Administration Guide.
• User & Developer Guide.
• All PDF Converter Services related Blog Posts.

As always, feel free to contact us using Twitter, our Blog, regular email or subscribe to our newsletter.

Download your free trial here (183MB). .

.

Labels: Barcode, News, PDF Converter Services, Security, Watermarking