Enhanced Batch Processing

Overview

Enhanced Batch Processing lets you convert documents to Flash or HTML5 format programmatically without user assistance using operating system command line. Enhanced Batch Processing is available only in Server mode. Another option for automatic document conversion in Server mode is Print2Flash OLE Automation API.

Command Line Syntax

Enhanced Batch Processing is activated when launching Print2Flash Server application from operating system command line with certain parameters. The command line syntax is as follows:

p2fserver.exe sourcefilename [outputfilename] [options]

OR

p2fserver.exe sourcefiledir[\filemask] [outputdirname] [options]

The first syntax option is used for conversion of a single file while the second - for conversion of multiple files in a directory. You may need to specify full path to the p2fserver.exe which is a Print2Flash Server executable and is located in the same directory where Print2Flash is installed, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Print2Flash". This path is chosen at Print2Flash setup on the Choose Destination Location screen.

There are following parameters:

• sourcefilename - the name of the document to convert. For example, to convert a document named c:\MyDoc.doc use "c:\MyDoc.doc" as this parameter value;
• outputfilename – specifies the base output filename without extension. For Flash documents Print2Flash adds .swf extension to this name while for HTML5 documents it adds .xml extension.
  If this parameter is omitted, the file is put into the same folder as the original file. Flash documents are named after the original document with .swf extension appended to the original document name and HTML5 documents - with .xml extension appended;
• sourcefiledir - the name of the directory where the documents to convert reside;
• filemask - the mask for the files to convert, e.g. "*.doc". If this argument is not specified, all files are attempted to convert. For example, to convert all Microsoft Word (with .doc extension) documents use "*.doc" value;
• outputdirname – specifies the output folder to which all converted documents will be written. The output Flash documents are named after the original document with .swf extension appended to the original document name. The output HTML5 documents are named after the original document with .xml extension appended to the original document name. For example, if a file was named MyDoc.doc, the converted Flash document will be named MyDoc.doc.swf, and the converted HTML5 document will be named MyDoc.doc.xml.

If any file name or path parameters contain spaces, they must be enclosed in double quotes. In options parameter you can list one or more options. Most options corresponds to the properties and methods of Print2Flash OLE Automation API objects. The general syntax of an option is:

/OptionName:OptionValue

Here OptionName is the name of the option from the table below, and OptionValue specifies the option value and must be of the type specified in the table.  For example, to specify German document interface language, you need to specify this option:

/Language:de

The available options are listed in the table below.

Using Enhanced Batch Processing

To launch Print2Flash in batch mode, click Start button in Windows and select Run. In the opened dialog window type the command line according to the syntax and click OK.

Then Print2Flash is launched in the background (without user interface) and starts converting specified documents. After a document is converted, the output Print2Flash document file is created in the specified output folder. Note that though Print2Flash is launched without user interface in batch processing mode, the applications which send documents to Print2Flash may display user interface.

If you feel that there is a problem with document conversion, use /LogFileName option to create a log file. It lists all important events occurred at conversion including successful conversions and errors and should help you in diagnosing the cause of the problem.

Examples

1. The following example converts a document named "C:\MyDocs\Report.xls" to a Flash document named "C:\MyDocs\Report.xls.swf" and HTML5 document named "C:\MyDocs\Report.xls.xml" and enables only Drag, Select Text, Previous Page and Next Page buttons in the resulting documents:



p2fserver.exe C:\MyDocs\Report.xls /InterfaceOptions:646


The InterfaceOptions argument is obtained by addition of the respective constants from INTERFACE_OPTION enumeration: 2+4+128+512=646
 
2. The next example converts all documents in a directory named "C:\MyDocs" to Print2Flash documents written into "C:\FlashDocs" directory and disables printing and copying text in the documents:
    

   p2fserver.exe C:\MyDocs C:\FlashDocs /ProtectionOptions:3

   
   The ProtectionOptions argument is obtained by addition of the respective constants from PROTECTION_OPTION enumeration: 1+2=3.
    
3. The example below converts a document named "C:\MyDocs\Conference.txt"  to a Flash document named "D:\Publish\Report2.swf" and to an HTML5 document named "D:\Publish\Report2.xml" selecting Landscape page orientation and Letter paper size for output file pages:
    

   p2fserver.exe C:\MyDocs\Conference.txt D:\Publish\Report2 /FormName:Letter /Orientation:2

   
   The orientation value is taken from PAPER_ORIENTATION enumeration.