Strange Errors when attempting to DataMap certain PDF files

OL Connect Professional DataMapper
1

For some background: for a while now we’ve been using a very simple PP7 Form to take PDF files sent into us and stick a date stamp on them and then print them, but recently one particular source of PDF files started printing blank pages (with the date stamp) instead. Opening the PDFs themselves doesn’t reveal anything particularly strange, they open in Adobe or Edge just fine. Investigating those PDFs specifically in Designer 7 showed the .PDF as having some sort of error, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find anywhere where it actually provided an error message.

Thinking that it might just the PP7 form not playing nicely with some newer PDF variant or something, I opened up Connect Designer to see if I could replicate the functionality with a more modern template. It seemed pretty straight forward – DataMap a PDF, set it as the background of a template, add a text box with the Date Stamp.

However, when trying to DataMap the weird PDFs that were giving us grief before, I’ve received a series of strange errors that I haven’t been able to find much reference to anywhere. When trying to use the weird PDFs as the base file for a new DataMapper Configuration, I get one of the two following errors:

Error converting file to PDF, please check the server engine ApplicationException: Unauthorized:(Unauthorized) (DME000202)

Error converting file to .PDF, please check the server engine WebApplicationException: HTTP 401 Unauthorized (DME000202)

If I select a different PDF from a different source, it creates the DataMapper Configuration fine. If in that DataMapper I then try to add one of the weird PDFs as an additional Data Sample, it gives one of the two the following errors instead in the Messages view:

Error initializing engine: Unauthorized:(Unauthorized) (Dm_1108)

Error initializing engine: {“error”:{“status”:401,“message”:“Failed to authorize with basic authentication provided. (SRV000100)”,“parameter”:“”}} (Dm_1108)

Sometimes they give one error, sometimes the other, not sure why the errors aren’t even consistent. Has anyone seen anything like these before? Am I doing something wrong, or is there some way of creating PDFs that this source is using that just doesn’t play nicely with PlanetPress / OL Connect?

Thanks!

2

Please check whether the PDF file isn’t password protected. Although I’m getting a different error* shown when I try to use a password protected PDF file as data sample for my new DataMapper configuration, I assume that it has something to do with this.

*The error I’m getting is as follows:

Error converting file to PDF, please check the server engine
 AdobeException: Unable to open document 'C:\path\to\file.pdf'. This document requires authentication (e.g. a password). (DME000202)
3

It’s a fair suggestion, but I did check and there’s no password prompt when opening these PDFs normally unfortunately.

4

You can also check all other authorization set for those specific PDF.

I would check also if some PDF content isn’t called externally like a font or images, although I think not.

5

If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat you can open the PDF in Microsoft Edge to get an overview of all secondary permissions. As far as I can tell, Chrome and Firefox do not have a similar feature.

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6

Opening the PDF in Edge doesn’t show the ‘limited permissions’ notice, and using Adobe Reader to compare the Document Properties → Security → Document Restrictions between the weird PDFs and normal, working PDFs doesn’t show any differences:

Security Method is No Security
Printing, Content Copying, Content Copying for Accessibility, Commenting, Filling of form fields, Signing and Creation of Template Pages are all set to Allowed, with just Document Assembly and Page Extraction showing as Not Allowed.

Other PDFs with the same settings work with OL Connect fine. How would I check if the PDF content is calling something externally? Hovering over the logo and what have you doesn’t show any obvious hyperlinks or anything.

7

I think at this point, you’d be better off opening a technical support ticket through our website.

An agent will be able to foward your PDF to our R&D team so they can dig into it.