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PDFMoto Frequently Asked Questions - troubleshooting


Problem: Your PDFMoto Document Library cannot be viewed

Solution:

  1. Check the error log. It may be that PDFMoto cannot find either its source documents or destination folder. If this is the case check the appropriate permissions and paths and any FTP settings where FTP is being used.

  2. Check you are typing in the correct URL of your document library.

  3. Check that your web server has the correct default page defined for the processor technology you are using.

    A quick test for this is to type in the full URL of the document library.

    ASP: If you are using asp, type the URL for your Document Library followed by default.asp. If your Document Library now appears then your web server must be configured to accept default.asp as a default page. To do this in Microsoft's IIS access the web server's properties, go to the Documents tab, then add default.asp.

    JSP: If you are using jsp type the URL for your Document Library followed by index.jsp. If your Document Library now appears then your web server must be configured to accept index.jsp.

    PHP: If you are using php type the URL for your Document Library followed by index.php. If your Document Library now appears then your web server must be configured to accept index.php as a default page. To do this in Apache you must add index.php to the DirectoryIndex directive in your httpd.conf file.


Problem: When you try to view a document the browser starts to download a file and asks if you would like to save it.

Solution:

The browser has no viewer associated with the file type you are trying to view. If the file type is a PDF document you need to install an appropriate reader such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader on to the client computer.


Problem: My documents have not converted.

Solution:

  1. Check the error log. This will give you further details.

  2. The most common reasons a document has not converted are:

    a. No application is associated with the document. PDFMoto uses the native application to create its PDF conversions. It must therefore be installed on the same machine as PDFMoto. For example if a Visio document is added to a Document Library source and Visio is not installed on the same machine as PDFMoto then PDFMoto will not be able to convert the document to PDF.

    b. The document has macros. All documents submitted to PDFMoto for conversion should have any macros disabled.

    c. The document is password protected. All documents submitted to PDFMoto for conversion should not be password protected.

    d. The document is corrupted. Occasionally a document is corrupted. A simple test is to open it in its native application. If it cannot open then PDFMoto will be unable to convert it.

    e. Two or more Document Libraries are trying to process the document at the same time.

  3. If a series of documents have not converted and the above tests have not solved the problem another useful technique is to use the "Exclude from Document Library" feature to isolate a problem document.

  4. Go to the error log and find the first document that failed to convert.

  5. Exclude it, then rebuild the Document Library.

  6. If the other documents now convert then there is an issue with the excluded document. If the documents still do not convert continue to exclude documents until they do.


Problem: My document name appears on the web site, but when I click I get a blank screen.

Solution:

This can happen if your source document contains an apostrophe ( ' ) in it's name and you are using Adobe Acrobat 6 as your viewer. To get around this problem, do as follows:

  1. Rename the source document removing any apostrophes.

  2. Open the Settings Manager on your Document Library Properties dialog. Select the document and display it's settings by clicking the Settings button on the right hand side of the screen.

  3. Within Settings press the attributes button and select the Document attribute. Set it's value to be the name of the source document with the apostrophes.

  4. Incrementally rebuild the Document Library and the name will be displayed correctly and you will be able to see your document when selected.


Problem: My converted document does not look like the original

Solution:

The most common cause of this is that the printed form of the document is not the same as the on screen version. PDFMoto creates its conversions by converting a document's print stream into PDF format so however the document appears when printed will be how it appears when converted. This causes most issues with spreadsheet applications. To see how a document will appear when printed use the native applications "Print Preview" function.


Problem: My converted document has different fonts to the original

Solution:

This is most likely to have happened because a random font substitution has occurred. The solution is to set PDFMoto to embed fonts in the converted PDF Document. This is not set by default because it can result in the PDF documents being far larger in file size. To set font embedding, go to Preferences, PDF Settings in the Properties dialog of your Document Library.


Problem: How do I convert multiple Worksheets in Excel?

Solution:

  1. Check that all the worksheets that you want to convert are set active. This is indicated by the worksheet tab being white. In Excel a worksheet is usually set active by clicking on the worksheet tab whilst holding down the "shift" key (though you should check your application's documentation). Re save the document.
  2. In the page setup try adjusting the scaling in the Page tab from Adjust to to Fit to.


Problem: My document or folder is missing from the web site

Solution:

  1. Check the error log.
  2. If there are no errors check that the document or folder have not been excluded from the build. To do this go to your Document Library properties, then go to the "Settings Manager" tab. Double click on the document or folder and check:
  3. That the "Exclude from Document Library" box is not ticked.
  4. That Management Dates have not been set that would cause the document or folder to be excluded.

Problem: My Document Library does a full re-build every time it builds

Solution:

Check that the Always Build property for the Document Library is not set. To do this go the Document Library's properties. Then go to the Settings Manager tab and highlight the Document Library icon. Double click and the Document Library's settings will be displayed. Check that Always Build is not ticked.


Problem: I cannot see my Document Library Source when I use the Web Submittal Control

Solution:

Check that the path or FTP settings point to your Document Library's source.

Problem: How does PDFMoto deal with bad documents

Solution:

When PDFMoto cannot convert a document for whatever reason it will mark it as bad. When the Document Library is next built PDFMoto will not attempt to re-convert this bad document unless it detects that it has been modified since the previous build. This approach ensures that PDFMoto build times are as short as possible.

NB. When running a full build on a Document Library PDFMoto will attempt to convert all bad documents.

Problem: Can I stop an attribute being displayed

Solution:

Yes. All attributes have a set visible property. Simply de-select this and the attribute will no longer be displayed.

NB. An attribute that is not set visible can still be used as a Meta tag.

Problem: I get "Fatal error: Call to undefined function: xslt_create()" when trying to use PHP

Solution:

To use PDFMoto's PHP templates, PHP must have the XSLT functions compiled in. This extension uses Sablotron and expat, which can both be found at www.gingerall.com. See also www.php.net

Problem: Hyperlinks don't work under WindowsNT running IIS

Solution:

The problem can be solved by applying a redirection to the PDFMoto destination folder within IIS as described below:

Redirection
Suppose that your PDFMoto destination folder is called pdfmotoDocs and this is inside your web server root (Home) directory.

  1. Open the Internet Service Manager console
  2. Find the folder pdfmotoDocs through the tree navigation on the left hand pane (Fig 1)
  3. Highlight the pdfmotoDocs folder and right mouse click.
  4. Select Properties option
  5. On the properties dialog select Directory tab then select the "A redirection to a URL" option.
  6. In the Redirect To field enter /pdfmotoDocs/default.asp$Q
  7. Tick "The exact URL entered above" option and "A directory below this one" option (Fig 2)
  8. Press Apply and the OK.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Now when you view the PDFMoto site through a browser the hyperlinks should work.
You will need to repeat the procedure for any other PDFMoto document Library destination folders.

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