Use Custom Objects as Metadata Signature in Word Processing, Presentation, and Spreadsheet Documents

Guys! We have recently released version 19.5 of GroupDocs.Signature for .NET with some extended features, a few bug fixes, and improvements. So in this post, I am going to give you a brief overview of the new features that we have introduced in the latest release. Furthermore, I shall also list the issues that are fixed as well as the improvements that we have made in v19.5.

First of all, let’s checkout what new the latest release has brought for you.

In the previous release, we added the feature of creating and using the custom objects as metadata signatures in the PDF documents. The feature is useful when you don’t want to use the built-in metadata properties for metadata signatures. So, keeping an eye on the importance of this feature, we have extended it for word processing, presentation and spreadsheet documents. Now, you can sign the afore-mentioned document types using the custom objects as metadata signatures.

Lets find out how you can achieve it using the code.

For signing documents with metadata signature using the value of a custom object, we have added AddSignature(string name, Object value) method to the following classes:

  • WordsMetadataSignOptions
  • SlidesMetadataSignOptions
  • CellsMetadataSignOptions
  • PDFMetadataSignOptions

You can add a custom class object (containing multiple data members) as well as a single-valued metadata signature to the MetadataSignature collection. The following is the complete demonstration of this feature using the code snippet. Furthermore, it also shows how to apply data encryption to the object’s values.

And this is how we created the class for the custom object.

In addition to the above-mentioned feature, we have made the following bug fixes and the improvements in the latest release.

Bug Fixes

  • Fix exception for de-serialization of encrypted string values in Metadata Signatures
  • SaveOptions.OutputFileName doesn’t affect on result name of signed document
  • PdfQRCodeSignature.GetData() throws exception

Improvements

  • Support of .djvu file format for verification process
  • Ability to search files with .djvu format as image documents
  • Ability to sign files with .djvu format as image documents
  • Implementation of a new method AddSignature for MetadataOptions

So now, using the latest release, you can extend the ability to sign documents using custom objects for the word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet documents in your application. You can download the latest version of the API and evaluate the new features using the examples project. In case you would have any queries or questions, just create a new topic in our forum and we’ll love to assist you.

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GroupDocs.Signature for Java 19.5 Supports Rounded Corners for Stamp Signature

Many people use stamps as part of their documents to mark them as approved or completed. For example, when a document is to be signed by the concerned person at a company, he puts his signature as well as stamps the document as a proof that the document is signed by the authorized person. In other words, the stamps are used to seal the document that is being exchanged among multiple persons/parties.

Various companies use digital signatures to sign their document using automated systems. This way, they can avoid the efforts of manually signing a bunch of documents as well as they don’t have to print the document for signatures and then scan the signed copy for distribution. If such companies have the requirement to sign as well as stamp their documents then how would they do it digitally? Well, here comes the GroupDocs.Signature that allows digital stamping of the documents.

Digital stamping is one of the salient features of the GroupDocs.Signature API. We provide a wide range of options to control the placement and appearance of the digital stamps in the document. The following is a snapshot of the document which we have stamped using our API.

In the above snapshot, you can observe that the borderlines are flat. However, some of you may want to have rounded corners for the stamp. So keeping that in mind, we have provided the support of stamps with the round corners in GroupDocs.Signature for Java 19.5. For this, we have added a new public class SquareBorderLine that inherits BorderLine to implement square stamp with rounded corners. This is how you can achieve it using the code.

The following would be the output of the above written code.

So if you want to implement this feature in your e-signing application, just download that latest release and integrate it into your application. In case you would have any query or question, do write to us on our forum.

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Enable Pagination in WordProcessing Module

Yes, this is right. Paginal mode is now implemented in GroupDocs.Editor for .NET 19.5. How this mode will effect WordProcessing documents? As you know that previously, there was only float mode. When WordProcessing documents were converted to the page-less HTML, page division was absent. But in this release WordProcessing options class contains new paged (also called paginal) mode. When paged is enabled, it produces HTML markup, optimized and adjusted for per-page edit and it creates ease to enable paged editing in any of WYSIWYG-editors.

By default this mode is disabled. In order to enable it you need to set a boolean flag to true in the WordProcessingToHtmlOptions options:

Now, when document is edited in the WYSIWYG-editor and is passed back to the GroupDocs.Editor API for converting from HTML to the output format, you also have to set boolean flag to true (by default it is disabled) in the WordProcessingSaveOptions:

Aside this, various text effects are implemented in WordProcessing documents:

  • Shadow
  • 3D Effect
  • Outline
  • Glow
  • Engrave
  • Emboss

This feature doesn’t require any action, it is always enabled and can be observed, when the document with such text effects is processed.

Metered Credits is introduced in this release as well. As API already supports Metered Licensing. But now a new credits concept is implemented. Each document operation, along with consumed bytes, also consumes one credit. The amount of already used credits can be retrieved through new static method GetConsumptionCredit in the Metered class:

Grab the latest release here. Please communicate with us on forum if you face any issue.

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Get Credit Consumption Information for Your Metered Licence

Hello everyone! I am back with another release announcement of GroupDocs.Redaction for .NET 19.5. This release has brought a quite useful feature for the developers who are using GroupDocs.Redaction with our Metered Licence. For those who are unaware of the Metered Licence, let me give you a brief introduction. Afterward, I will talk about the new feature and its usage.

Metered License is a type of license that allows you to pay for what you have used. You are charged only when you use any feature of the GroupDocs APIs in your application. It is useful if you want to be billed based on the usage of the API features. Your usage is reported to our servers and based on which we generate your monthly invoices.

The Metered License is supported for both .NET and Java APIs that we offer. Some major advantages that you can enjoy using Metered License are:

  • You pay only for what you have used.
  • Same monthly charges are applied regardless of the number of developers you engage to use our APIs.
  • Metered License is not specific for one product and you can use any product under this license type.
  • You can create applications providing the APIs for other developers to use.

Now you would have got a clear picture of the Metered License. So let’s move forward and check out what new we have for those who are already using the said type of the license.

In the latest release, we have added the feature of getting the credit consumption information against your Metered License. Which means that now you can be aware of how much credit you have consumed. Once you have got this information, you can use it for the further usage analysis.

To get the credits consumption information, we have added GetConsumptionCredit method to GroupDocs.Redaction.Metered class. This is how you can use this method.

Alright! So now you must have got the idea of how the latest release might be helpful for you. You can download the latest release and evaluate the features of the API using the examples project. For more details, please consult the API’s documentation.

In case you would have any questions or queries, do let us know via our forum.

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Generate Search Results from Filtered Documents

Sometimes, we have a lot of different formatted documents. We create index then perform search and API shows hits from all the indexed documents. Ever thought to get search results from desired documents only?

Let’s dig it further. Suppose, you have multiple TXT, XLSX and DOCX documents. What if you want to search a word or text only in TXT and DOCX files with specific word occurrence in file names? We’ve now improved ISearchDocumentFilter interface for such a purpose in GroupDocs.Search. This interface represents search document filter and it uses SearchDocumentFilter class for creation of a filter instances.

Let’s now understand this with a use-case.
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What we did in this example? We initiated a request to search occurrence of a word hobbit in all the TXT and DOCX files with word task in their file names. In this snippet, you can see a method CreateConjuction. It creates logical conjunction (logical and) of the specified filters.

Settings for Log Functionality

This improvement allows to set up log file name and maximum log file size. Below are the public API changes.
Following class has been added to GroupDocs.Search namespace and com.groupdocs.search package:

  • LogSettings
Following properties are added to GroupDocs.Search.LogSettings and com.groupdocs.search.LogSettings class: C#
  • string FileName
  • double MaxSize
Java
  • String getFileName()
  • void setFileName(String value)
  • double getMaxSize()
  • void setMaxSize(double value)
Below properties are added to GroupDocs.Search.Index and com.groupdocs.search.Index classes respectively:
  • LogSettings LogSettings
  • LogSettings getLogSettings()


Let’s go through the implementation:
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Java

Add English Synonyms

This improvement adds English synonyms to default synonym dictionary.
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Java

Above are the major improvements introduced in version 19.5. Please go through all the other changes in release notes:

Avail these exciting improvements now in your project. This release is available for download. Please share your feedback or concerns here.

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Save Assembled Word Processing, Presentation, Spreadsheet and Email Documents as HTML File with Resources

The HTML format is widely used for creating the webpages or, in other words, the HTML files. These days, every operating system, whether it be of desktop or mobile, contains the built-in web browser that supports viewing the HTML files. Other than that, many free web browsers are also available in the market. This means that any information or the content that is available in the form of HTML pages can easily be viewed just having installed a web browser.

Just imagine a scenario where you have some Word documents created in MS Word and you want to display them in your web application. So how would you view the content of the file? A suitable and easy solution is if you could get the HTML form of that Word document then it can be viewed within your application in the web browser.

Now, you could imagine the usefulness of the HTML format. So, let’s now find out how did we make use of HTML format in making GroupDocs.Assembly more powerful and useful for you.

Since version 19.5 of GroupDocs.Assembly, the assembled Word Processing documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations and Email files could be saved as HTML with resources. This means that the generated reports can now be saved as HTML files along with the resources such as images and, as I have mentioned before, you would be able to embed and view the content of the generated reports within your web application.

Let’s take the example of generating the report from the Word template and see how we can save the report as an HTML file. For saving the generated report as HTML with resources, we have added a new property ResourceSaveFolder to the LoadSaveOptions class to specify the folder that will be used to store the resource files. If no folder is specified, by default, external resource files will be stored to a folder having the same name as that of the HTML file (without extension) plus the “_files” suffix. The following code snippets demonstrate this feature:

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Java


Along with this feature, we have also added the facility of loading HTML template documents referencing external resource files to be assembled and saved to non-HTML formats. For this, the containing folder of the template file is used as a base URI to resolve external resource files’ relative URIs to absolute ones by default, as shown in the following code snippet:

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Well, this would definitely be a really attracting release for you guys. So let’s not wait and download the latest version to check how these features can make your report generation applications more powerful.

For any questions or suggestions, have a conversation with us on our forum.

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Access Metadata Properties from PPS, PPSX, PPSM, and vCard Formats

Another month, another release! We have recently released version 19.5 of GroupDocs.Metadata for .NET and Java and today I am going to give you an overview of what’s new that we have brought for you in the latest release.

In v19.5, we mainly focused on providing the support of some major as well as popular formats. So, this resulted in the addition of the following file formats:

  • PPS – The PowerPoint Slideshow file format that is created using Microsoft PowerPoint and it is used for the slide show purpose. It is similar to the PPT format, however, unlike PPT, the presentation mode starts automatically when the PPS file is opened.
  • PPSX – An updated version of the PPS format that was supported by Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2003 versions.
  • PPSM – It represents a Macro-enabled Slide Show file format that is created with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or higher for running the slideshow.
  • vCard – Or VCF (Virtual Card Format) is a digital format that is used to store the contact information. It is a popular and widely used file format for information exchange.

The PPS, PPSX and PPSM file formats will be accessed in the same way that you have been using for other presentation formats using PptFormat class. For the vCard format, we have introduced VCardFormat class and this is how you can access the properties of a .vcf file.

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Java

Not only this but we have also added the feature of checking the amount of credits that are spent using the metered license.

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Java

Well, that’s it from my side and now, it’s your turn to evaluate these features by downloading and using the latest version of the APIs. In case of any confusion or query, please feel free to post on our forum.

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Cache Page Previews in GroupDocs.Annotation for Java

EnableCaching feature stores image representation of a document in a directory at the local drive. In case of repetitive processing/opening of a document, it uses cached data. This thing helps to avoid the processing of the same document again and again. You might be waiting for this feature. The wait is over now. API permits you to enable cache mode and cache page previews. Let’s take a overview of its code.

We also added possibility to display distance annotation caption for following file formats:

  • Slides
  • Cells
  • Diagrams

Following older formats for Slides, Cells and Words are now supported:

  • .ppt
  • .xls
  • .doc

Along with new features, this release also covers some improvements and bug fixes. As an improvement we refactored PdfToPngSaver and AnnotationHandler classes.

Moreover, we added additional parameters to ImageOptions for more flexible retrieval of pages.

  • Parameter for getting pages without annotation
  • Retrieve the range of pages
  • Retrieve only specific count of pages

Given below are some of the major bug fixes.

  • Line width not set in Slides
  • Issue when opening protected with password documents
  • Exception occurred while remove annotations from .xls file

Download our open-source example project here and explore API documentation here.

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Define and Use Custom Objects for PDF Metadata Signature

Metadata signature is a convenient way to sign documents using metadata properties. In GroupDocs.Signature for .NET 18.9, we introduced the feature of signing the PDF documents using various metadata properties including:

  • Author
  • CreateDate
  • MetadataDate
  • CreatorTool
  • ModifyDate
  • Producer
  • Entry
  • Keywords
  • Title
  • Subject
  • Description
  • Creator

You can set all or some of the above-mentioned properties while signing the documents. Since these are the built-in properties, you can only add/update their value.

There could be a situation when the built-in metadata properties may not fulfill your requirements and you may want to use your own set of properties to add metadata signatures. In this case, there should be some way to define and use custom objects as metadata signatures. Well, I am pleased to tell you that this is now possible using the latest version of GroupDocs.Signature for .NET.

Since version 19.4, we have added the feature of signing PDF documents using custom metadata objects. You can define the custom classes that may contain the data members of your choice. You can then use the objects of these classes for the metadata signatures. The following is an example of the custom class.

The following code snippet shows how to use the custom class to add the metadata signature.

Well, this is not enough and I have something more interesting for you. The values of these custom metadata properties appear as plain text and they can easily be accessed and understood by anyone.

To avoid any unauthorized usage of the metadata values, we have introduced a mechanism of encryption/decryption. For this, we have added DataEncryption property to PdfMetadataSignature class and this is how you can apply encryption to the custom metadata objects:

This is surely a valuable addition to the API features which can give you more control over the metadata signature. So why not download the latest version and integrate this feature in your e-signing application?

In case you would have any queries or suggestions, let’s have a conversation over our forum.

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Implement Conversion to WMF Format

WMF is a Windows MetaFile that can contain both vector and bitmap image information. We added support of WMF file format along-with few others in GroupDocs.Conversion for .NET 19.5. You can now convert any supported file format to WMF. Along-with WMF, convert supported documents to EMF.

Convert to EMF

Convert to WMF

Moreover, you can now pay royalties for the use of the API. Yes, metered licensing is now enabled.

New file formats you can convert from:

  • DIB
  • XLT
  • POT

In this release, we also removed obsolete property JpegQuality from ImageSaveOptions.

We’d recommend you to download latest version of the API and share your feedback.

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