A lot of documentation is missing descriptive information

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whoit
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A lot of documentation is missing descriptive information

Post by whoit »

Hi -

I'm reading through the Docs for CORE SDK and virtually everything is blank.

For example, when I go to this page
https://sdkhelp.pdf-xchange.com/vie ... ams_VAlign

I expect some info on
- the possible values
- alignment in reference to what exactly? the page top? bottom?

Or this page:
https://sdkhelp.pdf-xchange.com/vie ... _TextAlign

Can you please provide some details for these and other items

Thanks.
Last edited by whoit on Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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John - Tracker Supp
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Re: A lot of documentation has descriptive information

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Hi,

There are many many thousands of possible functions, properties and methods and we will not be documenting all of them as many are either unlikely to ever be utilised or necessary - ever.

We have documented those that we have found useful in building our own products (so therefore those we expect other developers will commonly use) and also others that have been requested.

We will document shortly the 2 that you have particuarly asked for and others as they become necessary generally.

It would be a waste of our time and detract from support generally - to attempt to document all and frankly by the time completed - you would probably have retired.
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation has descriptive information

Post by whoit »

Hi John -

That's a really disturbing answer!

There are dozens of times we come across "documentation" pages without usage or detailed information.
We see things like a property "AlignLeft" and the reference page describes it as "Sets the AlignLeft value"
which is completely useless.

Are you saying you will not document items until asked?

You would spend a lot less time answering questions like this if it was documented before hand!

But, since you asked, let's start with this:
IPXC_WatermarkParams - all items, all values

For example, if you refer to a "size" or a "width" or a "thickness' - please indicate the UNITS
Or, if you refer to "color" - please indicate the values (color space - RGB? HSV? other?) and how to set the values.
Etc.

Another example:
I noticed that WatermarkParams has "FontName" "FontSize" and "UnderlineMode" - there does not seem to be "Bold" or "Italic" or "Weight"
How are those effects handled?



Thanks.
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John - Tracker Supp
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Re: A lot of documentation has descriptive information

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

As Explained - we HAVE documented the most commonly used features and will document others - on request or as we find use for them based on the assumption that if we have found them useful - others will too.

Thanks.
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

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Sasha - Tracker Dev Team
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Re: A lot of documentation has descriptive information

Post by Sasha - Tracker Dev Team »

Hello whoit,

I've updated the IPXC_WatermarkParams description:
https://sdkhelp.pdf-xchange.com/vie ... markParams

As for the colors, the IColor interface is used for that - that was already included in the old description with the links to the needed interface. I've also updated the IColor description a little for better understanding:
https://sdkhelp.pdf-xchange.com/view/PXV:IColor

Cheers,
Alex
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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by whoit »

Hi Alex -

I've seen some of the updates, but still have questions about Fonts for example.

It states that the name is also used for Bold and Italic but what is the Syntax?

"Arial" works fine but I've tried
"Arial Bold"
"Arial_Bold"
"Arial-Bold"
"Arial.Bold"
"ArialBold"
and get nothing (no text at all).

Thanks.
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by Sasha - Tracker Dev Team »

Hello whoit,

Just tried this code sample - everything worked fine:

Code: Select all

PDFXEdit.IAUX_Inst aInst = (PDFXEdit.IAUX_Inst)Inst.GetExtension("AUX");
PDFXEdit.IBitSet bs = aInst.CreateBitSet(Doc.Pages.Count);
PDFXEdit.IPXC_WatermarkParams wp = Inst.CreateWatermarkParams();
bs.Set(0, 4); //We will place watermarks on first 4 pages
wp.Text = "QWERTY";
wp.Scale = 100;
wp.FontSize = Convert.ToSingle(50);
wp.FontName = "Arial Bold";
Doc.PlaceWatermark(bs, wp);
As for the FontName itself, we support the PostScript name or a FaceName (from the Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Fonts\) of the fonts. You will need to get them by yourself. Also, if the font name was not parsed, then the default Arial will be used. So probably there is a bug in your code.

Cheers,
Alex
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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by whoit »

Hi Alex -

I'm not sure what the bug could be -

I can process correctly with any "primary" font name, e.g. "Arial" or "Garamond"
however every 'sub-type' fails and returns no text at all.

I'm using Windows 10 standard OpenType fonts.

We're using Core API 6.0.317.1
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by Sasha - Tracker Dev Team »

Hello whoit,

Please try updating your SDK to the latest version and see whether this problem occurs.

Cheers,
Alex
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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by whoit »

OK, I'll update now and let you know - thanks again.
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

:)
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

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Will Travaglini
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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive informatio

Post by whoit »

OK, I updated and have the same issue, so I dug through my code and found that I was calculating my text size using the 'tracker font name'
e.g. "Arial Bold Italic" instead of the System (or StdFont object) Name "Arial" and was returning invalid info.

It looks like all is well now, but I have to ask:

Why do you make "bold" and "italic" part of the name instead of booleans like 'underline'?

Every windows object/action is based on the stdFont object (or similar) which does this....
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive information

Post by Sasha - Tracker Dev Team »

Hello whoit,

One of the reasons why this was implemented in such a way, was that the Font family can hold more or less then the 4 fonts. For example, let's take the Arial font:
Image
This method allows to use each of the Font Family's font, unlike the Bold\Italic flags.

Cheers,
Alex
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whoit
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive information

Post by whoit »

Hi Alex -

Sure, but you could do this -

"Arial Black"
.Italic = <true/false>
.Bold = <true/false>
"Arial Narrow"
etc...

I guess I'm just used to the StdFont object or this:
"10,Arial,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,3,2,1,34"

BTW - I like the new Forum look!
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Re: A lot of documentation is missing descriptive information

Post by Sasha - Tracker Dev Team »

Hello whoit,

Well, what done is done. The new forum will also have some updated functionality in time.

Cheers,
Alex
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