'Choose input files' - long delay

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TerraD
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'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

I try to create a simple tool with PDF-Tools:
- open a PDF on a remote machine (UNC path used)
- rotate PDF
- convert it to an image
- store as .PNG
All this should run wit no user interaction. There is a single .PDF (with its name created by an other software) to convert.

The first time after I have created the Tool it will take almost 20 seconds to execute. Then I can run it very quickly in just a second or less (sometimes once, sometimes repeatedly 10, 20, 30 times) and all of a sudden I have this delay again. During the delay I'll have the progress bar at 0% and the state 'Choose input files'.
I think
- I always have the delay after editing the tool
- after I wait a few minutes with the GUI open it will always show this delay
- sometimes it seems to run, but there is no .PNG created. in those cases a there is a Warning in the Log: 'Warning: No files of chosen type found in folder. Check 'Choose Input Files' action parameters.' This is despite the fact, that a .pdf exists!

Other strange things happen:
- sometimes the ouput file will not be overwritten!
- After some time PDF-Tool will loose my tool - it simply vanishes from PDF-Tools GUI
- when creating a desktop icon it pops up a Dialogbox 'You may add input/folder to shortcut', I can execute it a few times (having the delay as well) and then all of a sudden it will say: 'Tool requested to run not found'. However I still can run the Tool from PDF-Tools GUI. Sometimes it will run (repeatedly), but the .png is not created... . Later it recovers from this behavior...

Does PDF-Tools possibly query in 'Choose input files' cloud services or tests for a valid licence?


I found this problem yesterday on Version V8 and supposed it might be a version problem. So I upgraded today to the latest release (V9.2.359) but it shows all the same problems. V8 was registered (valid key, no support), V9 is demo only. But as I had exactly the same behavior on both versions I think this should not be a problem.

I have no idea what could be wrong. Can I add some additional logging?
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi TerraD,

thanks for the detailed report.

Can you please export your settings to file and send them to us?
image.png
You can email the settings file as an attachment to support@tacker-software.com

regards
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
TerraD
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Posts: 26
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

Thank you for this fast response. As requested I sent the settings by mail.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, TerraD

It does not seems that the email has arrived yet, did you get a bounce or delay notification? or perhaps there was a typo in the address you send it to? Could you please double check that the email was sent to <support@pdf-xchange.com> directly?
It could also be that the files are too large for email. If they are collectively over 25MB, it is typically best to use another method to transfer the files. If that is the case, please see instructions here for how to upload the files directly to our secure server. https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... le-service

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
TerraD
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

Resent the mail and added a TresorIt-Download-Link
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, TerraD

Thank you for re-sending that, This one arrived without issue, and I have the link. I will review this with Paul tomorrow, and one of us will get back to you as soon as we can.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi TerraD.

Unfortunately, but we cannot reproduce your issue with the settings you provided...

Let me ask you more questions:

1. That source network-folder - when you try to access it from other programs - how does it look? It is fast or slow?
For example, when you look into this folder through Windows Explorer, how much delay do you see before files appear?
And, if you try to test it a couple of times - does the delay looks differently from time to time? Or there is no delay at all?

2. How many files (pdfs and other) this folder contains? Or just single pdf only, as you mentioned?
- sometimes the output file will not be overwritten!
As I see the problem might be because you specified "save each image to separate png" and with wrong template-name "%[FileName]" that means each new png will override the png just made from the previous pdf-page. Try to specify "%[FileName] %[Page]" instead. For pdf like:
MyDoc.pdf
it will create:
MyDoc 1.png
MyDoc 2.png
MyDoc 3.png
...

Also make sure you don't have any other processes that can open and use such pngs while the tool is running.
- After some time PDF-Tool will loose my tool - it simply vanishes from PDF-Tools GUI
- when creating a desktop icon it pops up a Dialogbox 'You may add input/folder to shortcut', I can execute it a few times (having the delay as well) and then all of a sudden it will say: 'Tool requested to run not found'. However I still can run the Tool from PDF-Tools GUI. Sometimes it will run (repeatedly), but the .png is not created... . Later it recovers from this behavior...
Did you have used V9 and V8 in some mixed order? You may lose some settings/tools in this scenario. Especially when you added new tool in V9 and then try to use it in V8. Or after running the V9 you returned back to the V8 and added new tool there and then switched to the V9 again - in that case the V9 will not see that tool.
Does PDF-Tools possibly query in 'Choose input files' cloud services or tests for a valid licence?
No, the internet connection is required only once - for successful activation of your license key. After this the internet connection isn't necessary. Of course, when you don't need to work with cloud-based storages of files like GoogleDrive, Dropbox, Sharepoint etc...

Cheers.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

Please archive any files posted to a ZIP, 7z or RAR file or they will be removed and not posted.
TerraD
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

1. That source network-folder - when you try to access it from other programs - how does it look? It is fast or slow?
For example, when you look into this folder through Windows Explorer, how much delay do you see before files appear?
And, if you try to test it a couple of times - does the delay looks differently from time to time? Or there is no delay at all?
There is never any noticeable delay when I open this folder with Explorer. Not even when I subsequently open the PDF to view it. There are six(6) files and three(3) folders in the source network folder - there ist just one(1) PDF (shipping label).
As I see the problem might be because you specified "save each image to separate png" and with wrong template-name "%[FileName]" that means each new png will override the png just made from the previous pdf-page. Try to specify "%[FileName] %[Page]" instead.
This PDF is a DPD shipping label. it is never multipage. So I think "%[FileName]" should not cause any problems! By the way: to my understanding of the UI a multipage PDF would be saved automatically as TIFF instead of PNG. Am I wrong about this?
Also make sure you don't have any other processes that can open and use such pngs while the tool is running.

When I tested this there was - beside the 'DPD shipper' who creates the PDF - no other task running on this machine! The share was newly set up for this task.
Did you have used V9 and V8 in some mixed order?
After I had this unwanted behaviour in V8 I uninstalled the licenced V8 und installed the V9 Demo. In the first moment it said it was licenced, but this vanished after a few minutes or so. I created the tool on V9 from scratch and never went back to V8.
No, the internet connection is required only once - for successful activation of your license key. After this the internet connection isn't necessary. Of course, when you don't need to work with cloud-based storages of files like GoogleDrive, Dropbox, Sharepoint etc...
Hmmm, I do not know it for V9 Tools. But 'PDF XChange Editor V8' has a clearly perceptible delay at the first start after not being used for some time... However, with the 'PDF Tools' I was more concerned about connection attempts to the cloud - because they are made directly where the local file is also selected as input file.


I retested today and had the same 18 seconds delay, after which 'Choose Input Files' displayed the error message '[24.02.2022, 09:22:37] Warning: No files of chosen type found in folder. Check 'Choose Input Files' action parameters.' This was the only strange behavior I found now - so there might have been something different causing the rest of the troubles. I prefer to focus on this.

The tool will work as soon as I copy the PDF from the remote machine to my local machine - this seem a feasible workaround for me (I will add code to the application to coppy the file to a local folder). However as soon as I try to access the PDF on the remote machine it will show this strange behavior. Did you really test my tool with DPD being a share on a remote PC? I created in the root a folder named DPD and shared it. Ping to the machine as well ad DIR on the share never stalls!

I did a demo install on a Win10 machine and it shows exactly the same bevavior than on the Win7 machine where I tried it first.
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi Terra.

Thanks for the additional helpful info.
By the way: to my understanding of the UI a multipage PDF would be saved automatically as TIFF instead of PNG. Am I wrong about this?
Yes, you are correct and also you need to specify SaveImages.GroupingMode=AllImagesToOneMultipageImageFile or AllImagesFromOneDocToOneMultipageImageFile.
But 'PDF XChange Editor V8' has a clearly perceptible delay at the first start after not being used for some time...
Yes, it known problem, delay for the 'cold' start of app. We tried to reduce the start time in the upcoming 360 build.
However, with the 'PDF Tools' I was more concerned about connection attempts to the cloud - because they are made directly where the local file is also selected as input file.
Very strange.. We will investigate this moment. But I'm sure that when you specify the local file/folder - it definitely shouldn't go 'outside' in this case.
And how can you see that PDFTools connects to the cloud when the input is a local file/folder?
Did you really test my tool with DPD being a share on a remote PC? I created in the root a folder named DPD and shared it. Ping to the machine as well ad DIR on the share never stalls!
Yes, we tried your tool but couldn't reproduce any delay at all. Unfortunately.

Cheers.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

Please archive any files posted to a ZIP, 7z or RAR file or they will be removed and not posted.
TerraD
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

> Yes, you are correct and also you need to specify SaveImages.GroupingMode=AllImagesToOneMultipageImageFile or AllImagesFromOneDocToOneMultipageImageFile.
Sorry, i do not understand where 'SaveImages.GroupingMode=AllImagesToOneMultipageImageFile or AllImagesFromOneDocToOneMultipageImageFile' would have to be set... Is there some .INI file that can be edited?

> And how can you see that PDFTools connects to the cloud when the input is a local file/folder?
This was a question. I have no actual hint, that this is the problem!

> Yes, we tried your tool but couldn't reproduce any delay at all. Unfortunately.
After I read this I did a test with a share on a different machine and - heureka - it worked. So I went back to the first machine. I found some stupid error concerning what rights I had from the PC running PDF-Tools! After I changed this the delay had gone:
--> working on a share with not enough rights will result in a long timeout and the message 'Warning: No files of chosen type found in folder.' --> Could there possibly a better error-message be realized????
I'm happy with this now, it work the way I expect!

It remains completely unclear why the behavior of PDF-Tools was completely inconsistent in the beginning: you remember PDF-Tools sporadically worked - and this should be completely impossible if there was a security violation! For this reason I did not carefully reevaluate the security. However: I assume this is rather a Windows- than a PDF-Tools-problem!

I will report back if those erratic problems show up again!

Thank you very much for your support. It has motivated me to continue looking for a solution to the problem!!! :D
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi Terra.
Sorry, i do not understand where 'SaveImages.GroupingMode=AllImagesToOneMultipageImageFile or AllImagesFromOneDocToOneMultipageImageFile' would have to be set... Is there some .INI file that can be edited?
No, its easier:
image.png
--> working on a share with not enough rights will result in a long timeout and the message 'Warning: No files of chosen type found in folder.' --> Could there possibly a better error-message be realized????
Good tip for us, thanks. We will try to reproduce it...
It remains completely unclear why the behavior of PDF-Tools was completely inconsistent in the beginning: you remember PDF-Tools sporadically worked - and this should be completely impossible if there was a security violation! For this reason I did not carefully reevaluate the security. However: I assume this is rather a Windows- than a PDF-Tools-problem!
At the moment its hard to say how it can work 'partially' in this case. Can you provide the set of permissions(screenshot) that causes the issue?
Technical details: we are using only the standard Windows API - FindFirstFile/FindNextFile/GetFileInfo to enumerate files in local/shared folders. That's all..

Cheers.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

Please archive any files posted to a ZIP, 7z or RAR file or they will be removed and not posted.
TerraD
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Re: 'Choose input files' - long delay

Post by TerraD »

Thank you for your help with 'SaveImages.GroupingMode=AllImagesToOneMultipageImageFile or AllImagesFromOneDocToOneMultipageImageFile' - I understand now what you ment and how to select this. However this does not apply to my problem: I want to export the whole (single-page-)PDF as one single image, so I selected 'Each image to a separate file'

>At the moment its hard to say how it can work 'partially' in this case. Can you provide the set of permissions(screenshot) that causes the issue?
I'm afraid I can not - I changed the permissions for the share and the security settings in the process of finding a solution. But I'm 100% sure that I sometimes got the .PNG. I do understand that this has to be impossible if MS would correctly apply the security restrictions under all circumstances. And I can not remember any other situation where it was possible to write to a share when I didn't had rights...
However when I read my first post again now: there was more strange behavior. Maybe the OS was in some strange stage and about to die. I remember that I rebooted the local and the remote machine during the process of looking for a solution. It is well possible that I only got .PNG output before I rebooted!
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