"PDFX" is the name given to a PDF-generation process that has been built into A-Shell. In simplest terms, the PDFX process of generating and processing a PDF document works like this:
| • | Set up the PDFX environment, which consists of installing a virtual printer on a connected PC. |
| • | A report is generated by your application program running under A-Shell. Any desired PDF control variables ("Save file as...", "Email to....", "Require password," etc.), including none, are embedded into the report as GDI print directives. For example, the directive to set the document author to "Bob Jones" is //PDFX,DocInfo.Author,"Bob Jones." |
| • | The report is sent to a PC and "printed" to the PDFX driver. |
| • | The PDFX driver interprets the embedded directives and produces, saves and post-processes the PDF document. |
This process is platform-independent in that (a) the directives controlling the PDF process are generated within A-Shell, which may be running on any platform, and (b) the execution of those directives takes place on a PC workstation. How the report moves from its point of origin in A-Shell to the PC where it will be executed depends on the platform(s) involved; going from Linux or AIX to a PC is different than going from PC to PC, or from a PC to itself. But the basic steps and the results were designed and have been proven to be platform-independent to the greatest extent possible.
PDFX is the built on top of a third-party software product called "PDF-XChange" which MicroSabio has licensed and adapted for use with A-Shell. Refer to Updates for more information on PDF-XChange and A-Shell versions.
