Technical FAQs

Question

Can I host multiple PrizmDoc viewers on a single page?

Answer

It is possible to host multiple viewers on a single page. The following example leverages Bootstrap’s tab implementation:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">
<head>
    <!-- Metadata -->
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no" />
    <meta name="description" content="" />

    <!-- Title -->
    <title>AccuSample</title>

    <!-- Libraries -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/normalize/7.0.0/normalize.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">

    <!-- PrizmCSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/css/viewercontrol.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/css/viewer.css">

    <!-- Inline Stylesheet -->
    <style>
        body {
            overflow-y: hidden;
        }
        #viewer1, #viewer2 {
            height: calc(100vh - 3em);
            width: 100%;
        }
    </style>

</head>
<body>
    <!-- #main -->
    <main class="container">
        <ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist">
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link active" id="viewer1-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#viewer1">Viewer 1</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" id="viewer2-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#viewer2">Viewer 2</a>
            </li>
        </ul>

        <div class="tab-content">
            <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="viewer1" role="tabpanel">
                <div id="viewer1">
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="tab-pane fade" id="viewer2" role="tabpanel">
                <div id="viewer2">
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </main>

    <!-- Libraries -->
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.1/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.8.3/underscore-min.js"></script>

    <!-- PrizmJS -->
    <script src="https://api.accusoft.com/v1/docstore/viewer/assets/classic/bundle.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/jquery.hotkeys.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/viewercontrol.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/viewer.js"></script>

    <!-- Inline Script -->
    <script>
        var viewingSessionId1;
        var viewerControl1;
        var viewingSessionId2;
        var viewerControl2;

        $(document).ready(function() {
            $.ajax({
                "type": "post",
                "url": "https://api.accusoft.com/PAS/V1/ViewingSession",
                "headers": {
                    "acs-api-key": ""
                },
                "data": JSON.stringify({
                    "source": {
                        "type": "url",
                        "url": ""
                    }
                })
            }).done(function(response) {
                viewingSessionId1 = response["viewingSessionId"];

                // Initialize viewer
                viewerControl1 = $("#viewer1").pccViewer({ 
                    documentID: viewingSessionId1,
                    imageHandlerUrl: "https://api.accusoft.com/v2/viewers/proxy",
                    language: languageItems,
                    template: htmlTemplates
                }).viewerControl;
            });

            $.ajax({
                "type": "post",
                "url": "https://api.accusoft.com/PAS/V1/ViewingSession",
                "headers": {
                    "acs-api-key": ""
                },
                "data": JSON.stringify({
                    "source": {
                        "type": "url",
                        "url": ""
                    }
                })
            }).done(function(response) {
                viewingSessionId2 = response["viewingSessionId"];

                // Initialize viewer
                viewerControl2 = $("#viewer2").pccViewer({ 
                    documentID: viewingSessionId2,
                    imageHandlerUrl: "https://api.accusoft.com/v2/viewers/proxy",
                    language: languageItems,
                    template: htmlTemplates
                }).viewerControl;
            });
        });
    </script>
</body>
</html>
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barcode xpress pricing

 

When you’re looking to integrate a toolkit into your application, your first priority is assessing the capabilities. Once you’ve found the right fit, you need to make sure that the pricing matches your budget and makes sense for your needs.

Historically, Accusoft has offered a variety of different licensing options for our clients. Products were always licensed by core or number of installs, depending on which runtime fits best. 

These practices have been great for our clients so far, but we realized a missing piece that could help bridge the gap for new clients with smaller projects that dynamically scale based on workload.

Introducing a New Way to License

Barcode Xpress is the first product on the Accusoft line to offer metered licensing based on transaction. Metered licensing helps a variety of different clients scale up or down, when they need to. While our traditional licensing plan is great for projects with defined scope, smaller projects that have potential to grow need more flexible pricing options.

“The main reason we wanted to introduce metered licensing is to address SDKs used in scalable environments,” says Mark Hansen, Product Manager of SDKs. “Clients can use metered licensing to spin up their projects based on the traffic they’re getting, without the need to obtain additional licenses. While many companies opt for an ongoing usage, this new model allows for estimating a specific amount of use, so they only pay for what they need.”

The Benefit of Metered Licensing

Why would a company choose to specify the usage from the start? Metered licensing is great for short-term projects with a limited lifespan, as clients only pay for what they use. It’s also great for clients who don’t know the scale of their project and need to be cautious with how much they spend. 

Metered licensing is based on a pay-per-transaction model. A transaction is defined by the page. For example, if Barcode Xpress reads 30 pages with five barcodes on each page, the transaction total is 30 instead of 150.

This transaction-based model makes for a very low cost of entry, and a no-stress agreement. With this value in mind, clients don’t have to worry about how much they will use the integration after a specific project is complete. In addition, if the project grows, metered licensing allows the client to scale up.

Reliability of Metered Licensing

Accusoft understands that our customers are building mission-critical apps with our SDKs and has carefully architected the system to be extremely reliable. Our server-side authorization and reporting system runs in Amazon AWS and is split into online and offline parts. 

The online portion is built on AWS CloudFront and S3, two of the most reliable systems available on the Internet. All of Accusoft’s backend code is in the offline portion of the system and an outage in that portion of the system will have no effect whatsoever on our customers, even if it were down for several days. Nevertheless, we have 24/7 alerting in place so we will be notified soon after an outage occurs and will quickly get it back up.

barcode xpress pricing

Metered licensing is now available for Barcode Xpress 13.1 and following versions.

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Seventy-six percent of companies surveyed plan to prioritize machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) deployments in 2021. Despite increased uptake, however, there is still a great deal of confusion surrounding these advanced concepts. In order to understand how organizations hope to leverage ML and AI in their technology initiatives, it’s helpful to take a step back and examine how they work and how they differ from each other.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning uses statistics-driven algorithms to find patterns in massive amounts of data. These algorithms are designed to improve over time as they process more data to enable more accurate outputs. Machine learning is widely used to produce predictive recommendations — companies such as Google, Netflix, and Facebook collect data about user behaviors and feed it into machine learning algorithms which then produce targeted search results, movie recommendations, or advertisements. 

The key to machine learning success is data. The more data available to ML algorithms — and the higher-quality this data — the better they’ll be able to identify patterns in current datasets and apply them to new data sources.

Most machine learning methodologies fall under one of two broad categories:

  • Supervised Learning: Developers classify and label data to guide the algorithm’s inputs and outputs to ensure specific patterns are recognized. This method is time and resource intensive because it requires data scientists to capture, control, and curate data sources.
  • Unsupervised Learning: This approach provides ML algorithms with unlabeled and unclassified data and allows them to identify patterns based on unique data characteristics. Developers don’t interfere with the learning and pattern recognition process, instead evaluating the outputs for accuracy and modifying code as needed.

Why Does Machine Learning Matter?

Machine learning helps organizations leverage the massive amounts of data they’ve accumulated. This information is drawn from a variety of sources, including disparate forms and documents, data produced through customer transactions and service calls, and the ongoing operational data produced by staff as they interact with IT resources.

Thanks to both the rapid uptake of cloud computing and availability of large-scale data collection and analysis tools, these data volumes are increasing exponentially. As a result, aggregate assessment is now critical — companies need a way to rapidly and reliably derive patterns from available data, and apply these patterns to predictive action.

This is the evolving role of machine learning. By creating, testing, and deploying ML algorithms capable of rapid pattern analysis and application it’s possible for companies to benefit from this continual data influx rather than being constrained by the bounds of traditional data evaluation. To facilitate this process, many next-generation software tools and services are either equipped with built-in ML frameworks or are capable of interfacing with them.

Key Machine Learning Applications

The applications of machine learning are vast, but they tend to produce the best results when paired with existing processes that supplement human efforts or automate low-value, but labor-intensive, functions in the workplace. In effect, it has the potential to do almost anything a human mind can do, given enough time. 

Improved Data Capture

Capturing data from internal documents and customer-submitted forms can be cumbersome and time-consuming. It can also lead to wasted time and effort if data is incorrectly entered, duplicated, or accidentally deleted. By pairing machine learning tools with forms processing solutions like Accusoft’s FormSuite for Structured Forms, developers can build applications that identify, collect, and capture key data more efficiently and accurately. For example, a robot process automation (RPA) bot can be set up to receive extracted form data from FormSuite and then populate that information into the appropriate fields within an application. This not only accelerates forms processing workflows, but also greatly reduces the risk of data entry error. Properly implemented, automated data capture can act as a springboard for improved data insight and decision-making thanks to improved accuracy and consistency. 

Streamlined Content Creation

By combining machine learning algorithms and data sources with document editing tools, it’s possible to streamline key processes such as the creation of complex, compliance-bound content. One in-practice example is the use of Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Editor within the LegalSifter contract review and creation platform. By pairing its AI technology with PrizmDoc Editor’s document assembly capabilities, LegalSifter was able to quickly locate repetitive clauses and suggest replacements to create an automated contract creation experience for end users. 

What Is AI, and How Does It Relate to Machine Learning?

The terms artificial intelligence and machine learning are closely related and often used interchangeably, but they’re not identical.

Artificial intelligence refers to technologies that are capable of performing tasks like photo recognition or data pattern analysis with similar (or better) outcomes than human beings. Machine learning refers to the creation, testing, and refinement of the algorithms needed to support AI tools. In many ways, then, ML functions as a distinct process that helps make AI possible.

As noted by Toward Data Science, it often helps to think of AI, machine learning, and deep learning like a set of concentric rings. The smallest, inner ring is deep learning, which helps inform the middle ring of machine learning by providing layered neural network structures that improve the process of pattern recognition. The final, outside ring is AI, which depends on both deep and machine learning to deliver real-world results. 

Artificial intelligence tools can be broken down into two basic types:

  • Generalized AI: These tools are capable of solving problems bounded by a clear set of rules. Using the ML algorithms that underpin the larger AI structure, general AI applications can act on stimuli — such as a security alert from an IT network — and respond appropriately by creating and logging reports or looping in human agents. 
  • Narrow AI: These solutions are designed to solve specific, small-scale tasks. Building on the security example from above, a narrow AI application might see tools responding to specific threat events such as DDoS or ransomware attacks by deploying targeted, defensive responses that close active sessions, capture attack data, and prevent future connections from the same IP address. 

In practice, narrow AI tools can outperform their human counterparts in completing specific tasks, but are unable to translate this expertise into applicable action at scale. General tools come closer to mimicking human intelligence but are still a long way from replicating the depth and breadth of human thinking.

Limitations of AI

Much has been made about the potential of AI technologies to take the place of human staff, leading to a generalized sense of worry about the future of these tools at scale. Recent research, however, found that substantial confusion remains around not only the deployment of AI but the definition itself. In fact, one study found that 40 percent of AI startups in Europe were not actually using AI. In some cases, increasing market interest in AI tools encouraged the use of this term to help startups capture attention, in much the same way that rapid cloud adoption spurred the creation of a host of “cloud” companies that offered nothing of the sort.

Uncertainty around AI itself, however, also plays a role in this disconnect. Given the massive potential of AI to help companies solve both specific and generalized problems, the term can be applied in almost any context and made to fit almost any description.

Unlocking the Future

After spending many years confined to research projects and future-focused technology articles, both machine learning and artificial intelligence are making their way into the applications and software companies are deploying every day. As developers look ahead to building the next generation of technology solutions, they must not only think about how they can better leverage ML and AI principles, but also how to implement features that take advantage of them.

Accusoft’s collection of versatile SDK and API integrations deliver powerful viewing and image processing capabilities that help applications streamline workflows and enhance productivity. To learn more about how Accusoft can help you enhance the workflow in your machine learning or artificial intelligence projects, contact us today.

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Question

Can I host multiple PrizmDoc viewers on a single page?

Answer

It is possible to host multiple viewers on a single page. The following example leverages Bootstrap’s tab implementation:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">
<head>
    <!-- Metadata -->
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no" />
    <meta name="description" content="" />

    <!-- Title -->
    <title>AccuSample</title>

    <!-- Libraries -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/normalize/7.0.0/normalize.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">

    <!-- PrizmCSS -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/css/viewercontrol.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/css/viewer.css">

    <!-- Inline Stylesheet -->
    <style>
        body {
            overflow-y: hidden;
        }
        #viewer1, #viewer2 {
            height: calc(100vh - 3em);
            width: 100%;
        }
    </style>

</head>
<body>
    <!-- #main -->
    <main class="container">
        <ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist">
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link active" id="viewer1-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#viewer1">Viewer 1</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" id="viewer2-tab" data-toggle="tab" href="#viewer2">Viewer 2</a>
            </li>
        </ul>

        <div class="tab-content">
            <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="viewer1" role="tabpanel">
                <div id="viewer1">
                </div>
            </div>
            <div class="tab-pane fade" id="viewer2" role="tabpanel">
                <div id="viewer2">
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </main>

    <!-- Libraries -->
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.1/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/underscore.js/1.8.3/underscore-min.js"></script>

    <!-- PrizmJS -->
    <script src="https://api.accusoft.com/v1/docstore/viewer/assets/classic/bundle.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/jquery.hotkeys.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/viewercontrol.js"></script>
    <script src="https://pcc-demos.accusoft.com/static/viewer-latest/js/viewer.js"></script>

    <!-- Inline Script -->
    <script>
        var viewingSessionId1;
        var viewerControl1;
        var viewingSessionId2;
        var viewerControl2;

        $(document).ready(function() {
            $.ajax({
                "type": "post",
                "url": "https://api.accusoft.com/PAS/V1/ViewingSession",
                "headers": {
                    "acs-api-key": ""
                },
                "data": JSON.stringify({
                    "source": {
                        "type": "url",
                        "url": ""
                    }
                })
            }).done(function(response) {
                viewingSessionId1 = response["viewingSessionId"];

                // Initialize viewer
                viewerControl1 = $("#viewer1").pccViewer({ 
                    documentID: viewingSessionId1,
                    imageHandlerUrl: "https://api.accusoft.com/v2/viewers/proxy",
                    language: languageItems,
                    template: htmlTemplates
                }).viewerControl;
            });

            $.ajax({
                "type": "post",
                "url": "https://api.accusoft.com/PAS/V1/ViewingSession",
                "headers": {
                    "acs-api-key": ""
                },
                "data": JSON.stringify({
                    "source": {
                        "type": "url",
                        "url": ""
                    }
                })
            }).done(function(response) {
                viewingSessionId2 = response["viewingSessionId"];

                // Initialize viewer
                viewerControl2 = $("#viewer2").pccViewer({ 
                    documentID: viewingSessionId2,
                    imageHandlerUrl: "https://api.accusoft.com/v2/viewers/proxy",
                    language: languageItems,
                    template: htmlTemplates
                }).viewerControl;
            });
        });
    </script>
</body>
</html>
View Detail >

convert pdf

PDFs are everywhere. Vice calls them “the world’s most important file format,” and that’s not far off the mark. The sheer number of documents converted to, from, and often back to PDFs is astounding. The hard truth? They’re also frustrating to work with. Start a Google search with the word “convert” and three of the top five results involve PDFs. 

While this portable document format lives up to its namesake by making it easy for users to attach and send documents across their organizations, PDFs often run into problems when it comes to conversion, collaboration, and communication. While many tools offer piecemeal PDF functionality, they lack a complete cadre of critical capabilities, in turn forcing software engineers to use multiple software solutions for seemingly simple tasks. 

ImageGear offers a different take on the standard software development kit (SDK) designed to help developers maximize their PDF potential. Here’s how it works. 

The Value of PDF Conversion

While PDF conversion is one of the top sought-after functionalities, there’s another area that’s often overlooked: modifying the characteristics of PDFs on-screen. With companies now handling PDFs from multiple sources that may include everything from computer-generated form data to handwritten information and images, it’s no surprise that staff encounter a wide variety of viewing issues.

ImageGear PDF helps solve these problems by allowing users to call the shots on PDF content at scale with features such as:

  • Conversion
  • Metadata Management
  • Content and Font Editing
  • Text Extraction
  • PDF Watermarking
  • Container, Dictionary, and Layer Creation
  • 3D Asset Modification

ImageGear PDF also helps improve document processing with document cleanup and advanced optical character recognition (OCR). With the ability to encrypt and decrypt entire images (or part of an image), automatic ImageClean correction of white text blocks, borders, and inverted images, plus intelligent re-sizing, any PDF can be cleaned and made more readable for the user. 

OCR support for almost any document type is also a benefit. This includes those produced on typewriters, dot-matrix printers, ink-jet printers, laser printers, and photocopied, scanned, and faxed documents. ImageGear PDF helps users control and customize multiple PDF variables, making it a fully functional PDF conversion solution for your application.

PDF Pain Points

One of the biggest PDF frustrations? The inability to break apart and combine PDF documents. Let’s imagine you have a massive legal PDF or in-depth medical file. In these circumstances, professionals only need a portion of the PDF, but without the right tools they’re stuck sending entire files when all they need is a single page. In other cases, employees might have a host of related PDFs that are part of the same project, but can’t be easily combined to save space and time.

ImageGear PDF has you covered with the ability to easily delete or insert PDF pages, render pages in a single PDF, split a PDF, merge two or more PDFs into a single file, or even merge specific pages from two or more PDFs into a single PDF. This not only makes a massive difference in time spent working with PDF documents, it helps reduce unnecessary storage and transmission of multiple files. 

Convert PDF: Multiple File Formats for Conversion

Conversion is critical for PDF success. Instead of creating complexity by forcing end-users to stick with original file formats, implementing an SDK with cutting-edge conversion empowers corporate consistency and saves on storage space. ImageGear PDF supports a host of common file formats for conversion including Microsoft Office, JPEG 2000, CAD, and SVG.

Of course, no feature forward PDF framework is complete without robust annotation, redaction, and commenting capabilities. These features make it easy for other users to see exactly what’s been changed, when, and why, along with providing a critical, auditable paper trail to meet evolving compliance and regulatory standards.

PDF Functionality for Your Application

Best of all, ImageGear isn’t designed to replace your current software, but integrate alongside existing workflows. Rather than adding another application to already-overloaded IT arsenals, straightforward SDK integration means everything happens within your own application, making it easy for everyone to find exactly what they’re looking for within familiar territory. Need help jumpstarting your SDK deployment? Check out our full list of ImageGear .NET samples for ASP.NET, CAD, OCR support, and more.

PDFs remain eternally popular and continually frustrating. Solve for document viewing, split and merge, and conversion issues and streamline employee efforts with ImageGear.

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