Technical FAQs

Question

When looking at the configuration files for both PAS (pcc.win.yml, pcc.nix.yml) and PrizmDoc Server (prizm-services-config.yml), there appear to be similar settings for Viewing Session timeouts: defaults.viewingSessionTimeout (PAS) and viewing.sessionLifetime (Server). What is the difference between the two?

Answer

The difference is as follows:

PAS

defaults.viewingSessionTimeout

This setting is used when the viewing session POST requests use source.type="viewingPackage".

Prizm Server

viewing.sessionLifetime

This setting is used for all other viewing session POST requests.

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Video playback has become a fundamental feature in today’s applications, mirroring the shift in user tastes and the widespread presence of multimedia in our digital era. As the appetite for video content rises—spanning tutorials, entertainment, online lessons, marketing assets, and content created by users—applications that provide seamless and adaptive video playback resonate with these needs, boosting user engagement and loyalty.

Additionally, video conveys intricate concepts effectively, resonates with those who are visual learners, and often elevates the user journey with a deeper, more engaging medium. Embedding powerful video playback capabilities can help applications stand out from the crowd, ensuring that they align with modern user demands and stay relevant in a video-driven digital environment.

Introducing PrizmDoc Video Playback

Recognizing the significance of video, the Accusoft engineering team has enhanced PrizmDoc with video playback capabilities. While PrizmDoc already smoothly integrates document viewing features into web applications, this latest addition empowers developers to seamlessly incorporate video features into their software. With PrizmDoc’s video playback, the days of hosting videos on external platforms or depending on poorly secured software plugins to embed videos are gone.

The new video playback feature augments PrizmDoc’s reputation for efficiency and top-tier performance, ensuring the delivery of premium video content with barely any processing delays and supporting a variety of file formats. Developers can effortlessly embed video playback using a straightforward API call, bypassing the need to construct intricate video functionality from the ground up.

Video Playback Benefits for Government Applications

Government agencies stand to gain substantially by integrating video playback capabilities into their applications’ document viewing systems. Here’s an in-depth look at the advantages this integration can bring:

Improved Communication and Collaboration

Incorporating video playback allows government agencies to revolutionize their documentation techniques, creating content that is not only captivating but also densely packed with essential information. This multimedia integration is advantageous in many ways: from presentations that need to capture the audience’s attention, to training modules that benefit from visual aids to ensure clearer understanding, to public service announcements where visuals can often communicate more effectively than words alone.

But the utility of videos extends beyond just the content. They serve as a dynamic conduit for enhanced communication, promoting more profound interactions. When government staff use videos, they open doors to a more direct and interactive dialogue with citizens and various stakeholders. This interactive platform, fostered by video content, encourages shared understanding and insights, catalyzing cooperative ventures. Moreover, it ensures that the core message of the agency is transmitted with clarity, reducing ambiguities and fostering trust between the government and its constituents. Videos are not just tools for information delivery but also instruments for building bridges and fostering collaborations.

Better Transparency and Oversight 

Government agencies can greatly enhance transparency and accountability in their operations by leveraging video playback in their applications. Recording committee sessions and admissible meetings ensures that even nuanced details of discussions are captured for future reference. For independent software vendors (ISVs) supporting the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), integrating video playback into their applications provides an invaluable tool for their government customers. Agencies can monitor access to videos, ensuring that the integrity of video files is maintained while still making them available in accordance with FOIA requirements. 

More importantly, constituents who may not have the opportunity to attend meetings in person can still remain informed by viewing these video recordings. This fosters an environment of inclusivity and ensures that all citizens can be privy to government proceedings. Additionally, video integrations provide government agencies with detailed logs, allowing them to track file accesses, view detailed histories, and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the data’s interactions. This systematic organization not only aids in efficient operations but also upholds the tenets of transparency and accountability.

Enhanced Control

Providing access to recorded video content, though seemingly straightforward, brings with it a set of challenges, especially for government agencies. Unauthorized downloading or sharing of these recordings can jeopardize the integrity and security of the content. By embedding video playback functionalities directly within their applications, agencies gain a robust mechanism to regulate access, ensuring that only authorized users can view the content. The option to download files can be removed entirely, making it much easier to control how videos are viewed and shared.

More importantly, these integrations allow agencies to generate comprehensive audit trails, documenting every instance of access, and guaranteeing that the sanctity and confidentiality of the content are preserved. Many of these video files could hold sensitive or classified information, the distribution of which, without proper authorization, could have legal repercussions. Through strict controls on how these video files are accessed, viewed, and shared, government applications are better positioned to adhere to legal and regulatory stipulations, reinforcing data security and public trust.

Boosting Efficiency and Productivity

Video content can provide government personnel with a streamlined means to access crucial information. By offering data in an easily digestible visual and auditory format, videos facilitate quicker comprehension and thereby expedite decision-making processes. This ensures that government functions remain nimble and responsive in an ever-evolving landscape.

Beyond information dissemination, video playback can revolutionize operational tasks. Specifically, when it comes to onboarding new employees, standardized video training modules offer a consistent and efficient approach. These modules allow newcomers to familiarize themselves with institutional practices at their own pace, ensuring uniformity in training. Additionally, updates to reflect new policies or insights can be seamlessly integrated, making the training process both adaptable and up-to-date.

Augmented Transparency and Accountability

Videos provide a concrete and unambiguous record of governmental actions and decisions. This visual documentation brings greater clarity to operations, reducing misunderstandings and ensuring that agencies are held accountable for their actions. Providing video evidence helps to build trust, reinforcing that government agencies are operating transparently and in good faith.

Furthermore, modern video platforms offer more than just passive viewing experiences; they are interactive hubs that enable direct communication between the government and its citizens. Through these platforms, agencies can actively seek feedback, opinions, and suggestions from the public, ensuring that their policies and initiatives resonate with and address the genuine concerns of citizens. Video-enabled GovTech applications can also serve as continuous channels of information, allowing agencies to keep constituents regularly informed about new programs, updates, and changes, further solidifying the commitment to transparency and open governance.

Enhance GovTech Applications with PrizmDoc Video Playback

PrizmDoc’s new video playback feature offers numerous advantages for government applications. With this new capability, GovTech developers can help government agencies seamlessly integrate and access video content directly within their applications, removing the reliance on third-party platforms or external tools. Users ultimately benefit from a streamlined and integrated workflow, especially when drawing connections between official documents and relevant videos. By centralizing these functions and reducing associated expenses, GovTech software developers can focus their efforts and resources on other features, ensuring that their applications stay ahead in a continuously modernizing administrative environment.

To learn more about how PrizmDoc’s video playback feature can benefit your GovTech application, talk to one of Accusoft’s PrizmDoc specialists today.

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Organized each year by ALM, LegalTech is one of the most important events for the legal industry. The conference brings together a broad variety of experienced legal professionals and innovative LegalTech providers to highlight the business, regulatory, technology, and talent trends in the market. In previous years, LegalTech was held in New York City and attended by more than 8000 people.

LegalTech 2021 Is Now Legalweek(year)

This year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the organizers to take a different approach. The first decision involved shifting LegalTech from an in-person conference to a fully virtual event in order to protect the health of both attendees and organizers. While many industry events have made a similar transition, the LegalTech team went a step further by breaking the conference into a series of five interactive virtual events held over the course of 2021. This new virtual series was dubbed Legalweek(year) and aims to provide legal professionals with a powerful resource for working through an unprecedented era.

“This decision was made to address the needs of our legal community during these trying times of COVID-19 and to provide the type of innovative education, solutions, and connections that is so crucial to legal leaders,” said ALM’s Mark Fried. “The 2021 series will set the stage for a resurgence in the legal sector and a big ‘Welcome Back’ to attendees for our in-person Legalweek event (in 2022).”

The first virtual Legalweek(year) event is scheduled for February 2-4, 2021 and will feature bestselling author and political leader Stacey Abrams, legal AI expert Josua Walker, and former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor Chris Christie as keynote speakers. Attendees will not only be able to participate remotely, but they will also have an additional six months worth of on-demand access to virtual content following each event.

Visit the Accusoft Legalweek(year) Virtual Booth

As a longtime sponsor of LegalTech, Accusoft is proud to participate in this groundbreaking series of virtual events. The conference has historically been a great opportunity for us to speak directly with the independent software vendors and legal IT professionals about the latest industry trends and LegalTech applications. 

This year, we’ll be hosting a “virtual booth” through the Legalweek(year) event site. Whether you’re a developer looking to solve a particular software challenge or a project manager building an in-house solution for your firm, you’ll find plenty of resources and support at the Accusoft booth. Read through our numerous case studies and LegalTech whitepapers or schedule a meeting with one of our product specialists to learn more about our SDK and API integrations for legal software. You can even chat with someone in real time if you need a quick answer!

After completing registration, Legalweek(year) attendees can access the Accusoft virtual booth during the event simply by logging into their account.

Visit the Accusoft Virtual Booth

Our LegalTech Solutions

Accusoft’s combination of content processing and conversion integrations help today’s innovative LegalTech applications reach their full potential. As law firms and legal departments incorporate more technology into their everyday operations, they need software tools capable of automating workflows, simplifying eDiscovery, and facilitating secure collaboration.

PrizmDoc Viewer

Our feature-rich HTML5 document viewer allows users to seamlessly view a variety of document and image files within their secure web application. Thanks to PrizmDoc Viewer’s powerful REST APIs, developers can provide additional functionality, such as annotations and redactions, that is essential for legal organizations.

PrizmDoc Editor

In addition to allowing users to edit DOCX files within the secure confines of their LegalTech applications, PrizmDoc Editor’s automated document assembly features streamlines the contract creation process to improve efficiency and accuracy. Documents can be assembled programmatically, incorporating commonly used or specific clauses, special language, and client data to eliminate “cut and paste” errors. Once documents are assembled, PrizmDoc Editor’s sharing tools allow firms to control access and ensure that everyone is working from the same up-to-date version.

ImageGear

With the ability to read, convert, and compress a wide range of files, our ImageGear SDK integration provides LegalTech applications with the tools they need to manage almost any type of file collected during the eDiscovery process. Powerful optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities allow ImageGear to read a wide variety of languages from around the world and convert scanned documents into searchable plain text or PDF files.

LegalTech in 2021 and Beyond

As legal organizations continue to make strides toward achieving true digital transformation, they will need versatile LegalTech applications capable of adapting along with them. Accusoft’s family of SDK and API integrations can help developers leverage the power of their innovative software tools and free up resources to focus on improving their core capabilities.

We hope you’ll join us at Legalweek(year) on February 2-4, 2021. Our booth will be available throughout the virtual event, so stop by to find out how Accusoft can help you realize the potential of your LegalTech applications.

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As part of its ongoing mission to serve the specialized needs of today’s largest enterprises, IBM offers multiple solutions for managing business content and a wide range of digital assets. The ECM family of services and solutions helps organizations capture, protect, activate, analyze, and engage with their content to generate better insights that can inform decisions. While many enterprises still deploy their ECM on-prem, IBM also offers the cloud-native FileNet Content Manager, which incorporates some of the company’s latest innovations in AI to derive more value from unstructured content.

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On March 10, 2021, Accusoft announced the arrival of the free-to-use Accusoft PDF Viewer, the latest addition to its family of PDF solutions. An entirely client-side integration with no complicated server dependencies, this lightweight JavaScript PDF viewer also features a responsive UI for out-of-the-box mobile support.

“We’re excited to offer this free version of the Accusoft PDF Viewer to developers,” says Jack Berlin, CEO of Accusoft. “Our team worked hard to build a viewer that’s a step above what you can get from open source offerings. We think it’s going to solve a lot of the problems developers typically encounter with existing PDF libraries.”

Accusoft PDF Viewer integrates into an application quickly and easily with just a few snippets of code. It runs entirely within the browser to deliver an optimized viewing experience across all devices. The intuitive UI controls allow users to zoom, pan, jump to page, navigate thumbnails, and pinch-to-zoom on mobile screens with ease. And thanks to lightning fast full-text search, locating essential information is easier than ever.

“Accusoft PDF Viewer is great for developers because it allows them to maintain complete control over documents without having to set up any cumbersome server infrastructure,” says Mark Hansen, Product Manager. “Having a responsive UI that adapts to mobile displays will also increase their flexibility tremendously.”

The free version of Accusoft PDF Viewer allows developers to quickly add powerful viewing capabilities to their web applications. We’re currently working on additional features (such as annotation and eSignature) that will be included in an upgraded paid version.

To learn more about Accusoft PDF Viewer or download it for a first-hand look, please visit our website.

About Accusoft:
Founded in 1991, Accusoft is a software development company specializing in content processing, conversion, and automation solutions. From out-of-the-box and configurable applications to APIs built for developers, Accusoft software enables users to solve their most complex workflow challenges and gain insights from content in any format, on any device. Backed by 40 patents, the company’s flagship products, including OnTask, PrizmDoc™ Viewer, and ImageGear, are designed to improve productivity, provide actionable data, and deliver results that matter. The Accusoft team is dedicated to continuous innovation through customer-centric product development, new version release, and a passion for understanding industry trends that drive consumer demand. Visit us at www.accusoft.com.

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Question

What are the technical details/process of “Flattening” a PDF document?

Answer

It is possible to “Flatten” PDF documents in PrizmDoc Viewer. You can do this by converting the document to a raster format (TIFF is recommended for PDF conversion) using PrizmDoc’s Content Conversion Service, and then converting it back to PDF format. This will result in a PDF with a single layer and no hidden objects. However, this will usually lower the quality and increase the file size of PDFs that are largely text.

Here is an example workflow using the Workfile API and the Content Conversion Service API:

1. Create a WorkFile from PDF

POST {{pccisUrl}}/PCCIS/V1/WorkFile
Content-Type: application/octet-stream

{{file bytes}}

2. Initiate Conversion to TIFF

POST {{pccisUrl}}/v2/contentConverters
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "input": {
        "sources": [
            {
                "fileId": "{{fileId}}"
            }
        ],
        "dest": {
            "format": "tiff"
        }
    }
}

3. Poll until response[“state”] === “complete”

GET {{pccisUrl}}/v2/contentConverters/{{processId}}

4. Initiate Conversion from TIFF back to PDF

POST {{pccisUrl}}/v2/contentConverters
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "input": {
        "sources": [
            {
                "fileId": "{{fileId_from_Step3_output}}"
            }
        ],
        "dest": {
            "format": "pdf"
        }
    }
}

5. Poll again

GET {{pccisUrl}}/v2/contentConverters/{{processId}}

6. Download

GET {{pccisUrl}}/PCCIS/V1/WorkFile/{{fileId}}?ContentDispositionFileName={{desiredFileNameWithExtension}}
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Question

I want to load an HTML document in PrizmDoc with UTF-8 encoding. Can this be done automatically in the product?

Answer

Currently, no. We have a parameter for .txt files which does that (detailed here), but this “textFileEncoding” intentionally only works for .txt, not .html files. There is a feature request for this:

https://ideas.accusoft.com/ideas/PDV-I-546

In the meantime, this can be fixed manually by adding charset = “utf-8” to the meta tag of the HTML document. One POC way this might be done programmatically is below in Python 3.7 (need obvious polishing like checking for the tag already existing, multiple “meta” tags, etc): 

with open(filename, "r") as file:
    content = file.read()

index = content.find("meta") + len("meta")

new_content = content[:index] + " charset=\"utf-8\" " + content[index:]

with open(filename, "w") as file:
    file.write(new_content)
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Processing and archiving massive volumes of paper mail was historically a major challenge for ARAG. When ARAG updated their records system to a newer version, they reevaluated their processing and archiving software and decided to migrate their C/C++ document conversion solution, the VB indexing application, and client application to Java. This move would enable them to support infrastructure growth independent of hardware and operating system requirements. With more than 200 users and 20,000 pages scanned daily, ARAG sought a reliable Java SDK and Library to facilitate the process.

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learning management system LMS

Post-secondary schools look very different this year as colleges and universities embrace both blended learning and online-only approaches to content delivery and engagement. But this isn’t a one-off operation. Even as pandemic pressures ease, the shift to distance learning as the de facto solution for many students won’t disappear.  As a result, it’s critical for schools to develop and deploy learning management systems (LMSs) that both meet current needs and ensure they’re capable of keeping up with educational evolution. But what does this look like in practice? How do developers and team leaders build fully-functional LMS solutions that empower student success without breaking the bank?

 

Learning Management Systems (LMS) Challenges

When schools first made the shift to distance learning directives, speed was of the essence. While students were barred from campus for safety reasons, they’d paid for a full semester of instruction, and schools needed to deliver. As a result, patchwork programs became commonplace. Colleges and universities combined existing education software with video conferencing and collaboration tools to create “good enough” learning models that got them through to summer break. Despite best educational efforts, however, some students still went after schools with lawsuits, alleging that the quality of instruction didn’t align with tuition totals.

So it’s no surprise that as fall semesters kick off, students aren’t willing to put up with learning management systems that barely make the grade. They want full-featured distance learning that helps them engage with instructors and connect with new content no matter how, where, or when they access campus networks. 

As a result, development teams can’t simply correct for current COVID conditions. Instead, they need to create systems that deliver both blended and purely online interactions, and have the power to ensure students that choose to continue with digital-first learning can still stay connected even after returns to campus become commonplace.

 

How to Create a Functional LMS Framework

So what does a fully-functional LMS framework look like in practice? Six features are critical for ongoing success. Let’s explore how these features can enhance your learning management system and set your end-users up for success in the classroom and at home:

 

Diverse Document Viewing

As schools make the shift to distance learning, the ability to view multiple document types is critical for long-term LMS success. From standard Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations to more diverse image types — such as those used in medical educational programming or manufacturing courses — students and instructors need the ability to both send and view diverse document types on-demand. 

While both free and paid solutions for viewing exist outside LMS ecosystems, choosing this route creates two potential problems. Students with diverse technological and economic backgrounds may face challenges in finding and using these tools, and data security may be compromised. This is especially critical as schools handle greater volumes of students’ personal and financial information. If document viewing happens outside internal systems, private concerns become paramount.

 

In-Depth Annotations

With students now submitting assignments and exams via educational software, viewing isn’t enough. Staff also need the ability to annotate assets as they arrive. Here, professors and teaching assistants are best-served by built-in tools that allow them to quickly redline papers or projects, add comments, highlight key passages, and quickly markup documents with specific instructions or corrections. 

Without this ability, staff have two equally unappealing choices. They can either print out, manually correct, and then re-scan documents, or send all comments as separate email attachments. Both are problematic, since they limit the ability of students and teachers to easily interact with the same document.

 

Comprehensive Conversion

File conversion is critical for effective learning management systems (LMSs). Specifically, schools need ways to quickly convert multiple document types into single, searchable PDFs. Not only do PDFs offer the ability to control who can edit, view, or comment on papers or exams, they make it easy for teachers to quickly find specific content. The permissions-based nature of PDFs makes them ideal for post-secondary applications and a must-have for any education software solution. 

 

Cutting-Edge OCR and ICR

Optical character recognition and intelligent character recognition also forms a key part of distance learning directives. With some students still more comfortable with hand-written hard copies and some classes that require students to show specific work, OCR can help bridge the gap between form and function. By integrating tools with the ability to recognize and convert multiple character types and sets, schools are better equipped to deal with any document type. Search is also bolstered by cutting-edge OCR; instead of forcing staff to manually examine documents for key data, OCR empowers digital discovery.

 

Complete Data Capture

Forms are a fundamental part of university and college life — but the myriad of digital documents can quickly overwhelm legacy education software. Integrating tools with robust form-field detection allow schools and staff to streamline the process of complete data capture, both increasing the speed of information processing and reducing the potential for human error.

 

Barcode Benefits

As campuses shift to hybrid learning models, students occupy two worlds, both physical and digital. But this duality introduces complexity when it comes to tracking who’s on campus, when, and why. These are currently key metrics for schools looking to keep students safe in the era of social distancing. 

By deploying full-featured barcode scanning solutions as part of LMS frameworks, colleges and universities can get ahead of this complexity curve. From scanning ID cards to take attendance and track resource use to using barcodes as no-contact purchase points or metric measurements for ongoing analytics, barcode solutions are an integral part of LMS solutions.

 

Automation Advantages

The sheer volume of digital documents now generated and handled by post-secondary schools poses the problem of practicality. Teachers and administrators simply don’t have time to evaluate and enter data at scale and speed while also ensuring accuracy. By automating key processes including document conversion, capture, and character recognition, schools can reduce the time required to process documents, leaving more room for student engagement.

 

Building an LMS Product for Teachers & Students

The bottom line for LMS solutions? If they don’t work for end-users, they won’t work for the broader school system as a whole. Gone are the days of invisible IT infrastructure. Now, students and staff alike are school stakeholders with evolving expectations around technology.

By deploying distance learning solutions that prioritize end-user outcomes with enhanced document viewing, editing, data capture, and automation, developers can create LMS tools capable of both solving immediate issues and offering sustained student success over time. Learn more about these functionality integrations for your learning management system at accusoft.com/products. 

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