Introducing CheckPDF and seeking testers
- From: Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Program-l <program-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:01:10 -0400
Now available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/chksetup.exe
I have developed a free program that supports batch testing of PDF files
for accessibility. I have tested it on Windows XP and Vista, with IE 7
and 8, respectively. I am particularly interested in feedback from
Windows 7, 64-bit Windows, or IE 9 users. Below is the initial
documentation to give you a sense of what to expect.
Jamal
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CheckPDF
Beta 0.5
October 5, 2011
Copyright 2011 by Jamal Mazrui
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
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Contents
Description
Operation
Installation
Development Notes
----------
Description
CheckPDF is a free, open source command-line utility and dialog
interface for checking one or more files in Portable Document Format
(PDF), reporting on problems related to accessibility for users with
disabilities. PDF is a publication format in widespread use, so such
reports can help authors and web developers produce more accessible
content.
CheckPDF automates the use of a freeware utility called PDF
Accessibility Checker (PAC), developed by Access for All, a Swiss
foundation for accessible technologies. The home page of PAC is at
http://www.access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-werkstatt/pdf-accessibility-checker-pac.html
PAC is a Windows application that relies on the .NET Framework, version
2 or above. It can produce an accessibility report of a PDF file,
though doing so and saving the report to a convenient location involves
significant manual interaction with a graphical user interface (GUI).
CheckPDF is intended to produce accessibility reports more conveniently,
including the ability to process a batch of PDF files in one operation.
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Operation
CheckPDF takes a PDF source as input, which may be the path to either a
file or directory. If the source is a PDF file, the program will
produce a report in HTML format that has the same path except for a .htm
rather than .pdf extension. If the source is a directory, then all .pdf
files in that directory will be similarly processed.
The PDF source may be specified either on the command line or via an
input box. The command-line syntax is
CheckPDF.exe Source
If the source path includes a space character, then the parameter should
be enclosed in quote marks (a Standard convention). If no parameter is
passed on the command line, CheckPDF will prompt for it with a simple
dialog containing an input box.
The program then launches the PAC.exe utility and manipulates its
controls via the Windows API (application programming interface). For
each source file, the Browse button is automatically clicked and the PDF
path is entered in the resulting open-file dialog. The Start Check
button is then clicked, followed by the Report button. The path of a
temporary report file is obtained from Internet Explorer, and then that
file is copied to an HTML file in the same directory as the PDF.
CheckPDF then closes Internet Explorer and the PAC utility. Note that
this version of CheckPDF requires that Internet Explorer is the default
browser associated with .htm files.
The directory containing the executables CheckPDF.exe and PAC.exe is
known as the program directory. Two other directories are also
significant: the admin directory and the data directory, which are
subdirectories of the program directory. The admin directory contains
the configuration file, CheckPDF.ini, and the log file, CheckPDF.log,
which are created upon first use of the program.
CheckPDF.ini includes a setting for the number of seconds that the
program should wait for an observable state of the PAC GUI, which
indicates that a subsequent step may be taken. If the wait period times
out, CheckPDF gives up on producing a report for the current PDF, and
begins processing the next one, if any. The default wait time is 10
seconds, which may be adjusted by editing the configuration file -- a
text file in ini format.
CheckPDF.log is a text file that records the result of each PDF
processed. After a time stamp, each entry says either "Checked" or
"Error" before the PDF path, depending on whether the program was
successful or not in producing an accessibility report. After all PDF
input is processed, a simple message box displays the number of files
processed and the number that were checked (reports resulted).
A batchof accessibility reports may be easily produced by copying the
PDFs to be checked into the data directory. By default, this directory
is the source when CheckPDF is run. If another source is subsequently
used, the default may be conveniently restored by simply entering a
space character for the path.
If a single PDF is specified as the source, CheckPDF will open the
corresponding report at the end of processing. If a directory is
specified instead, it will be opened afterward. If files are sorted
alphabetically in its directory list, each report will appear just
before its associated PDF. The pair of files may be conveniently
examined, attached to an email message, or copied elsewhere.
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Installation
CheckPDF may be installed either manually from a zip archive or
automatically with an installation program. The zip archive is located
on the web at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/chksetup.zip
The installer has the same URL except for a .exe rather than .zip extension,
http://EmpowermentZone.com/chksetup.exe
To manually install, unzip the archive into a directory, e.g., to
C:\CheckPDF
and then run the executable CheckPDF.exe.
The installer defaults to the above program directory. This means that
the admin directory will be
C:\CheckPDF\Admin
and the data directory will be
C:\CheckPDF\Data
The installer also creates a CheckPDF program group in the Windows Start
Menu, with options for launching the program, unstalling it, browsing
the admin or data directories, or reading documentation. Such
documentation includes this file, ChkPDF.htm, a guide to the PDF
Accessibility Checker, PAC.pdf, and the open source license,
lgpl-3.0.txt. Additionally, a default hotkey is configured for invoking
CheckPDF, Alt+Control+Shift+C. This hotkey may be changed by modifying
properties of the CheckPDF shortcut on the Windows desktop.
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Development Notes
CheckPDF is written in the AutoIT scripting language, available from
http://AutoITScript.com
The commented source code is in the file CheckPDF.au3.
CompileCheckPDF.bat is a batch file for recompiling the program,
assuming the default installation of the AutoIT development package.
I welcome feedback, which will help CheckPDF improve over time. When
reporting a problem, please be as specific as possible about Windows
version, browser version, and steps to reproduce the problem.
Jamal Mazrui
jamal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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