veraPDF 0.26 released with new greenfield parser and batch processing functionality

The latest version of veraPDF includes the first beta release of our purpose-built PDF parser and validation model. It can be used alongside the PDFBox parser to compare the results.

veraPDF 0.26 has a new batch processor that produces multi-item reports. Highlights from the new release are below:

Conformance checker

  • added the new rule for embedded files to be associated with the document or its parts (PDF/A-3 only).

Application enhancements

  • first beta release of greenfield PDF/A validation available as a limited functionality app;
  • refactoring of sub component and application configuration for reproducible execution;
  • new Batch Processor producing multi-item reports;
  • batch processing is stream/event driven with event handlers for processing results; and
  • report structures altered to accommodate batch processing.

Code Quality

  • publication of integration tests for greenfield components;
  • memory usage and execution times in test reports;
  • example test report: http://tests.verapdf.org/0.26.8/

Test corpus

  • added 7 new test files to cover the new rule in PDF/A-3 validation profile.

Release notes:

Two downloads are available for veraPDF 0.26. Please read the release notes for further guidance: https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/releases/latest

Download veraPDF 0.26:

PDFBox version: http://downloads.verapdf.org/rel/verapdf-installer.zip

Greenfield version: http://downloads.verapdf.org/gf/verapdf-gf-installer.zip

About veraPDF

veraPDF is building an open source, industry-supported PDF/A validator. veraPDF 1.0 will be released in December marking the end of the PREFORMA prototyping phase. A six month test phase begins in January 2017.

Please support our efforts by downloading and testing the software. If you encounter problems, or wish to suggest improvements, please add them to the project’s GitHub issue tracker (https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/issues), or contact us through our mailing list. Regular feedback is very important, it helps to improve the software.

PREFORMA IMPACT and Sustainability Questionnaire

Please complete the PREFORMA questionnaire to help assess the impact of the project, and the three conformance checkers: veraPDF, MediaConch and DPF Manager: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/preforma/preforma-questionnaire/ The survey closes 18 November.

PREFORMA Experience Workshop

We will be presenting the latest veraPDF developments at the PREFORMA Experience Workshop in Berlin on 23 November. Registration closes on 18 November:  http://experienceworkshop.preforma-project.eu/

Call for participation: PREFORMA Impact Assessment and Sustainability Questionnaire

The PREFORMA project is carrying out a questionnaire to assess the impact of the project, and the three conformance checkers: veraPDF, MediaConch and DPF Manager. The results will contribute to a report for the European Commission.

If you have followed the progress of the project, contributed requirements, or have used or tested the conformance checkers, we kindly ask you to fill in the online questionnaire to give your feedback. The questionnaire also explores plans for the sustainability of the project results.

There are four sections in the questionnaire. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Questionnaire

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/preforma/preforma-questionnaire/.

The closing date is Friday 18 November 2016.

Your feedback is very important, we value your input for the report, and to shape follow on initiatives. If you have any questions or comments please contact Claudio Prandoni: prandoni(at)promoter(dot)it

veraPDF 0.24 released

The latest version of veraPDF is now available. Version 0.24 includes a prototype of batch validation in both the CLI and GUI. New enhancements:

Conformance checker

  • added extraction of the AFRelationship key for embedded files as a part of veraPDF feature extraction.

Application enhancements

  • implemented prototype of batch validation from CLI and GUI;
  • implemented robust handling of run-time exceptions during batch processing; and
  • added error info on the run-time exceptions to the validation report.

Code Quality

  • moved feature extraction and metadata fixing code to library; and
  • tidied various compiler warnings.

Download veraPDF 0.24:

http://downloads.verapdf.org/rel/verapdf-installer.zip

Release notes:

https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/releases/latest

Call for testing

veraPDF is building an open source, industry-supported PDF/A validator. Please support our efforts by downloading and testing the software. If you encounter problems, or wish to suggest improvements, please add them to the project’s GitHub issue tracker (https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/issues), or contact us through our mailing list. Your feedback is very important, it helps to improve the software.

Find out more about veraPDF

Webinar: Watch the recording and slides from our latest webinar: https://verapdf.org/2016/09/26/recording-and-slides-from-verapdf-webinar-published/
Mailing list: Join our mailing list: http://lists.verapdf.org/listinfo/users
Newsletter: Subscribe to to the veraPDF consortium’s newsletter: https://verapdf.org/subscribe/
Experience workshop: Meet us at the PREFORMA Experience workshop, 23 November 2016: http://experienceworkshop.preforma-project.eu/

Recording and slides from veraPDF webinar published

The PREFORMA project ran a webinar series throughout September. The final webinar focused on veraPDF.

Overview

The PREFORMA project’s prototyping phase finishes at the end of 2016. The veraPDF consortium will be producing a v1.0 release candidate of the software library and applications in December 2016.

This webinar demonstrates the current state of veraPDF development and presents the consortium’s plans for 2017. Webinar attendees are shown:

  • the consortium’s current development priorities, i.e. what we’re working on;
  • the veraPDF software development plan for the 2016 v1.0 release;
  • how they help to improve veraPDF software through testing;
  • a demonstration of the software used in some simple, but typical testing scenarios; and
  • an outline of the consortium’s plans for 2017.

The presentations are aimed at non-technical veraPDF users and will benefit anyone wishing to make veraPDF validation part of their digital preservation processes.

Recording and Slides

Recording
PREFORMA introduction slides
veraPDF slides

veraPDF 0.22 released

The latest version of veraPDF is now available to download. Version 0.22 has the following improvements:

Application enhancements:

  • changed default feature generation to document level features;
  • added a new GUI dialog for managing feature generation options;
  • added a user-friendly Java OutOfMemoryError with suggestions for reconfiguration;
  • CLI can now overwrite report files;
  • added help message when CLI processes STDIN stream; and
  • synchronized the Web demo validation report with the CLI and GUI report styles.

Conformance checker fixes:

  • removed the rules for validating file provenance information;
  • fixed an issue with structure type mapping in Level A validation; and
  • implemented resource caching for memory optimization.

Test corpus:

  • converted all ‘fail’ test cases on file provenance information to ‘pass’ tests.

Download veraPDF 0.22:

http://downloads.verapdf.org/rel/verapdf-installer.zip

Release notes:

https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/releases/latest

Call for testing

veraPDF is building an open source, industry-supported PDF/A validator. Please support our efforts by downloading and testing the software. If you encounter problems, or wish to suggest improvements, please add them to the project’s GitHub issue tracker (https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/issues). Your feedback is very important, it helps to improve the software.

Keep up to date with the latest developments of veraPDF by subscribing to the veraPDF consortium’s newsletter (https://verapdf.org/subscribe/).

Upcoming events

PREFORMA webinar series, September 2016

The PREFORMA project is running a webinar series throughout September. Each webinar will focus on one of the three open source conformance checkers for TIFF; Matroska, FFV1, & PCM, and PDF/A. The webinars will:

  • introduce the PREFORMA project
  • update participants on the current status of the conformance checkers
  • demonstrate the software
  • outline future plans
  • give examples of how the community can contribute, or provide feedback

An overview of each webinar is available on the PREFORMA website at: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/preforma-webinars-dpf-manager-mediaconch-verapdf/.

Schedule:

Thursday 8 September 15:00 CET: DPF Manager
Thursday 15 September 15:00 CET: MediaConch
Thursday 22 September 15:00 CET: veraPDF

Registration:

There are 50 places available for each webinar, allocated on a first come, first served basis. To register for the webinars visit: http://preforma-webinars.eventbrite.co.uk/.

The webinars will last approximately one hour and will be recorded for those who cannot attend live.

veraPDF 0.20 released

The latest version of veraPDF is now available. Version 0.20 has the following enhancements:

Application enhancements:

  • added signature types to features report;
  • depth of feature reporting now configurable; and
  • altered log level of some validation methods.

Conformance checker fixes:

  • fix for validation of character encoding requirements of invisible fonts; and
  • fix for ICC Profile mluc tag.

Test corpus:

  • 34 new test files for PDF/A-2b.

Download veraPDF 0.20:

http://downloads.verapdf.org/rel/verapdf-installer.zip

Release notes:

https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/releases/latest

Call for testing

veraPDF is building an open source, industry-approved PDF/A validator. Please support our efforts by downloading and testing the software. If you encounter problems, or wish to suggest improvements, please add them to the project’s GitHub issue tracker. Your feedback is very important, it helps to improve the software.

Keep up to date with the latest developments of veraPDF by subscribing to the veraPDF consortium’s newsletter.

veraPDF will be demonstrating the software at the PREFORMA Experience workshop on 23 November in Berlin. Find out more at: http://experienceworkshop.preforma-project.eu/.

PREFORMA Experience Workshop – Improving long-term digital preservation

Following the successful Open Source Workshop, organised in Stockholm in April this year, the PREFORMA project invites all the members of the digital preservation community to attend the Experience Workshop – Improving long-term digital preservation, which will be held in Berlin on November 23, 2016.

The aim of the workshop is to demonstrate the use of the conformance checkers for file-formats developed in the project, involve memory institutions outside the PREFORMA consortium in testing, using and further developing the software, and share the experience gained by PREFORMA memory institutions working with developers under R&D service agreements.

Hosted at the Kulturforum in Berlin, the event will feature keynote presentations by representatives from the European Commission on the opportunities offered by the Pre-Commercial Procurement instrument, talks by international experts in digital preservation on the importance of checking the conformance of the digital files against the standard specifications, live demonstrations of the software developed by the three suppliers working in the project (veraPDF, Easy Innova, MediaArea) and an informal networking event where the attendees can share experiences, meet the PREFORMA developers and learn about the tools.

This event is aimed at anyone interested in digital preservation and cultural heritage: memory institutions or other cultural heritage organisations involved in (or planning) digital preservation initiatives; developers who want to contribute code to the PREFORMA tools; standardisation bodies maintaining the technical specifications of preservation file formats; any other person interested in cooperating with us in defining open digital preservation standards.

The workshop will be co-located with Europeana Space final conference, the third edition of the Networking Session for EC projects in the cultural heritage field and the meeting of the German Working Group on PCP and PPI (Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovative solutions).

Register before 16 November 2016

http://experienceworkshop.preforma-project.eu/registration/
Participation in the event is free of charge.

Event website

http://experienceworkshop.preforma-project.eu/

The event will be held in English.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact: Claudio Prandoni prandoni@promoter.it

veraPDF 0.18 released

The latest version of veraPDF is now available to download. It is accompanied by a beta version of our new documentation site. The site provides installation and user guides to help you get started with the veraPDF conformance checker. The beta site is online here: http://docs.verapdf.org

veraPDF 0.18 has the following fixes and enhancements:

Application enhancements:

  • suppress all PDFBox warnings in the CLI interface when parsing PDF documents
  • generate error report instead of the exception in case of broken PDF documents
  • added a new CLI option to save XML report to a separate file in recursive PDF processing

veraPDF characterisation plugins:

  • enhancements to example pure java plugins
  • plugins now configurable through a dedicated config file

Conformance checker fixes:

  • ignore DeviceGray color space in soft mask images
  • treat glyph with GID 0 as “.notdef” in case of Type0 fonts
  • fixed validation of role map for non-standard structure elements (Level A)
  • fixed validation of page size implementation limits in case of negative width or height
  • fixed validation of non-standard embedded CMaps referenced from other CMaps

Test corpus:

  • added 180 new test files for parts 2 and 3

Infrastructure:

  • test coverage now monitored by Codecov online service
  • integration tests for 2u and 3b validation profiles added
  • using codacy and coverity online code QA services

Download veraPDF 0.18:

http://downloads.verapdf.org/rel/verapdf-installer.zip

Release notes:

https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-library/releases/latest

veraPDF is building an open source, industry-approved PDF/A validator. Please support our efforts by downloading and testing the software. If you encounter problems, or wish to suggest improvements, please add them to the project’s GitHub issue tracker. Your feedback is very important, it helps to improve the software.
Keep up to date with the latest developments of veraPDF by subscribing to the veraPDF consortium’s newsletter.