IFilter for modren PDF versions?

It appears as though Adobe no longer supplies an IFilter for MS
Internet Information Server (IIS). I quote from
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611 :
"Starting with Acrobat and Reader 7.0.5, iFilter functionality is now
bundled within the Acrobat and Reader products"

Apparently, the IFilter is not easy to locate as a self-contained
package on Acrobat installation discs (I have Acro Professional 8). As
far as I understand my research, you're supposed to install Acrobat on
the computer in order to get the IFilter. I don't think that makes any
sense for a server. Nobody's going to use Acrobat as such on my
server, so I really don't want to install it.

Is there a workaround somewhere? To get the latest PDF IFilter on the
web server with minimum of software installation? I've looked at
FoxIT's PDF IFilter, but it has a hefty price tag for servers, and
they don't state what PDF version it's supporting.

Bo Johanson
Principal Engineer, e-Publishing
Det Norske Veritas AS
Norway

Re: IFilter for modren PDF versions?

"BoJo" wrote in message
news:483a7101-1313-4d91-8ba3-c18bb26310eb@m77g2000hsc.google groups.com...
> It appears as though Adobe no longer supplies an IFilter for MS
> Internet Information Server (IIS). I quote from
> http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611 :
> "Starting with Acrobat and Reader 7.0.5, iFilter functionality is now
> bundled within the Acrobat and Reader products"
>
> Apparently, the IFilter is not easy to locate as a self-contained
> package on Acrobat installation discs (I have Acro Professional 8). As
> far as I understand my research, you're supposed to install Acrobat on
> the computer in order to get the IFilter. I don't think that makes any
> sense for a server. Nobody's going to use Acrobat as such on my
> server, so I really don't want to install it.
>
> Is there a workaround somewhere? To get the latest PDF IFilter on the
> web server with minimum of software installation? I've looked at
> FoxIT's PDF IFilter, but it has a hefty price tag for servers, and
> they don't state what PDF version it's supporting.

Have you got access to an older IFilter?
Have you tried indexing newer PDF files with the older IFilter?

Since older viewers can still do a reasonable job of viewing newer formats
and since the IFilter really isn't interested in fancy formating but just
the text its reasonable to expect an older IFilter to handle the newer
formats. Of course that doesn't stop Adobe from preventing them from
working for commercial reasons.

--
Anthony Jones - MVP ASP/ASP.NET

Re: IFilter for modren PDF versions?

On Jan 8, 10:42 am, "Anthony Jones" wrote:

> Have you got access to an older IFilter?
> Have you tried indexing newer PDF files with the older IFilter?
>
> Since older viewers can still do a reasonable job of viewing newer formats
> and since the IFilter really isn't interested in fancy formating but just
> the text its reasonable to expect an older IFilter to handle the newer
> formats. Of course that doesn't stop Adobe from preventing them from
> working for commercial reasons.
>
> --
> Anthony Jones - MVP ASP/ASP.NET

Anthony,


I'll have another look, but I believe I can relate some cases of PDF
documents not found by the indexer to differences between PDF
versions. Or, rather, I belive that document security settings
(encryption) may be the cause, not the actual contents per se.

I can create PDF files with Distiller 8 (or PDFMaker) which are
correctly indexed (with IFilter 6.0) as long as I set "compatibility"
for security
settings to "Acrobat 5.0 and later" (128 bit RC-4). I believe that
"Acrobat 6.0" compatibility (it's also 128 bit RC-4) would also work.
But as far as I can remember, when I've accidentally used "Acrobat 7.0
and later" (128 bit AES), indexer (IFilter 6.0) can't find the
document.

/Bo