Merging multiple scribbles at one time

[ragdoll]

I searched the forums but it seems that there's no application able to recursively scan a folder and its subfolders and merge all the scribbles contained.
Is there a way to do it?
I have 140 PDF that must be merged with the corresponding scribbles and it would be way too long if I had to run 140 times the iLiad Companion merge process or the IliadPdfScribbleMerger.

[kusmi]

What operating-system do you use?

I had the same problem - but had a linux-server running at home, so I configured it that way, so my iLiad automatically uploads the outbox to my linux-server (I just click the iLiad "connect" button -> it will connect to my linux-box to it's windows-share and uploads my outbox, and imports all new documents)

Then I have a cron-job (a linux script, which checks on a regular interval, e.g. 1 minute) if they are new uploaded content. If they are, I automagically convert all the pdfs+scribbles of all files in that folder using the excellent java "iLiadPDFScribbleMerger".

If you are "script-savy" I have uploaded my ruby script, which does all the conversion of the directory - it should also work on windows, if you install a ruby interpreter.

#!/usr/bin/ruby
#convertScribble.rb

require 'rexml/document'
include REXML

# check, if another script is already running... then stop it

output = `ps uxww | grep "convertScribble.rb" | grep -v "grep" | grep -v "/bin/sh"`
processes =  output.split("\n").length
puts "Running procceses "+output

if (processes > 1)
  puts "Already running, exit now"
  exit	
end
puts "Start Processing"

directories = Dir["/home/michi/iLiad/inbox/*.pdf*"]

directories.each { 
	|item|
	basename = File.basename(item)
	changeTime = File.mtime(item)
	# only execute if modification-time is larger than 1 minute:
	difference = Time.now - changeTime
	puts "Modification of file is "+difference.to_s+" seconds ago" 
	if (difference > 60)
	puts "File is old enough, start processing" 
	# extract XML description
          doc = Document.new File.new("#{item}/manifest.xml")
	  root = doc.root
	  completeDescription = root.elements["metadata/dc-metadata/Description"].text
          fileString = ""
          if (completeDescription != nil)	
	    description = completeDescription.split("\n")	
	    fileString = ""
	    description.each { |desc|
              fileString = fileString + "[" + desc + "] "
            }	
          end
      	  `cp -R "#{item}" "/home/michi/iLiad/inbox-converted/backup/"`
	  `/usr/bin/java -jar "/home/michi/iLiadConvert/iLiad Scribble Merger/ILiadPdfScribbleMerger.jar" -i:"#{item}" -o:"/home/michi/iLiad/inbox-converted/#{basename} #{fileString}Notes_Michi" -m:n -c2:#990033 -c3:#006633`
	  `rm -rf "#{item}"`
	  `chmod -R ugo+rw "/home/michi/iLiad/inbox-converted/backup/"`
	end
}

It does a bit more than just converting - it also checks, that it will not start converting until the pdfs are fully uploaded. Then when I usually scribble the PDFs on my iLiad, I add comments to the pdfs (e.g. wether I read it already, some keywords, etc) and I also include those keywords to the resulting merged PDF...

Perhaps you could adapt this script for your own needs?

[ragdoll]

Originally Posted by kusmi

What operating-system do you use?

I had the same problem - but had a linux-server running at home, so I configured it that way, so my iLiad automatically uploads the outbox to my linux-server (I just click the iLiad "connect" button -> it will connect to my linux-box to it's windows-share and uploads my outbox, and imports all new documents)

Then I have a cron-job (a linux script, which checks on a regular interval, e.g. 1 minute) if they are new uploaded content. If they are, I automagically convert all the pdfs+scribbles of all files in that folder using the excellent java "iLiadPDFScribbleMerger".

Wow, complicated!
I'm on Windows Vista, probably I could use windows scripting to do the same, but I don't know anything about windos scripting, yet. However, I only need to merge scribbles contained in a list of directories and have the results in another directory (or in multiple subdirectories).

[engunneer]

I'm working on a windows script to manage the iLiad and pdfs like an iPod and iTunes. It is in the very early stages, but among other things, it will merge anything it sees that needs to be merged. I am using Autohotkey as the language. and the java merging tool I found on this forum.