For standard invoices and reports requiring efficient delivery, PDF-eXPLODE could well be a lifesaver. It can be a bit touchy on occasion, but once your document templates are set up properly it should be plain sailing.
Newsletters and invoices can take a remarkable amount of time to organise. Of course it isn't just creating the documents -- you then have to deliver them. Stuffing hundreds of letters into envelopes is no picnic, plus you have to pay for the postage! One option is to outsource the work to a mailing house, but you could also try e-mail delivery. Of course you don't want to have to send hundreds or even thousands of e-mails individually, and you may be delivering personalised and often confidential material. So what do you do?
PDF-eXPLODE can accept your documents direct from the application used to create them and individually e-mail them in PDF format. Delivery is directed by personalised tags which can be included as easily as the addresses name during a mail merge.
Features
Developed in Australia by a small Sydney-based firm called 3000AD Systems, PDF-eXPLODE allows PDF export and mail-outs from a wide range of Windows applications including word processors and reporting applications. PDF-eXPLODE can be used to streamline mail-outs of newsletters or invoices via the Web using existing e-mail facilities and document creation software. Destination addresses for e-mails could be merged into your existing report templates and automatically delivered by PDF-eXPLODE in one operation.
Security inherent in the PDF format allows messages to be sent securely using encryption to lock files against unwanted viewing, printing and modification. PDFs allow for user and owner passwords, with two levels of encryption available (40bit and 128bit).
Installation
Installation was very easy. After downloading the 6MB set-up program we were able to complete the installation in a couple of minutes without any concerns. The program is seen as a printer driver by the operating system which is how it is able to integrate with so many third-party applications. PDF-eXPLODE accepts the data spooling from the Windows print engine and seeks its own tags in the text to direct document distribution.
Operation
Special tags in your document enclose instructions to PDF-eXPLODE; for example, <PDFEXPLODE>someone@address.com.au</PDFEXPLODE> indicates that the page upon which this instruction occurs needs to be sent to the specified e-mail address (the tags could also be used indicate output to a file). The process is quite straightforward, but precision and attention to text case is essential -- remember this is an instruction to a computer program!
One concern we had was the naming of default directories for output. We found that the default path (.../PDFs/) did not match the case of the actual directory (.../PDFS/) and thus we encountered an error message -- which explained nothing to us. We found the solution to the problem by trial and error.
The dialog box shown below, Pre-Process PDF Options, can be dispensed with if the user pre-defines the relevant information. The option button leads the user to settings mainly related to e-mail accounts and options (eg, subject, message and file names).
PDF options, before "exploding"
6%
2%
I have to dispute some of the negatives shown in the report for the following reason:
1. The Graphic quality (dpi) and the various font settings are ALL configurable within a 'PDFeXPLODE.Properties' text file located in the PDF-eXPLODE application folder. This is not openly disclosed to Users nor included in the Help as the majority of existing Users obtain satisfactory results. Changes to this file are not for the novice. 3000AD Systems provides FREE support to Evaluaters and Licensed Users alike and an email to support@3000ad.com.au would generally receive a response within 24 hours. The reporter did not seek at any time to ask any questions of 3000AD Systems despite offers of assistance. The simplest options come intentionally standard making the product easy to implement.
2. After surveying many Users if was determined that the vast majority use SMTP (for outgoing mail) . A minority would use IMAP or Lotus Domino Server - which requires some special (and mostly complicated) configuration to work.
3. Currently Web - based mail like Yahoo/Netscape do work with PDF-eXPLODE and the FAQs on www.pdf-explode.net provide details on how to configure these SMTP servers
4. Before and After Sales Service /Support is provided free and is rated by many of the Users as very good. Kathi Kellenberger a reporter on www.sqlservercentral.com had this to say : "I sent an e-mail message to the support address and received a reply back within two hours. It was a holiday weekend, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive the reply so quickly. I continued to work with support over several days trying to figure out the Reporting Services problem. Even though I was just evaluating the product, and they did not know that I was working on this article, they went out of their way to help me. I was impressed."
5. The issue the reporter mentions about folder (../PDFs/) case sensitivity has never been reported previously by any other Users and there are quite a few at this time.
I believe that lack of complete information (or the desire to obtain the facts) on the part of the reviewer led to these small negatives when compared to overall positive tone of the article
Thank you
Mark Fonseca
Developer & Publisher - PDF-eXPLODE