Chapter 3.  Features

3.1.  View - Watched Folders

The directory structure in the left part of the monitor shows all files with the extension PDF, XLS and XSLX in all subdirectories below that folder. The topmost folder has to be defined by the Property 'WATCHED_FOLDER' in the configuration file 'pdfunit-monitor.config'. The configuration file is described in chapter 7: “Configuration (pdfunit-monitor.config)”.

The PDFUnit-Monitor is sensitive to all changes in the watched directories. That means, validation results will be updated whenever files or directories are added, changed or removed.

Each PDF document will be validated by the rules of every Excel file in the same directory. The result of each validation rule will be shown in the result list.

Important hint: PDF documents which are password protected cannot be processed by the PDFUnit-Monitor. But they can be tested with the Java-API of PDFUnit.

Context Menu

When the user starts the monitor he can trigger the validation using the button Validate All or the context menu:

The context menu is different depending on whether the menu relates to a directory, a PDF file or an Excel file.

Colours Indicating the Validation Result

The validation result is shown by a coloured symbol in front of the documents name. A green tick shows that all validation rules passed successfully. A red cross means that a document violates one or more rules.

Only when all tests are successful, a green tick is shown for that folder. A red arrow cross propagates upwards and a yellow circle shows that this file or directory was not yet validated.

When all PDF documents are error-free, the PDFUnit-Monitor shows a big green tick:

Drag and Drop

The PDFUnit-Monitor supports the 'Drop' function of 'Drag-and-Drop'. When a PDF document is dropped into a directory, it is copied, not moved! And then it is automatically validated against all Excel files in that folder.

Open Documents

Documents in the directory tree can be opened with the system application which is registered for the file type. Just double-click it.

Showing the Difference between Two PDF Documents

A PDF under test and its related reference document can be opened with the special program 'DiffPDF' to mark the differences. The next image shows the context menu:

The special program 'DiffPDF' will be described in detail in chapter 3.4: “DiffPDF - Show Mismatches between Two PDF Documents”.