16.0.9

📅 2022-03-23

New features

C API

As with the last version of iDRS 15, a new API written in C is now available for the iDRS 16. It allows access to the iDRS functionality from C, Java, Python and other programming languages.

This C API is available for Windows, macOS and Linux platforms, and consists of a wrapper library which forwards calls to the C++ binaries underneath. Therefore, all the functionalities exposed in C++ are available in C, at no performance cost.

An additional Sample Application (samples/c/Image2Html) illustrates how to get started with the iDRS C API.

The following elements are added to the iDRS packages:

  • C API runtime

    • Windows: bin/idrsc16.dll

    • Linux: lib/libidrsc16.so.version

    • macOS: bin/libidrsc16.dylib

  • Compilation resources

    • Header files: folder include_c/

    • Import library (Windows): lib/idrsc16.lib

  • Sample

    • Precompiled executable: bin/CImage2Html16

    • Source code: samples/c/Image2Html

  • Documentation

    • API reference: documentation/iDRS16_C.html

New .NET API

This release also comes with a brand new cross-platform .NET API, available on Windows and macOS (all architectures), and Linux (x86_64 and ARM64 architectures). This new API is compatible with .NET version 6 and higher.

It consists of a wrapper library which forwards calls to the C++ binaries underneath, via the C library. Therefore, all the functionalities exposed in C++ and C are available in .NET, at no performance cost.

Existing .NET samples have been updated to use this new API.

The following elements are added to the iDRS packages:

  • .NET API assembly

    • Windows, macOS: bin/idrsnet16.dll

    • Linux: lib/idrsnet16.dll

  • Documentation

    • .NET assembly documentation (IntelliSense)

      • Windows, macOS: bin/idrsnet16.xml

      • Linux: lib/idrsnet16.xml

    • API reference: documentation/iDRS16_NET.html

Differences with previous .NET API

This new API replaces completely the previous .NET API which was available on the Windows platform only. It is also much closer to the C++ API, which means that if you are a .NET integrator, you will need to update your source code accordingly.
API convention
The C++ API, and therefore the new .NET API, is currently being transitioned to be more consistent with standard .NET naming style and coding convention; as a result, as a .NET integrator, you may find the new API in this release less intuitive than the old one. This is, of course, only a temporary situation until we have completed the transition of the iDRS APIs (expected before the first LTS version of the iDRS 16).
.NET samples
iDRS .NET samples have also been updated, and now only target the new .NET API. Their source code is available in the samples/cs folder.
macOS .NET samples
MacOS .NET samples only target the ARM64 architecture at the moment. This is a limitation of the samples, not of the iDRS itself; it will be fixed by next release.

New .NET Framework API

To help you transition to the new .NET API on Windows x86 and x64 platforms, this release also provides the same API targeting .NET Framework 4.8.

The corresponding elements in the package are:

  • .NET Framework API assembly: bin/idrsnetframework16.dll

  • .NET Framework assembly documentation: bin/idrsnetframework16.xml

Support of .NET Framework API
This API is provided for convenience only and will not be maintained in the long term.
Issue with CPerspective.Corners property
Currently an issue impacts the property CPerspective.Corners but only when called from .NET framework API. Trying to read that property will trigger an exception.
This issue will be fixed in the next release.

PDF digital signature on macOS

You can now digitally sign a PDF with the iDRS macOS. You can only use digital certificates installed in the login keychain.

To sign a PDF, you set a CDigitalSignature object with the serial number of the certificate and the issuer’s data into your CPdfOutputParams object.

Improvements

Transformation of the Document Output API

This release continues the transformation of the Document Output API that began with the iDRS 16.0.7.

This transformation aims to simplify the document output parameters by grouping the various settings into more user-oriented choices; this then makes it easier for you to select the output configuration you want for your project or product.

Below is a high-level summary of the changes made:

  • All parameters classes are renamed from CXxxOutputParameters to CXxxOutputParams for more legibility.
    Also, they all directly inherit from base class COutputParams, avoiding previously complex (and sometimes counter-intuitive) class hierarchy.

  • The various settings which were controlling how to generate the output have been grouped in distinct enums, with values corresponding to most relevant use cases.
    For example, the DOCX PageLayout.Editable corresponds to previous configuration LayoutType RECREATE_SRC_DOC + ColumnMode IGNORE + MergeLinesIntoParagraphs true + IncludeGraphics true.

  • Less common parameters controlling operations that can easily be performed directly on the CPage or CPageContent2 have been removed: for example, OutputImageType or OutputImageResolution.

  • Options present across several output format have been gathered into dedicated subclasses.
    For example, former CDocumentOutputParameters.Metadata accessors now belong to new class CMetadataInfo.

Refer to chapter Summary of changes for more details on the modifications.

No further changes to Document Output parameterization API
Although we do not rule out the possibility of making small adjustments to the Document Output parameters in the future, the majority of changes are now complete on this part of the toolkit.

New setting when saving to PNG format

When saving a CImage or CPage object to PNG format, you can now choose to favor the size of the output file or to save time.

PNG format is often used to save temporary images during processing, as opposed to JPG or BMP:

  • Generating JPG files is fast and gives small output files. However, it is lossy compression, which can be problematic for an intermediate file format, as there will be a slight loss of quality with each compression.

  • Generating BMP files is very fast and lossless. However, the generated file is very large (no compression is applied by the iDRS).

PNG is a good alternative, as it creates lossless files of acceptable quality and size. Its main disadvantage, however, is the compression time, which by default is significantly higher than that of JPG or BMP.

It is this compression time that this new setting helps to mitigate, allowing you to prioritize speed savings over file size when PNG is used to generate an intermediate file.

This new setting is available via:

  • method CImageOptionsPng::SetCompressionLevel() (C++) or

  • property CImageOptionsPng.CompressionLevel (.NET).

Update of Windows compilation environment

The iDRS™ for Windows platform is compiled with Visual Studio 2022. Therefore, it requires Visual Studio 2022 redistributables to be installed on the target computer.

Deprecated/removed features

Previous .NET APIs

The new .NET APIs introduced with this release completely replace the previous ones which will therefore no longer be maintained.

There are two main reasons for this decision:

  1. The previous .NET wrapper was written in C++/CLI, which removed the possibility of offering it to you on platforms other than Windows. In order to remove this limitation, we had to recreate a new .NET wrapper from scratch.

  2. To recreate the new .NET wrapper, instead of writing the wrapper code, we decided to generate it automatically by inspecting the C++ API. The advantage of this approach is that the cost of maintenance and the risk of problems in the wrapper itself are greatly reduced, allowing us to focus more on developing and improving the functionality of the iDRS.

Due to the change in technology used to create the .NET wrappers, their compatibilities also had to be updated.
Below is a summary of the compatibility and availability changes for both APIs:

  • .NET Framework:

    • Prior to iDRS 16.0.9: idrsnet16.dll was compatible with .NET Framework 4.0

    • Since iDRS 16.0.9: idrsnetframework16.dll is compatible with .NET Framework 4.8

    • Both are available only on Windows (x86 and x64 architectures).

  • .NET:

    • Prior to iDRS 16.0.9: idrsnet516.dll was compatible with .NET 5, and was available on Windows (all architectures).

    • Starting with iDRS 16.0.9: idrsnet16.dll is compatible with .NET 6, and is available on Windows and macOS (all architectures), as well as Linux (x86_64, and ARM64 architectures).

Compatibility with C++98

Due to the transformation of the Document Output API and the usage of the enum class type, the iDRS C++ API is no longer compatible with the C++98 standard; C++11 is now required to use the iDRS.

Compatibility with older macOS systems

As of this release, the iDRS for macOS is compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later (instead of macOS 10.10 Yosemite previously).

Removal of class CPageLayer

The class CPageLayer has been removed in this release, and CPage accessor GetPageLayer() replaced by GetRecognitionZoneArray() returning a CRecognitionZoneArray object.
The new behavior will be more consistent with standard get/set operations: the returned object points directly to the one stored internally, rather than being a complete clone.

As a result, any changes made to this CRecognitionZoneArray have an impact on the CPage as well.

Memory monitoring feature on Windows platform

The memory monitoring feature had to be disabled on the Windows platform due to some inconsistencies between the system libraries and the C++ standard.

Added/removed resources

N/A

Fixed bugs

ID Description

IDRSRD-6130

The iDRS throws an exception when creating a DOCX from an Arabic image with table

IDRSRD-6109

Saving to RTF generates a memory leak when including the image as page background

IDRSRD-6069

The macOS iDRS framework has a bad linker self-path

IDRSRD-6051

The API reference documentation of iDRS for Linux is not scrollable

IDRSRD-5855

The iDRS should propose a .NET 5 API on Windows, Macos and Linux platforms

IDRSRD-6143

The iDRS for macOS should be code signed

IDRSRD-6114

The iDRS should expose a way to favor speed over compression size when saving an image as PNG

IDRSDEV-1357

Integrators should be able to get the buffer size to use for CMetadataInfo::GetMetadata

IDRSDEV-1284

Replace CPageLayer class with TObjPtrArray<CRecognitionZone>

Known Issues

ID Description

IDRSDEV-1363

The macOS .NET samples should work on both x86_64 and ARM64 architectures

IDRSRD-6158

"Related pages" of iDRS .NET API documentation are always the Windows ones

IDRSDEV-1332

The iDRS .NET API should be available on Linux ARM32

IDRSDEV-1342

The iDRS C API should be available on Linux ARM32

IDRSRD-6171

iDRS property CPerspective.Corners throws an exception when read from .NET framework API