Configuration of Fabasoft Folio Conversion Services

Creation of a Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service User

A Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service needs a dedicated user in whose context it will be running. The user must have a corresponding user object in the Fabasoft Folio Domain. The login name has to be added to the htpasswd file.

To create a Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service user, perform the following steps:

1. Add a user login name to the htpasswd file. Use the following command:
   • Red Hat Linux
     # htpasswd –b /etc/fabasoft/web/htpasswd <username> <password>
2. Get a Kerberos ticket for the directory service domain user already added to the System Administrator user object in Fabasoft Folio.
   # kinit <username>
3. Open a Fabasoft Folio Web Client and connect to the Fabasoft Folio Web Service.
   http://<webserver>.<sub.company.com>:<portnumber>/<vdir>
4. In the Domain Administration, navigate to the User Objects and click the “Users” tab.
5. Open the user object created for the Fabasoft Folio Web Service (on the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Server) in editing mode.
6. In the Login Name field, the two login names created during the preparation of the Fabasoft Folio Web Service are displayed.
7. Add a third login name for the user running the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service.
8. Click “Next” to save the changes and quit the property editor.

A Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service user has been added to the Fabasoft Folio Domain.

Note: This user object has already been added to the list of Privileged Users in the current domain during installation of the Fabasoft Folio Web Service as the basis for the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service (see document “Fabasoft on Red Hat Linux – Preparation Guide”).

Configuration of Fabasoft Folio Conversion Services

In the Fabasoft Folio Domain, add the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service to the Default Web Services and specify a watched folder.

Conversion Server URL

To specify the connection information for the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service, perform the following steps:

1. Open a Fabasoft Folio Web Client. In the Domain Administration, open the settings for the Domain. Navigate to the page "Components Configuration". Open the “Local Web Service Configuration” that can be found in the field "Web Service".
2. Within the “HTTP Connectors” page, edit the connection entry for the Default Web Services.
   Note: If the object is opened in read-only mode, click “Edit”.
3. Enter the connection information for the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service in the field HTTP Connection Table and click “Next”. The following properties are available:
   • URL
     Specify the fully qualified domain name of the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Server.
   • User
     Specify the login name of the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service user created as described in chapter 11.1 “Creation of a Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service User”.
   • Password
     Specify the password of the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service user.

Watched Folder

To specify a watched folder, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click FSCCONV@1.1001:ExternalConversionConfiguraion and click “Properties”.
   Note: If the object is opened in read-only mode, click “Edit”.
2. On the “Conversion Configuration” tab in the Watched Folder field specify the File system path and the Time limit in seconds.
   • File system path
     Use this field to specify the path to the watched folder (e.g. /tmp/watchedfolder).
   • Time limit in seconds
     In this field a limit that defines the period of time a conversion may last before an error is returned can be specified.
3. Click “Next” to save the changes.

Conversion Timeout

The maximal conversion duration using LibreOffice can be configured via the property Conversion Timeout (in Seconds) (FSCTLH@1.1001:conversiontimeout) in the Tools Host Configuration (FSCTLH@1.1001:StdOleAutomationHost). If the timeout is expired the conversion will be cancelled.

Configuration of the Fabasoft Folio Watcher Service

During installation of the software packages specified in the prerequisites of this document, a watcher service is installed on the computer. Once configured and activated, this service will monitor all LibreOffice instances utilized for document conversion and restart them automatically upon failure.

The configuration is defined in /etc/fabasoft/watcher.conf. The number of LibreOffice instances is set with the variable OOINSTANCES.

To configure the Fabasoft Folio Watcher Service, perform the following steps:

1. Open the file /etc/fabasoft/watcher.conf in an editor:
   # vi /etc/fabasoft/watcher.conf
2. Locate the variable OOINSTANCES and adjust the number of instances.
3. Save the file and exit the editor.
4. Start the service using the following command:
   • Red Hat Linux:
     # service watcherd start

The Fabasoft Folio Watcher Service has been configured.

Install and Configure Ghostscript

Install Ghostscript

To install Ghostscript, perform the following steps:

1. On the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Server log on as the user running the Fabasoft Folio Conversion Service.
2. Download the supported Ghostscript version. A repository of all available Ghostscript products can be found under the following link: https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases
3. Unpack the downloaded file:
   tar –xvzf ghostscript-<version>.tar.gz
   An installation folder is created, which is needed to build Ghostscript on your server.
4. Change into the directory of the installation folder and execute the following commands to install Ghostscript:
   ./configure
   make
   make install
5. Download the Ghostscript fonts package, which can be found under the following link:
   http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz: new window
6. Unpack the downloaded file:
   tar -xvzf ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
7. Copy or move the created directory fonts to /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts

Configure PDF/A Conversion with Ghostscript

The following steps are only necessary if you want to convert documents to PDF/A file format.

1. Copy the iccprofiles directory from the directory of the installation folder (unpacked ghostscript-<version>.tar.gz) to the standard Ghostscript installation path (/usr/local/share/ghostscript/<version>).
2. Edit the PDFA_def.ps configuration file (/usr/local/share/ghostscript/<version>/lib/PDFA_def.ps).
3. In the /ICCProfile line replace srgb.icc with the path of the copied srgb.icc file: /ICCProfile /usr/local/share/ghostscript/<version>/iccprofiles/srgb.icc

Install and Configure FFmpeg

The following steps are necessary if you want to convert video contents.

1. Build or download a static build of FFmpeg: http://ffmpeg.org/: new window
2. Move the static FFmpeg tool to a location which is referenced by the PATH environment variable (e.g. /usr/local/bin).

Install and Configure ExifTool

The following steps are necessary, if image properties should be available.

1. Add the “Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux” (EPEL) repository to yum.
2. Install ExifTool with yum install perl-Image-ExifTool.

Additional Configuration Options

Additional conversion options can be specified in the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Fabasoft\FSCCONV@1.1001:

• PreferOpenOfficePDFA: A value greater than 0 specifies that a PDF/A document will be created when converting via LibreOffice application, even though when the target format is “PDF”. By default, this option is not enabled.