Skip to main content

bugs - Unable to communicate with LinkObject when importing PDF


Bug introduced in 8 or earlier and persisting through 11.1



When I try to download some files from the web, I sometimes get an error like this:


links = {"http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/18/076/1807620.pdf",

         "http://epaper.das-parlament.de/epaper/ausgabe.pdf", 
         "http://gemeindebund.at/images/uploads/downloads/2014/Publikationen/RFGs/2010/RFG_4-2010_-_E-Government_in_Gemeinden_(PDF__2_4MB).pdf", 
         "http://smart-government.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/PB_IRML-SmartSchool.pdf",
         "http://subs.emis.de/LNI/Proceedings/Proceedings261/113.pdf", 
         "http://subs.emis.de/LNI/Proceedings/Proceedings261/163.pdf", 
         "http://subs.emis.de/LNI/Proceedings/Proceedings261/51.pdf", 
         "http://subs.emis.de/LNI/Proceedings/Proceedings261/P-261.pdf", 
         "https://www.bundes-sgk.de/system/files/documents/impulse2_nov2015_final.pdf",
         "https://www.demo-online.de/system/files/demo_05_06_ansicht_pdf_klein.pdf", 
         "https://www.gruene-bw.de/app/uploads/2016/05/GrueneBW-Koalitionsvertrag-2016-Entwurf.pdf", 

         "https://www.itdz-berlin.de/dokumente/splitter/splitter_2005_1.pdf",
         "https://www.normenkontrollrat.bund.de/Webs/NKR/Content/DE/Publikationen/Jahresberichte/2014-10-01_nkr_jahresbericht_2014.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1", 
         "http://www.beamten-informationen.de/media/pdf/Beamten_Magazin_2008_04.pdf",
         "http://www.dgb.de/themen/++co++541b3e54-263c-11e5-9b43-52540023ef1a",
         "http://www.staedtetag-nrw.de/imperia/md/content/stnrw/internet/2_fachinformationen/2008/ag_4_geoportale_formatiert_korr_kes.pdf", 
         "http://www.vitako.de/Themen%20Dokumente/Vitako_aktuell_01-16.pdf"};
res = Import[#, "Plaintext"] & /@ links

LinkObject::linkd: Unable to communicate with closed link LinkObject["C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\11.0\SystemFiles\Converters\Binaries\Windows-x86-64\PDF.exe",2011,5].


What does this error mean and how can I cleanly handle it (without keeping a PDF.exe in memory)?



Answer



Just for reference, this is my workaround:


importPatched[url_, elements_String] := importPatched[url, {elements}];
importPatched[url_List, elements_List] := Dataset[importPatched[#, elements] & /@ url];
importPatched[url_String, elements_List] := Module[{fn, pdftohtml, dlResult, pdfQ, s, elems, result, evData, i},
    pdftohtml = "pdftohtml.exe"; (* edit path if necessary *)
    fn = CreateFile[];
    result = Prepend[Association[Rule[#, Missing[]] & /@ elements], Rule["Link", url]];


    (* download *)
    evData = EvaluationData[URLDownload[url, fn, {"StatusCode", "ContentType"}]];
    If[Not[evData["Success"]], Return[Association[Prepend["Status" -> "URLDownload Error " <> StringRiffle[ToString /@ evData["Messages"], ", "], result]]]];
    dlResult = evData["Result"];
    If[dlResult["StatusCode"] =!= 200,
        Quiet[DeleteFile[fn]];
        Return[Prepend[result, "Status" -> "HTTP Error " <> dlResult["StatusCode"]]];
    ];

    (* convert PDF to html *)

    pdfQ = AnyTrue[{"application/acrobat", "application/pdf", "application/vnd.pdf", "application/x-pdf", "text/pdf", "text/x-pdf"}, 
            StringContainsQ[dlResult["ContentType"], Verbatim[#], IgnoreCase -> True]& ];
    s = If[pdfQ,
        RenameFile[fn, fn <> ".pdf"];
        fn = fn <> ".pdf";
        evData = EvaluationData[StringJoin@ReadList["!" <> pdftohtml <> " -stdout " <> fn, Character]];
        If[Not[evData["Success"]], Return[Prepend[result, "Status" -> "pdftohtml Error"]]];
        evData["Result"]
    , (* else *)
        ReadString[fn]

    ];
    Quiet[DeleteFile[fn]];

    (* read requested elements *)
    elems = Intersection[elements, ImportString[s, "Elements"]];
    i = 1;
    While[i <= Length[elems],
        evData = EvaluationData[ImportString[s, elems[[i]]]];
        If[Not[evData["Success"]], Return[Prepend[result, "Status" -> "Import Error " <> StringRiffle[ToString /@ evData["Messages"], ", "]]]];
        result[elems[[i]]] = evData["Result"];

        i++
    ];
    Return[Prepend[result, "Status" -> "Success"]];
];
ans = importPatched[links, {"Title", "Hyperlinks"}]

It produces more or less reasonable results on all links above. It relies on the great pdftohtml tool. The function basically downloads the link, looks if it is a pdf (in which case the file is transformed to html), and then calls Import.


For calling pdftohtml I asked a separate question and got help quickly.


Any hints on bugs or possible improvements on this code very welcome! In particular, it would be interesting to know how to include the pdftohtml.exe in a subdirectory of a Mathematica package.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

plotting - Plot 4D data with color as 4th dimension

I have a list of 4D data (x position, y position, amplitude, wavelength). I want to plot x, y, and amplitude on a 3D plot and have the color of the points correspond to the wavelength. I have seen many examples using functions to define color but my wavelength cannot be expressed by an analytic function. Is there a simple way to do this? Answer Here a another possible way to visualize 4D data: data = Flatten[Table[{x, y, x^2 + y^2, Sin[x - y]}, {x, -Pi, Pi,Pi/10}, {y,-Pi,Pi, Pi/10}], 1]; You can use the function Point along with VertexColors . Now the points are places using the first three elements and the color is determined by the fourth. In this case I used Hue, but you can use whatever you prefer. Graphics3D[ Point[data[[All, 1 ;; 3]], VertexColors -> Hue /@ data[[All, 4]]], Axes -> True, BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 1/GoldenRatio}]
Post a Comment
Read more

plotting - Filling between two spheres in SphericalPlot3D

Manipulate[ SphericalPlot3D[{1, 2 - n}, {θ, 0, Pi}, {ϕ, 0, 1.5 Pi}, Mesh -> None, PlotPoints -> 15, PlotRange -> {-2.2, 2.2}], {n, 0, 1}] I cant' seem to be able to make a filling between two spheres. I've already tried the obvious Filling -> {1 -> {2}} but Mathematica doesn't seem to like that option. Is there any easy way around this or ... Answer There is no built-in filling in SphericalPlot3D . One option is to use ParametricPlot3D to draw the surfaces between the two shells: Manipulate[ Show[SphericalPlot3D[{1, 2 - n}, {θ, 0, Pi}, {ϕ, 0, 1.5 Pi}, PlotPoints -> 15, PlotRange -> {-2.2, 2.2}], ParametricPlot3D[{ r {Sin[t] Cos[1.5 Pi], Sin[t] Sin[1.5 Pi], Cos[t]}, r {Sin[t] Cos[0 Pi], Sin[t] Sin[0 Pi], Cos[t]}}, {r, 1, 2 - n}, {t, 0, Pi}, PlotStyle -> Yellow, Mesh -> {2, 15}]], {n, 0, 1}]
Post a Comment
Read more

plotting - Mathematica: 3D plot based on combined 2D graphs

I have several sigmoidal fits to 3 different datasets, with mean fit predictions plus the 95% confidence limits (not symmetrical around the mean) and the actual data. I would now like to show these different 2D plots projected in 3D as in but then using proper perspective. In the link here they give some solutions to combine the plots using isometric perspective, but I would like to use proper 3 point perspective. Any thoughts? Also any way to show the mean points per time point for each series plus or minus the standard error on the mean would be cool too, either using points+vertical bars, or using spheres plus tubes. Below are some test data and the fit function I am using. Note that I am working on a logit(proportion) scale and that the final vertical scale is Log10(percentage). (* some test data *) data = Table[Null, {i, 4}]; data[[1]] = {{1, -5.8}, {2, -5.4}, {3, -0.8}, {4, -0.2}, {5, 4.6}, {1, -6.4}, {2, -5.6}, {3, -0.7}, {4, 0.04}, {5, 1.0}, {1, -6.8}, {2, -4.7}, {3, -1....
Post a Comment
Read more