Comparing PDF Files

There are actions in the Test Designer that allows you to compare two PDF files. The report will detail all the changes, based on the rules that you specify, on a page by page basis between the two files.

For example, you can validate that all the elements on every page from the template PDF file appear on the same page in the dynamic PDF file with the same formatting.

These two PDF files in the comparison are:

  • Template PDF file that contains the baseline information and formatting

  • Dynamic PDF file that has been downloaded as part of a Test Designer script

You can compare certain elements in the two PDF files based on rules that you create. See Rules Based Comparison for more information.

You can compare the complete contents of the two PDF files to each other. See Comparing PDFs for more information.

This feature requires to open the port 9013 in the controller to be accessed from test nodes and end-user computers. See AIQ Required Ports for information on required ports.

Rules Based Comparison

You can create the rules by which the PDFs will be compared. Since you specify the rules during the comparison, you can create custom rules that can be used in very specific situations or rules that will be used for all of your comparisons.

Prerequisite: You must be familiar with writing regular expressions (regex) in order to author custom rules.

Considerations:

  • Rules can be applied by page basis or globally for all pages.

  • You can check for the umber of pages which means that you can verify that both PDF files contain same number of pages.

  • You can choose whether or not to ignore blank pages,

  • You can choose to report on blank pages. For example, if a blank page is found in a PDF file you can log a warning which will be highlighted in the report.

  • You can verify the position of certain elements to see if they have the same XY coordinates in each document.

  • You can verify font and font size of elements.

Sample rules.txt File

This is an example of a rules file used for comparing two PDF files. This comparison checks for the existence of specified content as well as how it is formatted (font / bold / size).

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{
    "rules": {
        "policy": {
            "format": "^([A-Z]{2}[0-9]{8})",
            "fontFamily": "Arial",
            "Bold": "no",
            "Size": 12
        },"number": {
            "format": "^([0-9]{4}[A-Z]{3})$",
            "fontFamily": "Arial",
            "Bold": "no",
            "Size": 12
        },
        "plate": {
            "format": "(\\s[0-9]{7})",
            "fontFamily": "Tahoma",
            "Bold": "yes",
            "Size": 12
        },
        "created": {
            "format": "^([0-9]{2}\\s(de)\\s[a-zA-Z]{3,15}\\s(de)\\s[0-9]{4})",
            "fontFamily": "Helvetica",
            "Bold": "no",
            "Size": 11
        },
        "name": {
            "format": "^([a-zA-Z]{3,5}\\s[a-zA-Z]{3,5})$",
            "fontFamily": "Tahoma",
            "Bold": "no",
            "Size": 10
        }        
    }
}

Syntax of the Rules

Rules are created using regular expressions (regex). For example, the format attribute in the policy section of above sample code, checks for a policy number within the PDF with the following parameters:

  • ^ indicates that policy element should begin with what follows

  • [A-Z]{2} indicates two uppercase characters

  • [0-9]{8} indicates eight numerical characters

The fontFamily, bold, and size attributes specify how the policy number is expected to appear in the PDF file.

If the comparison identifies a string that matches the format but does not match these expected display attributes that difference will be noted in the report.

Checking the Rules

You can compare the two PDF files just on the basis of the rules that you have created. Here is a sample of a script for that function.

Sample checkRules.js File

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var $basefilename = "{mds}/OriginalFile.pdf";
var $comparisonfilename = "{mds}/NewFile.pdf";
var $rulesfilename = "{mds}/rules.txt";


var response = assertPDFRules($basefilename,$comparisonfilename,$rulesfilename);
var responseObj = JSON.parse(response);
var summaryRuleDiffs = responseObj.content.summaryRuleDiffs;
for(var idx = 0; idx < summaryRuleDiffs.length; idx++) {
    var matches = summaryRuleDiffs[idx].matches;
  log("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
  log("Page: " + summaryRuleDiffs[idx].pageId); 
  for(var matchId = 0; matchId < matches.length; matchId++) {
      log("     Rule Name: " + matches[matchId].name); 
    var rules = matches[matchId].rules;
    for(var ruleId = 0; ruleId < rules.length; ruleId++) {
      log("          Found: " + rules[ruleId].found); 
      log("          Match: " +  rules[ruleId].match); 
      log("          Font Expected: " + rules[ruleId].fontExpected); 
      log("          Font Found: " +  rules[ruleId].foundFont); 
      log("\r\n");
    }
    
  }  
}

  • $basefilename is the name and location of the base PDF file for the comparison. In the sample code this file is OriginalFile.pdf.

  • $comparisonfilename is the name and location of the comparison PDF file. In the sample code this file is NewFile.pdf.

  • $rulesfilename is the name and location of the rules file. In the sample code, this file is rules.txt.

  • assertPDFRules is the action that invokes the comparison function

Performing the Rules Check

From Services Workbench, load the checkRules.js file, and click Play Script. After the script has been run, the response tab is populated with the details of what rules were chcked and what was found, with any differences noted.

Sample Output on the Response Tab 

   Rule Name: policy
      Found: AB12345678
      Match: AB12345678
      Font Expected: Arial
      Font Found: Helvetica

This is just the output for the policy element of the rules file.

Comparing PDFs

You can also compare the complete content of two PDF files. Here is a sample of a script for that function.

Sample compareJson.js File

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var $basefilename = "{mds}/OriginalFile.pdf";
var $comparisonfilename = "{mds}/NewFile.pdf";

var response = comparePDF($basefilename,$comparisonfilename);

var objResponse = JSON.parse(response);

var response = objResponse.content;
log("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
log("Base Pdf: " + response.template + "                    Pages Count: " + response.templatePageCount);
log("Comparison Pdf: " + response.pdf + "                Pages Count: " + response.pageCount);
log("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
log("Differences per page:");
var pages = response.pages;
for(var idx = 0; idx < pages.length; idx++) {
      log("        Page: " +  pages[idx].pageId + ": " + pages[idx].differences + " differences.");   
}
log("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
var differences = response.dynamicPdf;
 log("PDF: " + response.pdf +  "\r\n " );
for(var idx = 0; idx < differences.length; idx++) {   
    log("        PageId: " + differences[idx].pageId  + ", Font: " + differences[idx].details.font );
    log("                Found: " + differences[idx].details.pdf + "\r\n");
    log("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
}
  • $basefilename is the name and location of the base PDF file for the comparison. In the sample code this file is OriginalFile.pdf.

  • $comparisonfilename is the name and location of the comparison PDF file. In the sample code this file is NewFile.pdf.

  • $rulesfilename is the name and location of the rules file. In the sample code, this file is rules.txt.

  • comparePDF is the action that invokes the comparison function

Performing the Comparison

From Services Workbench, load the compareJason.js file, click Play Script. After the script has been run, the response tab is populated with the details of what rules were chcked and what was found, with any differences noted.

Sample Output on the Response Tab 

----------------------------------------------------
Base PDF: OriginalFile.pdf    Page Count: 3
Comparison PDF: NewFile.PDF   Page Count: 3
----------------------------------------------------
Differences per page:
   Page: 3: 1 differences
----------------------------------------------------
PDF: NewFile.PDF 
 
    PageId: 3, Font: Helvetica
            Found: $99.99
 

Explanation:

  • Header contains a summary of the comparison, which includes the file names and the number of pages.

  • Differences per page are noted. In this case only one difference was found and it was found on page 3.

  • Report shows the change in the comparison file. In this case it was the text "$99.99" in Helvetica.

 

HTML Comparison Report

The comparison report lists the details of all differences to both text within the two PDF files.

Details include:

  • Text attributes: Font size, formatting

  • Location information: X/Y coordinates, height/width, page number

  • Image information: Report will show both images