Compare PDF Files in AIQ

ThereUse arethis actionsarticle when AIQ needs to compare PDF output by text, structure, selected rules, metadata, page count, or approved binary comparison.

What changed in this article

• Renamed and scoped this duplicate PDF comparison page as a compact reference.
• Aligned it with the web-testing PDF comparison article and clarified when each comparison method is appropriate.
• Added checks for dynamic values, regex/rule maintenance, page count, rendering differences, download path, and evidence review.

Validation workflow

1. Decide whether the comparison should validate full file equality, extracted content, rules, page count, metadata, or selected fields.
2. Normalize dynamic values such as dates, IDs, names, and environment-specific text before comparing.
3. Save comparison evidence in the Testresult Designerso thatreviewers allowscan you to compare two PDF files. The report will detail alllocate the changes,exact basedmismatch.

Review thenote: rulesThis that you specify, onis a pageduplicate bytopic pagearea; basiskeep betweenit 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 fileconsistent with the sameWeb formatting.

These twoTesting 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 function is available as of the AIQ 4.10.0 release.

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 situationspage or rulesconsolidate that will be used for all of your comparisons.later.

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).

{
    "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

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

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("-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------");
}

$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.