pdf macro and sharpview macro
Asked by jerry zhang:

I test the latest version confluence.

i want add a large pdf file(about 11MB) in page, use PDF macro and sharpview pdf macro, but all canot show this pdf file on the page.Butif i reduce the PDF file size, like 5M, then i can see it on the page.

So I have a problem, if there have a limit about PDF file size when it will be show on the page? if have, should I change it and add this limit? if have not, could you tell me why i canot see this large PDF file?

thanks very much!


Answers:
author: Kinto Soft
body: As this plugin seems based on [FlexPaper](http://flexpaper.devaldi.com/) please, let me explain why you experience problems with big documents.

SWFTools transforms PDF into SWF files and FlexPaper loads the SWF file and displays the content. As David said, FlexPaper cycles through the pages in order to display them. Just it is the problem: FlexPaper loads the same document once per page. A single document instance cannot be shared across all pages, because one single instance can only show one page at the same time.

So, if your document size is "S" Mb and you have "P" pages, FlexPaper loads the "S" Mb x "P" times. Further more, displaying a SWF files is an expensive task for Flash Player in terms of CPU and memory, so....

If your document size is 11Mb and it has (for example) 300 pages then it is loaded 300 times in memory and the required memory would be 11Mb x 300 = 3.300 Mb \~ 3 Gb.

Hence, as David says, reducing the overall documet size is a good option, but the number of pages too. A 11Mb document size with 10 pages would be displayed without much problems. (11Mb x 10 = 110 Mb).

comments: author: jerry zhang
body: Hi,Pablo, thanks very much. My pdf file is 11M and 200 pages, it need about 2G memeory and it is all for my computer.

Thanks agian, i will deal with my PDF file and reduce the size and pages.


author: Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]
body: Jerry contacted us - and sent us his PDF.

We are reviewing this issue and will post back the results.

On the face, there are a number of things involved here, as it turns out.

* Brand new Confluence (eval - only week old)
* Low resource allocation
* PDF is all chinese fonts/characters - which is simply, different   
  (although we do have a solution for Chinese support, it is not in baseline plugin; we will likely release that officially after this is resolved).
* Yes, very large PDF file - 11MB, 200 pages.

Our engineering is reviewing your points as well @pablo.

Best,

AppFusions


author: David at David Simpson Apps
body: Jerry, do you have a problem with both of these macros with the large PDF file?

I believe that the PDF macro converts each page in the PDF to a static image and then cycles through these images on clicking the forward/back buttons.

SharpView converts the PDF into Flash format so that it can be embedded.

In both cases, keeping the file size to a minimum with help with rendering the macro and also helps your users to see the content more quickly.

Are these files very graphics intensive? If so, perhaps you could reduce the quality settings of the graphics in the PDF.

comments: author: jerry zhang
body: Hi,David, thank you very much.

I test again, and PDF macro is OK but sharpview canot show, I think this is PDF macro reduce the PDF file quality auto but sharpview is high resolution.

You advice is good, i think reduce the PDF file size is right method.

thanks.


author: Pedro Rodrigues
body: Hi,

This is a late response, but you might find it usefull:

The Link Preview ([](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.xpandit.plugins.linkpreview-confluence)<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.xpandit.plugins.linkpreview-confluence>) is a great Confluence Utility. You can preview PDF documents, images and webpages, simply by hovering them

Try it now.

Best Regards,

PMRodrigues


author: Kinto Soft
body: Ellen,  

I don't try to say that you advertise your plugin. Reading the original post, it's clear that the AppFusions guy is trying to answer/help, not advertising.  

Unfortunately, I chose that question in a sort of random example to go on a parallel theme. Thinking on war terms, I would say these are collateral effects.  

I also opened another question in order to don't disturb the original post and minimize the number of victims.


author: Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]
body: Hi Jerry -

We have some large corps using SharpView with alot of users and no complaints, or performance issues - and while Pablo's comments are interesting, not sure that it is accurate.

Also not sure why he would be the technical expert on our solution. Thats ok - lets get to the solution of your problem, which is the right goal.

==

Glad you are pushing the button. Its good input.

Please email us at [info@appfusions.com](mailto:info@appfusions.com) - and lets resolve this properly to see what is going on.

One thing we have encountered is errant PDF "types" created by non-official PDF generators, that cause it to not display in SharpView. This does not happen often, but occassionally and can fix.

Indeed FlexPaper is a great technology that we did leverage in this solution - and also extended our technology support in subsequent versions since we have yet to find a better one. We licensed it for distribution, and also of course built out all the integration aspects for easy usability in Confluence, and for sustained versioning support. What you need in a product.

Talk with you soon at [info@appfusions.com](mailto:info@appfusions.com), or you most certainly can contact me direct.

Best,

Ellen

AppFusions

[ellen@appfusions.com](mailto:ellen@appfusions.com)   
831-247-9417 (cell)

comments: author: Kinto Soft
body: Ellen,

I wrote my answer to help Jerry in order to understand FlexPaper performance issues. FlexPaper seems based on this [Igor Costa's article](http://www.igorcosta.org/?p=231) (afected by the performance issue for large PDF files). This article describes the core solution implemented by FlexPaper project which is an open source project. In March-2011 I read the whole FlexPaper project code. Line by line. And it works as I've described above.


author: Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]
body: Interesting article.

"Posted on \<abbr class="published" title="2009-02-03T23:56:31-0200"\>February 3, 2009 -- 11:56 pm"\</abbr\> Today is November 10, 2011.

==

If we had a product that was causing performance issues all over the Confluence ecosystem, that wouldn't be much of a product. In fact, curse that product!

Performance problems with SharpView are not our experience, and we have had many customers stress test it. And happy for them to do so.

However, the field discovery job/customer experience input for ANY product is never done, if you are committed to your products. And technology does not stand still.

Atlassian, as a good testament with persistence to continually getting better and better, is inspiring. We like to take a page from their book, and are aligned on that same philosophy.

Unless you use different psuedonyms (possible - since you do not have your full name here), according to our records, we have not issued you an eval license in the past. If you'd like to discuss our product - contact us direct please.


author: Kinto Soft
body: I don't agree. I speak about FlexPaper. You like Atlassian products, me too. Specially, JIRA. Even it's a great product, sometimes users experince performance problems.

In my opinion, I provided useful information about the origin of the FlexPaper performance problems (for big PDFs only). I'm hapy to hear you fixed it, but it does not corresponds to what I've read in this post.

Anyway, I have not any doubut about FlexPaper is likely one of the best PDF viewers and you have also done a very great integration job.


author: Ellen Feaheny [AppFusions]
body: fair enough.


author: JamieA
body: I don't think Pablo claimed to be a technical expert on "your solution", and last I looked, this was a public forum so everyone and anyone is entitled to chime in. Moreover, his comments were interesting and seem valid.


Tags: limit

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