On 01.08.2019 13:02, Potgieter, Carlo wrote:
On 31.07.2019 20:26, Potgieter, Carlo wrote:
On 31.07.2019 14:49, Mark Thomas wrote:
On 31/07/2019 13:03, Potgieter, Carlo wrote:
On 31/07/2019 12:48, Potgieter, Carlo wrote:
I was hoping to obtain some assistance. We have used a library to convert MS
Office documents (docx and pptx) to PDF.
This works perfectly in the development environment and also when running
Tomcat in a console window.
The moment we run Tomcat as a service this specific component gives and error.
Unfortunately the error is non-specific so we cannot troubleshoot the origin.
My question is, what would be the difference in running Tomcat as a Service as
oppose to running it in Console that might cause this problem?
Tomcat runs as a different user with different access permissions, particularly
to network shares.
You probably want to set up a Tomcat specific user with the appropriate
permissions.
Mark
Thank you Mark for the quick response.
My first thought was permissions also, however I have attempted to run it with
local, domain and system user, however the same result.
Both local and domain user was part of the local admin group. Is there anything
else I can check?
Are you sure the DDL is being loaded? That normally needs explicit
configuration to point the JVM at the right path.
Look at the docs for for
org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener and configure it to
dump everything. Then compare the console start with the service start.
What is also different when Tomcat runs as a Service or in a console, is where
the JVM that runs tomcat, picks up its environment and command-line switches.
If you are not familiar with this matter, this may help :
verbose explanation :
https://secure-web.cisco.com/16LxnNI0vUhSt5WCJq8xkkulFgI8kkE6jU6nNTTWH
8Edc36MeIASjeU6nUbSA_zE1ivz6c5TGLRI5-1Pf6_zuQkUOEaw8utUuFpuUnCrCLIeiS7
dhXxvll2giIW3fHOBe1_gpGzPiGufx1vE50Dzs9UUSm5Rc1iB9G9UILBUZ6dhLaGa3vAEU
t8bmVvfaGcwlM8tmxid6q8PydRkxPkVHu_02IIO1w4c2yyYp4O9vhwKqUq1OeApnpAj1c0
e2G-t0fT-lxYS5ofL92-i2ZpXEQk9bpTnCXLs0bT0wnFZYQsrFJZ8GQQckDdY-8eBWc946
XK9enjcTwIMehHfk013zuw/https%3A%2F%2Fcwiki.apache.org%2Fconfluence%2Fd
isplay%2FTOMCAT%2FWindows#Windows-Q11
Official page :
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1BYhcwXb2ofGRuNXu8K-JZBV4sFyWUkMe0XaNSYXc
ey93JyiAhWVVK1zM0iJzrwal62xEQvv7bWZTbZIMuGTP_S_2qZdoXT4tLt78CPHzpOJND9
6h28X7R95_fnapxZO1zDvqNUPkrh23BUmyvnfKvqfef2panME2Z0l8GOvPAP4lZdyaSwgc
D0L2TM7oClsAQ4TPAeM8hVEtWCsJsoeQjwh7m4IHyvpPDfPDJ28gRGkBoLQWETM9alb7RH
jMtvclQ7-lMp3IYS9kOzQBDVHACmGkdIqgx-XAWNBjM6Wce6IoYmAeiwIgYmPZ0oClxsov
Fcb1-dH06wAs3t938YQVvw/https%3A%2F%2Ftomcat.apache.org%2Ftomcat-8.5-do
c%2Fwindows-service-howto.html
(Perhaps the application expects some value to be set somewhere..)
Also, above you mention "Unfortunately the error is non-specific..", but maybe
you want to copy the error message here, so that someone else can have a look at it ?
Maybe it triggers some recognition by another user having had the same issue
with that library.
Quickly answering both posts from Mark and Andrei:
Mark: Yes, the DLL is being loaded. There is error handling in place should it
be unsuccessful in accessing any of the components.
I also compared the output of the VersionLoggerListners:
When running as a service and executing the Tomcat8.exe from cmd the
information is the same, however the functionality only works when the .exe is
run from cmd.
When using the Startup.bat script to start the server there are three less
entries and one extra:
Entries not included:
31-Jul-2019 19:34:37.398 INFO [main]
org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line
argument: exit
31-Jul-2019 19:34:37.399 INFO [main]
org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line
argument: -Xms128m
31-Jul-2019 19:34:37.399 INFO [main]
org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line
argument: -Xmx256m
Entry included but not in the other two:
31-Jul-2019 19:37:11.434 INFO [main]
org.apache.catalina.startup.VersionLoggerListener.log Command line
argument: -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
Again using this method to run the server allows the functionality to work.
Andre: From what I could see, everything is loaded the same as all of them uses
the sae JVM. Unless I missed something...which is entirely possible.
The zeonpadpdf we are using consists of 3 components, 2 .jar's and 1
.dll. zeonpadpdf.jar, jacob-1.18.jar, jacob-1.18-x64.dll The error we are receiving
states: "Conversion error" and is generated from the zeonpadpdf.jar which
handles the conversion from .docx to pdf.
This is also the error in the stack trace which doesn't provide much more
information.
Based on what I could find in the zeonpadpdf.jar this is generic error message.
Hope that gives some more context.
1) I remember (from some time ago) that in the Services control panel, there was an
option when defining a Service, like "Allow this service to interact with the
desktop".
If you find it, you may want to set it, and then just redo your test.
That is based on the fact that when you run a Service, normally that task does
not have a console, while when you run a program in a console window (of
course) it does.
That may make the difference if somewhere along the line, one of the components
that you use requires something like .. a console.
Note that setting this may result in some console popping up unexpectedly on
your server machine while a conversion is running. But at least you'll find out
if this is the problem.
2) this is a bit more delicate, and I'm doing some guessing.
As I understand from some browsing for "jacob" and "zeonpadpdf", these things
work in fact by leveraging at the end some Microsoft Office components pre-installed on the machine
on which you run your Tomcat application.
And if you want to do do this in Tomcat, then maybe the application in question
will be used through a web interface, for several users.
I also remember - from some experience a while ago - that somewhere in the
Microsoft Office API interface description, it mentions that Microsoft Office
components are not meant to be used in such a context, and that in any case,
should you want to use this on a server, special Microsoft licensing conditions
may apply.
The current conditions may have changed.
But what I'm saying is that if this is anything else than some exploratory
project, you may want to be careful as to what you're getting into (even if you
do not intend to charge anyone for the result).
Disclaimer : I have no professional or commercial links with Microsoft.
There exist other software packages which convert .docx documents to PDF, some
of them open-source, others with a commercial license, but which do not use any
MS Office components.
One commercial entity of which I know that they do extensive PDF-related things
can be found here : https://www.pdf-tools.com/pdf20/en/home/
You may want to consult them, letting them know exactly what you have in mind.
2d disclaimer : I don't work for them either, but I am a (satisfied) customer.
1) I have enabled the "Allow this service to interact with the desktop" in the
service to no avail. It still provided the same error.
2) Regarding the Microsoft API usage, I was not aware that different licencing
conditions may apply. In all instances we are using a standard enterprise
installation of office on the local dev, testing and production environments.
This is something which I tried to avoid, however with this framework was
unavoidable. (Ideal would have been to have it utilise the office installation
client side however it does not make provision for this which I can understand)
The users are accessing this through a web interface. The process is quite
simple, they browse for the document (either Word or PowerPoint) and then
upload. Then there is an option to preview the document which then generates
the PDF version. It is at this point that it fails.
I am enquiring as to pricing etc on your suggestion above. It seems that it
could also fulfil our requirement, however need to understand this commercially
better.
From what I can see and due to the generic error message, there is very little
we can do in terms of pinpointing where it is failing.
I did look at some description of the API for "zeonpadpdf", and there did not seem to be
any options there to increase the logging level or similar. I did not look at "jacob" per
se, but maybe there is something there that would allow to see the original exception, if any.
I will have to start digging for alternatives.
PS: I wrote the above a bit earlier and whilst digging for an alternative
installed an SDK of another converter. Once installed, our components also
works, so I am thinking this issue most likely relates to how the .dll is
registered and whether there might be additional configuration required on
Windows.
The new SDK also uses the Jacob.jar and Jacob.dll
.. which means that it probably uses the same Microsoft Office pre-installed
components..
In my experience, the providers/developers of such packages are often very "shy" about
talking about licenses that may be required to use proprietary software (in this case MS).
It is understandable in a way (avoid lawyer fees etc.), but one often finds this out only
after expending already considerable time and work on the interface package (like you in
this case). That was the motivation for my above warning.
Considering your email address, I have little doubt that you could ask for advice
in-house, about exactly what your corporate license allows.
Beter safe than sorry.
Thank you for the assistance!
On the more general side, I believe that the information so far seems to indicate that
your issue is not really a tomcat issue, but more something to do with details of
Microsoft Windows Services, and of the external libraries which you are using in your
application. A better place for you to get help with this in the future, may be obtained
from these external respective support forums.
Not that we want to get rid of you, and we're always please to help with anything
regarding tomcat, but the expertise available here may not be what you need now.
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