The following improvements are now available for the Python integration:

• Selecting the page when placing a PDF is now possible
• Consistency updates

In comet_pdf the function table::broaden_to_frame ignores the weight of the frame strokes. If the frame has strokes > 0, the table extends beyond the frame on the right.

This error has been fixed. Additionally, the cell strokes weight of the left and right cells of the table are included in the calculation.

I have installed Python 3.10 on my Ubuntu 22.04. But comet_pdf always expects me to install 3.8. But this version is not available for Ubuntu 22.04.

Unfortunately, we made a small mistake when determining the available Python version under Linux. The error is fixed.

Using the Python function Page.setSize will reproducible crash InDesign. The error occurs on the Mac only.

The bug is fixed now.

The document::get_links function and all of the frame::doclink functions are now available for comet_pdf too:

• frame::doclink::get
• frame::doclink::get_frame
• ...

The Excel import (e.g. excel::read) now reads all standard number formats and all date/time formats. Only user-defined numbers are not yet imported in an Excel-compliant way.

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration, inlucing a bugfix for the notorious 'ModuleNotFoundError'.
For more information see here

Comet-Notes with no or only an empty text in their comments are not exported as PDF notes by comet_pdf.

This is done now.

When I export the Comet notes with comet_pdf, Unicode characters are automatically converted to <0xXXXX>. But this should happen only in TaggedText, right? But not e.g. in title and responsible of a note.

Yes, of course you are right. The error is fixed.

When I let comet_pdf edit a document with Comet notes and save it with --autosave, the rounded corners of the Comet Notes are lost.

Yepp, this is solved now :-)

If a frame has frame AND group notes, then the PDF notes that comet_pdf generates from it (with the --annot option) will overlap.

This problem is solved.

Comet notes with a page index are always placed one page behind the given page by comet_pdf when exporting with --annot.

The problem is solved now.

If the option --annot is given (Create PDF notes from the Comet Notes) the creation of the PDF fails with the PDFlib error 'content for value must not by empty' in function PDF_create_annotation.

The problem is fixed now. It's a side effect of the new outlined Comet Notes introduced in v4.2.R31859.

When I replace an image with comet_pdf and frame::image with kPlaceLikeExisting, the new image is displayed in exactly the same size as before. But if the new image has a different aspect ratio than the old image, the new image will be distorted.

Unfortunately, this is true. We now adjust (as in InDesign^®) the height according to the new aspect ratio. This solves the problem.

By optimizing the file queries, we were able to achieve a significant increase in performance. In XML offline data connections, this can reduce the execution time by up to 15%.

Please Note: By using Web Images and in other data connection types (ODBC, SOAP, PubServer), the performance increase can be significantly lower.

With the -ap option comet_pdf can mark the text placeholders in the PDF. This is great. Can I also show the states of the placeholders somehow?

We used a little trick: We use fixed strong colors instead of the symbols and write the text in white above. The colors used are described here.

Unfortunately, when I load or update text placeholders with comet_pdf, the states of the placeholders are not written to the output W2ML. If a document created this way is then opened in InDesign, the old status (or OKAY) is still there. With frame placeholders, on the other hand, it works.

Yes, the information for text placeholders is transported via the tag. But this has no indication for the status.

We have added a corresponding attribute to the tag, so the status of the text placeholders can now also be transported back and forth between InDesign and comet_pdf. The attribute is named "state" and have the sync state values described in placeholder::set_sync.

Every time a template is to be inserted, comet_pdf crashes immediately under Mac OS 13 (Ventura). In the crash log the last thing is about csystem::ethnetID.

The EthernetID is used to get unique IDs for the placeholders. Apparently Apple has changed something about the corresponding function. In any case, we fetch the EthernetID a bit differently now. This solves the problem.

If the list of frames contains frames on different pages, the itemlist::move_to function does not work correctly with comet_pdf. Only the frames of the side of the first frame are moved correctly.

The problem is solved now.

The following cScript functions are available for comet_pdf now too:

• table::cell::get_cellid
• table::cell::get_rowid
• table::cell::get_colid

Also arbitrary curves (and not only straight lines) can now be displayed with line ends (arrows). Here's a small screenshot:

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration:

New functions
Several bugfixes
and more...

For more information see here

Our customer thinks that it used to be possible to use a page layout or page reorganization in such a way that the distance to the next product was not increased by hidden frames.

This is a regression of fix FogBugz 32585

We reverted the change and are exploring other options

When I define a path (e.g. a curved line), this shape is always closed. An additional line is always drawn from the end point to the start point of the curve.

FXD

FXD

FXD

We now properly update the value of gLen before executing the Python script

priint:comet URLs for the media proxy cannot be loaded if the download URL contains encoded characters of the like %3A. These characters are apparently converted back before the download.

In the example the %XX's are re-translated into their original letters. But the included download URL must be passed on unchanged:

https://aaa.bbb.de/...?downloadUrl=https%3A%2F%2F...
https://aaa.bbb.de/...?downloadUrl=https://...

Yes, in the plugins any corrections are made to the URLs. This was exactly the default in other cases and without these corrections these URLs will no longer work. Since we can't decide which parts of a URL need correction and which don't, I suppress the correction in all URLs that contain the text 

    ?downloadUrl=http

(in exactly this notation!) after consulting our IT. This solves the problem (again : for exactly such URLs).

I would need some arrowed lines in comet_pdf. Is that possible?

We added the full range of line ends suppported by InDesign into comet_pdf too (lot of work). See here for detailed information.

Please note : You also need to use InDesing plugins of at least v4.2 R31360 to create the according W2MLs!

Frames with an outer or centered contour are placed incorrectly by frame::moveto. You can easily reproduce the problem with a frame with a outer contour and the following function that moves the given frame to its current position:

int mvframe (int uid)
{
	ItemRef 	fr = item::alloc ();
	float   	l, r, t, b;

    item::define (fr, 0, uid);
    frame::bbox(fr, &l, &t, &r, &b);
    frame::moveto (fr, l, t);
    item::release (fr);

    return 0;
}

This problem is fixed.

I have to test the same renderer command over and over again but with different data files. I could change the datafiles.xml each time or give the call a global variable or rename the file each time. But all this is somehow always cumbersome and I forget the different filenames even after two days. Is there not a better solution?

For example, you could define different shortcuts. Anyway, we have another solution:

We have made a renderer version of the good old askpopup2. The function does not support database calls and xmlqueries. But if you fill the IDTypeList of the function, the entries are shown in the Terminal and with the input of a number you can select an entry.