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Integrating PDF interface into Java application

Quan Lu (School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)
Gao Liu (School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)
Jing Chen (School of Information Management, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China)

Library Hi Tech

ISSN: 0737-8831

Article publication date: 9 September 2014

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach to integrate portable document format (PDF) interface into Java-based digital library application. It bridges the gap between conducting content operation and viewing on PDF document asynchronously.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors first review some related research and discuss PDF and its drawbacks. Next, the authors propose the design steps and implementation of three modes of displaying PDF document: PDF display, image display and extensible markup language (XML) display. A comparison of these three modes has been carried out.

Findings

The authors find that the PDF display is able to completely present the original PDF document contents and thus obviously superior to the other two displays. In addition, the format specification of PDF-based e-book does not perform well; lack of standardization and complex structure is exposed to the publication.

Practical implications

The proposed approach makes viewing the PDF documents more convenient and effective, and can be used to retrieve and visualize the PDF documents and to support the personalized function customization of PDF in the digital library applications.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a novel approach to solve the problem between content operation and the view of PDF synchronously, providing users a new tool to retrieve and reuse the PDF documents. It contributes to improve the service specification and policy of viewing the PDF for digital library. Besides, the personalized interface and public index make further development and application more feasible.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71273195 and No. 71303089).

Citation

Lu, Q., Liu, G. and Chen, J. (2014), "Integrating PDF interface into Java application", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 495-508. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2014-0009

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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