Integrating PDF interface into Java application
| Published date | 09 September 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2014-0009 |
| Date | 09 September 2014 |
| Pages | 495-508 |
| Author | Quan Lu,Gao Liu,Jing Chen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Integrating PDF interface
into Java application
Quan Lu and Gao Liu
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, and
Jing Chen
School of Information Management, Central China Normal University,
Wuhan, China
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 Digital library, User experience, Index mechanism, Integrated interface, Java,
Portable document format (PDF)
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
Nowadays, there is a large number of portable document format (PDF) documents in
digital librariesand full-text databases,such as e-books, e-journal and other relative files
(Adobe Systems Inc., 2012). They are increasingly popular and significant to libraries
(Nelson, 2008). The PDF documents carry a combination of information in various
medium formats,such as text, image, font, color,symbol and shapes, etc. which bringthe
readers an unprecedented reading experience. Compared with the media formats such as
TXT,HTML and extensible markup language(XML), PDF has the advantage of making
describing and printing a document easier (Adobe Systems Inc., 2012).
However, the PDF has its inherent defects. Most PDF documents do not have basic
high-level document logical structural information, which makes the retrieve and reuse
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Received 8 June 2013
Revised 23 January 2014
26 January 2014
27 February 2014
18 March 2014
Accepted 7 April 2014
Library Hi Tech
Vol.32 No. 3, 2014
pp. 495-508
rEmeraldGroup PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2014-0009
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work provided by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71273195 and No. 71303089).
495
Integrating PDF
interface into
Java application
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