We have to convert EVERYTHING to images for archiving purpose. DOC, HTML, email, ZIP, PDF, TXT and any document you can read/view on computer. In addition, it must recursive convent on all embed attachment and files in zip.
I know ImgMaker only. Is it the best or I can have something better? My boss ask me to search that are there any alternative other then ImgMaker.
Any open source or profit suggestion are welcome.
There is a whole industry built around this type of function and numerous service providers that charge a fee per document to do this type of conversion. You are better off buying than building it on your own.
The idea of converting Everything is fundamentally a fool’s errand as you would need a single program that could render every file type ever created (in essence recreating every piece of software that ever wrote a data file AND recreating every version of each). Also, not every file format has a format that has a direct rendered form. For example, what do you do with a database file, a DLL,an XML file, a WAV file?
If you are looking for something that does a reasonable job for a large number of formats, there are two main players with OEM toolkits, but both are extremely expensive and neither supports the Java platform directly. I use the former if you have any additional questions.
Stellent (now Oracle) OutsideIn: http://www.oracle.com/technologies/embedded/outside-in.html
Autonomy KeyView: http://www.autonomy.com/content/Products/idol-modules-keyview-viewing/index.en.html
Another possible option is an image print driver like Black Ice, but it has several issues including the need for a copy of every software application on the machine the code is running on, and an operator to dismiss all the inevitable dialogs that will come up when you open the files in the native application. Also, for things like Excel spreadsheets, you usually need some manual tweaking of the spreadsheet to make the printout look right (else you get 900 pages added to your tiff with that one extra column that wouldn’t fit)