Adobe PDF batch OCR autoit script, two pieces missing

[tubaguy0]

Good day,

I would appreciate any help refining and speeding up my script. Disclaimer: I am a autoit and coding newbie.

My script has one main purpose: to OCR many PDF files on a nightly schedule based on date modified.

There are two stages to implementing the script:

• Firstly, to OCR several thousands of files in one go on a one-time basis (and never touch them again unless modified).
• Secondly, for the script to run on a daily schedule to OCR documents saved into the file system every day.

These are the challenges that are involved:

• 1. PDFs must be scanned recursively from several hundred directories contained in one directory, and moved into a single directory for Acrobat to do the batch OCR, because Acrobat batches do not recurse.
• 2. PDFs must be placed back into the file system with the same file name, because the document management system tracks its files through a database.
• 3. The OCR process changes the modified date, so the script needs to ignore files that it has previously OCRd in the past 24 hours.

Number 3 is the only part left, and it is stumping me. My current script logs all of these activities, so I think that I could use that log to ignore OCRd files for 24 hours, but my brain is fried at this point and I'm not sure how to do it beyond a vague notion of writing each line of the log into an array and using the array to tell the script to ignore those files. I have no idea how to accomplish this.

I think that I am going to hear right away that I should be using arrays for the whole process, but I am new to autoit and scripting in general, so if possible please give examples with at least a couple comments telling me what is going on.

I really, really appreciate any help.

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#include<Date.au3>
#include<array.au3>
Opt("ExpandVarStrings", 1)      ;0=don't expand, 1=do expand
Opt("ExpandEnvStrings", 1)      ;0=don't expand, 1=do expand

; Set these! ========================
Dim $OCRStartFolderName = "C:\Worldox Documents\"
Dim $CopyFolder = "C:\OCR Batch In\"
Dim $OCRdFolder = "C:\OCR Batch Out\"
Dim $AcrobatPath = "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\acrobat.exe /n"
; ===================================

Dim $FileCount = 0
ScanWorldoxFolder($OCRStartFolderName)

; Initial Worldox directory scan
Func ScanWorldoxFolder($SourceFolder)
    Local $Search
    Local $File
    Local $FileAttributes
    Local $FullFilePath

    $Search = FileFindFirstFile($SourceFolder & "\*.*")

    While 1
        If $Search = -1 Then
            ExitLoop
        EndIf

        $File = FileFindNextFile($Search)
        If @error Then ExitLoop

        $FullFilePath = $SourceFolder & "\" & $File
        $FileAttributes = FileGetAttrib($FullFilePath)
        $FileDate = FileGetTime($FullFilePath,0,0)
        $FileModifiedDiff = _DateDiff('D',$FileDate[0] & "/" & $FileDate[1] & "/" & $FileDate[2] & " " & $FileDate[3] & ":" & $FileDate[4] & ":" & $FileDate[5],_NowCalc()) ; h for hours, D for days
        $FullPathStringReplaceDash = StringReplace($FullFilePath,"-","+")
        $FullPathStringReplaceSlash = StringReplace($FullPathStringReplaceDash,"\","-")
        $FullPathStringReplaceColon = StringReplace($FullPathStringReplaceSlash,":","-")
        $FullPathString = $FullPathStringReplaceColon ; unnecessary for code but necessary for sanity

        If StringInStr($FileAttributes,"D") Then
            ScanWorldoxFolder($FullFilePath)
        Else
            If $FileModifiedDiff <= 5000 Then ; If any selected file has been modified in 48 hours or less
                If StringInStr($FullFilePath, ".pdf", 0) Then ; And is a pdf document
                    FileCopy($FullFilePath, $CopyFolder & $FullPathString, 1) ; Copy it to the CopyFolder
                    CopiedLogFile($FullFilePath) ; Log its file path
                    CopiedLogFile("Last Modified: " & $FileDate[0] & "/" & $FileDate[1] & "/" & $FileDate[2] & " " & $FileDate[3] & ":" & $FileDate[4] & ":" & $FileDate[5])
                    CopiedLogFile("Days since Modification: " & $FileModifiedDiff) ; And how many hours since modification
                EndIf
            EndIf
        EndIf
    WEnd
    FileClose($Search)
EndFunc

; Activity log for directory scan
Func CopiedLogFile($FileName)
    FileWriteLine($CopyFolder & StringReplace(_NowDate(),"/","-") & " Copied Filelist.txt",$FileName)
    $FileCount += 1
    ToolTip($FileName,0,0)
EndFunc

Run($AcrobatPath) ; Run Acrobat and open Batch processing to OCR the proper folder (configured in Acrobat), then close Acrobat
    WinWait ("Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended")
    WinActivate ("Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended")
    WinWaitActive ("Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended")
    Sleep (500)
    Send ("!a") ; Advanced
    Sleep (500)
    Send ("d") ; Document Processing
    Sleep (500)
    Send ("b") ; Batch Processing
    Sleep (500)
    WinWait ("Batch Sequences") ; A batch sequence called "Batch OCR" should already be configured for this section to work properly
    Sleep (1000)
    Send ("s") ; Run sequence
    Send ("{ENTER}") ; Start the batch
    WinWait ("Warnings") ; Batch is complete
    Sleep (1000)
    Send ("{ENTER}") ; Enter "OK" in warnings window, closing it
    Sleep (2000)
WinClose("Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended")

Dim $FileCount = 0
; ScanCopyFolder($CopyFolder)

Dim $FileCount = 0
ScanCopyFolder($CopyFolder)

; CopyFolder directory scan
Func ScanCopyFolder($SourceFolder)
    Local $Search
    Local $File
    Local $FileAttributes
    Local $FullFilePath

    $Search = FileFindFirstFile($SourceFolder & "\*.*")

    While 1
        If $Search = -1 Then
            ExitLoop
        EndIf

        $File = FileFindNextFile($Search)
        If @error Then ExitLoop

        $FullFilePath = $SourceFolder & "\" & $File
        $FileString = $File
        $FileDate = FileGetTime($FullFilePath,0,0)
        $FileAttributes = FileGetAttrib($FullFilePath)
        If StringInStr($FullFilePath, ".pdf", 0) Then ; And is a pdf document
        $FileReplaceSlash = StringReplace($File,"-","\") ; Replace C--x-x+x- with C\\x\x+x\
        $FileReplaceDash = StringReplace($FileReplaceSlash,"+","-") ; Replace C:\x\x-x\
        $FileString = $FileReplaceDash ; unnecessary for code but necessary for sanity
        EndIf

        If StringInStr($FileAttributes,"D") Then
            ScanCopyFolder($FullFilePath)
        Else
            FileMove($FullFilePath, $OCRdFolder & $FileString, 9) ; Move it to the OCRdFolder
            MovedLogFile($OCRdFolder & "\" & $FileString) ; Log its file path
            MovedLogFile("Last Modified: " & $FileDate[0] & "/" & $FileDate[1] & "/" & $FileDate[2] & " " & $FileDate[3] & ":" & $FileDate[4] & ":" & $FileDate[5])
        EndIf

    WEnd

    FileClose($Search)
EndFunc

; Activity log for directory scan
Func MovedLogFile($FileName)
    FileWriteLine($OCRdFolder & StringReplace(_NowDate(),"/","-") & " OCRd Filelist.txt",$FileName)
    $FileCount += 1
    ToolTip($FileName,0,0)
EndFunc

[tubaguy0]

I think that maybe I didn't ask a proper question yesterday, so please let me rephrase and condense.

I need my script to check a list of file names in a text file, and ignore them when processing the first function of my script so that those files are not passed along to the OCR section. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks for your time.

[tubaguy0]

With the help of PSaltyDS and jebus495, I've got a working script that is probably pretty ugly and inefficient (my fault, not theirs), but it does exactly what I set out to do, so I want to say thanks to them.

Edited October 16, 2009 by tubaguy0