Thread: Merging PDF Files using PDFBox in Sub/Directories

Hi,

I am currently trying to create a program that merges all the files in directories and sub-directories (automatically) and rename them according to the directory/sub0directory they are in. I am trying to acheive this using the PDFBox library.

As of now I have found a script that reads all the files and folders in a directory and sub-directories.

My problem is that I don't know how to acheive the merging of PDFs (i.e. merging the files and renaming them according to the folder name).

I found a tutorial on how to merge files with PDFBox here but I need to apply it to do it automatically for all the files in the directories.

The code that lists all the files and folders is this:

import java.io.File;
 
public class Main {
 
  static int spc_count=-1;
 
  static void Process(File aFile) {
    spc_count++;
    String spcs = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < spc_count; i++)
      spcs += " ";
    if(aFile.isFile())
      System.out.println(spcs + "[FILE] " + aFile.getName());
    else if (aFile.isDirectory()) {
      System.out.println(spcs + "[DIR] " + aFile.getName());
      File[] listOfFiles = aFile.listFiles();
      if(listOfFiles!=null) {
        for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++)
          Process(listOfFiles[i]);
      } else {
        System.out.println(spcs + " [ACCESS DENIED]");
      }
    }
    spc_count--;
  }
 
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String nam = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\student3\\Desktop\\PDFs";
    File aFile = new File(nam);
    Process(aFile);
  }
 
 
 
}

Any help please?

Thanks & Regards,
blivori

program that merges all the files in directories and sub-directories

Could you explain what it means to merge files?
Do you want to copy the contents of all the files into one file?

In a folder there are various PDF files for example in PDF_Folder1 there are 5 files PDF1, PDF2, PDF3 and PDF4.

Now what I want to do is Merge all the PDFs (PDF1-4) and automatically rename it according to the folder name, which in this case is PDF_Folder1.

Example:

[DIR] PDF FOLDER 1
[____FILE] PDF1
[____FILE] PDF2
[____FILE] PDF3
[____FILE] PDF4
[__SUB-DIR] PDF FOLDER 2
[____FILE] PDF1
[____FILE] PDF2
[____FILE] PDF3

So:
- All the PDF files in PDF FOLDER 1 will be merged as a single PDF and the output file called PDF FOLDER 1.
- All the PDF files in Sub-Directory PDF FOLDER 2 will be merged as a single PDF and the output file called PDF FOLDER 2

Thanks for you reply,
blivori

I'm not sure about how to preserve the contents of a PDF file, but for text files:
Open output file
begin loop to work thru a list of files
copy next file to output file
end loop
close output file

I was trying to acheive it by using PDFBox.

It can be done.

The problem is how to get the files in the directory and sub-directory, add them to some kind of array or db, and link them with the PDFBox Merger Utility

Is this a question of reading API doc for the PDFBox Merger utility to understand how to use it?

Kind of..

I just want to know how to save the files in some sort of array or database and the use the PDFBox Merger Utility to rename it according to the folder/sub-folder the original PDF files where stored in.

save the files in some sort of array

Your code does this now:
File[] listOfFiles = aFile.listFiles(); // saves file references in an array

What else do you need?

yes, now I need to rename the merged pdf according to the folder or sub-folder.

basically you put the software in the main folder and it automatically processes the files in the folders and sub-folders and renames the files according to the directory they are in.

You can use the File class to rename files.