Urgent Help Needed: PDF Redaction Issue Post-Migration

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I used to work on PDF redaction activities back when the tool was only compatible with Windows Legacy, and it worked seamlessly. However, after migrating to the latest version of Windows, I’ve encountered an issue.

The tool identifies the keywords and indicates that the redaction process is taking place, but there’s no log or confirmation to show whether the redaction was successful or not. Upon closer inspection, it appears the document isn’t being redacted at all.

I’ve attached an image for reference. I’d greatly appreciate any insights or solutions from the community to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance for your support!

image
image375×205 5.4 KB

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  1. Check Compatibility: Ensure the tool you’re using for redaction is fully compatible with the updated Windows version. Look for patches, updates, or compatibility settings provided by the vendor.
  2. Logs and Debugging: Enable detailed logging in your redaction tool, if available, to verify where the process might be failing. If there’s no confirmation of redaction, this might indicate an incomplete processing pipeline or misconfigured settings.
  3. Keyword Mapping: Verify that the keyword identification settings are correctly configured. The migration might have altered how the tool interacts with document layers or text extraction.
  4. Redaction Output: Confirm the tool is saving the output in the expected location and format. Ensure write permissions are available for the directory where the redacted files are stored.
  5. Reinstall Dependencies: Legacy tools often rely on older frameworks or libraries. Check if the necessary dependencies (like .NET Framework) are installed and up to date.
  6. Test on Another System: Test the redaction process on a similar Windows version to see if the issue is reproducible.
  7. Upgrade or Switch Tools: If the issue persists, consider upgrading to a newer version of the redaction tool or using a different tool compatible with your current environment, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro or other modern PDF redaction software.
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Hi. This tool is working perfectly fine with PDF and PNG files. However, its not working for JEPG files.

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  • Check Image Processing Activities: Ensure that the image processing activities or packages you’re using support JPEG format. In UiPath, activities like Read Image, OCR (e.g., Tesseract OCR, Google OCR), and Image Exists should work with JPEG files. However, if the tool is not recognizing JPEG files, consider converting them to PNG format using UiPath’s built-in activities or an external tool (like an Image Conversion library).

  • Convert JPEG to PNG: If the tool does not work with JPEG files but works with PNG, a simple workaround is to convert the JPEG files to PNG before performing any redaction or processing activities. You can use the Assign activity to invoke a PowerShell script or use UiPath’s Invoke Method activity to convert the file format.Example code to convert JPEG to PNG using PowerShell:
    $image = [System.Drawing.Image]::FromFile(“C:\path\to\your\file.jpeg”)
    $image.Save(“C:\path\to\your\file.png”, [System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat]::Png)

  • File Permissions: Ensure the file permissions on the JPEG files are correct, as sometimes files with restricted permissions may not be processed.

  • OCR Configuration: If you are using OCR to extract text from JPEG images, ensure the OCR engine is correctly configured. Some OCR engines may have difficulty reading compressed formats like JPEG due to the lossy compression. Try using higher-quality JPEG images or adjusting the OCR settings.

  • Tool/Package Update: Ensure the activity packages in UiPath are updated to their latest versions, as updates may include bug fixes or additional support for various file formats, including JPEG.

  • Test with Multiple JPEGs: Sometimes the issue might be with specific JPEG files. Try testing with different JPEG files to rule out problems with specific images (e.g., file corruption, resolution, or compression issues).

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Hi,

I have reviewed all the pointers, but I am still unable to resolve the issue. It appears that this tool only supports redacting PDF files. I attempted to save JPEG and PNG files as Image objects, but unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Previously, on the legacy platform, the tool was capable of redacting PDF, JPEG, and PNG files. I am unsure about the current workflow it uses for redaction.

As a potential workaround, I am considering converting JPEG and PNG files to PDF using a PDF connector and then applying the redaction activity.

I would appreciate your guidance on this matter.

This image appears to be a log or report detailing the processing and redaction of a PDF file named "Landrecord.pdf," including steps such as keyword identification, date recognition, and the final saving location of the document. (Captioned by AI)
This image appears to be a log or report detailing the processing and redaction of a PDF file named "Landrecord.pdf," including steps such as keyword identification, date recognition, and the final saving location of the document. (Captioned by AI)326×488 8.13 KB

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  1. Convert the Images to PDF: Since the redaction tool in UiPath works with PDFs, you can convert the JPEG or PNG files to PDF format.
  • Use the “Convert Image to PDF” activity in UiPath or an external library (like PDFSharp or Adobe Acrobat integration) to convert the image files to PDFs.
  1. Apply Redaction:
  • Once the image is converted to PDF, you can use UiPath’s built-in PDF Redaction activities. These activities allow you to redact text, annotations, or areas on the PDF as needed.
  1. Return Converted PDF: After redacting, you can either save the modified PDF or convert it back to an image format if necessary (e.g., using an external tool or API for conversion).

Steps in UiPath:

  1. Use ‘Convert Image to PDF’: If you’re working with a simple JPEG or PNG file, use the “Invoke Method” activity to call a library or tool for conversion (for example, using a custom script or PDFSharp API).
  2. Redaction in PDF: Once the file is a PDF, use UiPath’s “Read PDF” and “Redact PDF” activities to remove the desired content.
  3. Handle Output: Save the final redacted document or convert it back to image format if required.
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We are working on an official PDF redaction activity to replace the Marketplace package.

Will let you know when we have the MVP out.

Until then, can you please detail what features of the activity are you using? What are the most used arguments? Do you use redaction codes? Do you pass on lists of keywords to be generally redacted? Do you usually use an ExtractionResult input?

Thank you!

Ioana