Improvements in PDF Mapper v1.10.0

The new version 1.10.0 of PDF Mapper introduces two key new features: AI-powered assistants for field mapping and function blocks, and enhanced preprocessing functions for even more efficient EDI mapping. This allows layout mappings to be created in less than 10 minutes – instead of the previous 15 minutes – while maintaining consistently deterministic, 100% reliable results.

Faster EDI Mappings with AI Assistants

In addition to the existing AI assistant for area mapping, the previously manual field mapping is now also supported by an AI assistant that suggests suitable field mappings for each recognized text element (e.g., order number, delivery date, item number, quantity).

Users can review, correct, and adopt these suggestions with just a few clicks, significantly reducing configuration effort and making complete PDF-to-XML/EDI mapping achievable in under 10 minutes.

AI – but still 100% reliable results

The AI ​​assistant generates layout mapping suggestions that the user can then confirm or adjust; the actual processing remains rule-based and deterministic, as usual.

This combines AI-supported configuration with proven, 100% accurate PDF mapping technology: mappings set up once continue to deliver reproducible, verified results in production.

AI Assistant for Field Mapping in Detail

The AI ​​Assistant for Field Mapping analyzes the header, position, and footer of the PDF document and suggests suitable fields and types (value, anchor, value+anchor, as with manual field mapping).

The selection of suggestions can be controlled using confidence levels, invalid duplicate assignments can be easily corrected, and only explicitly selected suggestions are included in the field mapping – full control with significantly fewer clicks.

Function Module Assistant: Automatic Processing Logic

The new Function Module Assistant automatically identifies suitable functions to convert the extracted raw PDF data into the neutral format.

It recognizes, among other things, different date and number formats, addresses, and order units, and suggests appropriate function modules for each process step, which can then be refined manually as usual. By default, function modules for all process steps can be determined with a single click; alternatively, the assistant can be activated for specific steps.

This allows basic rules to be generated automatically first, and then project-specific special cases to be added – including country-specific requirements for country-specific formats.

Preprocessing: More Control Over Disruptive Text

New filters in preprocessing remove invisible text outside the page boundaries and text groups in defined areas, such as headers or footers. This allows you to remove text that interferes with the layout mapping. This simplifies the assignment of relevant fields and ensures that only the information actually needed is processed further.

Notes for Function Modules

Function modules can be supplemented with usage notes, such as information on specific conversion rules in the project.

Improvements and Fixes

Version 1.10.0 also improves error handling for incorrect file names, refines details in the user interface of the assistant functions, and fixes a bug with text filter specifications involving positions.

Conclusion

With version 1.10.0, setting up new layout mappings is significantly faster, without compromising the transparency and reliability of the results.

Users benefit from AI-supported suggestions for field assignment and processing logic, but remain in complete control of the mapping at all times – from initial configuration to stable production operation.

Improvements in Version 1.10.0

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.10.01:

New functions:

  • Preprocessing
    • Filter for invisible text. Text that lies outside the page boundaries is removed.
    • Filter for text groups within a range, for example, to remove lines from the header or footer of a page.
  • Notes on the use of a function module can be recorded.
  • AI assistant for creating field mappings.
  • Assistant for automatically creating function modules for adapting data from the PDF to the neutral format.
  • Country setting for function modules

Changes:

  • Improved error handling for incorrect file names.
  • Minor cleanups in the user interface for the assistant functions.
  • Bug fixes in preprocessing for text filter specifications with positions.

Improvements in Version 1.9.1

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.9.1:

New functions:

  • The settings for partner identification have been expanded to include the comparison operators text not equal to, text not contained, text does not start with and text does not match regular expression.

Changes:

  • The component for reading PDF text is more tolerant of PDF structural errors, invalid characters, and missing or incorrect font information.
  • Minor user interface improvements 

Improvements in Version 1.9.0

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.9.0:

New functions:

  • Wizard “Transfer layout mapping”
  • When correcting a document, use the “For correction” button to provide the current PDF document as a test data set for adjustments to the layout mapping.

Changes to function blocks:

  • Separate address line into elements: Number of NAME fields set variably, default is 3 as before.
  • Convert date in text to ISO date: Bug fix for format parser ddmmyyyy
  • Header extended for use in XSLTs for validation and in-house format

Additional components for use in plugins are provided.

Improvements in Version 1.8.3

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.8.3:

New function blocks:

  • Convert date in text to ISO date
  • Convert calendar week to ISO date
  • Convert date or calendar week to text to ISO
  • Replace text parts with regular expression
  • Determine decimal number from text

A detailed description of the function blocks can be found in the PDF-Mapper help – Description of the function blocks.

Improvements in Version 1.8.2

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.8.2:

  • Area mapping
    • Toolbar: Automatically specify anchor texts (-P:) and the associated UnDo function.
    • AI-powered area assignment wizard determines suggestions for configuring area assignment
  • Check Area Assignment
  • Field mapping
    • Toolbar: Automatically specify anchor texts (-P:) and the associated UnDo function.
  • PreProcessingRoute after common input
  • Fix for group.xq: Header table end set from default 0.0 to 999999990.0 – allows reading header tables without end identifier

Extensions in PDF Mapper v1.8.2

The new version 1.8.2 of the PDF-Mapper is now available for download! Of course, our PDF-Mapper customers will automatically receive the new update after publication.

The latest update of the PDF-Mapper offers, among other things, an AI-supported assistant for area assignment, functions for specifying the assignment rules in area and field assignment, and a visual check option for area assignment.
In this article we give a brief overview of the most important innovations, some of which can also be seen in the video:

1. Area Assignment Wizard

The Area Assignment Wizard is AI-powered and allows you to get suggestions for configuring area assignment mapping. These suggestions can be viewed, changed and adopted instead of manual assignment. This can reduce the effort required to create the configuration.

2. Check area assignment

The “Check area assignment” function can be used to visually check the area assignment settings.

The view shows the test results in the document for the various assignments. A green dot shows a positive test result, a red dot marks assignments that should be checked. A detailed display can be opened for the individual test results. It shows the (regular) expression used for the assignment and a list of the texts corresponding to this expression in the document. When you move the mouse over this list, the text found in the document is highlighted in color on the left.

3. Clarification of mapping rules via regular expressions

To make it easier to specify assignment rules that are as precise as possible, there is the “Automatically specify fixed identifiers (-P:)” function in the toolbar above the document view. Using the function searches all existing mappings in the document – without already specifying a mapping rule (-P:) – and automatically creates the most accurate mapping rules possible. In the figure, the assignment rule “-P:^Quantity$” is created for the text “Quantity”, i.e. the text may only contain the word “Quantity” (any existing special characters for regular expressions are automatically prefixed with a \ as literal and not replaced as a metacharacter).

The function “Remove automatic identifier clarifications (-P:)” again removes all automatically created mapping rules.

The function is available in the area and field assignment.

Extensions in PDF Mapper v1.8.1

The new version 1.8.1 of the PDF-Mapper is now available for download! Of course, our PDF-Mapper customers will automatically receive the new update after publication.

The latest update of the PDF-Mapper offers partner and document type-specific pre-processing options – for specially created PDF documents, among other things – as well as a few other small adjustments. In this article we give a brief overview of the most important innovations:

Read More…

Improvements in Version 1.8.1

The following changes are part of PDF-Mapper version 1.8.1:

  • Partner identification expanded by setting: Use texts in the PDF (standard setting, as before) or individual text lines (simple reading of content without position information).
  • Added module for preprocessing, which allows for preprocessing steps like text grouping, page filter or text filter.
  • The validation view shows a symbol with the validation result for the entire document, so there is no need to scroll to check the result in larger documents:
    • no validation errors: green check icon
    • with validation errors: red warning icon
  • Fix for validation rule from \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} to ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$.