When I type this line below on a command line it works perfect.

pdftk c:\sb2\in1.pdf c:\sb2in2.pdf cat output c:\attach\out9.pdf

But I cannot seem to get it to work from Sbasic with @shell.  I have tried what seems to be hundreds of different ways with no success. Below are a few. What do I have incorrect?

m = @Shell( "pdftk" + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in1.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in2.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "cat" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "output" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "out6.pdf" + @Chr(34))

m = @Shell( "pdftk " +" " + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in1.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in2.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "cat" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "output" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "c:\attach\out6.pdf" + @Chr(34))

m = @Shell( @Chr(34) + "pdftk" + @Chr(34)  + " " + @Chr(34)+ "c:\sb2\in1.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + " " + "c:\sb2\in2.pdf" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "cat" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "output" + @Chr(34) + " " + @Chr(34) + "c:\attach\out9.pdf" + @Chr(34))

m = @Shell( "pdftk c:\sb2\in1.pdf  c:\sb2\in2.pdf  cat output c:\attach\out9.pdf" )

m = @Shell( "pdftk " + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in1.pdf " + @Chr(34) + "c:\sb2\in2.pdf " + @Chr(34) + "cat " + @Chr(34)  + "output " + @Chr(34) +  "c:\attach\out9.pdf" + @Chr(34))

Thanks!

Bob,

This works for me:

vConvertHTMLtoImage = "converthtmltoimage.exe /file" + " " + @chr(34) + "w:\sesame2\invoices\" + vInvoiceHTML + @chr(34) + " /dir " + @chr(34) + "w:\sesame2\invoices" + @chr(34) + " /name " + @chr(34) + "WordComInvoice" + vSONum + @chr(34) + " /quality " + "80"
                                                                       

FileOverWrite("w:\sesame2\convert.bat", "c:" + @NewLine() + "cd\" + @NewLine() + "cd" + " " + @chr(34) + "program files" + @chr(34) + @NewLine() + "cd" + " " + @chr(34) + "convert html to image" + @chr(34) + @NewLine() + vConvertHTMLtoImage)

Like you, I could get it the first section to work fine when I was on the command line, but could not get it to work via @Shell.  So I wrote the second line to create a batch file (which just navigates back to the root directory and the changes directories till I get to the directory from which I run the command line code) and then run the batch file, using the variable I had built for the command line.  It works great inside the batch file.

Also, as Mark pointed out...
If you send those lines to the slate, you end up with these results:

pdftk"c:\sb2\in1.pdf" "c:\sb2\in2.pdf" "cat" "output" "out6.pdf"
pdftk  "c:\sb2\in1.pdf" "c:\sb2\in2.pdf" "cat" "output" "c:\attach\out6.pdf"
"pdftk" "c:\sb2\in1.pdf" " c:\sb2\in2.pdf" "cat" "output" "c:\attach\out9.pdf"
pdftk c:\sb2\in1.pdf  c:\sb2\in2.pdf  cat output c:\attach\out9.pdf
pdftk "c:\sb2\in1.pdf "c:\sb2\in2.pdf "cat "output "c:\attach\out9.pdf"
 

Not one of those match the line you say works perfectly (which also has a typo in it -- it's missing a backslash before "in2.pdf"). One comes close, but has extra spaces. I'm not sure if that would mess it up, or not.

Thanks everyone  for all the ideas.

over the past few days I have tried everything that was mentioned and after reading your suggestions today I started over from scratch and tried everything again.

I can write out to the slate and copy the txt and paste it into the command line at any propmpt (c:\ or c:\sesame etc) and it runs perfect.


I also added the full path of pdftk and still no good with @shell.

The line below is from slate window and runs perfectly when pasted onto the command line.

Is there any reason @shell would not pass the txt the exact same way?

I will try Pdfill since Bharat has had success using it.

Thanks you so much to you all!

c:\windows\system32\pdftk c:\sb2\in1.pdf  c:\sb2\in2.pdf  cat output c:\attach\out7.pdf

I chose @Shell in this particular type situ because it's synchronous (waits for the executable invoked to run before Sesame continues on), whereas CreateAProcess is asynchonous (Sesame doesn't wait for CreateAProcess's executable to finish before Sesame continues on)

Well another one of the many mysteries of life to me. PDFTK does not work with @shell or createaprocess or anything else I try, However using PDFPG or many of the other PDF choices it works exactly as I tried using it on Wednesday.

I am going to look on the bright side and realize I could have kept chasing my tail for another couple of weeks if it wasn't for you all. Probably the last thing I would have thought to change on my own would have been the program I was trying to run.

So thanks everyone for all the help. Its great knowing your all out there, I couldn't imagine getting through this stuff without all of you!

lksseven wrote on Mar 25^th, 2012 at 1:18pm:

Not that it can be used here (because Bob has already posted that PDFTK wouldn't work in CreateAProcess), but @RedirectProcess is more like CreateAProcess, yet is a synchronous command that will make Sesame wait until it's done. Just an FYI that may help someone else.