Adam,



Can you send us a copy of your file for us to take a look at?

https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/contact.php

Also please reference the forum (/topic/3335) in your the title of your e-mail.

There are several levels or degrees of editing restriction selectable in Acrobat, so that status message, "You can edit this document", may only refer to whatever limited things the buyer is allowed to do with the document without entering the random authoring password we added to it.



I think the things you were able to do to the file -- such as adding highlights and strikethroughs, perhaps also including adding notes and annotations -- aren't counted as "editing" the file; they may be things any reader is allowed to add onto their copy of any PDF, much like highlighting or writing margin notes in a printed book or paper draft, or they may be permitted by whatever specific editing restriction settings you have in place. "Editing" in a substantial sense would be changing the existing text-copy or layout, adding/removing/resizing images, adding/removing/reordering pages, that sort of thing. Are you able to do any of those things to your stamped copy, and if so, can you actually save changes?



I'll have to ask Development, but it's possible that any security settings in your original file would be replaced by whatever security settings our PDF Stamper can apply, since the stamper is essentially creating a new PDF for each buyer, by opening your original and adding the stamp to it before re-saving the file to issue to the buyer. Of course, if you want to prevent copy-pasting and/or printing from the buyer's stamped copy, that should preferably be done using the &pdf_allow_copy=n&pdf_allow_print=n parameters in the PDF Stamping URL you configure for the product.

Thanks.



Basically, the e-junkie parameters allow me to control 2 of the 3 conditions shown in the Adobe "Document Status" window. So I guess I should just upload non-protected files and then use the URL parameters to set the copy/paste and print settings.



I'd prefer to control the third ("edit") and have the full protection, but no copy/paste might be enough.

We do add a random edit password to every stamped PDF, so without knowing that password, buyers should be unable to edit the document in any meaningful way, although they may be able to ~add~ things to their copy such as notes, highlights and strikethroughs which would only deface the file, rather than facilitating piracy or plagiarism. If you are able to do more than that with your stamped copy, please let us know, as there may be something we could improve in the stamping process to forbid editing even more strictly.

Okay, it appears that our PDF Stamper does create a PDF for each buyer with security settings that may differ from the original in a predictable way.



Because of the way our stamper works as a PDF authoring program itself and creates a brand-new PDF document for each buyer, it has to re-apply any security settings itself and these apparently cannot be simply duplicated from the original source document on a case-by-case basis. Thus, it applies sensible editing restrictions that prevent actions relevant to piracy/plagiarism or removal of the stamp, while allowing other actions that some PDF sellers may actually ~want~ buyers to be able to perform.



Our PDF stamper does add a random author/edit password, which forbids document creation (adding/deleting/changing the existing content) and document assembly (adding/removing/reordering pages), which are the only editing capabilities relevant to piracy or plagiarism. Restrictions on printing or copy/paste actions can also be added y using the &pdf_allow_copy=n&pdf_allow_print=n parameters in our PDF stamping URL.



However, it also permits superficial editing actions which do not affect the original content, such as filling in form fields, adding comments, and adding a digital signature key. For instance, a buyer might be expected to type some data into some form fields provided in the file, add a digital signature key to prove it was really them who filled in the form, and then submit the completed file somewhere.



Thus, apparently the Adobe document status saying, "You can edit this document" is only referring to a limited range of ~some~ things which are permitted, rather than carte blanche to do anything at all to the document content.

Tyson,



Thanks for looking into the details. While not a perfect lock-down, it will work as long as buyers can not change/alter the original content.



I'll be using the PDF stamping when I launch a new publication in a few weeks and will let you know how it goes.



Adam

I have another request.



On the "Buyer Information" page, it asks for name, email, etc.



At the bottom of the page is a checkbox that says "Sign-up for product updates and newsletter."



I am very concerned that a buyer will assume he is signing up for my newsletter and updates, not yours.



I suggest one of two options:



1. Give me the option to omit the checkbox sign up on this page.

OR

2. Change the text to indicate that it is an e-junkie list, such as "Sign-up for product updates and newsletter from e-junkie."



I would be extremely grateful if you could make one of these changes within the next week (before I launch my report).



Thanks much,

Adam

Adam,



I will pass on your suggestion to development, but this is standard for all E-junkie users. Also the newsletter is not our newsletter, it is to signup for notifications about updates or newsletters that you may want to send out to your buyers

I recognize that it's "standard," but it will be confusing for anyone like me that already has a separate system (constant contact) for sending notifications.



Just my $0.02, there really needs to be some way to distinguish this sign-up from other approaches. This can't be a difficult edit.



And if it's for my notifications -- where/how do I manage that in my e-junkie account? How do I turn it off if I don't want it to appear?



Adam

We do not send any newsletters of our own to buyers, so we do not solicit subscriptions for such.



That "Sign-up for product updates and newsletter" checkbox actually determines whether or not we add the buyer to your own Buyer Group list for each product they purchased, which would be your recipient lists if you use our Updates and Newsletters service:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.updates.htm



If you were using our built-in Aweber integration, that checkbox would also determine whether we submit the buyer's info to your Aweber list.



One of the items on Development's do-to list is an option to disable Updates and Newsletters, which would maintain no Buyer Group lists and thus suppress the opt-in checkbox on the few checkout pages we can control (Free Checkout and direct card-based checkouts using PayPal Pro or Authorize.Net).

OK.



Will this option appear if I select the "Buy Now" code instead of "E-Junkie Shopping Cart"?



IOW, is this page tied to the use of PDF stamping? If not, then I can just use the "buy Now" button the newsletter option will not appear, correct?



A

The type of button you use doesn't make any difference, and the subscription opt-in/-out is not related to PDF stamping in any way. I can at least suggest that PayPal standard checkouts have no provision for an opt-in/-out, so all buyers who use PayPal would automatically be added to your Buyer Group(s) for the product(s) they purchased and would not be shown any potentially-confusing subscription options.

E-junkieChef

PayloadMediaIs there any possibility that support for zipped PDF files could be added? It seems to me it shouldn't be too tough to unzip, stamp and re-zip the PDF file.....

If more people start using the stamping feature and we find this to be a common request, we'll do this.

"Could you make the updates available as a free download and just send the link to the update page only to your list of registered buyers - surely that would do the trick"



I read the above in one of your answers and I have a question:



Would I be able to include a link to the free pdf I'm giving away without the

recipient having to go through the eJunkie site to download it?



I haven't used eJunkie for quite a while and I'm having to learn all over again...

although I do realize that your system is super simple!



Thank you for your response,



Francivile@yahoo.com

"Could you make the updates available as a free download and just send the link to the update page only to your list of registered buyers - surely that would do the trick"



I read the above in one of your answers and I have a question:



Does that mean that I would I be able to include a link in my newsletter or my website post to the free pdf I'm giving away without the

recipient having to go through the eJunkie site to download it?



I haven't used eJunkie for quite a while and I'm having to learn all over again...

although I do realize that your system is super simple!



Thank you for your response,



francivile@yahoo.com

You could email the URL to a secret page on your site where you would have the free product's Add to Cart button, or you could even just email the URL of the Add to Cart button itself.



I'm not clear what you mean about, "the free pdf I'm giving away without the recipient having to go through the eJunkie site to download it"? If you're using E-junkie to collect names and email addresses and issue each recipient a unique, expirable link, then the recipient of your free download would not need to visit or even see the main www.e-junkie.com Web site, but the Free Checkout page uses an e-junkie.com URL, and the thank-you/download page would have an e-junkie.com URL as well.



If you just want people to download a file for free and don't need to collect names/emails nor issue each person a unique link that expires, then you can just upload the file to your Web site and make a link to it, just like you'd make a link from one page to another, and that wouldn't need to involve E-junkie at all.

Thankyou Tyson,

This is what I'll do:"You could email the URL to a secret page on your site where you would have the free product's Add to Cart button, or you could even just email the URL of the Add to Cart button itself." I do want to collect email addresses and my problem

is not the recipient seeing the e-junkie.com URL ... anyone should see how efficient your system is... besides I am an affiliate!



I haven't used e-junkie for a while and I need to understand it all again - I am familiar with getting download links myself after paying on Paypal for a product and your system

is super... I was having a problem visualizing adding a button in the article on my website or how to add a link to my newsletter, so I will test it all.



Thanks again,



Fran

Please also add my support for the feature request of being able to add this stamp to a .zip file of PDF files.



We are planning to sell "packages" of eBooks.. so each .zip file will contain two or more PDF files.



It would be fantastic if the stamp is possible to be added to each of the included PDF files.



Thanks.

Because of the way PDF stamping works by taking advantage of certain aspects of the PDF file spec, it will only ever be able to work with actual .pdf files as-is, and unfortunately will never be able to work with .zip'd PDFs.



You might consider using our multiAdd hack to present buyers with a single Add to Cart button that would actually put two or more separate items (each with their own PDF file) into their cart:

1http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/topic/21211

That's unfortunate. Seems like it should be simple to unzip the .zip file, process the PDF files, and then rezip them. How is that technically different then if we just give you a PDF file directly? ie: It's the exact same PDF files.. but zipped. So you just need to add a "unzip to temp folder" step first.



(I am a software developer so I'm curious as to the "certain aspects of the PDF file spec" that you say prevents this from working.)



Regardless, the multiAdd hack will not work for us, since the whole point of having multiple PDF files in a single item is to allow the customer to get a discount on multi-ebook purchase.



For example, if we sell each ebook individually for $10, then we want to be able to offer two of them in a single bundle for $15. If there's a way to do that with the multiAdd hack, please let me know. (ie: Can we pass in a price over-ride as part of the multiAdd array data?)



Other then that... I'm very open to any ideas about how to handle our requirements and still get the watermarking to work. That is a major reason I convinced my customer to start using you..so they're not too happy it won't work on their "ebook bundle" items.



Thanks.

PDF Stamping is not working for me.



o Seller Admin > View/Edit/Delete Products -> select Send transaction data to a URL -> -> Enter the following URL in payment variable information URL: -> Submit



http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/oplug.php?e_stamp_pdf=true&pdf_allow_copy=y&pdf_allow_print=y



Note: I don't have an editing/authoring password on the PDF file. So, I've removed the &pdf_pwd= as per the documentation.



I still don't see the stamping. Can someone help? Please take a look at the document that is on my account and let me know whether anything is wrong in the PDF file that I've uploaded.



Note: I created the PDF file using Adobe PDF creator directly from Microsoft Word.

Suppose we continue to give e-junkie a pdf file rather than a zip. Along with the name to zip the file into when the pdf stamping has been added.



As an ex-software developer, it seems that this would be far simpler, and take way less time that requiring e-junkie to unpack a pdf before adding the pdf stamping customization.



A zip would also provide a faster download, which might compensate, and perhaps even more than compensate for the extra time needed to zip the resultant pdf.



This would go a long way to satisfying the basic need, without needing a rewrite of the whole system for unusually complex non-standard requirements...

TysonAdditional stalling tactics to cover the extra delay required to unzip and rezip a collection of files (not to mention the additional time to stamp more than just one PDF) would only defer buyers' gratification even further, making for an unsatisfactory buyer experience.



...



Have you considered simply recompiling each of your PDF file collections into a single PDF for each bundle?

Yes I have considered this.. and this is what we'll be doing as a "fix" for now.



However... I don't really see how your logic makes sense.



The number of pages needed to "stamp" is identical regardless of whether we have two eBook files or one file. (If we take two 50 page ebooks and combine them into a single 100 page ebook.. isn't that the exact same amount of work for the stamping process? Does opening a PDF file really take that much additional processing?)



What you are saying as being the problem (slow stamping, delayed customer fulfillment, etc) doesn't make sense if you then turn around and suggest a possible "fix" is to simply add all the ebooks into one.



What am I missing?

Unzipping and (especially) rezipping files takes a lot longer than simply stamping a PDF file as-is. That's the additional, unacceptable delay I was referring to. At any rate, even if you'd find the added delay acceptable, we simply don't have any way to automate unzipping, stamping and rezipping, so we'd have to program that whole routine. We hadn't even thought of that when we wrote the Stamper in the first place, so at present it's only capable of stamping a single PDF file at a time. Development will put your request on the wishlist, but we can't promise it'd get done anytime soon considering everything else they're already working on.

Ok.. let's throw aside the unzipping issue for a bit. That's fine, and I understand the reasoning behind that.



However, what I don't understand is why you can't stamp a multi-file item. (ie: An item that includes multiple pdf files.



How is that any different then if we combine the two files into a single PDF?



There is no file to unzip/zip in that case.



No?

CrisBCTSuppose we continue to give e-junkie a pdf file rather than a zip. Along with the name to zip the file into when the pdf stamping has been added...

The problem is the requirement to stamp a whole collection of separate PDF files that would be issued as a single product together, and we have no way for sellers to upload multiple files for a single product in the first place, other than compressing them into a single .zip that is simply issued to buyers as-is. The PDF Stamper currently won't even work with "package deal" bundles using the "Package files from other products" feature; it can only stamp a single PDF file that is uploaded for the exact product configured with the PDF Stamper URL.

This is software. Anything is possible. :)



I hope you'll consider this as a feature request. (The ability to stamp multiple PDFs selected in the "Package files from other products" feature.)



Thanks.

Hi, guys!



Just joined e-Junkie today and downloaded my ebook. I tried to get the pdf stamping to work, but it doesn't show. My situation is identical to Geek's on top of this page:



"PDF Stamping is not working for me.



o Seller Admin > View/Edit/Delete Products -> select Send transaction data to a URL -> -> Enter the following URL in payment variable information URL: -> Submit



http://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/oplug.php?e_stamp_pdf=true& pdf_allow_copy=y&pdf_allow_print=y



Note: I don't have an editing/authoring password on the PDF file. So, I've removed the &pdf_pwd= as per the documentation.

"



My file is not zipped, I don't have a password and I also removed the &pdf_pwd= as adviced.



So what should I do??



Leena

Did you test this with a free checkout or the Send Free Link option? The Send Free Link option does not attach the PDF stamp. If you are using the free checkout, make sure you wait at least 15 minutes after setting up the PDF stamping before you test the free checkout.

Oh yes I did use the Send free link option! Never thought that would not attach the stamp. (Good point to remember in the future, thank you!) So I could be certain the stamp is there?



Leena

Yes, the stamp is likely there. You can test it by running a free checkout for the product. Here is a link to our testing help page:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.test.htm

Thank you so much :)



Leena

I'm new on E-Junkie, but something I ran into while setting up the PDF stamping, might be of help to someone else. When checking into the service, I downloaded the sample stamped PDF. In the content, it has the URL for making it work....



http://www.ejunkie.

com/ecom/o_plug.php?ej_stamp_pdf=true&pdf_pwd=ZZ&pdf_allow_copy=y&pdf_allow_

print=y



Which I copied and pasted into my Admin page for the stamping. I tested the stamping on one of my PDF documents, but couldn't get it to work after several tries. Finally, I found it. When I copied the URL from E-Junkie's test PDF, for some reason it leaves out the 'dash' in e-junkie. Look closely at the URL above (www.ejunkie; no dash!).



Not sure why it does that, as the dash shows up in the document and when you highlight it for copying, it shows as being there.



My guess is that I'm not the first person nor the last that that will happen to. Not sure if there's a way to fix that in the PDF so it doesn't do that. But fixing it or making it known, could cut down on some tech time.



Hope that helps someone! At the very least, would like to make support aware of it as a possibility why someone may be having trouble getting the stamping to work. Mine works fine now and is a great part of the service. Thanks for making this available!



Mike Brose

http://www.puppetsandprops.com

I have one product but we sell it in two formats--but the same content, so buyers get both for one total price. It's a travel guide and they wouldn't buy one or the other, but rahter one is to read on a screen, and the other to print. I can't split them and say one is price A and one is price B as they're part of one package which we've sold as a zipped file until now. But we really would like the security stamp on them.



I want buyers to be able to download them from one single sale, but for both documents to get stamped in the process.



Is it possible to set up a process like this:



Buyer buys product--one PDF file--and downloads it, stamping complete.

Throughout this process I include a link for them to download the other version, no extra cost, which also gets stamped?



Essentially, how can I ensure that both files are stamped without conducting two different sales?



Thank you.

Our stamper can only stamp a single PDF for each product; it cannot stamp any PDFs contained in .zip files, nor can it stamp multiple PDFs offered for a single product using our "package files" bundling feature.



Is there a reason why you need to provide two different PDFs for printing vs. onscreen viewing of the same content? Typically PDFs are designed to work either way, so any given file is print-ready but also easily viewable onscreen in a PDF reader program.

Thanks for this. Is there any way of making it possible that when the buyer buys one file, the other one shows up in the buying window in a form that makes it impossible to remove it? I will still charge the same total price, but they receive the two files separately and one will be a token low price?



Yes it's a 278 page travel guide and one version is designed for large screen reading and completely different aesthetically than the version designed for iPhones or printing. One is colour, 1.5 spacing, 12 point font; the other is black and white and single line spacing, 10 point. So far customers have loved having both versions. They read one on the screen at home while preparing, and if they have a lap top they use this version while traveling too. But others prefer the small print version for traveliung, but use the larger one beforehand on their PC.



I'd like both to be available to them without having to Zip it.

It might be possible to use a multi-add button to add both versions to the cart at the same time in one click, however there is nothing to prevent one or the other from being removed once that is done.



There are several forum posts on the subject, you can view one of them with the necessary JavaScript code to get you started here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/topic/2428



If you decide to experiment with the multiadd code, please understand that it is basically an unsupported "hack" of our existing button code. It can work, but it isn't something that we can actively assist you with implementing and I haven't done any experimentation with that and the PDF stamping feature.

Could I send you my PDF, which is password protected (read only) ...

I am trying to stamp it which works well, but only if without a read only password.

As soon as I add a read only password it does not work, even though I add the pdf syntax in the URL ...



It would be important for me to add a password for opening PDFs.

Make sure the document's password security compatibility is set to "Acrobat 5.x or earlier". If there is a Master password in addition to the User (read-only) password, put the Master password in the Stamping URL; otherwise put the User password in the URL if the file has no Master password.



If you can get the Stamper to work, but it doesn't seem to retain the original User password, try adding a Master password which is different from the User password, put that Master password in the Stamping URL, then see if the User password is retained in that case. If not, then that's just the way it has to be with your particular file. Note that the Stamper always adds a random Master password to the file anyway, which prevents any extraction or other tampering with the document's content and settings.



Bear in mind that even using a User password in this scenario, where you are giving out the password along with the file, effectively does nothing to improve the file's actual security nor discourage sharing, since anyone who wants to share the file would simply include the password. It's like locking something with a padlock but then leaving the key right there in the lock, so what's the point of locking it at all if everyone has the key?