UX - Command line arguments for new user

Question

UX - Command line arguments for new user

jgranduel opened this issue a year ago · comments

Hi,

thanks for this needed application! Here a few remarks (not real issues):

When giving my first trial, I found not having -h|--help among command line arguments a bit annoying (or -v|--version).

It would maybe be easier for adoption to give a way to generate a key and certificate? I did it with openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout ./key.pem -out ./cert.pem -sha256 -days 365 (found on SOF how-to-generate-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-using-openssl) or provide any better way.

PowerShell> java -jar ./open-pdf-sign.jar -k ./key.pem -c ./cert.pem -i a.pdf -o b.pdf -p <passphrase> --page -1

French bundle is not present (was expecting to use fr_FR). How to add a Property file. I found en.propertiesand de-AT.properties in source, but how to add one and how to pass one to the CLI? Maybe as othe CLI arguments as there are juste 4 lines in the bundle?

Could the printed message generated when the bundle is not present or really wrong be more elaborate than the Java stack trace :-) ?

ava.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find bundle for base name strings, locale
        at java.base/java.util.ResourceBundle.throwMissingResourceException(ResourceBundle.java:2045)
        at java.base/java.util.ResourceBundle.getBundleImpl(ResourceBundle.java:1683)
        at java.base/java.util.ResourceBundle.getBundleImpl(ResourceBundle.java:1586)
        at java.base/java.util.ResourceBundle.getBundleImpl(ResourceBundle.java:1549)
        at java.base/java.util.ResourceBundle.getBundle(ResourceBundle.java:932)
        at org.openpdfsign.Configuration.<init>(Configuration.java:34)
        at org.openpdfsign.Configuration.getInstance(Configuration.java:50)
        at org.openpdfsign.CLIApplication.main(CLIApplication.java:40)

Could there be a hint about height of the signature table to help placing it in the right position, some kind of verbose mode?

The borders of the table (top and bottom) are not always visible. I don't know if it's something you can act upon...

Best Regards and thanks again.

arashnikoo · Answer 1 · Thu Dec 22 2022 06:03:19 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Here is the PR to make the help option more available to the first time user:
#22

Thomas · Answer 2 · Thu Dec 22 2022 16:31:25 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Thank you for the issue and PR! I'll look into the Bundle handling, it shouldn't lead to a stacktrace.

For the key generation, I think you're best served with openssl, if you need a self-issued key. You can also buy these files from a certificate authority.

Most of the text in the Resource Bundle is already customizable, but I'll look into that.

For the table border: Can you give an example on when they are not visible? We're using vandeseer/easytable for drawing. If I'm not mistaken the "inner" border lines are a bit stronger (as neighbouring cell lines are duplicated) but also the outer borders should be drawn.

On verbose: I you have an idea on how, I'd welcome it. We're already using slf4j-simple with different levels, but I didn't find a way to set the logging level during runtime unfortunately.

jgranduel · Answer 3 · Thu Dec 22 2022 16:41:48 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Thanks!

I thought I was confused between CLI arguments and bundles, because of hint and hint_text and timestamp which don't have the exact same meaning:

Bundle contents:

signee=Signee
timestamp=Timestamp
hint=Hint
hint_text=You can check the validity of this certificate at https://www.signaturpruefung.gv.at

Could we pass arguments superseding these keys with the meaning? When we use argument --hint, it's in fact a hint_text which is read if I am not wrong. Could the whole table be built from command line arguments (including translation of terms?)? Argument --locale should load the bundle which 'fr_FR' should load 'fr_FR.properties' file, what do you think?

(Sorry if my comment is redundant with yours, you were writing at the same time as I was !)

jgranduel · Answer 4 · Thu Dec 22 2022 16:48:28 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Playing with the zoom in Acrobat Reader, the signature table can have borders missing (or disappear!) like in picture below. Can't you reproduce it?

jgranduel · Answer 5 · Thu Dec 22 2022 16:56:49 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Using Coherent PDF or cpdf from time to time, there a few options for placing text onto a pdf:

  -top                                Set position relative to center top of page
  -topleft                            Set position relative to top left of page
  -topright                           Set position relative to top right of page
  -left                               Set position relative to center left of page
  -bottomleft                         Set position relative to bottom left of page
  -bottom                             Set position relative to center bottom of page
  -bottomright                        Set position relative to bottom right of page
  -right                              Set position relative to center right of page

It might be overwhelming but a source of inspiration for placing the signature on the right place! (least surprise principle... for lazy users, you know!)
Thanks!

jgranduel · Answer 6 · Thu Dec 22 2022 16:59:19 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

If I'm not mistaken the "inner" border lines are a bit stronger (as neighbouring cell lines are duplicated)
you are not! after zooming, I can confirm it!

jgranduel · Answer 7 · Thu Dec 22 2022 18:08:24 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

I packaged the code on my laptop. Thanks for -h | --help. Just one small remark while you are at it:

Usage: <main class> [options]
  Options:
    -b, --binary
      binary output of PDF
      Default: false
    -c, --certificate
      certificate (chain) to be used
    --config
      use a configuration file
    --help, -h
      prints this page
      Default: false
    --hint
      text to be displayed in signature field
    --host
      run as server with the given hostname
    --image
      Image to be placed in signature block
    -i, --input
      input pdf file

--help, -h is written long option first contrary to other options.

Best regards

Suleman · Answer 8 · Thu Dec 22 2022 19:59:11 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

On PowerShell I am getting this:

PS C:\Users\sul00\Desktop> java -jar ./open-pdf-sign.jar --input suleman.pdf --output output.pdf --certificate cert.cer --key key.key --page -1 --locale de-AT
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: class org.bouncycastle.pkcs.PKCS10CertificationRequest cannot be cast to class org.bouncycastle.cert.X509CertificateHolder (org.bouncycastle.pkcs.PKCS10CertificationRequest and org.bouncycastle.cert.X509CertificateHolder are in unnamed module of loader 'app')
        at org.openpdfsign.KeyStoreLoader.loadKeyStoreFromKeys(KeyStoreLoader.java:50)
        at org.openpdfsign.CLIApplication.main(CLIApplication.java:53)

My Java Config:

C:\Users\sul00\Desktop>java -version
openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Microsoft-25199 (build 11.0.12+7)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Microsoft-25199 (build 11.0.12+7, mixed mode)

Philipp Omenitsch · Answer 9 · Thu Dec 22 2022 22:31:54 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@Suleman-Elahi please open a separate issue for this bug report

Suleman · Answer 10 · Thu Dec 22 2022 22:50:10 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

@Suleman-Elahi please open a separate issue for this bug report

It is fixed. I was using this website to generate private keys and certificate: https://www.ssl.com/online-csr-and-key-generator/

But then I used OpenSSL command from the above comment, and it worked.

Thomas · Answer 11 · Fri Dec 23 2022 04:34:24 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Playing with the zoom in Acrobat Reader, the signature table can have borders missing (or disappear!) like in picture below. Can't you reproduce it?

Unfortunately, no, I can't reproduce it. I would expect this to be some sort of aliasing-bug in the viewer though. Do the lines reappear if you zoom into the document? The lines are quite thin, maybe it's smaller than one device pixel on some monitors/resolutions.

--help, -h is written long option first contrary to other options

Will be fixed in PR 23, thank you for noticing!

Using Coherent PDF or cpdf from time to time, there a few options for placing text onto a pdf

Thank you for that! PDF positioning can be quite strange (e.g. with rotated/scaled documents). In the initial design decision we opted for a (top, left, width, height) bounding box with positioning the signature with all positioning being done from the top-left of the page. While it can look "off" in certain formats, this allows for a consistent size of the signature box on different page formats (as e.g. defining (top, left, bottom, right) would lead to too big/small boxes depending on paper size.

Thomas · Answer 12 · Thu Jan 19 2023 04:11:23 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Thank you again for all the feedback! All points should be implemented now in the latest release (v0.1.3)

Parameter --version allows printing the binary version
Using --label-hint, --label-signee and --label-timestamp also the row labels can be customized
If a locale is not included in the shipped bundles, open-pdf-sign now fails gracefully instead of throwing a stacktrace
README is adjusted with all new parameters