Exception codes and error messages for the Adobe PDF Library are listed in the AcroErr.h header file. You will find this in the product installation package, in the directory called /CPlusPlus/Include/Headers.

The Adobe PDF Library creates error messages using a macro defined in AcroErr.h (lines 291-316). The product provides each error code as a series of bit field values, concatenated together into a single larger number.

Interpreting error messages with the ASGetErrorString API

The Adobe PDF Library offers an API, ASGetErrorString, that translates error codes into error messages that are easy to read and prints them to a command line monitor.

const char *ASGetErrorString(ASErrorCode errorCode, char *buffer, ASTArraySize lenBuffer);

ASGetErrorString() has three parameters:

• errorCode. The error number that you want to translate into an error message text string. You must pass to the function the full error code number created with the ErrBuildCode() macro, or a user-defined exception returned with ASRegisterErrorString().
• buffer. The buffer where ASGetErrorString will write the text string ( char buffer[256]; ). Make sure that you memset this buffer to 0 before you call ASGetErrorString.
• lenBuffer. The number of characters that the buffer can hold. You can pass ASGetErrorString() sizeof(buffer) here.

ASGetErrorString() returns a pointer to buffer, but this pointer does not by itself indicate that the function worked.  If the buffer was memset to 0, call strlen on the returned buffer to determine if the error code was valid.

For example, the following code will convert an error code into an error message string, and print that string to stderr:

  char buf[256];
  ...
  DURING
  ...
  HANDLER
  ASGetErrorString(ERRORCODE, buf, sizeof(buf));
  fprintf(stderr, "Error code: %ld, Error Message: %sn", ERRORCODE, buf);
  return;
  END_HANDLER

The use of the ASGetErrorString API is demonstrated in the sample program APDFLDoc.cpp. Find this sample program in your Adobe PDF Library software installation package:

/CPlusPlus/Sample_Source/_Common

The samples found in this directory are called by other Library sample programs.

When using the Java and .NET interfaces, errors are represented with the LibraryException class. A user should see the message portion when the system catches an exception:

  try
  {...}
  catch (Exception e)
  {
  Console.Writeline("Library error: "+ e);
  }

Translating the Adobe PDF Library error code manually

We describe how error messages are formatted in the Library below.

Adobe PDF Library provides each error code as a series of bit field values concatenated together. It is easier to read if you use a decimal to hexadecimal code converter utility to convert the error code to hex notation, and then parse the hex version of the error code.

For example, 1073938471 can be converted to hex code 40030027. You can then parse that hex code into four fields:

Note: If you have a question about an error message, please contact your Datalogics Support Representative.

Error code examples

Error code 1073741825

Error code  537067605

*hex 55 is decimal 85