PDF Image Preview

This feature allows to show an image preview of a PDF file in attachments for tickets and knowledge base articles. This is helpful to display the content of a PDF without downloading the file.

Additionally the feature offers the possibility for an image preview in dynamic fields of type attachment (for PDF files).

To activate the feature:

1. Download and install ImageMagick. In the most recent versions of ImageMagick, the usage of PDF file is restricted. In order to allow the usage of PDF it is needed to update the ImageMagick configuration manually.

2. Search for the file /usr/local/etc/ImageMagick-7/policy.xml (file path might vary depending on the ImageMagick version).

3. Check if the file contains a PDF entry and that this entry is not marked as comment.

4. Check if the entry contains at least read rights.

   <policy domain="coder" rights="read" pattern="PDF" />
   

5. Go to the System Configuration screen.

6. Search for the setting Magick::Bin, activate it and enter the file path to the ImageMagick binary.

7. Search for the setting Frontend::FileTypePreview and enable it.

8. Rebuild the system configuration.

The feature should be enabled then for Attachments widgets in tickets, knowledge base articles and configuration items, as well as in properties widget for objects containing dynamic field of type attachment.

After the feature is activated, the Attachments widget now displays an icon for the PDF files in the Preview column in addition to the regular ones for images, audio and video files.

To see an image preview of the PDF:

1. Open the ticket detail view or the knowledge base article detail view.

2. Click on the preview icon for a PDF file in the Attachments widget.

The PDF is now displayed as an image in a small preview window. In case of, that the file is not really a PDF, the preview window displays nothing. In this case it is recommended not to download the PDF.

If a dynamic field of type attachment has been added to a property card, the dynamic field contains an additional preview icon next to the download icon.

The PDF image preview can be used wherever a dynamic field of type attachment is added to the system.