In the most recent PDF Reference (1.7) a very interesting new feature is mentioned in section 8.2.4 (p588):
“Beginning with PDF 1.7, PDF documents can specify how a viewer application’s user interface presents collections of file attachments, where the attachments are related in structure or content. Such a presentation is called a portable collection. The intent of portable collections is to present, sort, and search collections of related documents, such as email archives, photo collections, and engineering bid sets.”
Wow! This is interesting! When I first read this, I immediately decided to implement portable collections in iText.
The first one is a collection of documents I call 'the Kubrick Collection'. It contains information about all the full length films directed by Stanley Kubrick, except for the first one 'Fear and Desire'. By examining this example, you will learn you more about:
The second example demonstrates one of the applications I would love to use: the example explains how to parse your mailbox into a portable collection. I didn’t discuss this MailboxParser example in detail. If you try using it on your own mailbox, you’ll soon find out it isn’t able to convert every possible mail into PDF. It’s only a prototype showing a specific (and very interesting) use of portable collections. I hope that some day somebody will enhance this example so that it works with any mailbox.