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mayank_singh
mayank_singh
Level 2
May 14, 2021
Solved

Encrypting PDF while sending Email to customer in Adobe Campaign Classic

  • May 14, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 2978 views

Hello Everyone,

 

I am trying to send PDF files with dynamic data to customers, but would like to encrypt the same.

 

The above case scenario is just like we receive the Credit Card Statement, where in the PDF is password protected.

 

This needs to be done in Adobe Campaign Classic.

 

Please share your inputs on this.

 

Thanks

Mayank

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Best answer by LaurentLam

Hello, for my part, as a dogma, I would suggest to challenge the solution: using attachment is never easy. You need first to be sure that your MTA server (MidSourcing / Real Time execution instance) can access the files to be attached (or at least the end point that will generate them): installing a third party software on the mta will not be possible for security reason if this is Adobe which host your MTA.

 

So it means to install a MTA instance on your side (in your case it seems that you will need Message Center + an execution instance on your side)...

And no: this imply lot of things to analyse: amount of mails to be sent per minutes, weight of each emails, configure DKIM + SPF and all the deliverability risks

 

Because yes: ISP doesn't like so much attachments and are more aggressive with their spam filters... Specially if your PDF are password protected.

the other problem is the ecological footprint: attachments are really bad for that point. Today, it seems to be a simple "utopist sight" but in the upcoming years, in some countries, companies could have to publish their footprint... In France, for example, we have more and more companies that publish them

 

the correct practice in a such case would be more to create a section on the company web site in order to download such document type and use display the section web site URL in the email:

you can secure in a better way the document access itself, you will not have deliverability issue, you reduce your footprint.

4 replies

Darren_Bowers
Darren_Bowers
Level 9
May 14, 2021

Hi @mayank_singh - there are lots of vendors now for creating PDFs, but to do it in real time you would need a PDF service available to your Campaign server that you can call via command line, API or even watched folders like Adobe Acrobat Distiller.

So for one example, you could create a watched folder in Acrobat Distiller (can be a network folder) that when you drop a Word document into, it will convert that file to PDF and apply whatever security settings you want, based on the watched folder profile. It will then save that file to the same or another folder that you pick it up from in Campaign. In your workflow you would wait for the PDF file to arrive and once its available you would continue on and send that to the recipient. Doing this in bulk might require some more complex workflows. https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/creating-pdfs-acrobat-distiller.html#about_watched_folders_acrobat_pro

This is only one option. You might look at a PDF creation API that you call in a workflow and get a secure PDF back from. You would need to see what fits your environment and needs.

PDF creation can be fairly resource intensive so if you were doing it in bulk I would probably have all the PDFs pre-created and you just import a link to the final customer PDF that you can attach or link to in the final email.

Cheers

Darren

    mayank_singh
    mayank_singhAuthor
    Level 2
    May 18, 2021

    Hi @darren_bowers ,

     

    Thanks for the information.

     

    I am looking to encrypt the PDF file (with dynamic data) during the delivery preparation in Adobe Campaign.

     

    If you can help me with a resolution that can make the above flow possible.

     

    Thanks

    Mayank

    Darren_Bowers
    Darren_Bowers
    Level 9
    May 18, 2021

    Hi @mayank_singh - as I mentioned in my other post this isn't a simple piece of work that I can give you a solution for. It depends on a lot of factors. My advice would be to get the help of an Adobe partner or Adobe consulting to help you plan out what your requirements are and how best to achieve this.

    If I was going to do this, I would pre-create all of the PDFs in a location before you prepare the delivery and then pass in the location of the PDF to the Campaign workflow so you can either attach or link to the PDF. I would advise against creating PDFs on the fly for bulk deliveries. Again, it depends on a lot of factors.

    Cheers
    Darren

    Jonathon_wodnicki
    Community Advisor
    Jonathon_wodnickiCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    May 19, 2021

    Hi,

     

    Follow these steps:

    1. Install headless chrome or phantomjs to generate pdf's, along with something that can password protect pdf's, like node-qpdf. May already have phantomjs as a Campaign dependency
    2. Grant marketing users createProcess right so they can use execCommand()
    3. Add a js activity before your delivery (use a js library for maintainability) that does this:
      1. Loop over inbound transition table (vars.targetSchema):
      2. For each row, use execCommand() to generate desired pdf and pipe through qpdf to encrypt. Name the files after their recipient id's
    4. In the delivery set attachment to 'File name is computed during delivery of each message' and personalize accordingly, e.g. /tmp/<%= recipient.id %>.pdf

     

    Thanks,

    -Jon

      Sukrity_Wadhwa
      Community Manager
      Sukrity_WadhwaCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      June 10, 2021

      Hi @mayank_singh,

      Was any of the given solutions helpful to resolve your query? Do let us know.

      Thanks!

      Sukrity Wadhwa
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