Develop Reference

Android PDF Viewer Library or muPDF library tutorials

I'm trying to read pdf files in my android application. I don't want to use the default pdf reader and simply open a new intent because I need my own GUI, and want to use the first page as a cover. Therefore I need to make my own pdf reader. I did some research and came across muPDF and Android PDF Viewer Library.
I tried to follow tutorial to implement Android PDF Viewer Library, from the github description. But the problem is that it loads pdf file forever. Do I need to do something else than just the steps in the description?
I can't find any tutorials for the muPDF library, are there any? How to implement it?
If there is no useful answer for the previous two questions, are there any good pdf library out there with tutorials and good documentation?
Thank you, hopefully, I will be able to solve my problem

MuPDF is a very good library, you can definitely use it. If you need a complete example of Android app using MuPDF, I suggest you to take a look at this customizable magazine app on Github.

first of all, if you want to use MUPDF inside an existing android app project you can follow the guide you find at this link (all credits go to the author, I didn't write this).
I am trying as well to integrate a very simple PDF reading/printing solution inside my app and i am struggling to strip down/simplify the MuPdf application demo you get by following that guide. I already managed (somehow) to remove annotation and file-picking features, but i would really need some help as well to get all the job done. There's really a lot of stuff and absolutely no documentation about this. I am simply trying to read the code and figure out what is needed and what is not, removing features one by one and being driven by the errors you get in catlog.
Also, as we both (if I understood correctly your needs) need just the PDF rendering features, would be great if someone points out how to (if possible) disable some of the unnecessary features built in the MuPDF library when building it from source (as DjVu support, just as an example).
Hope this helps, even if it is not a real answer to your question.

This is how I succeeded in building a MuPDF lib on windows with Cygwin, android-ndk
Download MuPDF 1.3 Source from https://code.google.com/p/mupdf/downloads/list
unzip to folder c:/mupdf-1.3-source
Install Cygwin:
Download and run Run setup-x86.exe from http://cygwin.com/install.html
when installing cygwin, make sure you selected make packages and C++ compilers
Make generate. open cygwin terminal, run
cd /cygdrive/
cd c/mupdf-1.3-source
make generate
Install android-ndk:
download android-ndk-r9d-windows-x86.zip and unzip it to
c:/android-ndk-r9d
Build mupdf lib: on windows cmd console:
preparation:
cd c:/mupdf-1.3-source/platform/android
copy local.properties.sample local.properties
edit local.properties, uncomment
#sdk.dir=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Android\\android-sdk
and change to
sdk.dir=REAL andforid-sdk Folder
build:
while still on c:/mupdf-1.3-source/platform/android, run:
/android-ndk-r9d/ndk-build
Upon the completion of the build, a folder named libs will be created under
c:/mupdf-1.3-source/platform/android
Create android apk.
Open eclipse, create a new android project from existing code, browse to c:/mupdf-1.3-source/platform/android, now you can create a mupdf apk.

Starting with Android 5.0 you can also use Android's internal PDF renderer and for manipulating PDF you can always use iTextg - just some alternatives for the future.

This SO answer lists some steps on how to rip essential pieces from the MuPDF Java sample app to one's own.
Preferably, I'd like to have a "ready to use" Java library I could attach to as a dependency. Is JNI preventing this or is it simply that no-one's gotten up to doing one?
Well, jmupdf is there (mentioned in this duplicate) but that lists Windows and Linux (not specifically Android) as the tested platforms. It seems desktop and dead to me (no changes in 12 months). At least compared to the vibrance of MuPDF itself.

How to associate a file with a program in java

Take notepad for example. You can open a file with notepad (right click and open with, or double clicking on the file if it is already associated with notepad) and it will display the contents of a file. I want to be able to open an xml file with the program that I am writing so that it can do some parsing and give a desired output. What sort of ways are there to do this in java? Do I have to ask for an argument to be passed into the program when it is opened? Would this be easier in C++ or some other language? If you need any further information please let me know -- this was the best way I could come up with to discribe my situation, which may be why my google searches have come up empty. Thank you in advance for your help!

You can associate an extension with a java jar and the file name will be passed as args[0] It doesn't get much simpler than that. I suggest you try it with a "hello world" program. ;)

display the contents of a file ..What sort of ways are there to do this in java?
Install/launch the app. using Java Web Start.
Java Web Start (JWS) is the Oracle Corporation technology used to launch rich client (Swing, AWT, SWT) desktop applications directly from a network or internet link. It offers 'one click' installation for platforms that support Java.
JWS provides many appealing features including, but not limited to, splash screens, desktop integration, file associations, automatic update (including lazy downloads and programmatic control of updates), partitioning of natives & other resource downloads by platform, architecture or Java version, configuration of run-time environment (minimum J2SE version, run-time options, RAM etc.), easy management of common resources using extensions..
Here is a demo. of the JNLP API file services (an API available to JWS apps.) that registers an interest (claims an association with) in the .zzz file-type in the launch file. Associations can also be done programmatically using the IntegrationService of the JNLP API.

1-D barcode scanner(using images from a capturing device) implementation in java

I am a student and as a project i have to implement a barcode(1-D) based attendance marking system.While surfing across the web i came to know that barcode readers are a bit costly toys to purchase,so now what I want to do is I want to capture images of barcodes through a capturing device(mostly a webcam) and then process them to get the content stored in it.
I found a few projects on the internet that do the same but they use .NET f/w and I am not so familiar with .NET technology. The only project that uses java is http://sourceforge.net/projects/javabarcoderead/ but somehow i am not able to run the jar file they are providing.
SO, I would like to know about the algorithms or methods that can be used for the same or even any project from where i can get some insight on how to move further with this...
Happy Coding...

You're right, it would be very difficult to use a library with no documentation and no source code.
I'd suggest using ZXing. It's a well-documented library with lots of examples.

Image Processing via Standalone application

I'm developing a project for doing Content Based Image Retrieval where front end will be in java.
The main issue is about choosing tool for performing image processing. Since Matlab provides a lot of functionality for doing CBIR. But the main problem about using Matlab is that you need to have Matlab installed on every computer using the application.
Is there any other way in which I can do my project (Using other tools or driver) so that my application will run without using any other tools ???
Or can I develop entire application in Matlab only and deploy it as a standalone application ???
Thank you..

There are plenty of image processing libraries, for example for Java: ImageJ, there is also one by the Apache Commons project. If you need higher-level computer vision libraries there is OpenCV for C++ that also has bindings for Java, for example.
You can also develop the entire application in Matlab, but to deploy a stand alone application requires this requires licensing Mathworks Builder NE (which can be expensive). Matlab is very good for research and prototyping purposes.
There are other alternatives that are amenable to quick prototyping for example Python and PIL.
I think the bottom line is that there are plenty of options.

Java image utilities library: A Java library for loading, editing, analyzing and saving pixel image files.
It supports various file formats.
Provides demo applications for the command line. It has AWT GUI toolkit too.

Matlab is an excellent tool for prototyping as already pointed out by carlosdc. Matlab offers limited options with regard to UI programming. GUIDE is ok for small projects, but hinders more than it helps on bigger ones.
With MATLAB Builder JA you're able to compile your Matlab code into Java classes.
With regard to plotting time series in real time, libraries like JFreeChart are way slower.

I think OpenCV is one of the best libraries out there for image processing but Java Advanced Imaging is also quite good but doesn't has as much features and examples. Color similarity would be simple in JAI but shape probably would involve more code.
If you choose to use OpenCV I think you have at least two possible binding implementations for Java. The one my group uses is this one. It has some Processing dependencies.
Regardless of what library you choose be prepared for some frustration. Matlab users are used to all the nice features it provides and when they have to port their code to other languages end having to write a lot more code.

Well, after a long search finally I've found the way to deploy Matlab code along with java that too standalone application..
The steps are simple::--
1. Go and get Javabuilder.jar file located at location::
Matlab\toolbox\javabuilder\jar\javabuilder.jar
Next type deploytool in Matlabs command line...
deploytool window will open now create a new java project.
Select Matlab files that you want to use.
The deploytool will now convert the .m file to .jar file.
Now use both of the above mentioned jar files and develop your java compatible matlab code
and thats the way you can create the standalone application of matlab..

Java + OpenOffice, Is interop automation really this difficult?

I'm trying to re-write a C# application of mine in Java. I've chosen Java because our target platform is now Linux, no longer Windows.
My C# application used Microsoft Office Interop to automate things like Word and Excel. It would simply open different documents and apply our formatting to them (adjust column width, remove italics, etc). Finally, it would save the documents as PDF.
Now that we are targeting Java and Linux, and knowing that OpenOffice can do all of these things, I figured it would be a smooth transition. OpenOffice is open source, so it must have a relatively nice automation interface, right?
I've been Google'ing and looking at docs all morning. I've downloaded the OpenOffice SDK. I've followed instructions involving installing MinGW and a Zip toolkit. I've tried NetBeans plugins and Eclipse configuration settings.
The funny thing is, I'm not even sure if I'm in the right direction. I've been reading about OpenOffice UDO interface, but that sounds more like in-OpenOffice Scripts, like VBA or something.
Does anyone know if there's simply some sort of import that allows me to use OpenOffice to open and manipulate documents, similar to Office's Interop libraries? If so, know of any recent examples or blog posts, etc?

Yes, the OpenOffice jar files themselves (from the app) are the SDK. The interface involves calling methods in them. It's not hard once you figure it out, but I agree, documentation for it is pretty weak. It was definitely written by people that know how to do it, and can use it as a reference, but aren't any good at explaining it to others. :-)