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API Technical Specs

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Document Conversion Result Codes

This document lists the set of result codes reported by the Sovren components and sample applications as a result of converting the original document (DOC, PDF, etc.) to another format (e.g. plain text for resume parsing). The result codes identify success, warning or error.

These response codes are used in the following API endpoints:

Success SubCodes

This code indicates that the document converted successfully and that no warnings were detected.

CodeDescription
ovIsProbablyValidOutput did not fail any tests.

Warning SubCodes

These codes indicate that a problem might exist. In some cases these warnings should be heeded, and in other cases these warnings should be ignored.

Generally, unless the code indicates corruption, you should go ahead and try to parse the converted text. For instance, we've seen valid resumes that return ovAvgWordLengthLessThan4 because there was a list of dozens of two-digit state codes embedded in the text. However, in an online processing scenario, you may want to first ask the candidate to review the converted text to ensure that it was not corrupted in some way.

CodeDescription
ovProbableGarbageInText5% or more of the characters in the text are "symbols" (like the copyright sign and the trademark symbol) rather than regular letters and digits and punctuation. This is usually a sign that there is garbage in the converted text.
ovUnknownValidity could not be determined. Occurs if the converted text is empty for some unknown reason.
ovAvgWordLengthGreaterThan20The converted text has an average word length exceeding 20 characters. This normally means that you should be wary of the validity of the text.
ovAvgWordLengthLessThan4The converted text has an average word length less than 4 characters. This normally means that you should be wary of the validity of the text.
ovTooFewLineBreaksThere are no line breaks, or there are far fewer line breaks than there should be, given the length of the text.
ovLinesSeemTooShortThe text has too many very short lines.
ovTruncatedThe output was truncated due to exceeding PdfMaxPages.
ovMayContainSomeReversedTextSome text may be rendered backwards.

Error SubCodes

These codes indicate a definite problem and indicate that the conversion output should be ignored.

CodeDescription
ovConfigurationErrorAn installation/deployment/configuration error is preventing one or more modules from working properly. As a result, the converted text may be worse than expected.
ovCorruptThe input document was recognized but is either corrupt or cannot be converted because the details of the file cannot be understood.
ovCouldNotLoadFileThe specified file was found but could not be read.
ovErrorOnOutputToHtmlAn internal exception occurred while converting to HTML. Enable trace listener for TraceSource named "DocumentConverter" to capture details about the error.
ovErrorOnOutputToRtfAn internal exception occurred while converting to RTF. Enable trace listener for TraceSource named "DocumentConverter" to capture details about the error.
ovErrorOnOutputToTextAn internal exception occurred while converting to TEXT. Enable trace listener for TraceSource named "DocumentConverter" to capture details about the error.
ovErrorOnOutputToXmlAn internal exception occurred while converting to WordXML. Enable trace listener for TraceSource named "DocumentConverter" to capture details about the error.
ovErrorOnOutputToPdfAn internal exception occurred while converting to PDF. Enable trace listener for TraceSource named "DocumentConverter" to capture details about the error.
ovFileNotFoundWe could not find the disk file that we were asked to convert.
ovIsEncryptedThe document is encrypted and cannot be opened except using a password, which we obviously do not have!
ovIsImageThe document is just an image file. You will need to OCR the file to extract the text.
ovNullInputA null parameter or empty byte array or empty file was passed to the converter.
ovTimeoutThe timeout was reached during conversion.
ovUnsupportedFormatWe encountered an input/output format combination that we cannot convert with the current converters, using the subset that you enabled using the EnabledModules property.
ovWordConvErrorAndProbableProblemsWe encountered an error converting the document, and we think it probably has some invalid text in it, or is truncated.
ovNoTextNo usable text was able to be extracted.