.NET technical notes

Learn about specifics of the .NET interface of the Toolbox add-on.

tip

For the full API reference for the Toolbox add-on, see the .NET API reference.

IDisposable objects

Objects that must be closed explicitly (for example, PdfTools.Toolbox.Pdf.Document or PdfTools.Toolbox.Pdf.Content.ContentGenerator) implement the IDisposable interface. Instead of calling Dispose() directly, use the using statement:

using (Document document = ...)
{
 ...
} 
// document.Dispose() is called implicitly here

Error handling

Errors are reported using exceptions. Where applicable, the Toolbox add-on maps errors to corresponding native exception classes, such as System.ArgumentException, System.InvalidOperationException, System.NotSupportedException, or System.IO.IOException. The remaining errors are modeled using exception classes that inherit from a base class PdfToolsException.

Streams

The native stream interface System.IO.Stream is used.

Lists and iterables

The API uses different concepts for returning collections of elements depending on the context:

• Lists (System.Collections.Generic.IList<T>) are used when the elements are already in memory and random access is possible. Depending on the context, manipulation (add, remove, and so on) might also be possible.
• Iterables (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<T>) are used when elements are retrieved on demand. They don’t allow random access, but only allow iterating through the elements.

Maps

Maps implement the native dictionary interface System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<K, V>.

Namespace

The Toolbox add-on uses the namespace PdfTools.Toolbox.

note

We recommend using a custom, company-specific namespace for your code. Using the PdfTools.Toolbox namespace like the Toolbox add-on can lead to problems with ambiguous class names.