When the Muhimbi PDF Converter for SharePoint writes converted files back to SharePoint, the software takes the settings defined on the Document Library (e.g. check-out behaviour) into account. We put a great amount of thought into this and as we get very few questions about it, we have probably done it in a way that makes sense.
Nevertheless, sometimes we get support calls from customers who want to know exactly what is going on, so here goes.... .
The behaviour described below is for the on-premise version of the PDF Converter for SharePoint (2007-2019). A version of this article for the SharePoint Online product can be found here.
Document Libraries that DO NOT require explicit check-out before editing
- The converted file is new: File is checked-in.
- The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently not checked out: File is checked-in.
- The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently checked-out by the current user: File remains checked-out.
- The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently checked-out by different user: A friendly error is displayed including the name of the person who the file is checked out to.
- Required meta-data fields have not been filled out: Missing data is not taken into account ( Workaround below). Works as per the previous 4 scenarios.
Document Libraries that REQUIRE explicit check-out before editing
The converted file is new: File is checked-out.
The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently not checked out: File is checked-out.
The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently checked-out by the current user: File remains checked-out.
The converted file overwrites an existing file and is currently checked-out by different user: A friendly error is displayed including the name of the person who the file is checked out to.
Required meta-data fields have not been filled out:
Missing data is not taken into account ( Workaround below). Works as per the previous 4 scenarios.
When the behaviour outlined above results in a check-in then this check-in happens regardless of mandatory meta-data being present or not. This behaviour is by design, but after a number of releases we realised that this may not be desired. We did not want to change the default behaviour on thousands of server deployments so this can optionally be changed using an STSADM command. For details see this blog post.
The checkout-status, or anything else, related to the source file (that is being converted) is never modified.
If you wish to apply different criteria to check-out and check-in operations then we recommend creating a simple workflow that evaluates the status of the file and based on the outcome checks it in our out.
