Secured PDF hangs client browser

[bambergc]

I'm trying to upload pdfs into my newly installed Alfresco3.4.d. All works fine until I get to a secured pdf. Client browser hangs. Here's the relevant part of the log.

ERROR [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.AbstractRuntime] Exception from executeScript - redirecting to status template error:
08270040 Unexpected error occured during upload of new content.
org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.WebScriptException: 08270040 Unexpected error occured during upload of new content.

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Caused by: org.alfresco.error.AlfrescoRuntimeException: 08270312 Failed to write property deltas:
  Node:          17884
  Old:           {{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}name=A_STATUT_ETAT.pdf, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}content=contentUrl=
store://2011/9/27/15/0/9835b317-5c7d-417f-b4d1-810250825c40.bin|mimetype=application/pdf|size=404251|encoding=UTF-8|locale=en_US_|id=5816}
  New:           {{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}content=contentUrl=store://2011/9/27/15/0/9835b317-5c7d-41...
etype=application/pdf|size=404251|encoding=UTF-8|locale=en_US_|id=5816, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}description={en_US=hGÂé4ÃÃÂnÿÂó¨éà´
Âj¦2Ã}}, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}name=A_STATUT_ETAT.pdf, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}title={en_US=Sb®Â!Â
ø¾NéÃÂ}}
  Diff:          {{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}name=EQUAL, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}content=EQUAL, {http://www.alfr
esco.org/model/content/1.0}description=RIGHT_ONLY, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}title=RIGHT_ONLY}
  Delete Tried:  []
  Add Tried:     {{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}description={en_US=hGÂé4ÃÃÂnÿÂó¨éà´Âj¦2Ã}}, {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}tit
le={en_US=Sb®Â!Â
ø¾NéÃÂ}}

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Cause: java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: '\xC2\x9C!\xC2\x85\xC3…' for column 'string_value' at row 1; nested exception is com.ib
atis.common.jdbc.exception.NestedSQLException:  
— The error occurred in alfresco/ibatis/#resource.dialect#/node-common-SqlMap.xml. 
— The error occurred while applying a parameter map. 
— Check the alfresco.node.parameter_NodeProperty. 
— Check the statement (update failed). 

As I already had problems with secured pdf's in Alfresco 3.4.0 I have updated the pdfbox and fontbox jars from 1.2.1 to 1.5.0. Doesn't solve the problem.

Seems like Alfresco behaves rather randomly, I've installed the 3.4.d version three times now. First, secured pdf uploads worked fine, but I couldn't migrate the database from our old 3.4.0 installation. On second try the ldap-authentication-context.properties file disappeared which I had to update on first install and on 3.4.0 (Ok, this could be due to the reason that I tried out Alfresco after first install without activating LDAP first, on second install I immediately updated the config files before starting up Alfresco). On third installation now I could migrate the databases, but now the secured pdf upload hangs again (at least is doesn't kill the java process like it used to do in 3.4.0)

We are running Alfresco 3.4.d on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga) and JRE 6.0_18 with LDAP authentication activated.

[jpotts]

There are numerous issues with secured PDFs. Here's one:
https://issues.alfresco.com/jira/browse/ALF-10451

Jeff