What do you do for scanning from withing Filepro

Bob Rasmussen ras at anzio.com
Thu Mar 30 10:18:56 PDT 2017


(Off list, so you aren't obliged to do tech support)

When I click on the Scan button, I still get a dialog that says "Did you 
mean to switch apps". This is in Edge. There's no way to turn it off.

Update: I googled this and found you can turn it off in IE and haveit 
apply to Edge, or you cat mess with the registry at 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ProtocolExecute

On Thu, 30 Mar 2017, Brian K. White via Filepro-list wrote:

> Yes tons of people are using it in edge by now.
>
> You do have to answer yes and remember choice to a prompt "open aca?" the 
> first time.
>
> There is also the possibility of a windows firewall blocking wget from 
> uploading, and for that also you get a popup in the corner the first time I 
> think.
>
> There is also a "test scanner" option in the start menu that runs the 
> scanner, displays the scanner twain setting dialog and twain source selector 
> that are usually hidden, and displays a debug log, and at the end, offers to 
> send the debug log to our support, which it does by doing the same http 
> upload to a different cgi, so that ends up excercising both the scanner and 
> the ability to http-post.
>
> -- 
> bkw
>
> On 3/29/2017 9:48 PM, Bob Rasmussen wrote:
>> Brian, thanks for all the details. I'm learning a lot about options in
>> webpages, with an eye toward new ways to use Print Wizard in web-fronted
>> environments.
>> 
>> Is your solution known to work in Microsoft Edge (browser) in Windows
>> 10? It fails for me.
>> 
>> On Wed, 29 Mar 2017, Brian K. White via Filepro-list wrote:
>> 
>>> Here is a demo anyone can poke at, minus the filepro side, since you
>>> can only access this cgi, not log in to the server.
>>> 
>>> Install whichever one of these applies to you:
>>> http://install.aljex.com/AljexClient/
>>> 
>>> Then load this:
>>> http://oh7.aljex.com/cgi-bin/tsu?AKcZCKL96ENuIZhj7i6TB9UA5LYYNbeWx8VyPBSjNtqWj-dJ-aY.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> It's a demo system, feel free to upload images and delete them.
>>> 
>>> See where it says "(invoice_public 73356)" ?
>>> 
>>> I generated this url by going into the app, into the invoice file, to
>>> invoice number 73356, and hit an @key which ran the gosub to assemble
>>> and fire off this url.
>>> 
>>> If you view source, you'll see that the scan button launches:
>>> as:,oh7.aljex.com,AKcZCKL96ENuIZhj7i6TB9UA5LYYNbeWx8VyKQO7c5iPkO5L
>>> which the browser hands off to the registered handler for that url,
>>> which is the batch or shell script.
>>> And at the same time it reloads the same current cgi with a new query
>>> string. The new query string loads the very same page, but with an
>>> option that also tells the cgi to wait for the expected file to appear
>>> behind the scenes before completing the redraw, this way when the user
>>> scans, the web page updates to include the new scan as soon as it's done.
>>> 
>>> I think there is probably some slicker ajaxy way to get the web page
>>> to update and display the new scan after the user does a scan, but I'm
>>> not that sophisticated.
>>> 
>>> If you don't have a scanner, the client-side will use a built-in
>>> single-page pdf. It actually uploads the file the same way it would
>>> have if it were a real scan. So you can go through all the same
>>> motions with or without a scanner. It's useful for debugging to show
>>> if the user has a local firewall preventing the upload vs an actual
>>> scanner problem or some server-side problem.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> bkw
>>> 
>>> On 3/29/2017 2:08 PM, Bob Rasmussen wrote:
>>>> Brian, thanks for the explanation. How do the server and the client-side
>>>> piece communicate, when no terminal emulator is involved? A socket?
>>>> 
>>>> And how does the server know what the client's IP address is? Will this
>>>> all fail if Network Address Translation sits between client and server?
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, 29 Mar 2017, Brian K. White via Filepro-list wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> On 3/23/2017 5:13 PM, Boaz Bezborodko via Filepro-list wrote:
>>>>>> I'm  looking to scan in files linked to specific Filepro records. This
>>>>>> is the first time I'm doing any kind of work like this.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> What methods do you folks use to accomplish this?
>>>>>> What software/hardware combinations make it easier?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I was thinking of creating separate documents, saved to specific
>>>>>> directories, and storing the file names and locations in the record.
>>>>>> But I don't know what software to use that could trigger the scan and
>>>>>> specify the file name, directory, etc.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I'm working with Filepro 5.6.10R9 running on Windows7 machines.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Boaz
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> I feel bad, I think we have a pretty neat scanning system we've been
>>>>> using for 15 years by now, but I just have not had *any* time the last
>>>>> couple weeks to show it to you. We just instituted all developers
>>>>> using git and not working as root. Not exactly a smooth and painless
>>>>> transition ;)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Anyway our scanning process is mostly a cgi that runs in the web
>>>>> server on the same server with filepro, and a small client package (we
>>>>> have windows and osx versions) that has a commandline scanning util,
>>>>> which is run by os registry entries to recognize a custom url, and/or
>>>>> a terminal emulator that has a "run-program" escape sequence feature.
>>>>> You don't have to use the bundled terminal emulator, several other
>>>>> terminal emulators have a similar feature, but the included one is
>>>>> free and open source so no serial numbers or anything to worry about.
>>>>> Just click-n-go.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Images are displayed to the user via web browser, and uploaded to the
>>>>> server via http-post, or by the user using a drag-n-drop area in the
>>>>> browser.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In filepro you just fire off the right url which pops up the browser
>>>>> on the client to either display previous scans or allow uploading new
>>>>> ones. For more streamlined user process, you can also invoke the
>>>>> scan-and-upload directly from filepro in the terminal without popping
>>>>> up the browser.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The files are stored on the filesystem in a directory structure that
>>>>> simply matches your applications natural filepro file structure. If
>>>>> you have an invoice file, and one of the records in the invoice file
>>>>> is invoice 236517, then the files for that invoice end up being stored
>>>>> in a path like:
>>>>> /pix/app-or-system-or-customer-name/invoice/23/65/17-###.pdf
>>>>> where ## is 1 to 100, up to 100 files per customer-doctype-docnumber
>>>>> triplex. The "docnumber" (invoice number in this case) is split up
>>>>> into 2-byte chunks just to keep the filesystem fast by not having a
>>>>> million files in any single directory.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (in our case, we have multiple companies or customers using their own
>>>>> datasets (qualifiers) in the same application. So to address a
>>>>> document uniquely, you need 3 pieces of info, company, doctype (quote,
>>>>> invoice, check, etc), docnumber (quote#, invoice#, check#, etc).
>>>>> 
>>>>> The worst part is the cgi ksh script that does all the work is kind of
>>>>> a big ugly monster by now after 15 years or so! But, it's still
>>>>> ultimately just a ksh script. There are a few other bits and pieces in
>>>>> total but it's pretty simple.
>>>>> 
>>>>> You don't do much extra in filepro at all to add document imaging to
>>>>> any screen in your app. You mostly just add a gosub to any input table
>>>>> and edit 2 values at the top of the gosub for doctype and docnumber to
>>>>> whatever makes sense for that screen in your app.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'd say go to aljex.com and sit in on a sales demo, which will cover
>>>>> the scanning, and you can actually use it in the demo system yourself,
>>>>> but I don't know how much uninteresting trucking logistics stuff you'd
>>>>> have to suffer through to get to the scanning.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The client-side code is not only free but open-source, except the
>>>>> windows scanning util is a commercial product we purchased. There are
>>>>> a few different similar utils that can be used for that. I do have a
>>>>> very crude open source scanning util also, but it it is really really
>>>>> crude. It only scans one page at a time, and only outputs a .bmp!
>>>>> There are open source graphics libraries that could be added and used
>>>>> to make a better scanner util, but I'm not a good enough c or windows
>>>>> developer to manage it. The client-side code for osx is 100% open
>>>>> source, including the scanning util, though the osx scanning util is
>>>>> simple and doesn't work on a lot of scanners. Apparently scanner
>>>>> drivers on osx are not consistent at all and many scanners come with
>>>>> their own scanner programs and that is the only thing that works with
>>>>> the scanner. But other scanners do support a common osx image capture
>>>>> api, and those work. The server side, I guess you would have to talk
>>>>> to our owner. I do have a crude proof-of-concept server-side script
>>>>> that is shareable which takes in a scan and just displays it back. But
>>>>> from there you can modify however you want. Even the crude script
>>>>> collects the file and displays it. So just add code to that to do
>>>>> something else with the file like save it in a directory structure of
>>>>> your choice.
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> bkw
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Filepro-list mailing list
>>>>> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
>>>>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Subscription Changes
>>>>> http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> ....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.
>>>> 
>>>> personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
>>>>  company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
>>>>           voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
>>>>             fax: (US) 503-624-0760
>>>>             web: http://www.anzio.com
>>>>  street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
>>>>                  10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
>>>>                  Portland, OR  97223  USA
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
>>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Subscription Changes
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>>> 
>> 
>> Regards,
>> ....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.
>> 
>> personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
>>  company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
>>           voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
>>             fax: (US) 503-624-0760
>>             web: http://www.anzio.com
>>  street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
>>                  10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
>>                  Portland, OR  97223  USA
>> 
>
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>

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
  company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
           voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
             fax: (US) 503-624-0760
             web: http://www.anzio.com
  street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
                  10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
                  Portland, OR  97223  USA


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