What do you do for scanning from withing Filepro
Bob Rasmussen
ras at anzio.com
Thu Mar 30 10:21:15 PDT 2017
Oops, not off list. Oh well.
On Thu, 30 Mar 2017, Bob Rasmussen via Filepro-list wrote:
> (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
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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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
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Filepro-list mailing list
>>>> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
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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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>> Filepro-list mailing list
>> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
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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
> _______________________________________________
> 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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