ECM - FileNet Zone

NUnit - Unit Testing Framework for .Net

2011-07-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

Unit Test

A unit test is a piece of source code written by a programmer that is used to test the specific functionality of the project/program.

Unit Testing

This Is a method of testing individual units of code before integrated them together and produced as a big application or system. There are various unit testing frameworks which are being used by developers of .NET community, for example:

NUnit

TestDriven.NET

SharpDevelop

MonoDevelop

NUnit

NUnit is a open source unit testing framework for all the .Net language and its ported from JUnit its version 2.2 it is xUnit based unit testing tool for Microsoft .NET. It is written entirely in C# and has been completely redesigned to take advantage of many .NET language features.

NUnit comes in a Windows setup file and can be easily installed. The setup file is available at http://www.nunit.org url. This web site also contains documentation for various NUnit releases.

NUnit Usage

In order to test a functionality (e.g. database operations), create a public class and annotate it with the attribute [TestFixture]. This attribute tells the unit testing framework that this class has the test methods which can be executed.

Once the test class has been declared, we can implement the test methods. Test methods need to be annotated with the [Test] attribute.

Let’s take an example of simple unit test class:

//Class ‘operations.cs ‘

using System;

public class MathsOperations

{

public static int SumOfNumbers(int number1,int number2)

{

return number1+number2;

}

//OperationsTest.cs

using System;

using NUnit.Framework;

using NUnit.Framework.SyntaxHelpers;

[TestFixture]

public class MathsOperationTest

{

[Test]

public void SumOfNumbers()

{

Assert.That(MathsOperationTest .SumOfNumbers(2,2), Is.EqualTo(4));

}

The name of test is same as the actual method we are testing but Test method can have any meaningful name.

Executing Test Methods

The above two classes belong to the same .Net project (TestNUnit). Once the project is compiled test cases (test methods) can be executed by running NUnit. NUnit framework can be launched by running nunit.exe from the bin directory available under NUnit installation folder. For example, if NUnit was installed on C:\ProgramFiles then the nunit.exe can be found at C:\Program Files\NUnit 2.5.10\bin location.

NUnit tool can be launched from command line as well. But it requires adding the complete path of nunit.exe. Open command prompt and execute following command:

C:\Set “PATH=%PATH%; C:\Program Files\NUnit 2.5.10\bin”

Now run the nunit from console:

C:\nunit –console TestNUnit.exe

Classic Asserts

Following are the examples of classic assert statement.

Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual [, message])

Assert.Less(x,y)

Assert.Greater(x,y)

Assert.GreaterOrEqual(x, y)

Assert.LessOrEqual(x,y)

Assert.IsNull(object [, string message])

Assert.IsNotNull(object [, string message])

Assert.AreSame(expected, actual [, string message])

Constraint-based Asserts

NUnit 2.4 introduced a new constraint-style of assertions while still supporting the classic-style of assertions that more closely match other XUnit frameworks.

Assert.That(actual, Is.EqualTo(expected)) is equivalent to Assert.That(actual, new EqualConstraint(expected))

Assert.That(10.0/3.0, Is.EqualTo(3.33));

Assert.That(10.0/3.0, Is.EqualTo(3.33).Within(0.01f));

Assert.That(actual, Is.Not.EqualTo(expected)) is equivalent to new NotConstraint(new EqualConstraint(expected))

Assert.That(actual, Is.AtMost(expected)) - This constraint-style assert is equivalant to the Assert.LessOrEqual()

Assert.That(expected, Is.Null);

Assert.That(expected, Is.Not.Null);

Assert.That(expected, !Is.Null);

Assert.That(expected, Is.Empty); - Asserts that expected is an empty collection or string, and fails the test if it is not.

Example 2: NUnit lets you specify two methods to set up and then tear down using the attributes as shown below:

[TestFixture]

public class DataBaseTest

{

private Connection Conn;

[SetUp]

public void TestSetup()

{

Conn = new Connection("oracle" , 1521, user, pw);

Conn.Connect();

}

[TearDown]

public void TestTeardown()

{

Conn.Disconnect();

Conn.Dispose();

}

Method annotated with SetUp attribute is called before any test method is called. It can be used to initialize any variables. Method annotated with TearDown attribute is called to finalize or dispose the objects.

Developing Computer-Based-Training

2011-05-16T01:13:00.001-07:00

There are a number of products offering features like creating interactive computer-based-training and save huge amount of time. Below are the vendors offering the products with similar capabilities:

1). Adobe Captivate
http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/

2). Rapid Intake - Offers both Desktop and WebBased tools.
http://www.rapidintake.com/

3). Mind Flash
http://www.mindflash.com/

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

2011-05-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

DAM consists of management tasks related to storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets. It also refers to the protocol for downloading, renaming, rating, grouping, maintaining and exporting files. The media asset management (MAM) mainly addresses audio, video and animation.

DAM system comprises of computer hardware and software systems that help in the process of digital asset management.

Types of Digital Asset Management Systems

1. Production asset management systems

It focuses on managing assets as they are created for a digital media production viz. animation, 3D movie, video game. They usually include work-flow and project-management features integrated with the storage organization and revision control of changing digital assets.

2. Brand asset management systems

Focus of these systems is on facilitation of content reuse within the organization. The type of content it deals with is sales or marketing related. For example: logos, fonts and product images.

3. Library asset management systems

These systems focus on storage and retrieval of infrequently changing media assets like video or photo archiving.

4. Digital supply chain services push the digital content out to digital retailers (e.g. video, music and game)

DAM Vendors

DAM systems are being offered by various vendors in the market. DAM software may be free open source or proprietary.

Open source software:

Resourcespace: It is a php based solution uses MySql as a backend.

www.resourcespace.org

Proprietary software:

http://digitalmedia.opentext.com/

http://www.widen.com/

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cm/cmgr/mp/edition-enterprise.html

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

2011-05-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

DRM is a method of controlling access to copyrighted material in available digital format. In other words, DRM is a shield around the digital content like videos and music to stop privacy. It is a digital management of rights.

In order to design and implement DRM systems, the following two architectures to be considered:

1). Functional Architecture

This covers the high-level modules of DRM system that together provide an end-to-end management of rights.

The DRM system can be modeled in three areas:

a). Intellectual Property (IP) Asset Creation and Capture This module manage the creation of content so it can be easily traded and includes asserting rights when content is first created.

b). IP Asset Management

To manage and enable the trade of content.

c). IP Asset Usage

To manage the usage of content once it has been traded.

These models needs to be complemented by the functional architecture that provides the framework for the modules to implement DRM functionality.

2). Information Architecture

This covers the modeling of entities within the DRM system as well as their relationships.

DRM Vendors

Below are the some of the DRM vendors

Microsoft

Real Network

Macrovision

IBM

Seclore

Seclore - Information Rights Management
Seclore FileSecure’s IRM connector for IBM FileNet® empower enterprises with the ability to robustly secure and monitor access to content and information within and outside of IBM FileNet® without any compromise to collaboration and way people work.

http://www.seclore.com/ibm_filenet.html

DRM from IBM

IBM has developed two solutions to enforce DRM at low level:

a). DRM-JVM

In this solution digital rights management has been enforced at Java virtual machine(JVM) level. DRM-JVM does not affect the non DRM solutions.

b). WebGuard

This solution enforces copyrights at the browser level.

What is Web 2.0?

2011-04-06T19:16:00.001-07:00

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 is generally used for those web applications (sites) that facilitate collaboration, information sharing on the World Wide Web (WWW). Examples of Web 2.0 are wikis, blogs, video sharing sites, social networking etc.

The difference between normal web site and Web 2.0 site lies in the way users interact with Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a virtual community while users of websites are limited to the passive viewing of the content available on them.

Although the term Web 2.0 suggests a new version of World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specification, but rather to changes in the way software development and user community use the Web.

For more information visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Microsoft Sharepoint 2010

2011-04-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

Below are some new features/improvements available in MSP 2010

· Improved Records Management and Digital Asset Management.

· Advanced Routing – SP System determines which library/folder the new submitted document should be saved based on the associated meta-data.

· Document Set – Allows grouping of multiple items in order to consolidate them. For example: documents related to one project can be grouped.

· Search function has been improved with the features like ‘relevance improvement’, people search and FAST search.

· Business processes improved

· Chart Web part have been introduced as an aid to the data visualization.

· Workflow designer has been improved.

· Moving of the Workflow from test to production environment has been easy in 2010 which was not in 2007.

· Export/Import from Visio 2010 is available. [Note: SP stores most of the contents in SQL DB instead of the file system]

· Sharepoint 2010 is 64 bit means it requires 64-bit Windows Server 2008 and 64-bit SQL Server 2005/2008.

· Service applications have taken place of Shared Service provider (SSP).

· Sharepoint 2010 Support Major Browsers.

· New Content related feature like Rich Media Management, Flexible Records Management and Content organizer

· Tags, Tag Clouds, Tag Profile, Note board, recent activities, enterprise Wikis, ratings and Keyword suggestion are new community features.

· Business connectivity services (BCS), Visio services and Access services are introduced as composite(mash-up) features. These services help in pulling data from different sources and combining it in a single place.

Single-Threaded Apartment (STA)

2011-03-13T19:20:00.001-07:00

Single-Threaded Apartment (STA)

In .Net, the main method used to be preceded by the following attribute declarations:

[STAThread]

static void Main() {

What is its significance?

After going through multiple blogs and sites I have concluded that if you are not using COM and none of the APIs you are going to use in your application makes use of COM in any way then don’t pay any attention to the concept of APARTMENT.

A thread must use the STA model if it intends to display any GUI. This is the reason why main method has [STAThread] attribute before it.

What is an Apartment?

A process is a collection of virtual memory space, code, data, and system resources.

A thread is code that is to be serially executed within a process. [A processor executes threads, not processes, so each application has at least one process, and a process always has at least one thread of execution, known as the primary thread. A process can have multiple threads in addition to the primary thread]

In general, the simplest way to view the COM threading architecture is to think of all the COM objects in the process as divided into groups called apartments. A COM object lives in exactly one apartment, in the sense that its methods can legally be directly called only by a thread that belongs to that apartment. Any other thread that wants to call the object must go through a proxy.

What is Single and Multi Thread Apartment?

Single-threaded apartments consist of exactly one thread, so all COM objects that live in a single-threaded apartment can receive method calls only from the one thread that belongs to that apartment. All method calls to a COM object in a single-threaded apartment are synchronized with the windows message queue for the single-threaded apartment's thread. A process with a single thread of execution is simply a special case of this model.

Multithreaded apartments consist of one or more threads, so all COM objects that live in an multithreaded apartment can receive method calls directly from any of the threads that belong to the multithreaded apartment. Threads in a multithreaded apartment use a model called free-threading. Calls to COM objects in a multithreaded apartment are synchronized by the objects themselves.

SHFUSION.DLL - Assembly Cache Viewer

2011-03-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

SHFUSION.DLL - Assembly Cache Viewer

Shfusion.dll
This file generally lies in the c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\ folder. This file is responsible for showing the c:\windows\assembly (.NET GAC folders) as a special folder which does not allow any I/O operations like copy/delete etc.

In order to see the c:\windows\assembly folder as a normal folder just unregister the shfusion.dll. You need to be an administartor on the machine for running regsvr32 command to unregister this dll.

In order to switch back assembly folder to the original (special) view just register the shfusion.dll using regsvr32 command. Visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/34149zk3(v=vs.71).aspx for more information.

Applies to the .Net Framework up to 3

Access List and Default Item Access List(DIAL) - FileNet CS

2011-02-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Access List [This is the list which governs the access of a user to specific objects]An access list can control access on a user-by-user basis, the lists would become long and difficult to maintain if they listed all possible users by name.For ease of implementation of t he access control, the library system allows assigning access rights to groups, because groups contain sets of users who have common access requirements.

Because a user may belong to more than one group in a library system, access control is determined by a user's active group, that is, the group in which a user is currently working. Thus, when users change their active group, their access rights to objects also change accordingly. Using groups to control access greatly simplifies security. Suppose, for example, that there are seventy users in a library system, but these users all fall into three work groups: employees, supervisors, and a personnel department. Since there are also three groups with those same names, the access list for a document that corresponds to an employee's personnel record would need only three entries (one for each group), rather than seventy (one for each
individual user). If groups are created to match the way people work in an organization, their use in controlling access can ensure people will read and modify only the appropriate information.

An access list contains information about the users and groups who have been assigned specific access rights to a particular object. In CS Explorer, this information is displayed as Access Control object properties. Each Access Control object contains three pieces of information:
• The name of a user or a group
• The type of name
• The access rights granted

By default, a library system uses the following search pattern when determining a user’s access rights to a particular object and assigns the first access rights that apply:

1. Checks to see if the user is a member of the Administrators group.
2. Checks in the object's access list for an entry under the user name.
3. Checks in the object's access list for an entry under the user's active group.
4. Checks the access rights assigned to the General Users group, if included in the access list.
5. Assigns the user access rights of None.
Notice that this search pattern ensures that active members of the Administrators group always receive Admin access; thereafter, access rights specifically granted to a user take precedence over those granted to a group.

Default Item Access List [This list get sused when the user adds document into CS]Another way a library system can help users control access to their files is by inserting default entries in document access lists so that the user does not have to provide the same set of entries each time he or she adds a document.

You can specify a set of default item access list entries for each user in his or her User object. Then, each time that user adds a document to the library system from any user interface, the access list of the Item object is filled in with those specified defaults. Of course, to cover special cases, users can always change the access list of any documents they add, but they do not have to start from scratch with each document.
In the same way that you add entries to the default item access list in the User object, you can also specify them in Group objects and the System object.

Thus, the access lists of documents do not necessarily have a standard set of default entries. The library system does add default entries to the document's access list as the document is added, but to determine these defaults, the library system will check for entries in the Default Item Access List properties in the following objects and use the first such list with any entries:

1. The User object
2. The Group object for the user's active group
3. The System object

Version Numbering in FileNet P8 CE

2011-02-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Each document version is assigned a number that reflects whether the document is a major or minor version. This number is automatically assigned and changed by the Content Engine whenever a versioning action, such as a checkout, takes place that changes the version status of the document.
The version number is unique in the document version series and is actually comprised of two properties—the major version number and the minor version number. These properties are described in Versioning properties.
The numbering rules are fairly simple:

A minor version always has some number other than zero as its minor number. Both 0.1 and 4.32 are examples of a minor version. Reservation versions are always assigned a minor number.
A major version always has an integer other than zero as its major number, and always has a minor number equal to zero; for example, 5.0.

As you can see, these two numbers can be joined into what looks like a single number. Enterprise Manager and application such as Workplace sometimes display these numbers joined together with a decimal divider, with the major number coming before the decimal and the minor number after. In other places like the list of properties in the object property grid, the two properties are listed separately.
If a new document is first checked in as a minor version, its version number becomes 0.1. The next version in this series would be 0.2 if a minor, and would be 1.0 if it is checked in as a major version.
If a new document is first checked in as a major version, its number would be 1.0. The second version in this series would be 2.0 if a major version, and would be 1.1 if it is checked in as a minor version.
A document in the reservation state is always a minor document and has a minor document number. For example, if you check out a document numbered 2.0, the resulting reservation version is numbered 2.1. If you check out a document numbered 2.1, the resulting reservation version is numbered 2.2 (because a reservation is always a minor version).
It is on checkin that users can decide whether to check in the Document as a minor or as major version. A reservation number therefore stays the same if it is checked in as a minor version, and changes if it is checked in as a major version. For example, a reservation numbered 2.1 is still numbered 2.1 if it is checked in as a minor version. If the same reservation numbered 2.1 is checked in as a major version, its number changes to 3.0

Versioning properties

Several document class properties are important to document versioning. Each document version is either a major version or a minor version and is automatically assigned a major number and a minor number. See Version numbering for more about how the major and minor numbers make up a document version number. See What appears in folders? for details about which version of a document shows up by default in Enterprise Manager and applications such as Workplace XT. See Versioning actions to understand how actions like checking out or promoting a document determine the properties described in this topic.
Content Engine maintains the following read-only properties related to versioning:

Major version number

A major version is one that

has been approved as released, or
was released in the past but has now been superseded by a more recently released version.

Released major versions are typically designed to be available to a wide range of users. Access to superseded major versions is typically more restricted, such as to a select group of authors and reviewers.
Major versions always have a minor number equal to zero. For example, a document with a major version number of 2 and a minor version number of 0, sometimes displayed together with the major number first, as in 2.0, is a major version.
If two-level versioning is used, the major number holds the current major version level of this document version series.
If single level versioning is used, all versions of the version series are major versions. The only exception is that reservations are always given a minor number, which in single-level versioning is therefore always 1. As soon as the reservation is checked in, the minor number goes back to 0 while the major number is incremented by 1.

Minor version number

A minor version is one that has not been approved and released as a major version. The most recently checked in minor version is marked in process. There can be only one in process version in a version series. Older minor versions are marked superseded, and there can be many superseded versions. Access to minor versions is typically restricted to a select group of authors and reviewers. A reservation document (the editable document version created by a checkout) is always a minor document.
A document is a minor version if its minor number is 1 or more (that is, not equal to zero). For example, a document numbered 2.1 has a major version number of 2 and a minor version number of 1 and is therefore a minor version.
If two-level versioning is used, the minor number holds the current minor version level of this document version series. Versions that are major versions (superseded or otherwise) have a minor number of zero. Versions that are minor have some number other than zero for the minor number.
If single-level versioning is used, the minor number is always equal to zero, with the one exception of the reservation as previously described.

Version status

Content Engine provides four versioning states that are automatically applied as a document version series goes through various defined stages. These states are released, in process, reservation, and superseded. Each of these states can be associated with a security template, providing easy control over the permissions granted on the document as it passes into a particular versioning state.

Released: A major version that is generally made available to all users. Only one version of a document in a given version series can be in the released state at a time.
In process: A checked in minor version, which is typically made available to a restricted set of authors and reviewers. Sometimes referred to as a draft. Only one document in a version series can be in process at a time. When a reservation document gets checked in and becomes the new in process document, the previous in process document becomes superseded.
Reservation: A document whose content is currently being edited. A reservation is a full-fledged version and can be saved in the object store indefinitely. Even though you can edit both the properties and content of a reservation, there is nothing unstable about it; it does not act like an unsaved word processing document that is in danger of being lost if it is closed without being explicitly saved to disk. The term reservation is meant to convey that the author who is editing the document has reserved it for his or her own use. There can never be more than one reservation in a version series, because only the current version can be checked out. Reservations are always minor versions. Users can save the content of the reservation document one or more times before checking it in. Do not confuse reservation with Reserved.
Superseded: A major or minor version that is no longer the most recent version. A major released version becomes superseded when there is a more recent major released version. A minor becomes superseded when there is a more recent minor in process version. There can be many superseded major and minor versions in a version series.

These version states are actually stored as integers and are sometimes displayed as integers by Enterprise Manager and applications such as Workplace:

Released = 1
In Process = 2
Reservation = 3
Superseded = 4

The text values ("Released" and so on) are associated with the integers by the Version Status Lookup Custom Object. You can edit this custom object to change the strings to some other value. You can, for example, change "Released" to "Public version" or "In Process" to "In Progress".
For information about how security policies can be designed to automatically apply these changes of permissions to versions as they change from state to state, see Security policies.

Current version

Current Version is a property that defines which version in a version series is the most recent version, other than the reservation. (The reservation cannot be the current version.) The value of this property is used by events, folder references, and other server or client-based processes that act on the latest version.

Reserved

Reserved is a property that is set on the current version when it is checked out. The term "Reserved" is meant to convey that the current version is no longer available to be checked out. Do not confuse with reservation. When the Reserved property of the current version is set to True, there must also be another version that is the reservation.

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 6

2011-02-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

Property Manager The components in the library system that store and maintain in a database a library system's objects and properties. These objects and properties identify and describe stored documents and unstored items. They also describe users, groups, searches, and system components. Each library system has its own Property Manager. The Property Manager is roughly equivalent to the database engine, but has a slightly larger conceptual purpose. For example, each of the library systems that happens to share a database engine is said to have its own unique Property Manager.

Property repository A Microsoft SQL Server database or Oracle tablespace that contains the objects and properties for a single library system. The objects and properties identify and describe stored documents and unstored items. They also describe users, groups, searches, and system components.

The documentation generally refers to a SQL Server database or Oracle tablespace as a property repository only after you have installed the associated library system and applied its initial changes to the database or tablespace. Prior to library system installation, the documentation uses database or tablespace rather than property repository (for example, “To create an Oracle tablespace:").

Property server The server where the library system database engine is installed. Typically, this server is also the initial storage server, but under certain configurations, may be a standalone database server instead.

Storage Manager The library system service that processes operational requests (for example, to check in or check out) and stores version files controlled by the library system.

Storage category To a user, such a category typically describes a type of file (for example, Word Docs, Payroll Records, Memos). To an administrator, storage categories provide a way of controlling load balancing in the various storage repositories. Storage category names are determined by an administrator to reflect the working environment at a particular site. One or more storage categories may be assigned to a storage repository and administrators can change these assignments as load requirements change.[Can be visualize as document class]

Storage repository A storage area (that is, a directory) for specific version files controlled by the library system. Each file is stored according to a storage category, which is assigned when the file is added to the library system as a protected item. A storage repository may be assigned numerous storage categories for a particular installation of a library system.

Storage server Any server where initial or additional services for a library system are installed.

Verity K2 Master Admin The Verity component that governs all Content Search Managers for a library system.

Verity K2 Master Admin Server The server where the CS installer places the Verity K2 Master Admin that governs the Content Search Managers for a given library system.

Archive category Describes a way of handling version files that are moved offline during automatic or manual archiving. Each protected item is given an archive category (for example, Archive To Tape) when it is added to the system. Each archive category is assigned to a specific storage directory called an archive repository.

Archive repository A storage area (that is, a directory) for specific system-controlled version files that are moved offline. The archive repository is where the files are held while awaiting archive storage or destruction outside of the library system. Archive repositories can be described as reclaimable or no reclaimable. Typically, files that are moved offline through a reclaimable archive repository are more easily reclaimed for use at a later time. Each archive repository may be assigned numerous archive categories.

Content Search Manager A software service that contains the program files required to make content searching for version files available with the library system.

Content search repository A named collection of files identifying versions that have been indexed so that users can find those versions based on the actual contents of the version files. You must add at least one of these content search repositories for each Content Search Manager.

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 5

2011-02-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

Replication Services Overview

Replication Services gives your documents greater availability across your enterprise, automatically and without compromising document integrity. Instead of manually creating and maintaining the necessary user accounts and documents on separate libraries, replication automatically copies the documents and related security to another library system.

Replication Services provides a way to make documents and items in one library system available to other library systems. Replication Services automatically copies documents, items, and their security to additional specified library systems. As documents are checked out, updated, and checked in again, the changes are synchronized across the other libraries.

When a document is replicated, both the file content and the property values for standard properties and existing custom properties of the document are copied into the library systems participating in Replication Services. Users can quickly locate and access a replicated document anywhere in any replicated library. All instances of replicated documents or folders in any library system are periodically synchronized with any alterations to the original document or folder.

However, the synchronization is not immediate. That is, Replication is an asynchronous store-and-forward system. Changes are logged into a queue for processing, and then propagated to the replica libraries. The processing may take place almost immediately, or it may take place only during certain hours of the day, depending on your configuration parameters, the number and type of changes requested, the network load, and the availability of the replica libraries. For example, if a replica library is offline for maintenance (or a power failure), the update cannot be completed until the library is available again.

A replicated document's current status is reflected on all the participating library systems: if checked out, a document will be marked as checked out on all of these library systems. When a new version is checked in, that new version is replicated to all the participating library systems. Replication Services runs independently of the other library system services. Thus, Replication Services can continue running while other library system services are stopped and restarted and can automatically resynchronize with these library system services when they restart. Using Replication Services can have a profound impact on your library system configurations and the hardware and software resources required. Take time to carefully plan your system before you implement replication in your network.

Additional point: You must copy Document Classes and Controlled Vocabulary Lists (CVLs) from one library to another using the import and export tools available in CS Explorer.

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 4

2011-02-06T22:34:00.002-08:00

Deleting Sessions

In a library system, an active session is the open session that a user is currently working in. There are actually two sessions involved when a user is logged in to a library system via a Content Services client application, such as IDM Desktop or CS Web Admin environment. One is the database connection session, and the second is the Content Services library session.

When a CS client application exits or is killed, the corresponding database connection session is deleted from the database. You can also delete all the database connections at once by stopping and restarting the database. If a database connection session is deleted, then any corresponding active CS library session is said to be an orphan session.

CS library system sessions are tracked by CS Explorer but cannot be removed by it. Neither stopping and restarting the database or CS services will delete an orphan session. Nor will rebooting a workstation where a CS client application is running. To remove these orphan CS library sessions, you can invoke DSSTOP on the server where the library system is resident. Alternatively, you can simply allow the daemon running on the database custodial server to periodically check for suspended sessions. The daemon will remove any orphaned sessions that are more than two days old. To find out what sessions are open in a particular library system and to see whether these sessions are active or suspended, you can check the status of the Sessions object using CS Explorer.

Resetting the Session ID

The library system maintains a unique session ID for each library system session. The session ID is incremented each time a user opens a new session. Over time, it is possible to exceed the limit of approximately 2 billion (231) session IDs.

To avoid an overflow condition, we recommend that you periodically check the value of the Session Number property in a Session object (the value of this property is the session ID). When the value of the Session Number property approaches 2 billion, you should reset the session ID to 0.

To reset the session ID:

1. Stop the library system and database services.

2. Restart the database services.

3. Using your SQL query tool (SQL Server Query Analyzer for SQL Server or sqlplus for Oracle), reset the session ID to 0.

• For SQL Server enter:

use system_name

delete from session

update numid set se_id_num=0

• For Oracle enter:

delete from system_name.session;

update system_name.numid set se_id_num=0

4. Restart the library system services

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 3

2011-02-06T22:34:00.000-08:00

Secure Document Delete

With the Secure Document Delete feature you can scrub your sensitive document files to prevent any possibility of recovery via disk recovery tools. Scrubbing means to overwrite its contents with a byte pattern before actually deleting the file.

Scrubbing means that the file's entire content is overwritten by a byte pattern before the file is actually deleted. Secure Document Delete does not delete files from client machines. To ensure secure delete functionality on servers containing library system components, do not install client interfaces (such as IDM Desktop) on those servers.

Neither Replication Services nor Web Services scrub files during add, checkin, and checkout operations. For simple delete operations as may be desired during a “purge” process however, Secure Document Delete is applied on all servers that have this feature turned on.

You can configure the Secure Document Delete feature for each Storage Manager by selecting one of the options described below.

Level	Description
No Secure Deletes	Ordinary delete. Files are not overwritten before being deleted.
One Scrub	Files are overwritten with zeroes once before being deleted. This level corresponds to the Clear definition of the DOD 5220.22-M specification.
Three Scrubs	Files are overwritten once with an arbitrary character, again by the character's complement, and finally by a random character before being deleted. This level corresponds to the Purge or Sanitize definition of the DOD 5220.22-M specification.

The initial and additional (remote) Storage Managers of a library system are each separately configurable with respect to secure deletes. Whether an item (document) is securely deleted depends on the secure-delete setting of all the Storage Managers that govern the storage repositories where the versions of the item are stored.

When an item is added to a library, it is given a Storage Category, which is associated with the storage repository where the versions of the item will be stored. As one storage repository fills up, the system administrator will assign the Storage Category to another storage repository. Thus, over time, different versions of the same item may end up in different storage repositories.

To ensure that an item is securely deleted, make sure it is given a Storage Category all of whose associated storage repositories will only be on servers where the Storage Manager is configured for secure deletes. Beware that if even one of the storage repositories associated with the Storage Category is on a server whose Storage Manager is not configured for secure deletes, then any versions of the item that are stored on that server will not be securely deleted.

Secure Document Delete Limitations

On UNIX platforms, files larger than 2 Gbytes will not be overwritten and must be scrubbed using special tools. On Windows platforms, files will be scrubbed securely up to the full Windows 64-bit limit.

Secure Document Delete does not scrub property data in the database; this remains the job of the database administrator and the database itself. Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle do not scrub database data during row or table deletion.

You cannot obtain Secure Document Delete functionality on compressed disks or files. Do not use defragmentation tools on the disk containing the stored document files. Such tools move the files on the disk without pre-scrubbing them, making secure deletes unsupportable.

Some database metadata (such as file names, Item IDs, Version IDs) are not scrubbed in subtle places. For example, when a search query is performed, even on the server, a temp file is used to store the results. When the query ends, the temp file is deleted (but not securely). Database metadata is generally insecure; even Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases cannot do secure metadata deletes.

The Windows pagefile and UNIX swap files may include memory images that need to be paged to disk, and the memory image may include the files you are copying or writing. The Secure Document Delete functionality cannot scrub these files.

Reformatting a hard disk may not overwrite data on the disk. If you reformat a disk containing storage repositories, you should use other tools to scrub the disk clean of file data.

The uninstall command (dsuninst.exe) does not scrub storage or index repository files. Activities such as the actions of the executable files that perform during installs and upgrades, the use of tools, and utilizing configuration code, do not carry out secure deletes. For example when DLLs are copied to a temp directory, they are not scrubbed when they are removed. Secure Document Delete does not work on Hierarchical Storage Manager extended drives. HSM controls access to files on media and cannot guarantee scrubbing in the process of a move or purge

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 2

2011-02-06T22:32:00.002-08:00

Library System Security

One of the powerful feature of the library system is the security it provides for your important information. Each time you or any other user adds a document to the library system, you determine the document's descriptive properties and its associated version files and properties that users and groups will be able to access. You provide this information using the document's Access List property. For further security, there is also an Access List property for all users and groups. Three objects commonly referenced by users and administrators contain an access list: the User object, the Group object, and the Item object. However, access rights to entities without access lists (such as versions) are passed down through “parent” objects (such as the Item object). So, the library system provides a simple way to set up and maintain access control, yet allows this security to be as controlled or permissive as necessary. There are five levels of access rights in a library system:

Access Right	Privileges granted
None	No access. If no other access level is stated in the access list, access rights of None are assumed. An access level of None can also be explicitly stated in an access list.
Viewer	Generally, the ability to view the object properties or to make copies of the associated versions.
Author	(Applies to documents and versions only) Viewer access rights plus the ability to checkout ,check in and copy associated versions and modify property values for the version. In addition, you may be allowed to modify designated custom property values for the document.
Owner	Author access rights plus the ability to delete documents, modify security and modify most properties.
Admin	Owner access rights plus the ability to modify all property values. Active members of the Administrators group are automatically assigned Admin access rights to all properties, even though their names do not appear in any access lists. Users who are not members of the Administrators group can be explicitly assigned an Admin access level to the properties associated with particular objects.

DIAL – Default item access list

Access List Defaults

To ensure that each access list contains initial entries, a library system provides some defaults in the User, Group and Item object. In User and Group object access lists, these defaults are standard entries that are always added, as shown in the following:

Name Type Access Level

(Added By User) User Admin

(User's Name) User Owner

General Users Group Viewer

The Added By User value is the user who added the object to the library system. This user and any user with Owner or Admin access rights can modify the values after the User or Group object has been created. The Administrators group always has Admin access rights, even though these rights are not displayed in the access list.

Default Item Access Lists

Another way a library system can help users control access to their files is by inserting default entries in document access lists so that the user does not have to provide the same set of entries each time he or she adds a document. You can specify a set of default item access list entries for each user in his or her User object. Then, each time that user adds a document to the library system from any user interface, the access list of the Item object is filled in with those specified defaults. Of course, to cover special cases, users can always change the access list of any documents they add, but they do not have to start from scratch with each document. In the same way that you add entries to the default item access list in the User object, you can also specify them in Group objects and the System object.

1. The User object

2. The Group object for the user's active group

3. The System object

To understand how default item access lists work, consider the following example. At the law firm of Hunter and Bowers, senior lawyer Sarah Black is using IDM Desktop to add an item to a library system. She knows that her system administrator has given her active group (Attorneys) the default item access list (shown below), which will be applied to all documents added by the group's members.

Name Type Access Level

Attorneys Group Author

Managers Group Author

Paralegals Group Viewer

The system administrator has left the Default Item Access List property blank in Sarah's User object because Sarah always wants the default access list for her active group to be applied. (Likewise, whenever Sarah changes her active group, the library system will apply the default item access list of her new active group.) She also realizes that since the default access list at her active group level does not mention her name specifically, she will receive the program default access rights for any user who adds a document and Owner access rights to the document that she is adding to the library system. And with Owner access rights to the new document, she can modify the entries in the document's access list at a later time if necessary.

FileNet Content Services Concepts - Part 1

2011-02-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

The Library System

Content Services (also called the library system) provides server-based enterprise content management (ECM) that can be accessed via a client interface using applications such as FileNet IDM Desktop or FileNet Web Services. An enterprise, especially if it's spread across various sites, may have multiple library systems, depending upon sizing and load balancing considerations.

A typical Content Services installation comprises the following components:

• One or more library systems.

• One or more administrative clients.

• One or more ECM clients (such as IDM Desktop).

• One or more application solutions (such as FileNet Web Services for intranet/internet access).

As you can see in the following illustration, each library system has a set of sub-components that you install and configure to provide the services for your various client-based users.

Each library system acts as an information storehouse.

· The Property Manager stores and manages object properties (users, groups, system, and custom properties) and metadata describing your catalogued documents.

· The Storage Manager stores the actual documents and process requests.

· The Content Search Manager provides document content-based indexing and searching capabilities.

· CS Replication Services, which allows you to replicate documents across multiple library systems.

You have the option to locate your database on a standalone property server. In this configuration, the initial Storage Manager, Content Search Manager, and Replication Services would be located not on the property server, but on the initial storage server.

Protected Items

When you add a document to a library system, you usually add it as a protected item. It is called “protected” because the library system physically stores the document, thereby protecting it from unauthorized access, inadvertent removal, and more. Protected items can be documents that were created by any application (for example, word-processing documents, financial spreadsheets, images, audio, tables, and so on).

Unprotected Items

A library system also lets you control and manage unprotected items (external documents), which are items that are not physically stored in the library system but are tracked for easy management. This capability is especially useful for items that are stored in special locations, yet still require version tracking or controlled access. Some examples are: magnetic tapes, printed technical manuals, printed engineering drawings, and software source code listings. Although the unprotected items added at most sites represent these kinds of physical objects, unprotected items can also be electronic files that you do not want to store in the library system.

FileNet Content Services Features

2011-02-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Network-wide Search and Retrieval

FileNet Content Services (CS) systems allow documents to be identified using plain language titles and property names, not cumbersome file names. End users can search for documents based on their properties and/or their content. Regardless of the user's location or the file's location, complex path commands with coded document names are never required. Documents are checked out of and checked in to the FileNet CS system for updates and revisions. One simple end user command transparently saves, tracks, and archives any document.

Logical, Not Physical, Storage Pointers

Unlike conventional document management packages that rely on physical file locations, a FileNet CS system does not require users to have any knowledge of where documents are actually stored. In fact, users are shielded from that knowledge, providing an added layer of security for the documents and the network. Document management systems that use physical pointers require constant supervision and cumbersome revision as networks grow and change.Moving files, adding users adding or changing directories means updating every single workstation individually. With a FileNet CS system, such system changes can be handled centrally by the network administrator.

Object-Oriented Approach

A FileNet CS system encapsulates all types of files and objects. Each object is described by properties such as description, security, and administration. Actions are performed against objects using these properties as variables. In this way, an ordinary file becomes an “intelligent” document because, regardless of how or where it is used, the document retains its properties and always knows who is authorized to view it or make edits, where it is to be stored on the network, and how it is to be administered and archived.

Version Control

When a user opens a document for editing, it is designated as checked out. The user is always provided a copy of the particular version of the document, and the original copy of that version remains protected. Other users who try to access a document version that is checked out are notified that it is checked out and by whom. While the document is checked out and being modified, users can view the latest checked-in version of the document. When the user is finished working with a checked out version, he or she can check it in. The FileNet CS system retains the old version and automatically saves the checked in document as a new version. Once checked in, the old and new versions of the document become available for check out to other users. When users access the document, they are free to check out the most current version or go back to older versions as needed.

Multilevel Security

An access control list is created for each document added to a FileNet CS system. This access control is part of the document's properties and is independent of the document's location on the network. In this way, authorized users have access to the information they need, no matter where they or the documents are physically located. Yet all stored documents are well protected, because only the documents that each user is authorized to see will be displayed as the result of a search.

A FileNet CS system controls who can create new versions of any given document, regardless of data type, application used, or storage location. Security levels determine access rights such as Owner, Author, Viewer, or None. The only access to documents is through the FileNet CS system. File names are encrypted and users are prevented from bypassing the FileNet CS system to access files via the network operating system. CS administrators should not share the directories where FileNet file are located.

ECM Administration Tools

FileNet CS systems include a Windows® based administrative tool. ECM administration tasks such as adding new servers, designating new storage locations, or adding new users and groups can be performed at any time, no matter how many users are online. In addition, a web browser-based version of the administrative tool that includes a subset of the windows-based administration tool is available for administrators who want mobile access to library system properties and the ability to start/stop CS servers remotely.

Flexible Open Technology

CS is designed to work with virtually every combination of user interface, application, and hardware/software. Creation and maintenance of general office documents (including enterprise, departmental, workgroup, and personal documents), legal document management, email, as well as document imaging may all be handled through a common repository. This means that no matter how many platforms or environments are used across the network, all enterprise applications are interoperable. Additionally, any enterprise can take advantage of FileNet IDM Desktop (and, if necessary, CS API programming functions) to build custom enterprise applications as future needs emerge.

Load Balancing and Scalability of Distributed Services

No matter how an organization's workload grows and changes across departments or divisions, the FileNet CS system's queue management and load balancing features ensure a consistent working environment for end users.

Documentum Foundation Classes 6

2011-01-12T22:55:00.001-08:00

DFC (Documentum Foundation Classes 6.0)

DFC is a key part of the Documentum software platform. While the main user of DFC is other Documentum software, you can use DFC in any of the following ways:

• Access Documentum functionality from within one of your company’s enterprise applications.

For example, your corporate purchasing application can retrieve a contract from your Documentum system.

• Customize or extend products such as Webtop.

For example, you can modify Webtop functionality to implement one of your company’s business rules.

• Write a method or procedure for Content Server to execute as part of a workflow or document

lifecycle.

For example, the procedure that runs when you promote an XML document might apply a transformation to it and start a workflow to subject the transformed document to a predefined business process.

You can view Documentum functionality as having the following elements:

Repositories One or more places where you keep the content and associated metadata of your organization’s information. The metadata resides in a relational database, and the content resides in various storage elements.

Content Server

Software that manages, protects, and imposes an object oriented structure on the information in repositories. It provides tools for managing the lifecycles of that information and automating processes for manipulating it.

Client programs

Software that provides interfaces between Content Server and end users. The most common clients run on application servers (for example, Webtop).

End Users People who control, contribute, or use your organization’s information. They use a browser to access client programs running on application servers.

Documentum Foundation Classes (DFC) lies between Content Server and clients. Documentum Foundation Services are the primary client interface to the Documentum platform. Documentum Foundation Classes are used for server‑side business logic and customization.

DFC is Java based. As a result, client programs that are Java based can interface directly with DFC.When application developers use DFC, it is usually within the customization model of a Documentum client, though you can also use DFC to develop the methods associated with Content Server functionality, such as document lifecycles.

In the Java application server environment, Documentum client software rests on the foundation provided by the Web Development Kit (WDK). This client has a customization model that allows you to modify the user interface and also implement some business logic. However, the principal tool for

adding custom business logic to a Documentum system is to use the Business Object Framework (BOF).

BOF enables you to implement business rules and patterns as reusable elements, called modules. The most important modules for application developers are type based objects (TBOs), service based

objects (SBOs), and Aspects. Aspect modules are similar to TBOs, but enable you to attach properties and behaviour on an instance‑by‑instance basis, independent of the target object’s type.

BOF makes it possible to extend some of DFC’s implementation classes. As a result, you can introduce new functionality in such a way that existing programs begin immediately to reflect changes you make to the underlying business logic.

The Documentum Content Server Fundamentals manual provides a conceptual explanation of the capabilities of Content Server. DFC provides a framework for accessing those capabilities. Using DFC and BOF makes your code much more likely to survive future architectural changes to theDocumentum system.

Where Is DFC?

DFC runs on a Java virtual machine (JVM), which can be on:

• The machine that runs Content Server.

For example, to be called from a method as part of a workflow or document lifecycle.

• A middle‑tier system.

For example, on an application server to support WDK or to execute server methods.

For client machines, Documentum 6 now provides Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) as the primary support for applications communicating with the Documentum platform.

Acronyms

DFC Documentum Foundation Classes

TBO Type based object

SBO Service based object

WDK Web development toolkit

BOF Business object framework

Microsoft Dynamic Langugage Runtime (DLR)

2010-12-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

The Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) is a set of libraries built on the CLR to support dynamic language implementations on .NET. A key value proposition of the .NET CLR is supporting multiple languages and allowing them to inter operate with each other. Dynamic languages have become very popular in the last several years. Customers want to use their favorite dynamic language and have great .NET interoperability for building applications and providing scripting for applications. The DLR makes it very easy to develop dynamic languages on .NET.
The DLR provides three key components:

language implementation services with language interoperability model
dynamic language runtime services with fast dynamic dispatch and library support
common hosting APIs across languages

The key goals of the DLR are making it easy to

port dynamic languages to .NET
add dynamic features to your existing language
author libraries whose objects support dynamic operations
employ dynamic languages in your applications and frameworks.

DLR hosting APIs
The DLR Hosting API is a programming interface that allows one language’s code to execute in another
language. It helps in using a Dynamic Language’s Code in a Static Language.

Dynamic Languages - Outside .net family of languages. For example: Ruby or Python
Static Languages - .NET languages like VB.net, C#.net etc.
For more information please visit http://dlr.codeplex.com/

K2 BlackPoint

2010-11-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

K2 BlackPoint is used to create new workflow using Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Infopath.

It has two designers a). K2 Studio and b). K2 Web Designer

Benefits:
a). Visual tools to create worflow.
b). No coding required.
c). Tools that can be used by non developer.

For more information visit http://www.k2.com/en/blackpoint.aspx

Generate barcodes using barcode4j

2010-10-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Barcode4J is a barcodes generator written in Java. It's free, available under the Apache License, version 2.0.It supports generating 1D and 2D barcodes of various types.

a) Implementations

* 1D barcode implementations
          o Interleaved 2 of 5
          o Code 39
          o Code 128
          o Codabar
          o POSTNET & more
* 2D barcode implementations :
          o PDF 417 (ISO/IEC 15438:2001(E))
          o DataMatrix (ISO/IEC 16022:2000(E))

b) Support for multiple formats:

It supports various file formats viz. SVG, EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), Bitmap images (such as PNG or JPEG), Java2D (AWT), Text (for testing and debugging only).
http://barcode4j.sourceforge.net/2.0/output-formats.html

c)Barcode Servlet with support for SVG, EPS and bitmap output

d) Command-line interface
barcode4j has command line support so you can generate barcode by executing a command on command line.

e) Plug-ins/extensions for third-party products:
          o Apache Xalan: SVG-generating XSLT extension
          o SAXON XSLT Processor : SVG-generating XSLT extension
          o Apache FOP: support as fo:instream-foreign-object

For more information go to http://barcode4j.sourceforge.net/

IBM Classification Module and Content Extractor

2010-10-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

IBM® Classification Module

IBM® Classification Module helps organize unstructured content by analyzing the full text of documents and e-mails and applying rules that automate classification decisions.

IBM Classification Module reduces the burden of manual decision making that is done by employees by accurately and automatically organizing information.

It is embedded with natural language processing and semantic analysis capabilities,

CLASSIFICATION WORKBENCH

An application that is used to create and analyze knowledge bases and decision plans. With Classification Workbench, you can also evaluate system performance by importing analysis data and viewing reports and graphical diagnostics.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

A single file encapsulating data that is required by the Classification Module for accurate content-based classification

DECISION PLAN

A collection of rules built in Classification Workbench that determine how the Classification Module classifies content items such as documents or e-mails. Each rule consists of one trigger and one or more actions.

CLASSIFICATION CENTER

A Web application provided with the IBM FileNet P8 integration that is used to manage the classification processes. You can use the Classification Center to determine the content to be classified, specify classification options (such as the decision plan to use and various runtime preferences), monitor classification activity, and view the classification results

Content Extractor

A command-line tool provided with the IBM FileNet P8 integration that is used to extract the content from an IBM FileNet P8 object store. You can import the extracted content into Classification Workbench and use it to train a knowledge base or provide test data for a decision plan.

It uses a properties file where option for what to be extracted is specified and extracts the document in XML format.

IBM WebSphere Transformation Extender (WTX)

2010-10-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Its a dedicated data transformation engine for app integration. It’s being used in organizations around the world. A transformation engine accepts FILE docs or electronic messages as inputs, parsed them using data dictionary like definitions & transforms them into one or more o/p messages.

It can convert all most any formatted content and does this without any coding/scripting by developer. WTX is a family of products and has editions tailored to ESB, BPM and B2B products.

How does it connect to existing applications?

WTX has local file system support by default. This helps for testing transformations thoroughly before moving to the connectivity phase.

How does WTX aid application reuse?

For example Industry Standards, they get updated usually one/twice a year. As organizations are required to follow the standards so the rules are coded in to the apps. You can end up in spending so much time and money on maintenance and not on new projects. WTX protects apps from change and allow them to participate in new projects.

Making CXF Web service accept SOAP 1.2 request

2010-09-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

By default CXF Web Service provides SOAP 1.1 end point. In order for your web service to expose SOAP 1.2 endpoint and accept SOAP 1.2 request configure the following settings in server side CXF config file of the Web Service:

Creating SOAP 1.2 end point

<jaxws:endpoint id="auth" implementor="#AuthService" address="/cxfSearch12">

<jaxws:binding>

<soap:soapBinding version="1.2" mtomEnabled="true"/>jaxws:binding>

<jaxws:features>

jaxws:features>

<jaxws:inInterceptors>

jaxws:inInterceptors>

jaxws:endpoint>

Calling SSL enabled CXF Web Service From Java Client

2010-09-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

Calling a SSL enabled service which also expects UserToken to be passed can be very frustrating. It has been really painful for me to consume SSL enabled CXF service and I spent nearly 1 week to get it working.

Environment

Apache Tomcat 6.0.28

JDK 1.6

CXF 2.2.3

IBM Rational Developer 7.5.2

Spring Web 2.5.6

We deployed the CXF Web Service with SSL and installed the security certificate (self signed) on the client machine.

I was able to view the WSDL coming in the browser but the problem started when I tried to call Web Service from Java Client. I was getting “Message could not sent”. I set the proxy in RAD and imported the client certificate in the JVM. Configured following JVM arguments:

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore="C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP\jdk\bin\mykeystore"

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword="password"

But this configuration did not change the error message.

My next attempt was to configure proxy arguments in addition to the above JVM arguments for my program

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore="C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP\jdk\bin\mykeystore"

-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword="password"

-Dhttp.proxyHost=yourproxy

-Dhttp.proxyPort=8080

-Dhttps.proxyHost=yourproxy

-Dhttps.proxyPort=8080

Now I started getting ‘SSLHandshakeException’, ‘javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Couldn't find trusted certificate’ . It confirmed that the client was trying to use the certificate to reach Web Service but due to self signed certificate it was getting invalidated.

Then I found a link on internet which covered my problem scenario and suggested to accept whatever certificate your application is trying to use instead of JVM trying to validate it. I used following code to accept the certificate with out checking its validity and I was able to reach Web Service successfully.

import javax.net.ssl.TrustManager;

import javax.net.ssl.X509TrustManager;

import org.apache.cxf.configuration.jsse.TLSClientParameters;

import org.apache.cxf.endpoint.Client;

import org.apache.cxf.frontend.ClientProxy;

import org.apache.cxf.frontend.ClientProxyFactoryBean;

import org.apache.cxf.transport.http.HTTPConduit;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;

import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public static void main(String[] args)

{

ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("appcontext.xml");

InfoService client = (InfoService) context.getBean("client");

ClientProxyFactoryBean factory = new ClientProxyFactoryBean();

Client proxy = ClientProxy.getClient( client );

HTTPConduit conduit = (HTTPConduit) proxy.getConduit();

TLSClientParameters tcp = new TLSClientParameters();

//Creating Trust Manager

TrustManager[] trustAllCerts = new TrustManager[] {

new X509TrustManager()

{

public java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers()

{

return null;

}

public void checkClientTrusted(

java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) { }

public void checkServerTrusted(

java.security.cert.X509Certificate[] certs, String authType)

{

System.out.println("authType is " + authType);

System.out.println("cert issuers");

for (int i = 0; i < certs.length; i++) {

System.out.println("\t" + certs[i].getIssuerX500Principal().getName());

System.out.println("\t" + certs[i].getIssuerDN().getName());

}

};

tcp.setTrustManagers(trustAllCerts);

conduit.setTlsClientParameters( tcp );

client.callWebServiceMethod();

}

Resources used:

http://www.linux-support.com/cms/en/component/content/article/4-howtos/57603-custom-ssl-certificates-and-https-with-java-clients?directory=14

Read Posting from Daniel

http://www.java-forums.org/advanced-java/1307-java-security-cert-certificateexception-couldnt-find-trusted-certificate.html

http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/cxf-users/200804.mbox/%3CAD43CBD88586D740B1CBFFB25336AB5218EF75@amer-ems1.IONAGLOBAL.COM%3E

http://blog.progs.be/?p=71

What is JaWin and how to use it?

2010-08-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

JaWin
The Java/Win32 integration project (Jawin) is a free, open source architecture for interoperation between Java and components exposed through Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) or through Win32 Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs).
For more information visit http://jawinproject.sourceforge.net/

How to use Jawin - A practical example
================================

a). If you have .tlb (COM Type Library) file available for the COM object you want to use then skip Step1 and proceed to Step3.
b). If you already have .Net component ready which you want to use from Java code then proceed to Step2:
c). If you want to develop a .NET component to be used via JAWIN then proceed to Step1:

Step1: Developing a .Net component (class library)

(a). Create an interface and before its declaration put .net attribute as given below
      [Guid("3823a63d-5891-3b4f-A460-DB0FB847075A")]
See the code snippet below for mor einformation:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace Org.Jawin.ManageWinProcess
{
       [Guid("3823a63d-5891-3b4f-A460-DB0FB847075A")]
       public interface IWinProcessOperations
       {
       Boolean IsProcessActive(String sProcessName);
       Boolean KillRunningProcess(String sProcessName);
}

b) Now Implement the interface created above and in the implementation class before the name of class declaration, type the following attributes
[Guid("25c2f5a2-1afe-36ce-BE27-84E040F5E19A")]
[ProgId("Jawin.WinProcessOps")] // You would be using this prog id while creating an instance of this class in JAVA.

See the code snippet below for more information:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace Org.Jawin.ManageWinProcess
{

         [Guid("25c2f5a2-1afe-36ce-BE27-84E040F5E19A")]
         [ProgId("Jawin.WinProcessOps")]
         public class Operations:IWinProcessOperations
         {
             public Operations(){ }
             public Boolean isProcessActive(String ProcessName)
             {
                  String machine = ".";
                  Boolean processRunning = false;
                  // Get the current processes
                   System.Diagnostics.Process[] runningProcesses = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses(machine);
                 // Find those that match the specified regular expression
                  Regex processFilter = new Regex(ProcessName, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
                  foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process current in runningProcesses)
                   {
                    // Check for a match.
                     if (processFilter.IsMatch(current.ProcessName))
                       {
                           processRunning = true;
                           break;
                        }
                   }

              return processRunning;
             }

public Boolean KillRunningProcess(String ProcessName)
{
String machine = ".";
Boolean processKilled = false;
// Get the current processes
System.Diagnostics.Process[] runningProcesses = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses(machine);
// Find those that match the specified regular expression
Regex processFilter = new Regex(ProcessName, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process current in runningProcesses)
{
// Check for a match.
if (processFilter.IsMatch(current.ProcessName))
{
   current.Kill();
   processKilled = true;
   break;
}
}
return processKilled;
}

public bool KillAndStartProcess(String ProcessName)
{
String machine = ".";
Boolean processKilled = false;
// Get the current processes
System.Diagnostics.Process[] runningProcesses = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses(machine);
// Find those that match the specified regular expression
Regex processFilter = new Regex(ProcessName, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process current in runningProcesses)
{
// Check for a match.
if (processFilter.IsMatch(current.ProcessName))
{
   current.Kill();
   break;
}
}
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessName);
return true;
}}}

Building .NET Library
In order to build the .Net Library code you have just written from the Visual Studio IDE, configure the settings as shown below:

Important: If this setting is not configured, build would generate a DLL but the TLB file generated using regasm on .net command prompt would create .tlb file which would not expose any method in JaWin browser. So this setting is crucial.

Step 2: Creating .tlb file for the .net component

You can create a tlb file for the .net component using Assembly Registration Tool in the Visual Studio command prompt.
Syntax : Regasm /tlb “dll path with dll name”

e.g : regasm /tlb “c:\winprocess.dll” (suppose name of our dll is winprocess.dll and it is available at c:\)

The above command would generate the corresponding .tlb file.

Step 3: How to use JAWIN BROWSER and create JAWIN stub for Java for COM

Download JaWin and extract its files in a directory. Suppose JaWin is available in c:\JaWin folder. Open command prompt and reach the ‘typeBrowser’ folder in Jawin directory.

C:\Jawin\jawin-2.0-alpha1\typebrowser

And then type
java -Xmx256M -jar jawinBrowser.jar

and hit Enter. [Note: Xmx256M in the above command allocates 256 MB RAM to this process]. It would then start the Applet as shown below:

Go to option ‘Project’ -> ‘New Project’ and type project name and then click on ‘New’ button as shown below:

Reach to your TLB file and when you are done, the contents of your tlb would be displayed as shown below:

Expand your interface (IwinProcessOperations in this case) and then select ‘Code Generation’->’Generate Selected Code’ and it would show the corresponding JAVA code under ‘Code’ tab as shown below:

Save this code as a JAVA class. Now you can import this class and use its methods in your code.
Note: Don’t try to modify this class file.

HOW to use JAWIN stub in java application

a). Include jaWin.jar in your build path and

b). Point to the path of jaWin.dll in run configuration by adding the following string under VM arguments(if running the code in eclipse or RAD)
-Djava.library.path="c:\JawinPath"

c). If you have .NET dll, put it in your project folder and register it using regasm command. If you are using pure COM dll then use regsvr32 command to register the COM component.

d). If you are using .net dll which was exposed as a COM then you would need to copy the .net dll in JDK\bin directory otherwise your program would not be able to find the object. This step is nor required if you are using pure COM. For more information visit http://jawinproject.sourceforge.net/jawinarchitecture.html

c). Import/add the Java class (JaWin stub) file created above in your application and then use it. The below snippets shows how to use this stub.

public static void main(String[] args)

{
boolean bResult;
IWinProcessOperations ops=null; //Jawin stub for the COM component
try
{
   //I have used Jawin.WinProcessOps because this was mentioned as a Prog id in the //class in .net.
   // You should use the prog id of your COM accordingly.
   ops = new IWinProcessOperations("Jawin.WinProcessOps");
   }

catch (COMException e1)
   {
    e1.printStackTrace();
    }
try
{
   bResult=ops.KillRunningProcess("WINWORD");
System.out.println("Process is active " + bResult);
}
catch (COMException e)
{
   e.printStackTrace();
}
}

Various measurement factors to be considered for developing Enterprise Applications

2010-07-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Response

Response time is the amount of time it takes for the system to process a request from the outside. This may be a UI action, such as pressing a button, or a server API call.

Responsiveness

Responsiveness is about how quickly the system acknowledges a request as opposed to processing it. This is important in many systems because users may become frustrated if a system has low responsiveness, even if its response time is good. If your system waits during the whole request, then your responsiveness and response time are the same. However, if you indicate that you've received the request before you complete, then your responsiveness is better. Providing a progress bar during a file copy improves the responsiveness of your user interface, even though it doesn't improve response time

Latency

Latency is the minimum time required to get any form of response, even if the work to be done is nonexistent. It's usually the big issue in remote systems. If I ask a program to do nothing, but to tell me when it's done doing nothing, then I should get an almost instantaneous response if the program runs on my laptop. However, if the program runs on a remote computer, I may get a few seconds just because of the time taken for the request and response to make their way across the wire. As an application developer, I can usually do nothing to improve latency. Latency is also the reason why you should minimize remote calls.

Throughput

Throughput is how much stuff you can do in a given amount of time. If you're timing the copying of a file, throughput might be measured in bytes per second. For enterprise applications a typical measure is transactions per second (tps), but the problem is that this depends on the complexity of your transaction. For your particular system you should pick a common set of transactions.

Performance

Performance is either throughput or response time—whichever matters more to you. It can sometimes be difficult to talk about performance when a technique improves throughput but decreases response time, so it's best to use the more precise term. From a user's perspective responsiveness may be more important than response time, so improving responsiveness at a cost of response time or throughput will increase performance.

Load

Load is a statement of how much stress a system is under, which might be measured in how many users are currently connected to it. The load is usually a context for some other measurement, such as a response time. Thus, you may say that the response time for some request is 0.5 seconds with 10 users and 2 seconds with 20 users.

Load sensitivity

Load sensitivity is an expression of how the response time varies with the load. Let's say that system A has a response time of 0.5 seconds for 10 through 20 users and system B has a response time of 0.2 seconds for 10 users that rises to 2 seconds for 20 users. In this case system A has lower load sensitivity than system B. We might also use the term degradation to say that system B degrades more than system A.

Efficiency is performance divided by resources. A system that gets 30 tps on two CPUs is more efficient than a system that gets 40 tps on four identical CPUs.

Capacity

The capacity of a system is an indication of maximum effective throughput or load. This might be an absolute maximum or a point at which the performance dips below an acceptable threshold.

Scalability

Scalability is a measure of how adding resources (usually hardware) affects performance. A scalable system is one that allows you to add hardware and get a commensurate performance improvement; such as doubling how many servers you have to double your throughput. Vertical scalability, or scaling up, means adding more power to a single server, such as more memory. Horizontal scalability, or scaling out, means adding more servers.

Enterprise Content Management Solution (ECM) Providers

2010-05-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

At present there are various vendors who provide Content Management solutions to their clients.

Here is a list :

IBM
IBM Content Management

Vignette (Open Text)
http://www.vignette.com/us/Solutions/Web-Content-Management

Documentum

http://www.emc.com/domains/documentum/index.htm

HummingBird

Newgen
http://www.newgensoft.com/in/en/enterprise_content_management

LiveLink
http://www.opentext.com/2/sol-products/sol-pro-llecm10.htm

Microsoft Share Point
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

Alfresco Content Management
http://www.alfresco.com/

There are many more which can be added into list but these are the ones which I have heard about the most.

WPF 4 - New/Enhanced features

2010-04-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

WPF Tracing Support
http://10rem.net/blog/2010/04/12/wpf-4-release-a-guide-to-the-new-features

ClearType
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/cleartype/

Custom Dictionaries APIs
WPF Text Team Blog post on Custom Dictionaries in WPF 4

Pixel Shader 3 Support
Create Custom Pixel Shader Effects for
WPF http://windowsclient.net/learn/video.aspx?v=296117

Removal of legacy Bitmap Effects
The old legacy bitmap effects (bevel, drop shadow, blur etc.) are still present, but there's zero implementation. The effects that have shader versions (blur, drop shadow) get forwarded to the shader implementation. The other effects (bevel, for example) simply do nothing. Your code will compile, but the effects themselves are no-ops. In .NET 3.5sp1, they were marked as deprecated, so this is not surprising.
Bitmap effects are software-only, and couldn't be hardware accelerated. One of the biggest performance issues with old WPF applications was use/overuse of bitmap effects. Pixel shader-based effects are much more performant. I'm glad to see we aren't afraid to cull when we come up with something better.
The replacement effects are just as easy to use as the old effects, and will even render on the design surface.
http://10rem.net/blog/2010/04/12/wpf-4-release-a-guide-to-the-new-features

FileNet Image Manager Active Edition

2010-04-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

It’s a solution that combines IBM FileNet Image Services, which is being used by thousands of organizations to transform their document image management, and IBM FileNet Content Manager. This combination provides you with the option to extend the management of massive volumes of document images with business process management (IBM
FileNet BPM), eForms management (IBM FileNet Forms Manager), email management (IBM FileNet Email Manager) and more.

Image Manager Active Edition allows you to link content with business processes, activating that content so that it drives workflows within your organization. This level of integration activates your business, enabling you to work with content that makes a positive impact within seconds of a document image reaching your
system, rather than the weeks it can take with paper or other software solutions.

For more info visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/content-management/filenet-image-manager/

Microsoft Windows Presentation Framework (WPF)

2010-04-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

The Windows Presentation Foundation, WPF, provides a unified framework for building applications and high-fidelity experiences in Windows Vista that blend application UI, documents, and media content. WPF offers developers 2D and 3D graphics support, hardware-accelerated effects, scalability to different form factors, interactive data visualization, and superior content readability.

Nice book on Microsoft WPF
Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF)

Microsoft Share Point

2010-02-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

Share point is one of the Microsoft Web Server products. It is a web-based collaboration, document management, and process management product that allow us to build an enterprise portal. It aims at following:

a). To improve team productivity by allowing staff to collaborate efficiently.

b). To provide the staff with the information they need.

c). To provides us with the framework to create websites that not only provide access to documents and shared workspaces but also allow other web-based applications such as wikis and blogs to be created.

d). It also allows elaborate workflows to be created, allowing business processes to be monitored and actioned.

Share point refers to two products:

a). Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)

It is a free add-on for Windows server which provide following features:

Wiki
Workflows
Blog
Document management with version control
Team sites
RSS support etc.

b). Microsoft SharePoint Server

It is a product purchased separately from WSS and adds following features to the basic features discussed above:

Improved Document Management
Project Management
Enterprise Search

Share point is suited for medium-sized companies or large enterprises.

Lock, Save and Unlock Methods in Capture professional

2010-02-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Lock, Unlock, and Save methods of a RepObject are used to make changes to the RepObject.To change a RepObject you must lock it, make the change, save it, and then unlock it. If you try to lock a RepObject already locked by another user, you will receive an error. The following code renames a RepObject:

Dim oBatch as RepObject
If oBatch.Lock then
oBatch.Name = “newname”
oBatch.Save
oBatch.Unlock
EndIf

The Lock, Save and Unlock methods each return a boolean value indicating success or failure. Locking a RepObject locks all the children of that RepObject. Saving a RepObject saves all of the children of that RepObject. Each call to the Lock method must eventually be matched with a call to the Unlock method by the same user before a RepObject is fully unlocked. The RepObject manages an internal lock count that is incremented by the Lock method and decremented by the Unlock method. The RepObject is deemed no longer locked when this lock count reaches zero. For example, if an application calls the Lock method twice on a given RepObject, it must eventually call Unlock twice on the same RepObject

DLL names for various Capture repositories

2010-01-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

Below are the repository types and their corresponding dll file names

Local Repository ....................... RILLocal.dll
Shared repository ....................... RILShared.dll
CE Repository ....................... RILCE.dll
Shared CE Repository ....................... RILSharedCE.dll
Image Services Repository ....................... RILBES34.dll
Offline IS Repository ....................... RILOfflineIS.dll
Shared CS Repository ...................... RILSharedCE.dll
Shared Offline IS Respository ...................... RILSharedOLIS.dll

Using IBM MQ from a windows form based .NET application

2010-01-04T16:03:00.000-08:00

In order to connect to IBM MQ from a windows form .NET application install the following two softwares:
1). IBM WebSphere MQ client + Fix Pack 6.0.2
2). IBM Message Service Client for .NET (Available for download from http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=171&uid=swg24011756)

Internet Connection is being shown but not openeing any site - Ubuntu 9.X

2009-12-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Open FirexFox in Ubuntu and type about:config
Find the entry network.dns.disableIPv6.
Double click this entry would change its value to 'true'
Rebooot pc and internet would work.

Please visit the below link for more information
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide

Use Ubuntu with Windows Vista 32 Bit - How to solve booting problem

2009-12-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

Problem: Installed Ubuntu 9.X on a USB from a pc having Windows Vista (SP2-32bit) installed. After installation of Ubuntu tried to boot Windows by selecting HDD from Bootup menu. It failed and prompted following :
------------------------
GRUB LOADING
Error:no such disk
Grub Rescue>
------------------------
Connected the USB which I used to install UBUNTU and it displayed boot up menu from GRUB. This menu showed options related to Ubuntu and one option for Windows Vista. When selected Windows Vista option it booted up normally.

Solution : This was happening because the Windows Boot Loader was changed to GRUB Loader in BIOS. I followed below steps to change Boot Loader from GRUB to WINDOWS.
1). Started Pc with the WINDOWS VISTA media.
2). Selected 'Repair mode'.
3). Select Command prompt and run command bootrec/fixmbr to fix the master boot record.
Visit following links for more information
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 and
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial147.html

The repository database is already associated with the CE server.

2009-10-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

Scenario : We were using shared content engine server 4.5 through Capture Professional 5.2 and were able to perform all the required operations. The database we were using is SQL Server 2005. Due to some migration activity we were needed to drop and recreate the existing object stores. After it happened we were not able to open and connect to the CE repositories and were getting following error:

Solution : When we configure a Shared CE repository for the first time it creates few tables for house keeping purpose. These tables are only used by Capture internally. Among these table , there is one table named 'DBInfo'. It has following structure :

RowID PropertyName PropertyValue
1 UsageType Repository
2 RepositoryType Shared CE Repository
3 RepositoryConnection {GUID Value}
4 CapProVersion {Capture Pro Version}

Follow the below steps:
a). In this table update the GUID Value to the new GUID Value of object store.
b). Delete the DSN pointing to the sql database for your CE Shared repository.
c). Delete the capture repository using Capture Manager.
d). Create DSN accessing the same SQL Database.
e). Configure the same CE Shared repository again.

Now open Capture Professional. you should be able to see your repository.

How big (Size) a batch can be in Capture Professional?

2009-10-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

Answer :
There are limits to the batch size when using File Import in Capture Professional. These limits are not configurable.Here are the Maximum limits:
* Pages per Document - 1000
* Pages per Batch - 5000
Recommendations
* Limit the size of a batch to less than 50 pages of similar documents, when possible, to ensure the batch is manageable for both the operator and the system.
* If the batch is assembled as a single document, and is running into the 1000 page limit, consider breaking the batch into several documents. This both makes the batch more manageable and increases the page limit up to the batch limit of 5000.

Capture Manager does not show any object store.

2009-10-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

Environment : FileNet Enterprise Manager 4.5, FileNet Capture Professional 5.2 and WSE 3.0
OS: Windows XP SP3
Problem : Open Capture Manager and then select repository type 'Shared Content Engine. When click 'Add' button nothing happens.It does not show CE credentials dialog and hence does not display any CE object store. But Able to see CE object stores through Enterprise Manager.

Solution: This happens if 'Compatibility URL' is not specified while installing Enterprise Manager. Provide URL at the time of installation and change it if required by editing the CompatibilityURL registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FILENET\ECM\CONTENT ENGINE\CLIENT

How does Panagon IDM Desktop communicates with FileNet Image server.

2009-09-30T16:48:00.001-07:00

Answer : IDM desktop uses a NCH (port) to locate the object from doc services and uses a COR (port) 32769/tcp to transfer them.

Filenet capture has encountered an error see the event log meessage

2009-08-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Problem : FileNet Capture crashed on opening after configuring it for the first time. Created new SQL Server 2005 databases and configured DSN for them. In Capture Manager while configuring the Capture repository, Specify this DSN. Once the repository is set, start Capture Professional and it display following error :

"Filenet capture has encountered an error see the event log meessage."

Solution : The databases were created with the default collation and were creating the problem. So the databases were recreated using appropriate collation. Visit the link below for more information on collation :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa174903(SQL.80).aspx

Retrieve to cache failed

2009-08-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Problem : User gets 'Retrieve to cache failed' error while trying to retrieve document from IS using IDM Desktop.
Solution : This error indicates that the document retrieval failed from MSAR to Page Cache.
1. Your Alternative IS Page Cache is not configured/spelled correctly.
2. Your Alternative IS Page Cache machine is not up and running.
3. Could be Network issue (Ping Cache machine to see if it is alive)
4. If you don't need the Alternative IS Page Cache at all, reset it to default (use the primary default one)
To access this Alternate IS Page Cache, follow this instruction path:
IDM Configure --> Additional Preferences... -> -> Alternative IS Page Cache --> Then either add the 3 part name or click Restore Default.
Note:
3 part name format: ::
e.g: page_cache2:Spot:FileNET

Description of different Capture Index Field Lists

2009-07-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

FileNet Image Services (IS)
- Menu: An index field of type "Menu", is a property that has a list of values associated with it. When a Capture Index field is of type Menu and is associated with a DocClass, the user must select a value from the list provided, in order to populate the field. From the Capture native application, the field will have a drop-down list of values that will be available for the user to select. Only one value is allowed to be selected and the user cannot enter a value that is not on the list.
[Auto-Indexing is supported, if the configured value is a member of the Menu list. If the Auto-Indexing value is not a member of the Menu list, it will be ignored by Capture and the Menu field will be left blank.]

FileNet Content Services (CS)
- Controlled Vocabulary list (CVL): A CVL is like an IS Menu. The user will be able to select from a list of values, in order to populate an index field.
[Auto-Indexing is supported, if the configured value is a member of the list. If the Auto-Indexing value is not a member of the CVL, it will be ignored by Capture and the CVL field will be left blank.]

- Existing Value List (EVL): An EVL is a list of previously entered values of that particular Index Field. EVLs differ from CVLs and Menus, because a user can enter a new value that is not a member of the list. The value must, however, meet the index field conditions (e.g. for Numeric Types, numbers must be entered).
[Auto-Indexing is supported and the value configured does not need to be a member of the EVL]

- Multiple Value Lists (MVL): An index field that is of type MVL, can have multiple lines/values associated with it. For instance, an MVL property named "address" can have the following entry:
IBM Corporation
1 New Orchard Road
Armonk, New York 10504-1722
United States
914-499-1900

With MVLs, a CVL and an EVL can be associated with it. If associated with a CVL, only the values from the CVL can be used to populate the lines of the MVL field.
[Auto-Indexing is supported, however, only the first line will be populated. Other subsequent lines would have to be entered manually. In addition, if a CVL is associated with the MVL, the auto-index value must match one of the values of the CVL; otherwise, it will be ignored, and the MVL field will be left blank.]

FileNet P8 Content Engine (CE)
- Choice List: A Choice List is similar to an IS Menu and a CS CVL. The user will be able to select from a list of values, in order to populate an index field.
[Auto-Indexing is supported, if the configured value is a member of the list. If the Auto-Indexing value is not a member of the Choice List, it will be ignored by Capture and the field will be left blank.]

- Multi-Value field: A Multi-Value field is similar to a CS MVL. Multiple lines of data can be entered in an index field (e.g. just like an address, mentioned above). Similar to a CS MVL field, a Choice List can be associated with a Multi-Value field. In these Multi-Value configurations, the user can only enter data that is part of the Choice List.
[Auto-Indexing is supported in Capture 5.1 and 5.2, however, only the first line will be populated. Other subsequent lines would have to be entered manually. In addition, if a Choice List is associated with the Multi-Value List, the auto-index value must then match one of the values from the list; otherwise, it will be ignored, and the Multi-Value field will be left blank. In Capture 5.0, the Auto-Indexing feature is not available with Multi-Value fields]

Please Note :
Menu Validation-- The Capture client application has an option/feature to associate a CE or IS single value field, with a list. The list is created by a Capture station and is saved as part of the Settings Collection. When a Menu Validation is utilized, the user sees a similar drop-down list (like a CVL or a Choice List), however, this list is not determined by the server but by the Capture Administrator. The list is created when configuring the Index control of a Settings Collection.

Using IBM FileNet Capture 5.1, when calling the "Store" method on the Scan component, it returns a -2147417848 error code.

2009-07-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

Scenario :
From out-of-the-box Capture 5.1, a batch was created successfully and able to scan images without any problems. However, from the custom Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 code, a batch was also created successfully but when storing the batch by calling Scan.Store(oBatch) to the Scan component, the error below would occur:

err.Description = Method 'Store' of object '_DScan' failed
err.Number = -2147417848

Solution
The error is caused by the custom code not knowing which scanner to select.
The recommendation on different methods of assigning a scanner to the Scan component are as follows:

* Configure the Scan component on the setting to contain a default scanner so when a batch is created, it defaults to an associated scanner configured with the Scan component.

* Call the "Scan.SelectScanner" and allow the user using the custom code to select a scanner.

* Prior to calling Scan.Store(oBatch), assign a scanner to the Scan component via "Scan1.Associate("")

How big (Size) a batch can be in Capture Professional?

2009-07-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Answer:
There are limits to the batch size when using File Import in Capture Professional. These limits are not configurable.Here are the Maximum limits:
* Pages per Document - 1000
* Pages per Batch - 5000
Recommendations
* Limit the size of a batch to less than 50 pages of similar documents, when possible, to ensure the batch is manageable for both the operator and the system.
* If the batch is assembled as a single document, and is running into the 1000 page limit, consider breaking the batch into several documents. This both makes the batch more manageable and increases the page limit up to the batch limit of 5000.

What is Kofax VRS?

2009-05-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

VRS reduces the time involved in manual document preparation and enhances the quality of scanned images. Capturing high-quality images is critical to the rest of the document management process because image quality significantly impacts the success of data extraction, recognition, and retrieval.

Perfect Images
Scanning is only half the battle. The most important part about capturing images is your ability to find, retrieve, and use them later. The superior quality of VirtualReScan® (VRS)-created images means documents are easier to index and easier to read.
Reduced Document Preparation with Content-based Rotation
No need to turn all your documents to the same orientation before scanning. VRS will automatically analyze the content of each scanned document and correct the orientation of the image on the fly. Even when scanning in duplex mode! Feed a document in all possible orientations, whether it’s upside down or reversed, skewed or rotated 90 degrees right or left, VRS turns it right.
Easy to Use
Scanning is simple and easy with VRS. No special knowledge of scanning, special filters, or image enhancement is required. Operators just press the scan button and VRS does the rest.
Capture Color On Demand
Scan mixed batches of black & white and color documents. VRS automatically detects the documents that should be black & white from those that should stay in color. Easily capture spot color as well.
Network-friendly Images
Noisy backgrounds and shaded areas are suppressed, resulting in ultra-compact image files ideal for display and rapid retrieval over your network.
Intelligent Blank Page Detection
VRS is able to determine if the back side of a page contains real information, or if it is simply bleed through from the front of the page. If VRS determines that the back side is bleed through, then it deletes the image. If VRS detects real content, the image is saved.

Advanced Clarity
Even the toughest documents – blueprints, wrinkled paper, security paper – are no match for VRS 4.1 Professional. The new Advanced Clarity feature in VRS 4.1 Professional offers an additional image quality option to process documents with complicated, textured backgrounds.
Background Smoothing
Based on a simple setting, VRS automatically analyzes images while scanning and outputs an image with a solidified background color. This improves viewing clarity and reduces file size, making it more practical to save color documents that are part of the business process.
Improved Recognition
Since VRS automatically straightens and cleans each scanned image, the accuracy of your optical character recognition and handwriting recognition software increases dramatically.
Scan at Rated Speed
Allows scanners to operate at their full rated speed without interruptions. All VRS features work at rated scanner speed, regardless of scan mode (black & white, grayscale, or color), or your scan application’s interface (KOFAX, ISIS,TWAIN).
Easy to Use Interface
One of the problems with document scanning is related to the differences between scanner user interfaces. In a mixed scanner environment, VRS provides a single, unified and easy to use interface minimizing operator training and confusion.
Automatic Cropping and Deskew for All Scanners
VRS offers automatic cropping and deskew for all scanners including white background scanners. In the past, this required a black background scanner or special black background kit. Now, VRS includes automatic background cropping and deskew available on all VRS certified scanners.
Eliminate Hole Punch Markings
Fills holes with surrounding page color on documents with content, improving their appearance and removing distractions for the reader. Ignores holes on pages lacking content, enhancing performance of automatic blank page deletion feature.

What are Telnet and SSH?

2009-05-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

"Telnet" and "SSH" are types of terminal session (also called "terminal emulation") programs that allow users to conduct interactive sessions with computers elsewhere on the Internet by providing a character-based (i.e., non-graphical) connection. Examples of telnet/ssh programs are TeraTerm (for Windows) and BetterTelnet (for Macintosh).

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.

Get total Number of pages of a PDF file using Python

2009-02-11T19:26:00.001-08:00

from glob import glob as __g
import re
pattern = re.compile(r"/Count\s+(\d+)")

def count():
""" Takes one argument: the path where you want to search the files. Returns a dictionary with the file name and number of pages for each file. """
vPDFfiles = __g( "C:\\1\\" + '*.pdf' )
vMsg = {}
for vPDFfile in vPDFfiles:
vPages = 0
print "File Name is " + str(vPDFfile)
print ""
content = open( vPDFfile, 'rb', 1 ).read()
for match in pattern.finditer(content):
vPages = int(match.group(1))
vMsg[vPDFfile] = vPages
return vMsg

if __name__ == "__main__":
TotalPages=count()
print "Total Pages = " + str(TotalPages)

Convert PDF to TIFF - Using Ghost Script

2008-12-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

Requirement : To convert any PDF to TIFF.
Solution: In an enterprise during the day to day activities, back operations and other teams come across requirements to convert a file from one format to another. Converting TIFF to PDF and vice versa is one of the example.

TIFF to PDF
If you are a non technical staff you may contact the software provider team in your organization and get access to the tool which does TIFF to PDF conversion. But if you are a technical person (programmer) then you can leverage iText library and write an application to achieve this. As iText is free so its easy to save yourself from licensing costs and other licensing related obligations.

PDF to TIFF
There are various scenarios where you might need to convert file from PDF to TIFF format. For example you may get some document from lender or broker in PDF format containing some sensitive information. Suppose as a part of your process requirement you need to save only TIFF files containing no sensitive information so you have to go through two step process:

1). Convert PDF to TIFF

2). Remove the sensitive information

Here we are going to discuss the tool 'GhostScript' which helps in achieving first step. Installation of GhostScript :

Step 1: Download GhostScript by visiting the below link

http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/GPL/gs863/gs863w32.exe

Step 2: You can install this anywhere on your computer. For tutorial purpose I am using C:\Program Files\gs

The main file we are interested in is gswin32c which can be found in C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.63\bin folder. You can use this executable to perform the conversion either by running it at command prompt or inserting the following command in a batch (.bat) file and then executing it.

command 1 : cd C:\PROGRA~1\gs\gs8.63\bin
command 2: gswin32c -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=tiffg4 -r300x300 -sOutputFile=%2 %1
Here is the explanation each switch/option we have used in the above example :

sDEVICE = Type of Tiff
-r300x300 = DPI settings

-dNOPAUSE
Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page. Normally one should use this (along with -dBATCH) when producing output on a printer or to a file; it also may be desirable for applications where another program is "driving" Ghostscript.

-dBATCH: Causes Ghostscript to exit after processing all files named on the command line, rather than going into an interactive loop reading PostScript commands. Equivalent to putting -c quit at the end of the command line.; For more information visit http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/cvs/Use.htm#Output_device http://www.ghostscript.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostscript

How to retrieve IS Document Class Index fields summary?

2008-11-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

Question : How to retrieve the Index names and their types of an IS document class.
Answer : Following code can do it for you.

Dim oClassDesc As IDMObjects.ClassDescription
Dim oLib As IDMObjects.Library
Dim oPropDesc As IDMObjects.PropertyDescription
Dim oPropDescs As IDMObjects.PropertyDescriptions

Set oLib = CreateObject("idmObjects.Library")
oLib.SystemType = idmSysTypeIS
oLib.Name = sISServerName
oLib.Logon "username", "password", "", idmLogonOptNoUI
Set oClassDesc = oLib.GetObject(idmObjTypeClassDesc, sDocClassName, idmObjTypeDocument)
'lstSource is a list control
Set oPropDescs = oClassDesc.PropertyDescriptions
If Not oPropDescs Is Nothing Then
For Each oPropDesc In oPropDescs
If InStr(1, oPropDesc.Name, "F_") = 0 Then
lstSource.AddItem oPropDesc.Name + " - " + FormatDataType(oPropDesc.TypeID) + " - " + Str(oPropDesc.GetState(idmPropRequired)) + " - " + Str(oPropDesc.Size) + " - IsKey " + Str(oPropDesc.GetState(idmPropKey))

End If

Next
End If

oLib.Logoff
Set oPropDesc = Nothing
Set oPropDescs = Nothing
Set oClassDesc = Nothing
Set oLib = Nothing

Error while configuring GCD during Content Engine Client Installation

2008-06-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Problem : Received GetDomainInfo hr = 0x8007005 error while configuring GCD during CE Client installation.
Solution : This problem is related to security access.Steps to resolve the problem:

The wizard is using DCOM to create an instance of a class on the Content Engine server. DCOM must be working for this task to complete. There are a few ways in which DCOM can be prevented from working, including but not limited to:

1. switching off DCOM using the dcomcnfg utility or registry modifications. See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information: . The server and workstation administrators should ensure that DCOM is enabled.

2. restricting ports which are available. The ports used by DCOM can be managed through the dcomcnfg utility using the Default Protocols tab. The local network folks should ensure that ports used by DCOM are available.

Enabling DCOM
Use DCOMCNFG.EXE
1. Run Dcomcnfg.exe.
2. If you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, perform these additional steps:
a. Click the Component Services node under Console Root.
b. Open the Computers folder.
c. For the local computer, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
d. For a remote computer, right-click Computers folder, point to New, and then
click Computer.
e. Type the computer name.
f. Right-click the computer name, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Default Properties tab.
4. Click to select (or click to clear) the Enable Distributed COM on this Computer check box.
5. If you want to set more properties for the computer, click Apply to enable (or disable) DCOM. Otherwise, click OK to apply the changes and quit Dcomcnfg.exe.
6. Restart the operating system for the changes to take effect.

MORE INFORMATION
The following registry string value is used to enable or disable DCOM on all operating systems:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OLE\EnableDCOM
If you change this value to N, you disable DCOM after you restart the operating system. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/) Description of the Microsoft Windows registry

Check the User being used for installation
Make sure that the user which is being used for installing Content Engine client should be :
a). Added into the Local Admin Group on the Server (Environment Dev/Cat/Stg) you are trying to connect.
b).'FilenetAdmins' group should also be a member of the Locan Admin Group on the Server (Environment Dev/Cat/Stg)
c) DCOM Configuration :
a) Goto MyComputer's Properties -> COM Security -> AccessPermission -> EditDefault
Add 'FilenetAdmins' with full permissions
b) Goto MyComputer's Properties -> COM Security -> Launch & ActivationPermission -> EditDefault
Add 'FilenetAdmins' with full permissions

Configurations settings were lost after Image Server upgrade.

2008-06-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

Problem : After upgrading from IS 3.6 to IS 4.0 we lost the configuration settings in Capture for production repository. User were unable to scan using FileNet Capture.
Solution: Follow below mentioned steps :

1).Add an entry into Hosts file c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc to point to old IMAGE server as shown below :
XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX stgeorge-filenet-nch-server
2).Then open the repository in Capture Professional 4.1 using sysadmin username and password and copy all the configuration settings to Local repository.
3).Remove or comment out the entry done in Hosts file in step 1. Open the same Image Server repository in Capture Professional with SysAdmin credentials and copy config folder from LocalRepository to the missing production repository. Close the Capture application and log back in again with scanning user credentials.Test the application by scanning few batches. Old settings should be used by scan and other components.

How to get user credentials being used by Capture Manager, programmatically?

2008-06-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Solution: You can get the CE credentials used by Capture Manager by accessing following registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FileNET\Panagon Capture\ CurrentVersion\ Capture Manager\Repositories
Find your repository name and access it through application code. If you are coding your application in Visual Basic 6.0, the following link may be of your use.
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=4330

Edit Tiff image during Indexing.

2008-06-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Problem: The requirement was to provide users Tiff editing facility while Indexing a batch.
Environment : FileNet Capture Professional 4.1, Panagon IDM Desktop 3.2, Image Server as repository, KODAK Imaging (V 2.8)
Solution : Used KODAK Imaging (V 2.8) software which comes free with Windows Server
operating Systems. It comes as a bundle of COM(Active X) controls which can be used in Visual Basic application. Benefit of using KODAK imaging is that the Tiff image quality remains same after editing

Kodak Imaging COM components can be found at: C:\Program Files\Imaging ,if Kodak Imaging is already installed on your computer.

Session problem for multiple users while using Imaging applications through Citrix.

2008-06-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Problem: Consider a scenario when one user logs in to the customized Panagon application through Citrix URL, application works fine. But as soon as the second user tries to log into the same application, it kills the previous user's session.
Reason: Lack of access rights for users to Application and temporary folders being used by application.
Solution: Within Citrix presentation Server you can enable virtual IP feature. This allows each user to be allocated a unique IP address whenever they run an application from a server that has Virtual IP Addresses enabled. Citrix servers should be on a subnet that has a free IP address range to be used by the applications.

Panagon IDM Desktop 'Cache Size' Issue.

2008-06-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Problem: Consider a scenario when multiple users try to retrieve images from Image Server and gets 'Retrieve from cache failed' error intermittently.
Reason: The size of retrieved image file is too big for IDM cache to retrieve the image
completely.
Solution: Increased the size of Cache being configured on Citrix Server where IDM Desktop was Installed. Open FileNet IDM configure and then click 'Additional Preferences'.Expand 'Directories and Files' node and increase 'maximum cache size' & 'Maximum cached Documents’.

Unable to keep IDM Desktop running on a VM Citrix Server.

2008-06-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

Problem: Consider a scenario where there is a requirement of preparing a Citrix Server using a Virtual Machine. We Installed FileNet IDM Desktop 4.1 and checked whether its connecting to image server, it worked fine. Then installed FileNet Capture 4.1 on this machine, configured image server repository and checked whether its functioning properly. The problem started on very next day of the installation of these softwares.When we tried to connect to Image Server from FileNet IDM Desktop 4.1 it could not connect. We uninstalled and reinstalled these software again and it started working fine, but got the same problem again on next day. So on very next day after Installation, IDM desktop was stopped working.
Reason : Unknown as of now
Solution: The solution was to install these software on a physical machine instead of a Virtual Machine.

User session locked on IS due to a network errror in Citrix environment.

2008-06-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Problem: Consider a scenario where user gets locked while using Imaging applications through Citrix URL and not able to continue with the work.
Reason: When user uses the application through Citrix URL, sometime session becomes expire if the application is left IDLE for a long time and it leaves the user logged into image server. Assume the user is allowed to create only session with the IS.
Solution: System administrator can be contacted to unlock the user on Image Server so that user can continue with the application.

Error ‘LDAP Server Down’ while connecting to CE 3.5.1 through Citrix after migration of existing e-Directory to a new server.

2008-06-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Problem: Consider a scenario where a user successfully accesses CE Server through FileNet Enterprise Manager (FEM) from a Windows 2003 server (SP1) box but gets ‘LDAP Server Down’ error while coming from Citrix URL.This error started happening after the migration of existing e-directory to a new server.The problem still remained even if the firewall rules were set to allow all incoming and outgoing traffic between e-Directory server and Citrix server hosting FEM application.
Reason: Tracing was configured on e-Directory server to track all incoming requests and outgoing responses. It was found that the requests coming through Citrix were failing while the one coming directly from the physical machine (Windows 2003 server machine) were getting processed successfully by e-Directory. It was later found that the security certificate, which was installed on the Citrix server to communicate with e-directory was meant for a user profile and not for the Local computer and that’s why not allowing anybody to launch FEM through Citrix.
Solution: Imported Security certificate through MMC console for the Local Computer not for a user profile.

How to use an Image Services Server on a Different Subnet?

2008-06-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

If you will be accessing an Image Services server on a subnet that is different from the one your workstation is on, add an entry like the following to the hosts or lmhosts file:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx --nch-server
Where:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the Image Services server
domainis the Image Services server domain name
organization is the organization name selected for the Image Services server during the initial installation.(Typically the organization is filenet.)

For example, your entry might look like this:
10.1.20.123 mysystem mysystem-filenet-nch-server
Note that domain names are limited to lowercase and alphanumeric characters.
For more information about Image Services access, contact your Image Services System
Administrator

How to detect Bar Code/Patch code from JPEG and Gray Scale Images in FileNet Capture 5.1?

2008-06-01T22:48:00.001-07:00

If you are using certain Kofax controller boards or have installed the Advanced Doc Processing option, you may be able to detect bar codes and patch codes from JPEG and grayscale images.

Barcode in FileNet Capture

2008-06-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

Supported Bar Code Types
When designing a Capture system that employs special bar code features, ensure that all parts of the system — from the scanner to the storage repository — can support the features adequately.
Consider the following to ensure adequate support by Capture:
• Your scanner, scanner interface card, or doc processing software might support bar code types that are not listed in this document. Conversely, your scanner might not support some of the bar code types supported by Capture.
• Some bar code types supported by Capture might provide features (support for control
characters, for example) that are not supported in other Capture components.
• Some bar code types might contain more characters than Capture features (such as index fields) can accommodate. For example, some wo-dimensional bar code symbols support up to 2000 characters in a single bar code. However, your index fields, configured on the server, might not be able to accept that number of characters and truncate the data.
NOTE FileNet added support for two-dimensional bar codes in Capture release 4.0. If you are using an earlier release, you must upgrade to Capture 4.0 to use the two-dimensional bar codes.
General Considerations
Using bar codes for quality assurance, batch separation, and automatic indexing can reduce cost, increase system throughput, and reduce errors. A bar code contains information – account numbers, part numbers, customer addresses, etc. - that usually corresponds to properties that are associated with the documents you are scanning.

When using bar codes, you need to determine if you are using hardware or software bar code processing. If your scanner or scanner interface board supports doc processing, you use hardware bar code processing. Hardware bar code detection takes place as you scan your documents. The scanner passes the image to the processor on the board that interprets the bar code based on configuration settings in the Scan component. The interpreted information is stored as properties of the image.

If you have optional Doc Processing (Kofax Adrenaline) software installed you use software bar code processing. This processing is performed by the DocProcessing component. Software bar code processing takes place as a separate step, after you have scanned or imported your document. Software bar code processing locates the bar code in the image and extracts the embedded information. You configure the bar code settings for post-scan software bar code detection through the DocProcessing component.

Specific characteristics of bar codes include height, width, ratio, bar code length (minimum chars per bar code setting), max bar codes per line, max bar codes per page, search direction, bar code type, quality, edge noise, quiet zone, speckling, and skew. All of these characteristics can be adjusted to maximize bar code detection
There are a number of symbologies, or bar code alphabets, available. Each symbology varies in the number of characters contained in its alphabet. For example, Code 3 of 9 includes 43 characters including letters, digits and some punctuation.

Bar Code Quality Adjustments
The quality of the bar code on the page to be scanned (or imported) will affect whether or not the bar code can be read and decoded accurately. Both hardware and software bar code detection methods may fail if the bar codes on the original images are distorted or poorly reproduced. The following suggestions apply to the bar codes on the source documents that you are scanning or importing:
• The density of the lines of the bar code can be made darker or lighter to improve detection. Increase the resolution used to print the bar code to increase crispness of the bar code and hence the reading accuracy rate. A slight adjustment in dpi can make a significant difference. Please note that increasing the dpi resolution may also create noise. You must determine the best procedure for your unique conditions.
• Print the bar code directly onto a page.
• Never affix bar codes to a page using tape. Tape interferes with the scanner’s ability to detect the bar code.
• Larger bar codes are read more accurately and tolerate skew better
• Photocopies can show speckles that can interfere with bar code detection. Use a bar code that is printed with a laser printer to ensure a crisp copy. Improving Bar Code Reading Accuracy Adjusting your scanner can improve the success and accuracy of bar code detection. Check your scanner manual for tips to improve quality. The following conditions contribute to the accuracy reading rate and speed of detection of bar codes. By adjusting these parameters, you may control the accuracy and detection speed of bar codes.

Bar Code Height Setting
The Height setting is the distance between the top of the bar code and the bottom of the bar code. The minimum bar code height (of the entire bar code) is approximately 0.15 inch, and the maximum is 1.25 inch. However, a taller bar code has a better chance of being successfully read. By increasing the search height, the speed increases while reading accuracy decreases. By decreasing the search height, the speed decreases while the reading accuracy increases.
Bar Code Length Setting
The Bar Code Length is the minimum number of bar code characters that must be found before the bar code is processed. You specify the bar code length in the Min. Chars per bar code field. Bar Code Length applies to the following bar code types:
• Codabar
• Code 128
• Code 93
• Interleaved 2 of 5
• Code 39 (Code 3 of 9)
• Linear 2 of 5
A bar code is read more accurately and quickly if it has fewer characters. As the number of characters increases, there is a higher chance for error.

For example, a 3-character Code 3 of 9 bar code contains 50 elements, while a 10-character Code 3 of 9 bar code contains 120 elements. The 3-character Code 3 of 9 bar code has a higher probability of being read successfully and quickly. The following bar codes are fixed-length bar codes. Any value in the Min. chars per bar code field
is ignored.
• UPC-A
• UPC-E
• EAN
• Postnet
• Maxi code
Bar Codes with Thin Bars When the width of the smallest element is composed of 3 or less pixels, the detail may not be distinguished.
Width Setting
The Width is the physical width of the smallest element within the bar code. You can alter width settings slightly to work with other bar code settings. Adjust the width setting from a minimum of 0.010 inch to a maximum of 0.050 inch. Most bar code widths fall within the following ranges:

Because the larger elements of the bar code are calculated from the smallest using the ratio value. it may be necessary to adjust the ratio value as well.
Note that when the width of the smallest element is composed of 3 pixels or less, the detail may not be distinguishable. For the best accuracy rates, set the width of the barcode as close as possible to the actual width.
Ratio
Ratio is the ratio of the sizes of the large elements to the small elements of the bar code. When the ratio is large, the bar code is easiest to read. The ideal ratio is 3:1, indicating that the width of the largest element is three times larger than the narrowest element. Because the bars in a bar code can lose pixels during the scan process, smaller ratio bar codes, such as 2:1, are harder to detect. When using the ratio setting, you must also consider the Width parameter.
For example, if the width of the narrowest bar is 0.020 inch, the width of the largest bars would be 0.040 for a 2:1 ratio or 0.060 for a 3:1 ratio. You must decide which ratio and bar code width would give you the desired result based on all your operating conditions.

By default, many bar code types use a ratio of 3:1. The option to select a ratio of 2:1 is available for some bar code types. The following bar code types can make use of the ratio setting:
• Codabar
• Code 39
• Code 93
• Linear 2 of 5
• Interleaved 2 of 5
Maximum Bar Codes per line
The Maximum bar codes per line controls the maximum number of bar codes that appears along the same axis (row or column). The search continues along the same axis until the edge of the image is detected or the specified number of bar codes is encountered. The best performance is obtained when you use only one bar code per line, thus minimizing the duration of the search performed.
Maximum Bar Codes per page
The Maximum bar codes per page should always be set to the number of bar codes that may actually appear on your documents. Because the scanner or software searches the entire page, the system slows down if you specify a large number of barcodes. You may use a maximum of 64 bar codes per page.
Search Direction
The Search Direction determines which directions are used to search for bar codes. Select only the orientation directions that are required. With the minimum number of directions set, a faster search occurs because there are fewer directions to search. If you choose to search all four directions for bar codes, there is a large performance degradation.
Bar Code Types
The Bar Code Type determines what type of bar code to search for. You can select more than one bar code type, but you should select only the bar code types that you actually use. The more bar code types you select, the longer it takes to process each page. Some bar code types are mutually incompatible, and you cannot select their types together. The incompatible combinations are:
• Interleaved 2 of 5 and Linear 2 of 5
• UPC-A and EAN
• UPC-A and UPC-E
• Postnet and any other type
Quality
If you are processing bar codes that are smooth and free of noise, set the Quality to Good. Bar codes that are of lesser quality require the Normal or Poor setting. The Quality setting and the Height setting determine the number of searches for bar codes that are made within an area or page. For instance, increasing the bar code height and a lower quality setting causes the bar code driver to perform more searches for bar codes. The following conditions also contribute to increasing the accuracy reading rate and speed of detection of bar codes:

Edge Noise
Edge noise describes bar codes containing bars that have rough edges. This occurs when the bars acquire or drop pixels, causing a blurred bar. If the ratio setting is small, and the elements gain or lose a pixel during scanning, the ratio setting may decrease further making the bar code difficult to read. It is best to minimize Edge Noise by improving the quality of the bar code image you are using, for instance by increasing print resolution (dpi) when you print bar codes.

Quiet Zones
A quiet zone is the area immediately preceding the start character and following the stop character, which should contain no marking. A bar code must be surrounded by a noise-free quiet zone of at least 1/10 inch; a 1/4 inch area is best. A quiet zone provides a period in which no lightto- dark or dark-to-light transitions occur, making it easy to differentiate a bar code from other information. Position bar codes away from the edge of an image, making sure there are no extraneous marks within the quiet zone. Clean quiet zones, also called margins, improve the readability of the bar code image.
Speckling
Speckling refers to small pixels around the bar code region. This problem becomes serious when the pixels near a bar code interfere with the detection of quiet zones. Use the Despeckle function, if available, before you start searching for barcodes to eliminate extraneous pixels in the bar code area. You can also reduce the interference that is caused by debris on the scanner glass by cleaning it prior to scanning the bar code.
Skew
Even though scanners are capable of reading skewed bar codes, there are more detection
problems with heavily skewed bar codes. It is best to apply the bar code to the page correctly. However, you may also apply the Deskew function, if available, before you start searching for bar codes.
Paper Feed
Ensure that the page is feeding correctly into the scanner to minimize skewing. Also keep in mind that it takes longer to search along the longer side of a piece of paper for bar codes than to search the shorter side.
Using Bar Codes with Faxes
It is possible to process bar codes on inbound fax images using Capture. Note that the resolution and overall quality of the fax image must be very good. The originating and receiving fax machines must be configured carefully. Additionally, you must install DocProcessing on the receiving Capture workstation. You will need to try different settings when configuring your fax machine and Capture to ensure best results.
Fax Machine Settings
Ensure that the sensitivity of the sending fax machine is set on the most sensitive setting. For some fax machines, this may be called Details. For others, the designation may be Fine or Superfine.
Capture Bar Code Settings
Because the faxed bar code is entered into Capture as a TIFF image, the DocProcessing
component is responsible for processing the bar code information. As a result, you must configure the bar code parameters in the Bar Code tab of the Doc Processing Properties dialog box. Set the Quality setting to Poor and make sure that the remaining settings for the bar code you are using are correct.

Using Bar Codes In Capture
In Capture, bar codes can be used to optically acquire such information as account numbers,Invoice numbers, and dates. Bar codes can also be used to trigger events, in much the same way as patch codes are used.
Bar Code Dates
Data fields obtained from bar codes are stored as strings. You can use string selection in the Index component of Capture to change a string date collected from a bar code into a date field against which computations can be performed. When bar codes are used for auto indexing, the date mask format of the bar code must be the same as the format in the date field. When preparing bar codes for autoindexing, use bar code date formats that are supported by Capture, and consider using one of Capture’s four-digit year formats.
If a two-digit year format is used in a bar code, the century selected for the date field applies to the date. This is true whether the century is the default current century or the stated century. Capture cannot obtain the century from the scanned date since the scanned date is stored as a string, not a true date. To create bar codes from which dates can be read:

• Match the date formats of the bar codes to the formats supported in Capture.
• Use a four-digit year format in the bar code. This action will make sure that the Capture uses
the correct century.

Supported Bar Codes
The following examples of bar codes are for definition and clarification only. Note that these example bar codes are not to scale and are unsuitable to use as test samples.
-----------------------------------------------
Standard (One-Dimensional) Bar Codes
-----------------------------------------------
The following bar codes are supported in all Capture releases.
Codabar
Codabar is a self-checking, variable-length bar code that can encode sixteen data characters (0 through 9, plus six special characters). Each character is represented by seven elements within the bar code (four bars and three intervening spaces). An intercharacter gap separates each character within the bar code. Codabar symbols can vary in length. Codabar is useful for encoding dollar quantities and mathematical figures.
Code 3 of 9 (39)
Code 3 of 9 is an alphanumeric, self-checking, variable-length bar code that uses five black bars and four white bars to define a character. Three bars are wide and six are narrow. A character is represented by nine elements. An intercharacter gap separates each character. Start and stop characters are depicted as asterisks (*) and are used to delineate the bar code. The bar code is preceded and followed by quiet zones. A check character is optional. Code 3 of 9 supports 26 uppercase letters, 10 digits, and 7 special characters which include:
- . $ / + % (space)
Code 93
Code 93 is a variable-length bar code that encodes 47 characters. Each character is composed of nine elements arranged into three bars with their adjacent spaces. Code 93 is a compressed version of Code 3 of 9.
Code 128
Code 128 is an alphanumeric, high-density, compact, variable-length bar code that can encode the full 128-ASCII character set. Each data character is represented by six elements. There must be an even number of black elements and an odd number of white elements.
EAN
EAN is used for products that are required to be identified by their country of origin. It is a fixed length bar code that can encode 13 characters. The first two characters identify the country of origin, the next 10 are data characters, and the last character is the checksum. It is a superset of the UPC-A character set. EAN is incompatible with UPC-A.
Interleaved 2 of 5
Interleaved 2 of 5 is a high-density, self-checking numeric bar code that uses five black bars and five white bars to define a character. Two digits are encoded in every character—one in the black bars and one in the white bars. Two of the black bars and two of the white bars are wide. The other bars are narrow. Each Interleaved 2 of 5 bar code must contain an even number of encoded digits and must be of a fixed length. A check character is optional.
-78/43
AA7777
Postnet
Postnet is the Zip+4 postal bar code that is placed on envelopes or postcards to expedite delivery. Each code may consist of five, six, nine, or twelve digits plus a correction code. Note that the Postnet bar code is not compatible with other bar code types and there may be only one per page.
UPC-A
UPC-A is a bar code that encodes a twelve-digit number. The first digit is the number system character. The next ten digits are data characters. The last digit is the checksum. This is the standard bar code used on merchandise to identify the product and manufacturer. UPC-A is incompatible with EAN.
UPC-E
UPC-E is a bar code that is a zero-suppressed version of UPC-A. The data characters and checksum are compressed into six characters. The original ten data characters must have at least four zeros and the number system must be zero.