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Spotlight on ...
UnForm 7.1 Release
UnForm 7.1 is the latest version of SDSI's flagship laser forms, electronic
delivery, and document management tool. This upgrade offers many
enhancements over the previous release, particularly in the archiving and
document management capabilities. In addition, a number of new features have
been added to the base product, and the Design Tool has been streamlined for
greater rule file developer efficiency.
Attendees
at SDSI's 2007 annual Technical Conference in October
were presented with the beta release of UnForm 7.1, and
six weeks after that the final product was released. The
current dot release level as of the publication of this
article is 7.1.3 ...
Version 7.1's TOP THREE enhancements ...
The enhancements to the document archiving and
image manager components probably constitute
the biggest two WOW's in the new UnForm
7.1 release.
And on the server side, the new http-driven
Desktop Delivery and Dialogue Forms
functionality comes in a close third.
UnForm 7.1 SERVER ... Enhancements
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DESKTOP DELIVERY AND DIALOGUE FORMS
This is the most visible of functionality enhancements in 7.1
on the server-side ... a high-performance
internal http-server powers the ability to deliver documents and files
to any network user's desktop. Each desktop, via its existing web
browser, has the equivalent of an inbox for documents generated or
delivered by UnForm. And UnForm rule-sets can now query specific users
for input that can be used in forms production or e-delivery functions,
for example, prompting for a fax number or email address, or adding a
personalized message to a printed form.
The applications for this particular efficiency-increasing technology appear
endless.
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New sdOffice Functions
This is an enhancement that promises for some interesting new office
automation applications: You can now drive sdOffice
2
directly from inside an UnForm rule-set.
We wrote an article about this recently in the
Multivalue technology magazine International
Spectrum, a trade magazine for the Pick/Multivalue
channel ... see the front page of this issue's
NewsPages for a link.
Here's a graphic vision of an
Office-enabled document management system using
UnForm and sdOffice; note
that the black text on deep
blue background items to see how the flow to sdOffice takes place:
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RULE SET SECURITY - We now offer the ability to encrypt
rule files and limit access to the rule files to authorized users via
the design tool. A single configuration switch enables this feature.
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LIGHT WINDOWS CLIENT - The uf71c.exe Windows client is now a
low-overhead, simple Windows executable. It no longer requires a full
installation on any workstation that might need to execute it, as it can be
run across a network (though a setup.exe installation is available).
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Other SERVER Enhancements:
... Output File Substitutions ... Input Stream CR Handling
Features ... Direct Network Printer Support ... Global Merge Command
... a total of 17 other documented Miscellaneous Enhancements .
See the detail section of this article further below for
additional information on these and other enhancements.
UnForm
7.1 Document Management Solution,
with the Archiving and Image Manager Components
Background
The document archiving and image manager
components are the two newest components of UnForm, and
were first introduced with the release of UnForm 7.0
in Fall of 2006.
Feedback from our channel during the first year of its
many deployments in the field resulted in a full list of
improvements to both components' functionality.
Deployments in the end-user field, as well as OEM's,
resellers and integrators who began evaluating,
designing, prototyping, and then integrating the new
components with their software applications,
demonstrating functionality and consulting with their
existing end users and prospects, all contributed to the
feedback SDSI received for enhancements to the system.
SDSI offered a series of webinars between October 2006
and July of 2007 to introduce the channel more formally
to all the new features and functionality, and that
medium as well proved a good source of feedback from the
field.
This all resulted in a number of enhancements to the
system, particularly in the image manager component
where further improvements in the automation of the
external image capture process were made.
The main reason that the image manager component
received as much of the focus that it did in the upgrade
development is because of the operator-intensiveness of
some of the tasks associated with bulk image capture. By
way of comparison, internal documents which are archived
through an UnForm rule-set only need to be configured
once for archiving, and the already in place printing
process drives the process of archiving unattended. On
the other hand, external images need to be scanned or
imported by an operator, and there are some aspects of
batching like documents together, and dealing with
documents that cannot be barcoded or accurately
recognized optically, that can make the process more
operator or labor intensive. So this area of
functionality in the image manager component received a
good deal of attention.
Below is a list and discussion of the main improvements
in each of these UnForm optional comonenets.
UnForm 7.1
Document Archiving ... Enhancements
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ARCHIVE DOCUMENT CONSOLIDATION
Consolidate multiple document images by marking documents, then roll
them up into a single PDF file for delivery, including tiling capability
and an in-browser email client ...
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DOCUMENT
ARCHIVE SECURITY
User groups have been added to facilitate mass permissions ... External
and internal users and their properties are now maintained separately
... password reset requests can be handled automatically ...
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INTERNAL WEB SERVER
No need to configure Apache, IIS, or another web server, unless
preferred over our streamlined, high-performance engine ...
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OTHER DOCUMENT ARCHIVE ENHANCMENTS
... Improved browser interface ... Marked documents to
facilitate document consolidation and emailing
... Improved search interface, including date ranges and full-text access
... Search optimization, including indexed criteria detecting ... Stored searches ... Search result exporting
... New archive date/time stamp independent of the main document date property
...
See the detail section of this article further below for
additional information on these and other enhancements.
UnForm 7.1 Image Manager ... Enhancements
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Improved User Interface
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Header and Attachment Job Support
Primarily for more efficient processing of external images that do not
contain a barcode, nor characters easily recognized optically, a
bar-coded header page can be inserted in a batch and a predefined job
will handle assigning or using those header document properties in the
assignment of properties to trailing documents, until the next header
page is detected. If the header page is not bar-coded, but a single
OCR zone can be detected, this can drive a customizable input dialogue
form, including ODBC lookup, to capture header properties to use in
assigning properties to trailer pages.
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Customizable Input Dialogue Forms
A new VB-Script Form object has been developed which can be accessed via
a simple function in automation job scripts. This new function allows
the developer or integrator to quickly design a custom input dialogue
form to prompt the operator for key property values during job
execution. The function has an intuitive set of parameters to control
data types, including an ODBC lookup data type that can access stored
lookup definitions.
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Database Lookup Configuration and Functions
A utility for defining ODBC database lookups and a simple job script
function to use defined lookups have been added to make the image
manager's ODBC capabilities more accessible to integrators. The database
lookups can be a very good way to further automate the assignment of
image properties before uploading them to the archive.
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Multi-page Image Support
New options for combining multiple scanned or imported images into a
single multi-page TIFF image have been added to the images menu, as well
as an option at job execution time to automatically search for and
combine images with matching primary document ID's.
- PreUpload and PostUpload Job Functions
- We've added pre- and post- Upload custom job script sections
to the VB script job maintenance task, widening access to more timing or
event-oriented image property control and/or job task behavior.
- Stored Bulk Assignments
- Pre-configured bulk assignment "Set Values" jobs can now be
named and stored, in addition to the stored automated job scripts
capability included in the previous release.
- Job Types and Descriptions
- named job scripts can be assigned a type and description now,
and can be sorted by these values when a list selection is displayed.
- Job Security
- Job scripts can now be secured and granted access to only
specified archive system users. This is controlled in the archive
administration security function available in the archive browser
retrieval interface.
See the detail
section of this article further below for additional
information on these and other enhancements.
UnForm 7.1 Design Tool ... Enhancements
Rule-file maintenance is so much easier
with an IDE. And the The UnForm graphical design tool keeps
getting better. The enhancements added at this release level will be
welcomed by all, in the continuing drive SDSI has to make rule-set
development and maintenance the most efficient process possible.
- Streamlining for higher performance, particularly when
editing large rule files.
- Additional preview-pane tabs for text sample view and
variable watch
- Edit and save text file samples from within the design
tool IDE
- Rule set security - encrypt and limit access to
rule-files.
- Block indent/outdent and block comment/uncomment in
the code-pane
- New, more efficient operation and look & feel for
rule-set list display, selection, navigation, and management.
See the detail
section of this article further below for additional
information on these and other enhancements.
DETAILS
UnForm 7.1
ADDITIONAL UPGRADE AND ENHANCEMENT TECHNICAL DETAILS
Note For Users of UnForm 7.0 Archiving:
Please carefully read the MIGRATING ARCHIVING FROM UNFORM 7.0 TO UNFORM 7.1
chapter in the UnForm 7.1 manual before implementing UnForm 7.1.
UnForm Server Related Enhancements
7.1
DESKTOP DELIVERY AND FORMS
UnForm 7.1 offers the ability to send
documents to any connected workstation that is logged in via a web browser.
If a user is not connected at the time the document is generated, it will be
stored until the user next logs in. The document will typically be an UnForm-generated
PDF file, but there is no restriction on the type of document. It can be any
document that resides on the UnForm server when a job runs.
This same interface is also used to present a form on a user's workstation
while a job runs, and return the user's response(s) to the job. The form
presented is formatted in HTML, so it can prompt for virtually any
information required. Examples of use might be for email or fax delivery
information, or to have a manager approve the printing of a document.
These features are described in detail in the Desktop Delivery and Forms
chapter.
This feature is offered via an internal, high-performance HTTP server. This
same server can also be used to access archive documents and administration.
7.1 RULE SET SECURITY
Rule sets have traditionally been
plain text files that were editable by anyone who had operating system
permission to the file. Version 7.1 offers an ability to encrypt rule files
and limit access to the rule files to authorized users via the design tool.
A single configuration switch enables this feature. That switch is
designer=1 in the [security] section of uf71d.ini. When this value is set,
the design tool requires a login of an administrator or an authorized user,
and all save and publish actions will encrypt the rule file. These rule
files can be read by any UnForm 7.1 server, regardless of its rule file
security setting, but can only be edited by the design tool.
User maintenance is controlled by the archive web browser interface, and
offers a check box to enable design tool access. Encrypted rule sets can be
read by any UnForm 7.1 server, even if encryption is not enabled on that
system. Naturally, only the design tool can be used to edit encrypted rule
files.
If archiving is not licensed, the browser interface is limited to just user
maintenance, and only to administrative users.
7.1
LIGHT WINDOWS CLIENTT
The uf71c.exe Windows client is now a
low-overhead, simple Windows executable. It no longer requires a full
installation on any workstation that might need to execute it, as it can be
run across a network (though a setup.exe installation is available).
The version 7.0 console client (uf70cc.exe) is no longer needed to
accomplish network execution and has been discontinued. In fact, uf71c.exe
is a slightly modified version of uf70cc.exe, with changes only to provide a
graphical status window and configuration dialog.
MISCELLANEOUS 7.1 SERVER ENHANCEMENTS
Output File Substitutions - The dynamic
substitution of date, time, process ID, and job number formerly offered only
in the direct TCP/IP print model, has been extended to all server-based -o
output arguments. This feature is useful for auto-generating unique output
files.
Input Stream CR Handling Features - UnForm traditionally considered embedded carriage return characters (CR,
character 13) to indicate an overstrike line intended to bold characters.
Since UnForm handled all character attributes internally, embedded CR
characters were considered to be the end of the line.
However, some printer interfaces, such as the Windows Generic/Text Only
print driver, use the CR character for different purposes. With version 7.1,
it is now possible to configure a default CR handling (cr=n in uf71d.ini),
and additionally specify handling via the command line (the -cr option). The
options include truncation, strip, overstrike, and fold/advance. The
fold/advance feature is designed to handle Windows Generic/Text Only print
driver output, where CR characters indicate positions where proportional
character positions would overlap in a mono-spaced font. Windows formats
such lines for overstrike, but UnForm will advance the next character in
order to prevent it from erasing the prior character in the line.
Direct Network Printer Support - The -o
command line option, plus the output command and output$ variable, can be
set to the format "tcp:NameorIP[:port]" to direct output directly to the
network printer address specified. If the port is not supplied, then port
9100 is assumed. An example: -o "tcp:192.168.1.45".
Global Merge Command - A merge command
found in the global section of a rule file (before the first rule set) is
now added to the top of all rule sets automatically. This makes it possible
to design code blocks or UnForm command sections that are universal to all
rule sets.
sdOffice Functions - Two functions have
been added to enable communication with sdOffice, a product that enables
access to, and control of, Microsoft Office® applications. The functions
are:
* sdoinit(target$,timeout,server$,port)
Initializes the sdOffice
communication environment.
* sdocmd(object$,cmd$,response$,errmsg$)
Sends a command to the object, such
as Excel, Word, or Outlook. sdOffice provides a rich set of commands and is
extensible via scripting plug-ins.
Line Command Position Change - To be
consistent with the column and row positions of the box command, the line
command has been modified so that column and row positions are based on the
center of a character cell. The position 1,1 is now the center of the cell,
rather than the lower-right of the cell. Rule sets that use the line command
need to be modified to reduce the column and row positions by 0.5. For
example, line 2,1,40.5,1 should be changed to line 1.5,.5,40,.5.
Other 7.1 Server Enhancements
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Added uf.maxpagecols and
uf.maxpagerows to indicate the highest column and row that contain data on
the current page.
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Added uf.clientip$ to report the best guess IP address of the client that
submitted the job. This includes the address of telnet- or SSL-connected
Unix/Linux users, and the address of the submitter to a direct TCP/IP
submission.
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Added the uf.version$ variable, so code blocks can test the UnForm version
easily.
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Added the uf.jobexecerr$ variable, so code can monitor error messages
returned by the jobexec() execution of a subjob.
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Added [] as a synonym for [all] when referencing arrays in functions and
commands. For example, arrtostr(adr$[all], adr2$,",") could be entered as
arrtostr(adr$[],adr2$,",").
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Added a new function, findpos(), to return the number of occurences and
the column and row positions of a search string in an array.
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Added a new function, finddata(), to return the data found as a result of
searching for a a string in an array.
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Added textpage$[all] and textjob$[all] arrays for use in code blocks. The
textpage$[all] array is similar to the text$[all] array, except that it is
the original text of the page rather than one that might be manipulated by
code block functions and expressions. The textjob$[all] array stores all
lines of all pages, appending each page through the last non-blank line when
the input stream is initially parsed. Use textjob$[all] when you want to
analyze the entire print stream in a prejob code block.
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Added the -noarc command line option to turn off archiving at a job level.
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Added the noarchive code block variable, which can be set to 1 to turn off
archiving at a job level (in prejob) or a page level (in prepage).
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Added the nohpgl code block variable, which can be set to 1 in the prejob
code block to turn off HP/GL formatting.
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Added the jobids(dlm$) function, to return a list of open subjob ID codes.
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Added an optional format$ argument to the log() function, so that the
developer can control the format of the date/time stamp in a custom log
file, or remove it altogether.
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Added an optional array$[] argument to the jobstore() command, allowing
the developer to provide any text content, not just the current page, to a
jobexec() command.
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If a text command references a numeric expression, its value is
automatically converted to a string. For example, text 10,10,{pagenum} will
no longer generate an error 26 (string/numeric mismatch).
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Added the showimages code block variable, which can be used in conjunction
with the skip variable to suppress printing of a page but print images
specified by the images command.
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Added an optional suffix ":stylesheet" to the -arclistfmt xml[:stylesheet]
and html[:stylesheet] formats, to allow the command line to specify a XLST
or CSS stylesheet to be included in the output of archive listings.
DETAILS
UnForm Archiving Related Enhancements
7.1 INTERNAL WEB SERVER
A separate web server, such as IIS or
Apache, is no longer required for browser access to archives and
administration tools. By default, this server listens on port 27272, but
this is configurable in the [tpd] section of the uf71d.ini file. To access
the archive browser interface, use the address
http://server:port/arc.
Example: http://myserver:27272/arc.
The CGI scripts are still provided for use in cases where the web server
must run on a different system, or on a standard port, or requires SSL
encryption.
7.1 ARCHIVE DOCUMENT CONSOLIDATION
The archive browser interface now offers an ability to mark archive images
and PDF files, and then consolidate them into a single PDF document for
local printing. In addition, the user can email the marked images as a PDF
or as attachments within the browser. Note that this feature is dependent on
Ghostscript (if any of the images are PDF files), and Image Magick. These
two products can be configured with the UnForm server, or can be made
available via the Windows Support Server.
7.1 ARCHIVE SECURITY
Group Level Security An administrator
can now create groups, secure archive libraries by group, and assign users
to groups. This simplifies library security management. r>
Internal and External Users UnForm now considers users that have an Entity
ID to be external users, who are limited to browsing only their documents by
type or date. Indexes are maintained and used to prevent access to documents
or index information of other documents. These indexes are internally
maintained as invisible category indexes.
BuBulk User Maintenance Both internal and external users can be imported from
CSV formatted files, as well as exported to CSV files. This enables users to
be loaded from an external source, such as a user database from an
accounting system.
OTHER 7.1 ARCHIVE ENHANCMENTS
Improved Browser Interface
* The @text sub IDs can be suppressed, increasing the number of documents
visible in the browser window. r>
* There are two document-level views provided: a simple view and a
properties view.
* Users can mark images by page, document, or image. Marked images are used
in the document consolidation feature described above.
* * If an image is a TIF, which is typically not displayed in-line in the
browser, it can be converted dynamically to a PDF file by the UnForm server.
Note that this feature is dependent on Image Magick being available at the
UnForm server or via the Windows Support Server.
Improved Search Interface - The
Advanced mode of searching now supports flexible date field formatting,
separate start and end date fields, and popup calendars for the dates.
Complex searches using "and", "or", or "not" are now supported, in addition
to the semi-colon and comma operators from version 7.0. The sub ID list and
the original report @text documents are now exposed to searches. In
particular, this allows for searching of documents missing matching scanned
images (Sub ID of "@unform and not scan*", for example).
Stored Searches - An administrator can
store a search, and any user can recall that search, enabling advanced users
to create searches for other users.
Search Optimization - The server now
analyzes search criteria to determine if an index can be used to limit the
number of archives scanned. This same optimization is used by the browser
interface and the new -arcsearch command line option. If indexed
information, such as Document ID, Date, or a Category are provided, the
search can complete more quickly.
Search Result Exporting - Search
results can be exported, in summary and detail (with image information), to
CSV files. These CSV exports typically can be opened in Microsoft® Excel
automatically, or can be saved to disk.
Archive Date Stamp - The archive date
and time fields now record the first time a document is added to the
archive. New dateupdated and timeupdated fields have been added to record
the last time a document was updated.
DETAILS
UnForm 7.1 Image Manager Related
Enhancements
A large amount of effort was spent
enhancing the UnForm 7.1 Image Manager (formerly known as the Scanning
Workstation).
Improved User Interface - Consistent
lookups, improved keyboard navigation, custom dialogs, and database lookups
are provided to improve user productivity. In addition, keystrokes and mouse
clicks are reduced by providing automatic job detection and execution after
batches are scanned or imported.
Custom dialogs - allow a job designer
to provide a highly efficient user interface when jobs are executed.
Image Importing - The image import function has been
improved to allow groups of images to be selected and previewed before
importing.
Header and Attachment Job Support
- Jobs can be defined that detect header pages and then perform assignments to
attachment pages. The assignments for header and attachment pages can be
different, or attachment pages can access header page properties.
Multi-page Image Support - Single-page
images with duplicate identification properties can be consolidated into
multi-page TIF images, and multi-page TIF images can be split into single
page images. The consolidation can be performed automatically after jobs are
run against a batch of images, or can be performed on demand by the user.
Database Lookup Functions
- Configurable database lookups, using any Windows ODBC data source, can be
designed for use in script jobs. The lookups can be used to assist the user
in selecting information, such as vendor or customer IDs, or can be used to
validate a value during script execution.
PreUpload and PostUpload Job
Functions - Jobs can not only set the properties of an image, but can also be
designed to perform validation, update related documents, or any other
operation just before or just after images are uploaded.
Stored Bulk Assignments - Bulk
assignments, such as to set a library to a specific value on a group of
images, can now be stored and recalled by name.
Job Types and Descriptions - Jobs, both
script and bulk assignment types, can be assigned a job type and description
that can aid the user in locating the correct job.
Job Security - Only administrators or
users who are authorized to design scripts have access to the job editing
window.
DETAILS
UnForm 7.1 Design Tool Related Enhancements
The design tool interface has been streamlined for higher
performance, particularly when editing large rule files. Below is a list of
the enhancements.
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The connection window remembers multiple server connections.
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Rule sets are now edited one at a time, making editing faster.
\
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Rule sets are selected via navigation tool bars or a selection window.
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Samples are displayed in a tab and can be edited and saved.
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Multiple samples can be associated with a rule set, and the active sample
can be easily selected.
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The Watch window is now a tab, and provides a sortable grid display.
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The Preview and Grid images have independent scaling.
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Rule set security is enforced if the server requires it.
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The rule set editor and sample text panel support drag and drop of text
files or selected text.
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Block comment and uncomment is supported on any selected text in the edit
pane, with Edit menu or toolbar buttons.
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Block indent and outdent is supported on any selected text in the edit
pane, by pressing the tab or shift-tab keys.
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