User Guide and Release Notes

X

STRICTLY XEROX INTERNAL USE ONLY

User Guide and Release Notes

YARD DOG Version 1.1.1 FOR

STELLENT CONTENT SERVER

Author: Jim SUTTON

Date: 25th September 2002

Version: 1.1.1 DRAFT

STRICTLY XEROX INTERNAL USE ONLY

Xerox and the stylised “X” are Registered Trade Marks of Xerox Corporation, its subsidiaries and licensees. Stellent, Stellent Content Server, Xpedio and Xpedio Content Server are Registered Trade Marks of Stellent Inc (formerly Intranet Solutions Inc.). Kofax and Ascent Capture are Registered Trade Marks of Kofax Image Products. Adobe and Adobe Capture are Registered Trade Marks of Adobe Inc. The use of all other Trade Marks in this publication is acknowledged.

YardDog is supplied as is, with no warranty either express or implied. YardDog is not a supported product of Xerox (UK) Ltd, Xerox Corporation or any of their subsidiaries or associates, and any support is provided on a strictly chargeable, best endeavours basis.

No responsibility can be assumed for any loss or damage sustained as a result of installing and/or using YardDog.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS 2

WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT AIMED AT? 3

WHAT IS YARD DOG? 3

WHAT EXACTLY DOES YARD DOG DO? 3

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 5

INSTALLING YARD DOG 5

RUNNING YARD DOG 6

CONFIGURING YARD DOG 7

The File Menu 7

ENABLING YARD DOG FOR PRODUCTION USE 8

THE YARDDOG.DAT FILE 9

NOTES ON BATCHLOADER FILE (BLF) HANDLING IN YARD DOG 16

NOTES ON KOFAX ASCENT CAPTURE TEXT FILE HANDLING IN YARD DOG 17

NOTES ON XEROX SCANNING TEMPLATE FILE (XST) HANDLING IN YARD DOG 17

APPENDIX A – INSTALLING A PROGRAM AS A SERVICE IN WINDOWS NT 4.0 18

APPENDIX B – YARD DOG REGISTRY ENTRY REFERENCE 20

APPENDIX C – ERROR MESSAGES 21

YardDog.Log messages 21

MyYardDog.Log Messages 24

APPENDIX C - VERSION 1.00 RELEASE NOTES 25

Development History 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.3 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.4 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.5 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.7 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.8 25

CHANGES IN YARD DOG 0.0.9 26

CHANGES IN YARDDOG VERSION 1.0 26

CHANGES IN YARDDOG VERSION 1.0.1 26

CHANGES IN YARDDOG VERSION 1.1 26

CHANGES IN YARDDOG VERSION 1.1.1 26

CAVEATS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS IN YARD DOG 1.0.1 27

WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT AIMED AT?

This User Guide is primarily intended for use by the sysadmin of the Stellent or Xpedio Content Server; this would normally be the person to install YardDog on the same server platform. A knowledge of Windows NT and Stellent or Xpedio Content Server is assumed.

WHAT IS YARD DOG?

YardDog is a watched-folder content checkin utility for Stellent Content Server (formerly Xpedio Content Server ), intended to replace other such utilities. It uses the IdcCommandX ActiveX control provided and supported by Stellent (formerly IntraNet Solutions Inc), the suppliers of Content Server. However, because it can recognise and use .blf files, it can functionally replace the Stellent BatchLoader as well as any existing installation of the XCS WatchDog program (WatchedFolderCheckin.exe).

YardDog runs on the same server platform as the Stellent Content Server (SCS) and can watch a number of folders for incoming documents, and moreover can handle those incoming documents in different ways depending on which folder they arrive in. YardDog can check different types of documents in to different instances of XCS running on the same server if necessary, which makes YardDog the only watched folder checkin utility which should ever be required on an SCS server.

YardDog can take in indexing information from “blf” batch loader data files, from Kofax Ascent Capture text release files, and (shortly) from xst files generated by Xerox scanning templates on Document Centers which incorporate document management fields. This indexing information can be checked in along with the document file.

YardDog can run with or without a user interface. Once it has been installed and interactively configured and tested, it can subsequently be run as a service without a logged-in user. A debugging mode is available to give detailed information during system configuration. A log file is maintained in which details of program starts and stops, and any non-recurrent failed checkin operations, are recorded.

WHAT EXACTLY DOES YARD DOG DO?

YardDog polls a nominated folder (the Parent Watched Folder) and its subfolders. If it finds an instance of the configuration file YardDog.dat in the folder or subfolder, it will check in any newly arrived files according to the instructions provided in the local YardDog.dat.

The YardDog.dat file is described fully elsewhere in this Guide, but in summary it describes all aspects of file processing associated with the watched folder in which it sits. This includes which instance of SCS any new documents are to be checked into, which user name should be used for the checkin, any mandatory or custom metadata information and so on. Another useful feature is the ability to clean up .xst files, which are invariably created by the Xerox network scanners used to scan in the new documents.

If the existing workflow uses the SCS BatchLoader mechanism to check in files, YardDog can take over this task also, thereby reducing to one the number of automated checkin processes which need to run on any one SCS server. This might be required, for example, where a program such Kofax Ascent Capture or Adobe Capture is being used to auto-recognise some text on a scanned form before “releasing” both the image(s) and the derived metadata (in the form of a .blf file) to SCS. In the case of Kofax Ascent Capture, the Stellent legacy module (effectively, a Kofax release script) is not necessarily required as YardDog can accept the output from the standard Kofax text release script.

If Xerox Document Centers are used for network scanning, and the scanning templates include document management fields, YardDog will shortly be able to extract the indexing data in the same way as for “blf” files and Kofax text files.

YardDog can perform database lookups on the fly using ODBC connections configured in the Windows control panel of the server; this is very simply configured from the YardDog.dat file, which has the benefit of eliminating any complex scripting required to carry out this task in other packages e.g. Kofax custom queues.

If a file is checked in successfully, it is deleted from the watched folder. If there is a problem with the checkin operation, the file (together with its indexing data file, if present, and an error report) are stored in a “failure folder” within the watched folder; in addition, an entry is made in YardDog’s log file. The default failure folder is called Rejects, which can never itself be a watched subfolder; an alternative failure folder name can be specified in YardDog.dat, and then the failure folder can also be “watched” by YardDog for input via a different checkin method. For example, checkin of a tif file driven by a blf from Kofax may fail for want of mandatory indexing data because of a bad database lookup (the database server may be down at the time, for example). The tif might subsequently be checked in from the failure folder with a different document type, which might enable the Stellent user to update the document manually with the necessary indexing data.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

YardDog Version 1.1.1 requires

· Windows NT version 4 SP6a or 2000 SP1, Workstation (testing/demonstration) or Server (production)

· Xpedio Content Server version 4.52 or above, Stellent Content Server version 5.0 or above

· IdcCommandX ActiveX control installed and registered

Some caveats relating to installation on Windows 2000 platforms appear in the relevant sections of this document.

INSTALLING YARD DOG

Ensure that the Windows NT/2000 requirements are met and that Stellent / Xpedio Content Server version 4.52 or above is already installed. Quit any applications which may be running.

From the YardDog installer, run setup.exe. Select the default folder to install YardDog into. If messages are displayed indicating that some files already exist, select the option which keeps the existing file, and don’t overwrite. If messages are displayed indicating that a file cannot be installed because it is already in use, click Ignore, then Yes to continue – this will go with the existing version of the file.

If you have been supplied with a later version of YardDog.exe, replace the one installed in c:\program files\YardDog with the later one.

IMPORTANT: YardDog 1.1.1 installs with a default configuration, and it will be necessary to modify the program’s settings to suit the local platform when running the program for the first time, and at least once again subsequently if you have obtained an Access Code for production use of the program.

RUNNING YARD DOG

YardDog can be started by selecting it in the Start menu or by double-clicking the YardDog EXE file in the installation folder. This starts the program in “visible” mode, with a window.

YardDog can also be run from the command line, at which time a number of switches are available. These can also be configured for iconic startup using the standard Windows tools.

To start YardDog in “silent mode”, particularly when running as a service, the –s switch is required thus:

yarddog –s <RETURN>

The “s” can be upper or lower case. When running in this mode, YardDog can be seen running as a process in the Task Manager window, but is otherwise invisible and does not provide any information in the user interface; all trapped errors and messages are logged in the log file (q.v.).

Additional startup switch options are:

yarddog –d <RETURN> and yarddog –L <RETURN>

The –d switch starts the program in Debug mode, which provides very detailed information regarding the data being held by YardDog at each stage of the checkin process. This is intended for troubleshooting purposes and need not be used unless difficulty is encountered when configuring YardDog, and then only when requested by Xerox representatives.

The –L switch enables Lookup Debug Mode – this gives detailed information regarding database lookups only, without all the other messages provided by the more general Debug mode. Again, this is intended for troubleshooting purposes and need not be used unless difficulty is encountered when configuring YardDog, and then only when requested by Xerox representatives.

It is suggested that YardDog be installed as an NT Service using the utilities provided for the purpose by Microsoft. An advisory procedure for doing this is described in Appendix A.

As soon as YardDog is started, it will begin to poll the Parent Watched Folder and (if configured in the registry) its subfolders. Until a valid YardDog.dat file is found in each (sub)folder, however, no checkin operations will take place. Refer to the next section for information on how the YardDog.dat file for each watched (sub)folder should be constructed.

CONFIGURING YARD DOG

YardDog 1.1.1 is configured using the menu options within YardDog’s user interface. By default, YardDog runs with a visible window, and this mode is used to set up and test a new YardDog installation. When the configuration has been tested and verified, YardDog can be run in “silent mode” (without a window), if necessary as a Windows Service running without a logged-in user.

Start YardDog in its normal mode by selecting it from Start/Programs or by running it (yarddog.exe) from the command line without any “switches”.

The Program Mode Information box shows whether YardDog is currently enabled for production use. If the program has not been registered and an Access Code obtained from your Xerox representative, YardDog runs in Demo mode and will time out after one hour. See the next section of this Guide for details on how to enable production mode.

The other boxes show the current operating settings of YardDog; these can be changed using the options in the File menu. These options are greyed out until YardDog operation is paused using the button at the bottom left of the window. Click this button again to resume folder polling when configuration changes are complete.

The File Menu

Change Watched Folder prompts selection of a folder to act as the Parent Watched Folder. It will not, of course, become active until a valid YardDog.dat file is placed in it.

Enable SubFolder Processing switches on the facility for YardDog to process files from subfolders as well as the Parent Watched Folder. Again, they will not become active until a valid YardDog.dat file is available in the respective folder. The messaging box at the bottom of the window will show subfolders being “investigated”, but no files will be processed without a YardDog.dat file.

If subfolder processing is enabled, the menu option changes to Disable SubFolder Processing.

Change Timer Interval can be used to regulate how often the watched folders are polled. The timer interval is set in milliseconds, so a five second interval corresponds to 5000 milliseconds.