:Arkitex NewsDrive Web Page Support - Agfa

:Arkitex
NewsDrive Web Page Support

USER GUIDE
Agfa, the Agfa rhombus, and NewsDrive Web Page Support are registered trademarks of Agfa-Gevaert
N.V., or its affiliates.
TIFF Libraries: 1988-1996 Sam Leffler
1991-1996 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Those names and product names not mentioned here are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.
For more information about Agfa Graphics products, visit www.agfa.com, or contact us at one of the
following addresses:
Agfa Corporation
2545 W. Hillcrest Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA
Tel: (805) 277-6700
Agfa Graphics
Septestraat 27
B-2640 Morstel, Belgium
Tel: (+) 32 3 444 2111
Document Part Number Rev Date Page Text Change
CG+0956690001 A 09/11/2008 All Initial Release
CG+0956690001 A1 01/02/2009 1-2 Address change and
copyright date
CG+0956690001 B 12/08/10 2 Copyright dates
Copyright @ 2003-2011 Agfa Corporation
All software and hardware described in this document are subject to change without notice.
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NewsDrive Web Page Support
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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1. OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................ 4
1.2. DOCUMENT STRUCTURE............................................................................................................................ 4
2. OVERALL OPERATION.......................................................................................................................... 5
2.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 5
2.2. MAIN WEB PAGE ...................................................................................................................................... 5
2.3. FOLDER WEB PAGES ................................................................................................................................. 5
3. INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION........................................................................................... 7
3.1. INSTALLATION .......................................................................................................................................... 7
3.2. ACTIVATING WEB PAGE GENERATION ...................................................................................................... 7
3.3. WEB PAGE LOCATION............................................................................................................................... 7
3.4. CONFIGURING A WEB SERVER .................................................................................................................. 8
3.4.1. Using Default Web Site ....................................................................................................................... 8
3.4.2. Using Virtual Directory....................................................................................................................... 8
3.5. USE WITH MULTIPLE NEWSDRIVES........................................................................................................... 9
3.6. CUSTOMER LOGO.................................................................................................................................... 10
3.7. UPDATING CONFIGURATIONS.................................................................................................................. 10
4. DETAILED OPERATION AND CUSTOMIZATION ......................................................................... 11
4.1. BASIC MECHANISM................................................................................................................................. 11
4.2. NDWEBREFRESH DESCRIPTION.............................................................................................................. 11
4.2.1. Installation and Maintenance............................................................................................................ 11
4.2.2. Parameter Extraction ........................................................................................................................ 11
4.2.3. Web Page Generation ....................................................................................................................... 11
4.3. TRANSLATION TEMPLATES DESCRIPTION................................................................................................ 12
4.3.1. Header.txt.......................................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.2. NewsDriveStatus.xsl .......................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.3. NewsDriveMain.xsl ........................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.4. NewsDriveFolders.xsl ....................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.5. Footer.txt ........................................................................................................................................... 12
4.4. NEWSDRIVE.CSS DESCRIPTION ............................................................................................................... 12
4.5. LOGGING................................................................................................................................................. 12
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Overview
This document describes the Web Page Support built into NewsDrive from v6.0.8 onwards. It includes
the installation, configuration, and customization capabilities.
The Web Page Support allows NewsDrive basic operational and job status to be monitored using
remote access from Web browsers. Monitoring is a read-only operation. No control functions are
supported; and where NewsDrive needs control, the normal NewsDrive local Client should be used.
1.2. Document structure
The second section describes the overall operation and describes the Web pages available.
The third section describes the installation and configuration of the Web page generation.
The fourth section describes detailed operation and customization possibilities.
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2. OVERALL OPERATION
2.1. Introduction
The Web pages produced by NewsDrive consist of a main Index.htm and a set of scan folder
folderN.htm pages.
2.2. Main Web Page
The following screenshot illustrates the index.htm Web page.
The following items are on this page:
NewsDrive identification – Underneath the main logo; shows the site and NewsDrive Instance.
Folder tree – At the top left; shows the list of scan folders and their current hold/release/scan status.
This also forms the navigation link to the separate folder pages, and the top link returns to the main
summary screen.
Application status – The right hand column indicates whether the application is running and shows
whether the main scan control is enabled or not. Any dongle or options’ problems are listed below this.
Engine Panel – There is one of these for each engine attached to the NewsDrive. It mimics the
features on the local NewsDrive. It shows the main CtP state, the status of plate cassettes, processor
and punch bender states, a data interface, and serial if state indicator, a progress bar, and a Job Name if
one is being processed.
Scan Folder status – This table lists all the scan folders present and has a summary of their statistics,
including number of jobs and plates, and the last job processed through this folder.
2.3. Folder Web Pages
The NewsDrive identification, Folder Tree, Application status, and Engine status items are identical to
the main index.htm page.
The ScanFolder table lists the details of all the Jobs that have been processed through this folder.
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3. INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
3.1. Installation
There is no special installation requirement for the Web page generation function. A single WebStatus
archive file contains all the necessary Web management material; and this will automatically be
installed the first time the Web page generation function is activated.
If an upgrade install is performed on top of an existing installation, it is best to delete the existing Web
page generator from the local WebStatus folder so that the new files will get installed.
3.2. Activating Web Page generation
By default the NewsDrive application does not generate Web pages. To activate this function, go into
NewsDrive Advanced settings.
If the Web Status refresh(s) is blank or has a 0 value, no Web pages are generated. Change the value to
a refresh interval, and NewsDrive will start generating Web pages and will refresh the content at the
interval chosen. It is recommended that a value between 4 and 15 seconds is used. Smaller values will
make the Web pages more responsive to events. Larger values have less processing impact.
3.3. Web Page Location
The Web page generation templates are stored in the WebStatus folder created in the main NewsDrive
application folder.
By default the Web pages generated will also be stored in this folder. The location of the folder may be
configured in the NewsDrive Advanced settings. Select the WebStatus Application folder, and browse
to the new location. This setting does not affect the location of the management templates, which
continue to be in the local WebStatus folder. It will change where the style sheet and the generated
html pages are stored.
Every time the Web page refresh logic runs, it will check whether the style sheet NewsDrive.css is
present in the configured WebStatus folder. If it is not present, both the style sheet and the images
folder containing the Web page images will be copied to the new WebStatus folder. This may also be
used to refresh the stylesheet and images folder by just deleting the destination style sheet.
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3.4. Configuring a Web Server
The NewsDrive Web page generation mechanism does not include a built in Web server. The Web
pages generated are very generic html, and this allows almost any Web server to be used (either
installed locally on the NewsDrive platform, or remotely on a central Web server platform).
As an example, if ISS is used locally on the NewsDrive platform, there are two simple ways of
configuring it: Default Web site or Virtual directory.
3.4.1. Using Default Web Site
By default ISS supports a default location for its Web pages (typically C:\Inetpub\wwwroot). The
NewsDrive WebStatusfolder can be configured to this location or a subfolder of it, and any access to
the platform ISS Web server with an appropriate URL will get the NewsDrive Web pages. If the
WebStatus points directly at the wwwroot, a URL like http//server/index1.htm will get the main Web
page.
3.4.2. Using Virtual Directory
Alternatively ISS may be configured to have a new Virtual directory pointing at the NewsDrive
WebStatus folder. To set this up, first access the ISS set up under computer management. Right click
on the default Web site, and select New/Virtual Directory.
Give the Virtual Directory a name on the following screen. This name will form part of the URL used
to access the pages.
On the next screen navigate to the NewsDrive WebStatus folder.
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On the final screen, select the Web access permissions required. In this case only, Read access is
needed.
3.5. Use with Multiple NewsDrives
By default the NewsDrive Web page generation mechanism names the main Web page as Index.htm,
and the folder Web pages as Folder0.htm, Folder1.htm, etc.
There are two basic ways multiple NewsDrive Web Pages may be used together. In the first method
each NewsDrive WebStatus is to be set up with a different WebStatus Web page folder. This may, for
example, be a set of sub folders on the Web server. Access to each NewsDrive would be by a URL
ending in /NewsDrive/Index.htm.
The second method uses support for distinct Web page naming in the NewsDrive set up. In the
advanced settings Tab, if the option ‘Instance Prefix on Web Pages’ is enabled, the Web page names
will be prefixed by the NewsDrive instance name. So, for example, the Web pages may be
ND1Index.htm, ND1Folder0.htm for the first NewsDrive and ND2Index.htm, ND2Folder0.htm for the
second NewsDrive. This method allows all the Web pages to now reside at the same level on the Web
server and share the same Web images. The URL access must include the NewsDrive instance name.
There is no built in support for a main navigation page giving access to all instances of installed
NewsDrives, but this could be set up as a static Web page with the appropriate URLs.
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3.6. Customer Logo
A Customer Logo file is placed in the top right hand corner of all of the NewsDrive Web pages. This
file resides in the WebStatus\Images Folder of the NewsDrive installation. If replaced, it is
recommended that this is a GIF format file of dimensions 280 x 70 Pixels.
3.7. Updating Configurations
If a new version of NewsDrive is installed, it will replace the Web page generation script
(NDWebRefresh.vbs), and all the supporting material in the local WebStatus folder under the
NewsDrive installation. If the WebStatus configuration has been configured to be different from the
local NewsDrive WebStatus folder, NewsDrive will NOT, by default, overwrite the style sheet or any
of the images in the configured location.
If the stylesheet NewsDrive.css is removed from the remote WebStatus location, NewsDrive will copy
over the latest NewsDrive.css AND the content of the image folder to the remote location the next time
a refresh of the Web pages occurs. Therefore, the remote folder may be refreshed after an update just
by deleting the NewsDrive.css file.
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4. DETAILED OPERATION AND CUSTOMIZATION
This section is provided for general information only. It is not necessary to understand the mechanism to use the
Web pages support. Any modifications made to the mechanism or templates may cause incorrect operation of
the Web page facility.
4.1. Basic Mechanism
If the Web page refresh interval is set to a non-zero value in Advanced settings, the NewsDrive
application will call a supplied external script called NDWebRefresh.vbs at the interval supplied.
The script is responsible for maintaining the Web page generator installation, and building new
versions of all the required Web pages using the data contained in the NewsDrive environment file,
and the NewsDrive status file. Note: This is run as a locked synchronous operation by NewsDrive, so it
is important the script and refresh executes in a timely fashion.
4.2. NDWebRefresh Description
The script is called with four command line parameters.
• Environment – Path and filename for the environment.xml file.
• Status – Path and filename for the NewsDrive.xml status file.
• WebFolder – Location of where to store the generated Web pages.
• UseInstance – A flag controlling whether Web pages are named with the NewsDrive instance
name.
4.2.1. Installation and Maintenance
Each time the script is called, it performs a check to see whether the installation needs to be
done or modified.
It checks the local WebStatus folder for the presence of the NewsDrive.css style sheet. If this
is not there, it unpacks the WebStatus archive file by running it as a self executing archive.
If the configured WebFolder is not the same as the local WebStatus folder, it will check that
for the presence of a NewsDrive.css file; and if not present, it will copy it and the local
images folder over to the configure destination. This means that if the advanced settings are
changed to point to a new WebStatus folder, the script will ensure the new location has all the
required files. It will not delete the Web files from the previous location.
4.2.2. Parameter Extraction
The script extracts a few parameters from the Environment file. In particular, the site name
and Instance name are obtained from this.
4.2.3. Web Page Generation
The Web page generation proceeds by using xsl to transform the NewsDrive.xml in various
ways. Two sorts of Web page are generated: an Index.htm is generated as an overall
summary, and a Folder.htm is generated for each NewsDrive ScanFolder.
Each type of Web page is generated as a concatenation of several transforms. The Index.htm
is a transform of header.txt, NewsDriveStatus.xsl, NewsDriveMain.xsl, and Footer.txt. Each
Folder.htm is a transform of header.txt, NewsDirveStatus.xsl, NewsDriveFolder.xsl, and
Footer.txt. The NDWebRefresh script sets some parameters in the xsl files before they are run
each time to control their content. This allows common elements to be maintained more
easily.
The Web pages are themselves programmed with a refresh meta data tag, so that the Web
browser will automatically request updates of the Web page at intervals. The refresh meta
data is contained in the Header.txt file and is set to call for a refresh every 5 seconds.
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4.3. Translation Templates Description
Three main xsl templates are used to generate the content of the Web pages. In addition, simple Header
and Footer txt files are used to prepend and append basic html set up.
The NewsDriveStatus.xml is used to provide the common overall application status. The left hand
column holds a list of the scan folders and their hold/release/scan status. These also provide the
navigation links to select either the overall summary main view, or an individual folder job status.
The right hand column holds the status of whether the application is running, whether the main scan is
enabled, and whether the options and associated dongles are OK.
The central part of the view contains the NewsDrive Name and the Engine status, including Cassette
elements. A progress bar and Job name mimics the local NewsDrive application; but the progress bar
will only show a coarse progress due to the limitations of refresh.
4.3.1. Header.txt
This file forms the beginning of all of the Web pages. It defines the browser refresh period
and the top banner images.
4.3.2. NewsDriveStatus.xsl
This xsl translation file is used to pick out the main status on all of the Web pages. Inner
templates are used to process all of the scan folders and engines.
4.3.3. NewsDriveMain.xsl
This xsl is used to produce the folder summary content for the main index.htm page. It
produces a table listing all the folders and displays their overall job and plate statistics
together with details of the last job run through that folder.
4.3.4. NewsDriveFolders.xsl
This xsl is used to provide a table listing the details of all of the jobs associated with one
particular scan folder.
4.3.5. Footer.txt
This file is appended to the end to finish off the Web page generation. There is no content
controlled by this.
4.4. NewsDrive.css Description
Most of the display elements generated in the Web pages are embedded with css tags to control the
style and positioning of the elements. The NewsDrive.css contains the definitions of these styles, and
updates to this file can alter the layout and look of the Web pages.
4.5. Logging
The NDWebRefresh.vbs script can log its activities to a log file. This can be useful for debugging and
timing purposes. To activate this, create an empty test file called NDWebRefreshLog.txt in the same
folder. The log file will roll over and create one level of backup. To deactivate logging, remove the
NDWebRefreshLog.txt file.
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