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Network Parameters
| By this time, you have probably realized that a job in PPP is not a single file. In a typical situation, a JOB is folder with lots of different kinds of files in it. When we are talking about jobs, we refer to the JOB file itself, the LOG file, the thumbnail cache files, and a set of the input and output images.
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| Consider the following example. You have a C:\Images\Book1 folder with lots of TIFF images scanned from a book:
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0001.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0002.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0003.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0004.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0005.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0253.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\01_0254.tif
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| If you would like to process all of these images, you will first create a job and add the image files to the Selected Files List, then save the job. In this case, PPP will generate the following files for you:
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1.JOB
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1.LOG
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1.$i$
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1.$c$
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| When you start processing your images, PPP will create a Book1_output directory for you and place the output images there:
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1_output\01_0001.tif
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| C:\Images\Book1\Book1_output\01_0254.tif
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| Now the C:\Images\Book1 folder with all the files and subfolders can be treated as the job itself, so we can call the C:\Images\Book1 folder the job folder. Theoretically, if you move the job folder to a different location or a machine where PPP is installed, you can still open the job, because you have all the necessary files in the job directory. However, in practice this is not necessarily true. The reason is that PPP has to know the exact location of ALL the input and output image files on the hard disk, which is stored in the Book1.JOB file.
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| Consider the following. You move the whole C:\Images\Book1 folder to the D: drive. This means that the path for your images will be totally different. When you originally created the job, your images files were on the C: drive, and now they are on the D: drive. The problem is that the Book1.JOB file still points to the old path, so PPP will try to find the images on the C: drive!
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| This portability problem can only be solved if you ask PPP to search the input and the output images in the same directory as the JOB file itself is located. So if you move the whole job folder to the D: drive, you will open the Book1.JOB file from the D:\Images\Book1 folder, and PPP will know that the image files have to be in the D:\Images\Book1 folder as well.
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| Though this approach solves the portability problem, you are forced to keep your input and output images on the same drive and in the same directory. This means you can not process images from a CD-ROM, for example, because CDs are read-only, the output images can not be generated on the disk.
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| Therefore PPP offers you two different modes:
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| · | Relative Naming Convention
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| Also known as Portable Mode. In this mode, PPP uses relative file paths, like Chapter1\01_0001.tif. All the input and output images must be in the same directory as the JOB file itself. Of course you can create subdirectories inside the job folder, but you can not process image files outside of the job folder. For example, if your Book1.JOB file is in the C:\Images\Book1 folder, then your image files can be in the C:\Images\Book1 folder, or in the C:\Images\Book1\Chapter1 folder, or even at the C:\Images\Book1\Chapter1\ScanBatch01 folder. However, you may not have your image files in the C:\Images\Book2, D:\Images\Book1 or D:\Book1 folder.
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| In return, your whole job is in a separated job folder, you can later copy or move this folder, and your job will still work, even if you move the job folder to a different drive.
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| · | Absolute Naming Convention
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| Also known as Flexible Mode. In this mode, PPP uses absolute file names, with drive letter and full path, like C:\Images\Book1\Chapter1\01_0001.tif. The location of the input and output files is not restricted, they can be on any of your drives, including the network. It is allowed to have some of your input files on drive C:, others on drive D:, while generate the outputs on drive E:.
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| There is a price to be paid for this flexibility. In this mode, your job is not portable. You are not allowed to move your job file to a different directory. You can still move your job to a different computer, but only if you move all the input and output images exactly to the same drive and directory where they were originally located. So if your computer does not have a D: drive and there are image files in the job from the D: drive, you will not be able to open the job properly.
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| It is strongly recommended that you do not move a job file that was created in Absolute Naming Convention mode. Select the Absolute or Relative mode right after you create a new job, even before you add images to the Selected Files List.
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| If it is necessary, you can later change between the two modes, but it has some restrictions. You can always change to Absolute Naming Convention from Relative Naming Convention. However, you can only change to Relative Naming Convention from Absolute Naming Convention if all of your input images are located in the same folder as the JOB file.
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| The two options can be found on the Network Parameters tab at the bottom of the Job Setup page, as shown on Figure 6-9.
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Figure 6-9. Job Setup Page, Network Parameters Subpage.
© 1998-2002 ELAN GMK
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