Release 1.5.0.117

Major changes introduced in the following ares: expanded documentation (to more then double size), added PDF wrapper option, code cleanup in most of the applications and new software protection/licensing framework. 2009-12-30.

Important!

Please follow the installation sequence below:

1. Database server
2. HotFolder Service
3. The rest of the applications.

License protection:

The Database Server installs the initial license file that should be placed on a network share accessible for reading and writing by the Avalanche Service(s). Only the "Engines" are protected and need unlock codes.

The serial number(s) that contain the number of concurrent licenses for the particular engines will be supplied by a separate email.

When running an engine for the first time, the user should unlock the licenses by initiating a "Start" service form the Avalanche Service Admin application. The licensing application will guide the user to obtain an unlock key by contacting ELAN GMK's license server (online, Internet connection needed) or by phone, fax or email.

Changes from 1.5.0.114:

Avalanche Service:

• In certain rare cases some files were left unprocessed because of a blacklisting bug. This bug has been now eliminated and all files should go through the processing engines or handled as an exception.
• Added new software protection framework.

Job Center:

• Invalid date entries at startup have been addressed.
• "Too Complex" database entries now have proper PDF and image entries
• The database reporting features are now documented by including the basic features in the User Manual and also installing the FastReport help files.
  

JM QC application:

• Now the user can generate PDF files directly from the QC application. This option bypasses the OCR process and creates a PDF wrapper around the input image. One or more images can be selected and converted to PDF.
  

HotFolder Service:

• Eliminated a rare memory leak that was caused by thread timing controls.

Database Server:

• The Installation script now creates and automatic backup if a database with the same name already exists.

Release 1.5.0.114

Addressed the handling of invalid image files that also caused workflow-related slow-down. Major enhancements to the Job Center, QC application and reporting engine. Also added menus, help and license agreement links on several places. 2009-10-28.

Changes from 1.5.0.113:

Avalanche Service:

• Fixed image loading error of invalid files (library enhancement)
  
• Fixed multiple reprocessing of failed files with XML errors.
• Modified logic to delete the XML files only after the input file has been successfully deleted.
  

Job Center:

• The reporting features have been significantly enhanced.
• Custom design capability by the end-user.
• User-selectable dynamic fields
• Default report now contains all the available fields
  

JM QC application:

• Now all the files in a job are displayed (not only the ones only processed on one server)
• Proper focus handling of selected files
• Now displays failed input files
• Setting options for re-processing
• Reprocessing is now not real time, will be handled by natural order.
• The UI displays now the correct job status
  

HotFolder Service:

• The admin application is enhanced to provide options for handling missing XML files

Release 1.5.0.113

Cleaned up workflow related issues, fixed major workflow bug and implemented new features in the Job Center and JM QC application.

Changes from 1.5.0.111:

Avalanche Service:

• "Processing Error" workflow bug:  This bug is considered fixed now.
• UI crash associated with saving the settings has been fixed.
• Processing performance is now normal.

Job Center:

• User interface enhancements: auto sizing and capability of saving adjusted column widths.
• Added two new fields: "Input file size" and "File process count".
• Fixed an bug associated with job status update when a file fails while job is in "In Progress" stage
• Now the operator can open any of the image or PDF files directly from the Job Center UI.

JM QC application:

• Provided the user to resubmit for re-processing either selected or all files of the Job with overriding the timeout. Note: ELIP_Field03 is used for this purpose.
• The operator can to copy the image file from the file list by right clicking and selecting the Copy pop-up menu item.
• The PDF image view is displayed now with correct resolution instead of the default 300 dpi.
• Eliminated the waiting dialog for re-processing when submitting files.
• Now the operator can open a different job for QC while the JM QC application is open with a previous job.

HotFolder Service:

• The Hot Folder Service to process the Jobs in sequence now without affecting the priority settings (if present).
• Hotfolder Service Admin application: modified for the user to specify the allowed image file extensions.
  
• The operator can now specify the maximum number of times a file can be processed.

Status Monitor:

• Added vertical scroll to lower pane to allow displaying several Hotfolder Server status indicators.
  

Release 1.5.0.111

This is a testing release that is provided to localize the "Processing Error" condition and when it occurs affecting many consecutive files in a job. This error is still not reproducible in our testing and development environments, so extended logging is implemented in this release. A new Job Center with expanded functionality and a new JM QC application is also released here.

Changes from 1.5.0.108:

Job Center:

• Included FileArchiveLocation, FileFailLocation and ProcessingTime fields in JOB_FILES table and shown in Job Center application.
• All the fields in Job Center (upper and lower panes) are allowed for sorting by click on column header.
• Filtering: Provided selection box to filter the Jobs/Files. The choices are All, Pending, Processed, In Progress and Has errors. The "Has errors" alone will have the Processing error, Too complex, Save error, Load error and OCR error sub-filters.
• Report generation: The user can now generate a report using the database. This will allow the user to filter the job files by Start date, "Processed Time", "Has Exception" and "Has Error" fields. Also, the user can group the job files by Job ID, Machine and Status. The reports can be printed or exported MS Excel. Please note that the PC that has Job Center installed, needs MS Excel installed.
• Created new QC application for JM Engine, to view input and output files. Also allowed the user to resubmit one or more files with optional settings to the (original) Hotfolder.
• The Avalanche.ini file now has a separate section for the Job Center. Now a user can open an Avalanche database from any computer on the local network and can use the QC application(s) provided there is access to the shared folder locations.
  

Avalanche Service:

• Processing Error:  Enabled detail log for greater troubleshooting capabilities. Also implemented a change to create JMEngine log file for every 10 minutes with time stamping.
• OCR Error condition - most of these errors should be eliminated now due to segmentation process change.
  

Release 1.5.0.108

Changes from 1.5.0.107:

The following issues are addressed in this release:

Process Monitor:

• 104 Issue #4 -- Process Monitor with 2 or more hotfolder service monitors: When enabling more then one HotFolder Service monitoring, the application was displaying the same base path for all hotfolders. Now this problem is fixed.
• 104 Issue #5 -- Process Monitor refresh rate: The Process monitor now refreshes the service status quickly.

Avalanche Service:

• 104 Issue #6 -- Avalanche Service Administrator settings: When the user makes a change in the settings and tries to close the application, a dialog box is presented to save and re-start the service. Now the changes are applied and the service is restarted correctly.
• Invalid XML File or no XML File handling: The Conversion service will handle the error condition if there is an invalid or no XML file for a supported image file. If there is no XMl file, there will be one created.
• Moving too complex error files into fail folder: now this error condition causes the usage of the Fail Folder.
  

Hotfolder Service:

• Hot folder service trace file size handling: The trace file size is now handled properly. There will be a new trace created file periodically and closed once a newer is created. This eliminates possible performance bottleneck of handling very large log files.
  

Release 1.5.0.107

Changes from 1.5.0.106:

The following issues are addressed in this release:

Avalanche 104 Issue #7 -- Implementation of Fail Folder
HotFolder Service periodic cleanup changes

 The Fail Folder implementation provides an easy way to manually re-process failed files. Now the files that have conversion problems, will be placed into the Fail Folder with the folder structure intact.

Follow the upgrade instructions details with Release 106.

Avalanche Service:

• Implemented the Fail Folder output setting in the UI.
  

Hotfolder Service:

• Changes in the Periodic Cleanup activity in HotFolder Service, that might have caused the skipping of files. The service will stop now with the first cleanup item instead of cycling through the whole folder structure. Will also provide incremental performance improvement by serving files faster top the conversion services.
  

Release 1.5.0.106

Changes from 1.5.0.104:

The following issues are addressed in this release:

Avalanche 104 Issue #1 -- Processing Error
Avalanche 104 Issue #2 -- Save Error
Avalanche 104 Issue #6 -- Avalanche Service Administrator settings

There are certain error conditions that could not be reproduced in the testing and development environments (single-server installation with lots of consecutive files failing). There code was modified to allow for more error checking with respect to unforeseen external error conditions. However, it this release still produces the #1 and/or error conditions (either in single server or multiple-server deployments), a bug tracking release will be provided.

The underlying process communication now uses the XML files to address the need for processing one file more then one times. The there will be one reprocessing allowed if the file fails.

Upgrade instruction:

• Reinstall all applications on all servers
• Start with a clean database ("Delete All")
• Run one Hotfolder Service with a minimum of 2 Avalanche Conversion Services (one can be on the same server)
• Increase the Avalanche Admin (Advanced Tab) Hotfolder Timeout to 10000
  

Avalanche Service:

• The Avalanche Admin will restart now the service if the user receives a save request dialog.
• New error checking code
• New XML library and logging
  

Hotfolder Service:

• New error checking code
• New XML library and logging

Release 1.5.0.104

Changes from 1.5.0.102:

The following issues are new or fixed:

Avalanche Service:

• Modified the code to retain the files in the input folder if there is an error condition due to Invalid License error.  The file will be served to the next available engine by the Hotfolder Service. The Status monitor application displays the status of License information. The database record will be updated to "Processed" if that is the case.

• The service will check the generated PDf for validity and will properly handle the error handling

W2003 server support:

• Added support for Avalanche Service. The service running with user credentials is now supported. In order to run (Install and Start) the Avalanche Service, the Login User Name should have the following syntax.

<domain name>\<user name>
(or)
.\<user name> --> if you are using default domain.
With domain accounts, the email address might also work.

• There is now a new option for handling large file sizes. The Advance tab now comes with an option for processing timeout with setting a default timeout and an override based on file size with a different timeout. This feature is working now. However, if no override is specified, files with the "regular" timeout will be placed into the Archive folder, and the database will be flagged with an error message ("Too complex"). In the future there will be a "Fail" folder implemented to handle these cases more user friendly.

• Best practice: set the timeout to 90 minutes that will handle the sample files properly.

Hotfolder Service:

• This feature is working properly now

• This feature is working properly, just pay attention to properly add the _end_of_copy.txt file.  Also, there was an issue, where the processing engines were not getting the files immediately after starting of the Hot Folder Service. This issue arises when if the processing services are started before starting the hot folder service. Fixed this issue.

Monitoring application:

• Now Gmail is supported. In order to use email notification with GMAIL SMTP server, the following should be used.

Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com
Port : 465

• The email notification with encrypted transport is using open source code (BSD).  The software license will be updated to reflect these this change (not done yet).

Job Center:

• When the Job Center is set with Auto Refresh and there are more jobs listed the flickering is happening in the detail pane when the current job selection row is greater than / around 50.

Release 1.5.0.102

Changes from 1.5.0.100:

The major changes in this release are in the Avalanche Service application, but all other installations are updated to reflect the new version numbering.

Processing Error fix: Fixed the Processing Error issue occurred due to unhandled, unknown exception in ocr process. This has been implemented by resetting the engine when such exception error occurred for the current processing file.

Licensing validation: The current implementation will check the license under the following circumstances:

• for the first file after the service gets started
• whenever the engine reset by the application
• previous license verification status is invalid
• defined interval (5 minutes).
  
  

Release 1.5.0.100

Changes from 1.0.0.080:

Installation instructions:

• Please use Windows XP computers for running the Avalanche Service. There is still a bug in the application with properly handling the "Run as Service" feature on W2003 server.
• Set the timeout of the Avalanche Service to 60 minutes to enable large files processing. This requirement will change in the future.

Job Center:

Several fixes and enhancements have been introduced to enable quality control of the conversion process with a user friendly UI. The following major tasks have been implemented:

• Fixed false positives: Sometimes the upper pane “Jobs” reports “Processed” (Blue) state, but there might be several error condition flags in the detail view. 
• Fixed: Files don’t show up in the database. After adding new files, the database will not have all processed files as a record, although the file system works fine. Also changed code in the Avalanche Service.
• Feature: Scrolling of database records with the mouse. The upper pane (Job Pane) does not scroll down once the end of the screen is reached. It is now enabled.
• Feature: Properly truncated display of database records.The display of file path is usually too long. Truncated path “right justified” to allow better visibility.

 Avalanche Service:

• Fixed license validation. The application was not able to display the validity of license file. Now the status is properly displayed. 

Status Monitor:

• Fixed: Application prevents OS shutdown. The application will be properly terminated needs to be terminated before shutdown, otherwise the OS hangs.