Product Review: Imaging Templates

by Tom Hebenstreit

Published 1999-08-17    Printer-friendly version

By my count, there are currently 18,169 files in the Windows folders on my machine (give or take a few temp files). Now, you just know that there have to be some useful things lurking around in there, don't you?

Well, there are (really!), and the templates that I'll be looking at in this review help bring to light one of the more useful (and little known) tools that all Windows 9x and NT machines come with: a full set of scanning and imaging tools. They are provided as a set of OCX controls (ActiveX in modern parlance), and you'll sometimes hear them referred to as the Wang imaging controls. (Wang originally developed and licensed them to Microsoft, but now Eastman Software develops them.)

The NextAge Imaging Templates, created by NextAge Consulting, are a set of templates designed to wrap around and simplify the process of using that built-in imaging subsystem. The templates are designed for Clarion5, using either ABC or legacy template chains.

Major Features

Between the templates and the underlying image controls, highlights include:

• Support for scanning (black and white, color, photos, any resolution – basically, whatever your scanner supports)
• Pages within a scanned document can be viewed one at a time (with zooming, rotating and scaling) or as a series of thumbnails (miniature versions of the scanned images)
• Printing scanned images
• Multiple methods of storing, managing and retrieving scanned items
• No handcode required to implement any of the above

As a bonus, the package includes an additional set of free non-image-related templates.

Installation

I downloaded the templates from the NextAge web site as a single file self-installing package. The opening WISE installer screen stated that it was installing v1.06 of the templates, so I was a bit surprised when the rest of the package referred to version 1.05. In looking in the templates themselves (nicely commented, by the way) it seems that 1.06 was the version that was installed.

Installation proceeded smoothly enough but missed what I consider to be some of the basic features that separate the good installs from the merely functional ones. For example, it didn't automatically detect the location of my Clarion 5 folders, nor did it display the documentation when finished.

Bottom line: The install works but could use a bit of polish to make it smarter and friendlier.

Implementation

Before adding the NextAge Imaging templates to an application, you first need to decide how your program is going to handle storing the scanned images.

Note: All scanned images are created and used in the TIFF graphics format, regardless of how you choose to store them. Also, a TIFF file can contain more than one image; so no matter how many pages you scan for a particular document, you will still end up with a single disk file.

Basically, you have two choices: store the TIFF images as individual files on disk or store them inside your data files as a BLOB (Binary Large Object). Each method has its pros and cons:

• Using a BLOB, everything is conveniently in one place: you have one data file and it contains both the image and any associated information that you want to store with it. Having everything in one file is also the primary weakness of this method; if the file is damaged, you could loose everything. If you have high volume and/or large images, you could also see file performance suffer as the file gets larger (and larger and larger). The final point to keep in mind is that not all file systems and drivers even support the use of BLOBs.
• When storing scans as individual files, all you need in your data files is some kind of pointer to the name (and possibly the location) of the associated scan file. The advantages of this method are many: your data files remain small (and thus fast to search), data file corruption does not lose image data, and you can use a wider variety of data formats and drivers. The downside is that you have to manage potentially thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of files. Fortunately NextAge provides some built-in methods for automatically naming and filing the scan files. Even better, you can specify a maximum size for scan folders. When that size is exceeded, your application will automatically create a new folder and start putting new images there. This can make it easy to archive older images to, for example, a CD-ROM. Just update the storage path for the folder in one record of an image path file and bingo – your thousands of data records now know where to find their associated images. Very slick.

OK, enough background. To test NextAge's claim that no hand code is required, I created a sample Clarion 5 ABC Wizatron application and then followed the instructions in the docs to add imaging. I decided to use the non-BLOB storage method and the built-in procedures for naming and managing the scan files as well.

Everything went well until I was faced with filling out the prompts to specify how the various data and image path files would be connected (see figure 1). The docs are a bit fuzzy at this point, so it was here that I found the NextAge demo app to be invaluable. By basically duplicating what was done there, I finished the process in next to no time.

Figure 1. Template prompts for linking images, file paths and data records

A quick, error-free compile and I could add records, scan and attach multi-page documents, view images and print them out. NextAge was right – nothing but templates. If you need to do something special, there are embed points where you can get down and dirty within the templates as well.

Figure 2. The default NextAge Image control procedure.

Room For Improvement

There are a few minor places where the templates could be improved:

• I'd like to see more of the internal imaging OCX properties exposed on the templates. To illustrate, the word "Page" is hardcoded in the templates as the caption to be displayed under thumbnails. If, for example, I was scanning engineering documents, I might want the caption to be "Sheet" instead.
• The Maximum directory size prompt doesn't say what the unit is (bytes, K, megs). It turned out to be bytes. I'd like to see it on the prompt itself to save a trip to the docs.
• As shown above in figure 2, the main Imaging procedure template is pre-formatted to have the same look as the demo. Ideally it should be more generic so that you don't have to strip out the toolbar and window background images every time you use the template.

All in all, though, the templates were very easy to use.

Performance

What can I say? It worked. Performance was really more dependent upon the underlying subsystems such as the scanner, drivers and CPU speed than on anything the templates do. I encountered no problems at all with either the generated code or the OCXs.

Documentation

Documentation is provided in the form of an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, and thus requires that the free Acrobat reader be installed on your machine.

Totaling 13 pages, the docs are nicely laid out and contain some very useful background information on the imaging OCXs, image storage formats, file sizes and more. A template reference section covers each of the templates and explains each prompt on them. The PDF format makes it a snap to print, which is a good thing because there is no online Windows help file for the templates

My only suggestion would be to add a bit more detail about what was installed and where it went. For example, the documentation mentions that a demo application was installed, but doesn't tell you what the file is actually called. In point of fact, two demo apps are installed, one using ABC and one using the legacy (procedural) templates. Additionally, there is no mention of how to register the templates and what the names of the two template chain files are. This leaves you guessing as to which files need to be registered.

As I mentioned above, the demo apps are also a good guide to the various ways the templates can be implemented.

For more adventurous souls, the documentation also points you to the Eastman Software web site where you can download free documentation for the imaging controls themselves. Using these, you can examine the source code generated by the templates and get a complete understanding of what is happening behind the scenes.

Technical Support

NextAge lists their address, phone, fax, web site and email address as ways of contacting them, so you have no shortage of support options. I chose to use email, and all questions were answered in a comprehensive manner the same day that I sent them. Even better, my suggestions for improvements were met with enthusiasm, and added to the list for future releases. NextAge also monitors the TopSpeed third-party newsgroup, and a question I posted there was answered within 24 hours.

If they keep it up, support like this will land them in the top tier of Clarion third-party vendors.

A Little Something Extra

As a bonus, the NextAge Imaging Templates package also contains their set of free Clarion5 ABC templates. Functions include management of application icon and background images, simple application security, combining multiple types of lookups into a single file and a handy template for providing the "build" date of the application (useful for keeping "about" and splash screens up to date).

Like the imaging templates, documentation is provided as a PDF file. Unlike the imaging template docs, the free templates have a very good section on what was installed and how to register the templates (hint, hint).

Note: These free templates can also be downloaded directly from the NextAge website – no purchase necessary.

Summary

I found the NextAge Imaging templates to be a good example of someone adding value to another product by simplifying and enhancing its use. It not only makes imaging easy to add to your applications, but provides some very useful methods of managing all the files or data that your scanning applications will invariably collect.

Do you absolutely need them to use the Windows built-in imaging sub-system? No, you don't, but I guarantee that it would take you a lot more time and money than these templates cost to figure it all out and get it working all by yourself.

Bottom line: If you need scanner/imaging support in your applications, I highly recommend these templates.

The NextAge Imaging Templates list for US$149, and are available directly from NextAge or through the TopSpeed Accessories program. For more information on the templates, ordering them, links to Eastman Software (for detailed OCX info) or to download the free NextAge Imaging demo, visit their web site at http://www.thenextage.com

Vendor Comments from Pete Halsted of NextAge Consulting:

We are committed to continuing to enhance the imaging templates, and all points and suggestions that Tom raised during his review will be seriously considered. Many of the enhancements in the last few releases came directly from suggestions from our customers. As to the issue of exposing more of the underlying OCXs we continue to do this, based on customer suggestions. However, since we are working with OCXs there are times that we will run into Clarion/OCX issues. When the new Clarion OLE interface is released we expect most of these issues to no longer exist. There will be a "professional" version of the imaging templates that supports annotations and OCR. The professional version will require the Imaging Professional controls from Eastman Kodak (not free), which are a superset of the Free controls. An official price or release date has not been set, but I'm sure the good folks at Clarion Magazine will let you know when they are available.

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A longtime Clarion user, Tom Hebenstreit is an admitted tool junkie who refuses to go straight and code without his arsenal of third party products. During those rare moments when he isn't either using or writing about Clarion, he indulges his twin passions for blues and beer by performing around Southern California in a variety of totally-obscure-but-famous-any-day-now rock and blues bands.

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