Folder Monitoring Service

Folder Monitoring Service is a program on the client side that detects the documents copied to the specified folder automatically and outputs the conversion result to the specified folder using Web Interface V6.0.

In order to use the service, there should be a Server Program of Web Interface V6.0 running and available to process requests.

When the folder monitoring service starts, the files in the monitoring folder are processed. After the service is running new files created in the folder are also processed. The service will perform the following operations for each processed file:

1. Generate a command line for the Web Interface V6.0 Client Program from the contents of the file (the target file for conversion, and the file that instructs the conversion).
2. Transmit a request to the Server Program of Web Interface V6.0.
3. Store the result returned from the Server Program of Web Interface V6.0 in the output folder.

Network options like the server address can be saved to a default command file used by the Folder Monitor service or they can be provided in the command file within the ZIP file copied into the folder being monitored.

The JAR file for the Web Interface V6.0 folder monitor is xds-folder-monitor.jar.

The folders to be monitored and the location of the output folders are specified on the command line as follows:

java -jar xds-folder-monitor.jar [options] <first directory to watch> <first directory output> <second directory to watch> <second directory output> ...
  

java -jar xds-folder-monitor.jar C:\folder1 C:\folder1\output
  

The output folder must be a subdirectory of the watched folder.

The XDS_FOLDER_MONITOR_CONFIG environment variable can be set with the absolute location of a file that contains default command line options. See Option File for the description of the file format.

In order to use Folder Monitoring Service, the target files being converted should be ZIP archived and put in the target folder as one file. Folder Monitoring Service finds and processes the files automatically, and puts the conversion result in the output folder.

The following files can be included in the archive for conversion.

• Input documents (xml, xsl, fo, html, xhtml, etc.)
• Command file (command.txt)
• External reference files (images, etc.)

The files required for a conversion are all ZIP compressed into one ZIP file. Media files referenced by the input documents must maintain the same directory structure in the ZIP archive. For example, an archive could have the following content:

.-+- command.txt
  +- document.xml
  +- style.xsl
  +- images/
      +- pic01.png
      +- pic02.png

In addition to ZIP archives simple documents like a single FO file can also be dropped into the monitored folder. These will be converted using the folder monitor's default options.

Command File

ARGS=[space separated list of Client Program options]
ARGS_REMOVE=[comma separated list of Client Program options]
DOCUMENT=filename
STYLESHEET=filename
XSLT_PARAM=[key=value[,key=value...]]
OUTPUT_TYPE=[Antenna House Formatter output type:  pdf|svg|...]
OUTPUT_OPTION=[key=value[,key=value...]]
OUTPUT=filename
FORMATTER_TYPE=auto|html|xhtml|xmlcss|xslfo
EMAIL=[mailaddress[,mailaddress...]]
EXITLEVEL=1|2|3|4
SMTP_HOST=[mail server adress]
SMTP_PORT=[mail server port]
SMTP_PASSWORD=[mail server password]
SMTP_STARTTLS=[boolean value: 'true' or 'false']
SMTP_SSL=[boolean value: 'true' or 'false']
SMTP_FROM=[mailaddress]
SMTP_USER=[user login name]

  ARGS = -xds-host 10.1.10.14 -d input.fo -o output.pdf -tpdf -x 4
  EMAIL = test@antenna.co.jp

	ARGS = -xds-host 10.1.10.24
	ARGS = -d input.fo
	ARGS = -o output.pdf
	...
      

	ARGS_REMOVE = -xds-host 1
	ARGS_REMOVE = -tpdf, -lpdf, -o 1
	...
      

  ARGS=-xds-host 10.1.10.24
  ARGS=-d test.xml -s test.xsl -p @PDF -o output.pdf
  EMAIL=test@antenna.co.jp

Result of Conversion

  backup/20240118123456/2/archive.zip

Sending e-mail

EMAIL = test@antenna.co.jp
SMTP_HOST = smtp.example.com
SMTP_PORT = 25
SMTP_USER = example
SMTP_PASSWORD = password
SMTP_STARTTLS = true

Folder Monitor Results: 2024-01-18--12:00:00

Document conversion succeeded.

input file: C:\FolderMonitorTest\test.zip
output file: C:\FolderMonitorTest\output\test.pdf

The Folder Monitoring Service of Web Interface V6.0 can output logging information to files and the console. Because Apache's Log4j library is used the output destination and the output level of the log can easily be changed. See the Logging chapter for more information. If a custom log configuration file is not specified the default logging behavior is to print DEBUG level messages to both [Install directory]/logs/folder-monitor.log and the console.

Rendering options are expressed by pairs of keywords and values. The keywords are named similarly to the command line options for AHFCmd from Antenna House Formatter. Please refer to the manual of Antenna House Formatter for more details.

• Linux versions of the Folder Monitor Service require the fuser utility to also be installed and available in the environment's executable search path.
• The Folder Monitor Service uses java.nio.file.WatchService library. The Linux version is based on inotify and does not have the ability to monitor file creation events on file systems like CIFS.
• You can use the -Dmail.debug=true option with the Java virtual machine in order to debug any email issues.

  java -Dmail.debug=true -jar xds-folder-monitor.jar ...