Web Interface V6.0 Server - Client Program

Starting the Program

The JAR file for Web Interface V6.0 Client Program is xds-client.jar. This is designed to work the same way and with the same options as the Antenna House Formatter command line client.

Antenna House Formatter client:


  AHFCmd -d sample.fo -o output.pdf

  AHFCmd : Antenna House Formatter V7.4 R1 Windows : 7.4.1.63121 (2023-12-20T11:05+09)
  Copyright (c) 1999-2023 Antenna House, Inc.

  AHFCmd :Formatting finished normally :total 1 page

Web Interface V6.0 client:


  java -jar xds-client.jar -xds-host 10.1.10.6 -d sample.fo -o output.pdf

  AHFCmd : Antenna House Formatter V7.4 R1 Windows : 7.4.1.63121 (2023-12-20T11:05+09)
  Copyright (c) 1999-2023 Antenna House, Inc.

  AHFCmd :Formatting finished normally :total 1 page

Web Interface V6.0 error messages are distinguished from Antenna House Formatter messages by starting with an xds: string.

The XDS_CLIENT_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.

See the samples/sample-* directories in the installation folder for more examples.

Client Command Line Options

Parameter	Default	Functions
-d InputFile		Input file.
-s StylesheetFile		Stylesheet file.
-o OutputFile		Output file.
-i Option-Setting-File		Antenna House Formatter Option Setting File.
-xds-data DataXmlFile		This file specifies the media used in the document. See Data XML Files for more details.
-xds-parse-media		Enables automatic media (images, video, etc...) extraction and upload if the input is an FO file and the media is a relative reference to the FO file.
-xds-ignore-file-protocol		If media uploading is enabled (either through the -xds-data or -xds-parse-media options) this option ignores uploading of media files that are specified using the file: protocol. Example: <fo:external-graphic src="file:..\sample.jpg"/>. This allows the referenced media to be stored on the server and avoids the need for client upload.
-xds-port Value	9999	Remote Web Interface V6.0 server connection port.
-xds-host Host	localhost	Remote Web Interface V6.0 server.
-xds-password Password		Remote Web Interface V6.0 server password.
-xds-formatter-tag TagString	""	String to prepend to Antenna House Formatter output. This can be used to help parse and separate Antenna House Formatter error messages from Web Interface V6.0 client and server errors. Non Antenna House Formatter messages (client and server errors) are already tagged with xds: at the beginning of lines.
-xds-debug DebugLevel		Client debug level. 1. Debug messages 2. Trace messages (includes network 'keep alive' messages)
-xds-timeout Value	0	Client timeout for read operations. This is specified in milliseconds. A value of 0 will use infinite timeout.
-xds-wait-timeout Value	0	Client timeout when client is waiting for an Antenna House Formatter session on the server. This is specified in milliseconds. If the server does not assign a Antenna House Formatter process to us in this amount of time the client exits. A value of 0 will use infinite timeout.
-xds-status		Request server status. See Status Request for more details.
-xds-ssl		Enable use of SSL.
-xds-java-prop Property Value		Set a Java system property. This is used, for example, to specify keystores or passwords to use with SSL.
-xds-help		Print command line options to the console.

All other command line options not listed here are passed on to the server.

Media References

Suppose that an image is referred to in an FO file. There are several ways the image could be referenced.

  <fo:external-graphic src="..." />

The resource could be accessible using a protocol such as http: src="http://www.antennahouse.com/image1.png".
The image or media could be embed as data in the FO by using the data: protocol: src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANS...".
The reference could be to a file on the local file system by using the file: protocol: src="file:C:\Share\image1.png".
The reference could be an absolute path to a file: src="/data/share/image1.png".
The reference could be specified as a relative path to the FO file: src="images/image1.png".

When using a protocol such as http:, it is necessary for the server to also be able to access the resource. When data: is used, the data is embedded and it can be used on the server. When file: or an absolute path is used, the file on the server is referred to. Because these are all the resources which can be accessed from the server, there is no need to transmit the resource from the client to the server. On the other hand, it is necessary to transmit to the server all the resources specified with the relative paths. With FO files this can automatically be done with the -xds-parse-media option. The files can also be listed in a Data XML Files. See Data XML Files.

Data XML Files

The file specified with the -xds-data option is parsed for any <data> elements and uploads the file specified by the src attribute. The parsing is not strict and the naming of the root and parent elements does not matter.

  <command>
    <data src="img/antennaLogo.jpg" />

    <test>
      <data src="image2.png" />
    </test>
  </command>

Status Request

The -xds-status option will output to STDOUT an xml file with server status details. See the example file below.

  <xds-server-status>
    <start-time>Wed Jan 20 17:20:48 EST 2016</start-time>
    <start-time-milliseconds>1453328448613</start-time-milliseconds>
    <current-time>Wed Jan 20 17:21:00 EST 2016</current-time>
    <current-time-milliseconds>1453328460519</current-time-milliseconds>
    <total-jobs-processed>0</total-jobs-processed>
    <total-clients-connected>1</total-clients-connected>
    <current-connections>1</current-connections>
    <current-formatter-processes>0</current-formatter-processes>
  </xds-server-status>

Technical Notes

-svgicp limitation: This must be a directory at the same level or below the output svg images. It should be specified with a relative path and the characters in the file name should be supported by the server's locale settings.