Twain – Gunnar's Blog

July 14, 2015

Updated Hardware Hub Twain Client

The Hardware Hub Twain Client has been updated. For more details on that solution read posts tagged with twain on my blog.

The updated version should make is easier to understand what is going on and how the scanning process is going. By ticking in the Log checkbox all actions will be logged in the Messages text box.

Another new feature is designed to solve a problem some of the users have been reporting. When a users selects to have the scanning settings shown that dialog sometimes is opened in the background.

The solution is to add the process name to the Twain Client. This is an example settings dialog.

Looking at the Task Manager I can see that the process name is wiawow64.exe.

And by using this small PopUp2Front solution I can see the process name I need to add to my Twain Client.

The idea is to have the Twain Client look for this process and bring it to the front of the desktop for the user. In this case I put (wiawow64) as the PopUp Process in the Twain Client.

The Select Process button on the Twain Client will give the same process list, but it is not accessible while scanning.

Please remember to restart the Twain Client after you modify the settings to make sure that they are saved in your registry.

Also please remember that the HardwareHub on hub.dynamics.is is only for developement and testing. All the clients on this website and all the code supplied can be freely used. To install your own secure Hardware Hub Service go to Objects4NAV.com to download it.

May 14, 2014

Scanning and attachments for Incoming Documents in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2

A new feature in NAV 2013 R2 allows companies to store links to incoming documents and reference them in Purchase Invoices and Journal Lines. There is a video in the How Do I series on Managing Incoming Documents in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2.

I wanted to add a functionality to scan and store the files within NAV. Using the Hardware Hub and the Hardware Hub Twain Client to easily scan documents and store them in NAV. The objects needed are attached below. You will need to put the Hardware Hub Proxy Add-in to the NAV 2013 R2 Server Add-in folder. There is a possibility of doing this without the add-in by manually creating the soap requests. I did this in the NAV 2009 R2 version for the Classic Client and if needed I should be able to make available a similar NAV 2013 R2 version.

So, how does it work ?

First step is to download and install the Hardware Hub Twain Client on the computer with a twain compatible scanner and the Hardware Hub Proxy Add-in to the Server Add-in folder.. Double click the icon in the notification area to get the program windows in foreground. Next step is to install the new and modified objects into your NAV 2013 R2 database.

Then go to Incoming Document in the Windows Client. After an incoming document entry has been created the New Attachment button will be enabled.

Click New Attachment button. The first time you open this page you will need to set up the scanner connection.

You need to compare the Hardware Hub Path and the Hardware Hub Scanner GUID to the Twain Client window. It should be enough to copy the GUID from NAV to the Twain Client.

Minimize the Twain Client and go to the ACTIONS menu to select scanner. You can test the Hardware Hub connection with the About action.

These settings will be saved with the page data personalization for the current user.

If you select to “Show Settings” the settings dialog will sometimes appear behind the NAV Windows Client – just to let you know.

You can also browse for an existing file in the File Name drill down arrow and that file will be uploaded into NAV. When you close this window the URL to the Incoming Document Store will be added to the Incoming Document. You can add multiple files to a single Incoming Document and the URL will open all of them.

This solution will work on a cloud based NAV and also via remote desktop. I was able to scan with the Web Client but that functionality is not fully tested. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Objects: IncomingDocumentStore, 2014-07-29 Update

Hardware Hub IIS Service on Objects4NAV.com

May 3, 2013

Twain Scanner for Dynamics NAV that works in remote desktop

A few days ago I published objects for NAV 2013 and details on how to use a twain scanner with the hardware hub.

I know that many happy Dynamics NAV users are still using older versions so I wanted to make this solution available for NAV 2009, both in the Role Tailored Client and in the Classic Client.

If you are running NAV 2009 you should be able to use the attached object to test your scanner. It should be easy to change the code to work with older versions of Dynamics NAV.

Hub Scanning for NAV 2009

Hardware Hub IIS Service on Objects4NAV.com

April 29, 2013

Link to a Page with bookmark

I was scanning a TIF image into a BLOB field in Dynamics NAV. If the BLOB field is defined as an image I will see a thumbnail for the image in my Page.

In my scanning code I wanted to create a record link for the record I was linking to and that link was supposed to open this page and display the correct image thumbnail. An UI Add-in can then be used to view the image in full-page mode. I have not made that UI Add-in, if you know of any available one please let me know.

I saw that if I created a link to the Page from the Windows Client I got a bookmark string in the URL and I did not know how the bookmark string was created. A quick search did not help me so I asked Microsoft. The answer came from Duilio Tacconi this morning; there is a “magic” FORMAT statement. I suggest that Microsoft add this knowledge to the help text for the format property for general availability but Duilio sent me a link to MSDN and to Freddy’s blog.

Here is how I did this. I first created and stored the start of the URL.

[code]
IF "Default Storage" = "Default Storage"::"Internal with Windows Client" THEN
IF "Link Web URL" = ” THEN
"Link Web URL" :=
SigningTools.MiddleTierServicePath + ‘/’ +
SigningTools.URLEncode(COMPANYNAME) +
‘/runpage?page=10001150&mode=view’;[/code]

And then in the scanning upload function I add

[code]
RecRef.GETTABLE(Storage);
URL := SigningSetup."Link Web URL" + ‘&bookmark=’ + FORMAT(RecRef.RECORDID,0,10);[/code]

The result is an URL that I use in RecRef.ADDLINK function. I can now link to a multiple scanned documents from any record in the database.

The functions that I use to encode the company name and to find the middle tier service path are here.

[code]OBJECT Codeunit 57129 Path Tools
{
OBJECT-PROPERTIES
{
Date=29.04.13;
Time=08:39:25;
Modified=Yes;
Version List=Dynamics.is;
}
PROPERTIES
{
OnRun=BEGIN
END;

}
CODE
{
VAR
Environment@1000000000 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Environment" RUNONCLIENT;

PROCEDURE URLEncode@1100409003(String@1100409000 : Text[1024]) CodedString : Text[1024];
VAR
httpUtility@1000000000 : DotNet "’System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’.System.Web.HttpUtility";
BEGIN
httpUtility := httpUtility.HttpUtility;
CodedString := httpUtility.UrlPathEncode(String);
END;

PROCEDURE MiddleTierServicePath@1000000002() ServicePath : Text[1024];
VAR
ActiveSession@1000000002 : Record 2000000110;
ServerFile@1000000001 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.IO.File";
XMLDoc@1000000000 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlDocument";
XMLNode@1000000003 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlNode";
httpUtility@1000000004 : DotNet "’System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’.System.Web.HttpUtility";
BEGIN
ActiveSession.SETRANGE("Session ID",SESSIONID);
ActiveSession.FINDFIRST;

httpUtility := httpUtility.HttpUtility;
XMLDoc := XMLDoc.XmlDocument;
IF ServerFile.Exists(APPLICATIONPATH + ‘Instances\’ + ActiveSession."Server Instance Name" + ‘\CustomSettings.config’) THEN
XMLDoc.Load(APPLICATIONPATH + ‘Instances\’ + ActiveSession."Server Instance Name" + ‘\CustomSettings.config’)
ELSE
XMLDoc.Load(APPLICATIONPATH + ‘CustomSettings.config’);

ServicePath := ‘DynamicsNAV://’ + ActiveSession."Server Computer Name" + ‘:’;

XMLNode := XMLDoc.SelectSingleNode(‘//appSettings/add[@key=”ClientServicesPort”]’);
ServicePath := ServicePath + XMLNode.Attributes.Item(1).InnerText + ‘/’ + ActiveSession."Server Instance Name";
CLEAR(XMLDoc);
END;

PROCEDURE SOAPWebServicePath@10010403() ServicePath : Text[1024];
VAR
ActiveSession@1000000002 : Record 2000000110;
ServerFile@1000000001 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.IO.File";
XMLDoc@1000000000 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlDocument";
XMLNode@1000000003 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlNode";
httpUtility@1000000004 : DotNet "’System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’.System.Web.HttpUtility";
BEGIN
ActiveSession.SETRANGE("Session ID",SESSIONID);
ActiveSession.FINDFIRST;

XMLNode := XMLDoc.SelectSingleNode(‘//appSettings/add[@key=”SOAPServicesSSLEnabled”]’);
IF UPPERCASE(XMLNode.Attributes.Item(1).InnerText) = ‘FALSE’ THEN
ServicePath := ‘http://’
ELSE
ServicePath := ‘https://’;

ServicePath := ServicePath + ActiveSession."Server Computer Name" + ‘:’;

XMLNode := XMLDoc.SelectSingleNode(‘//appSettings/add[@key=”SOAPServicesPort”]’);
ServicePath := ServicePath + XMLNode.Attributes.Item(1).InnerText + ‘/’ + ActiveSession."Server Instance Name" + ‘/WS/’;
ServicePath := ServicePath + httpUtility.UrlPathEncode(COMPANYNAME) + ‘/Services’;

CLEAR(XMLDoc);
END;

PROCEDURE ODataWebServicePath@10010405() ServicePath : Text[1024];
VAR
ActiveSession@1000000002 : Record 2000000110;
ServerFile@1000000001 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.IO.File";
XMLDoc@1000000000 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlDocument";
XMLNode@1000000003 : DotNet "’System.Xml, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Xml.XmlNode";
httpUtility@1000000004 : DotNet "’System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’.System.Web.HttpUtility";
BEGIN
ActiveSession.SETRANGE("Session ID",SESSIONID);
ActiveSession.FINDFIRST;

ServicePath := ‘http://’ + ActiveSession."Server Computer Name" + ‘:’;

XMLNode := XMLDoc.SelectSingleNode(‘//appSettings/add[@key=”ODataServicesPort”]’);
ServicePath := ServicePath + XMLNode.Attributes.Item(1).InnerText + ‘/’ + ActiveSession."Server Instance Name" + ‘/OData/’;

CLEAR(XMLDoc);
END;

BEGIN
END.
}
}

[/code]

April 23, 2013

Scan document with NAV via the Hardware Hub

I have now created a document scanning solution that uses the Hardware Hub. This means that you can place the scanner on any computer and the NAV Windows Client on any or the same computer.

All you need is the Hardware Hub Twain Client on the computer that is connected to the scanner. The software is available for download and install in by selecting the link above.

Attached is a Page and a Codeunit for NAV 2013 for you to test the scanning. Import the fob file into your NAV and run page 50093. This will require the Hardware Hub Proxy installed on your server or your client add-ins folder.

Use the AssistEdit button to create a new Twain Scanner GUID. The installed Hardware Hub Twain Client will minimize to you notification area. Locate and double-click the notification icon to bring up the client settings and copy the GUID from the page to the client.

Then just minimize the client again to the notification area. Close and reopen page 50093, select your scanner and scan. The scanned document will be located on the server and you can download and open the document with the assist button.

In the attached ZIP file you will find the file HardwareHubProxy.dll that you will need to put in your server add-ins folder. If you would like to test this on your local machine just change the RunOnClient property in Codeunit 50093 and put the HardwareHubProxy.dll in your Windows Client add-ins folder.

Here is the required objects. HubScanning
Updated HardwareHubProxy.dll

Hardware Hub IIS Service on Objects4NAV.com

June 24, 2011

Scanning in Remote Desktop

When running Dynamics NAV as a Remote Application or in Remote Desktop you are missing connection to your locally connected scanner. I have created a solution that uses a standalone application running on the client computer. That application uses the TwainControlX from Ciansoft and connects to a Microsoft SQL database. The database needs to be on a computer that both the client computer and the remote desktop computer have access to.

On that database server a database is created with only one table. That table can be truncated every night in a maintenance job. This is the table creation script.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ScanRequests](
	[ComputerName] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
	[ClientName] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
	[SelectedDeviceID] [varchar](250) NULL,
	[Image] [image] NULL,
	[RequestDateTime] [datetime] NULL,
	[FormatID] [varchar](50) NULL,
	[AnswerDateTime] [datetime] NULL,
	[Answered] [int] NOT NULL,
	[AnswerText] [varchar](250) NULL,
	[PageNo] [int] NULL
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]

The program on the client then connects to the database and to the scanner.

A code in Dynamics NAV creates the request for a scan by inserting a entry into the ScanRequest table and the application on the client computer automatically scans the images and updates that scan request entry. The updated entry then containes the image file that is imported into Dynamics NAV or attached as a link.

The following ZIP files are encrypted. View the Product page for more information.

Twain Scanner (ISL)
NAV Myndlestur (TwainOCX) Source Code (ISL)

June 3, 2011

Record Links and Attachments

The standard Record Links table in Dynamics NAV has the ability to store a URL and link it to any record in the Dynamics NAV database. However, in order to fully use this each user must have access to the give URL.

As a part of the Purchase Invoice signing solution I built a process to select or scan a file, upload it to a SQL database and create a URL to that file in the Record Link table. I create a SQL link table that stores the file and a permission table that holds information on users permission by table id.

I used TwainControlX to scan and create files to import and link. Then I add a “Link File” button to the Purchase Order.

When Link File is selected the following dialogue appears.

After selecting or scanning a file a new link is created and the file is uploaded to the SQL server.

The file is now available to all users that have the required permission through the following link.

The can be downloaded directly with the Open button or NAV can download and open the file with code. I created a .ASP web page to download files from the Link database.