0 Introduction

   0.1 Special Thanks

1 Installation
 
   1.1 Tryout Version

2 Usage

3 Additional Information

4 Version History & Product Support

The 'CGM Thumbnail Generator' - creates thumbnails of preview size in the Cumulus catalog

The CGM Thumbnail Generator is an extension to the Canto Cumulus Workgroup or Enterprise Client 7.5 or higher based on the Canto EJaP (Embedded Java Plugins) technology. It creates thumbnails of preview size (max 1024 x 1024 pixel) for assets of type CGM (Suffix '.cgm').

The following software is needed to convert the .cgm files into the JPEG format: CGM to Image, from Larson Software Technology, Inc. You can find more informationen about the software and a tryout version on the Larson website at www.cgmlarson.com. The single user version of the software must be installed on the Cumulus Client (or a network license must be available) to allow the conversion of the files from CGM format to JPEG.

The Larson software converts the .cgm files into JPEG representations and the JPEG images will be imported as thumbnails into the Cumulus Catalog. As the thumbnail size is fully configurable up to 1024x1024 pixels, the thumbnails can also be used as a preview of the files in the catalog.

In the preferences of the CGM Thumbnail Generator application you can specify attributes to set the size and quality of the generated JPEG thumbnails.

Do you need additional functionality in this application? We develop additional functionality based on your needs. Just send us an email with your feature requests by clicking here.

0.1 Special Thanks

A special thanks to all who have contributed to the development and improvement of the CGM Thumbnail Generator product. Very special thanks to the following people who came up with innovative ideas to improve the product or supported us in the development process:

Condok GmbH, Mr. K. Hantelmann, Kiel, Germany

Larson Software Technology, Inc. , Don, Sales and Support, Houston, Texas, USA

In the 'Installation' folder of the product you will find the folder 'CGMSupport'. Copy this folder into the 'ejp' folder of your Cumulus Client application.

Under Windows it is usually 'C:\Program Files\Canto\Cumulus 7 Workgroup Client\ejp', under Mac OS X it is 'Macintosh HD/Applications/Cumulus 7 Workgroup Client'. The 'ejp' folder of the Cumulus application can be found in the Cumulus package. You can reach this folder by clicking the mouse-button while holding down the CTRL-key on the Cumulus application icon. Click on 'Show Package Contents' in the context-menu. This will open a finder-window with a subfolder 'Contents'. In that folder you will find a Mac OS X folder and there you will find the 'ejp' folder in which to copy the folder 'CGMSupport'.

Restart the Cumulus Client application to use the CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP, it will show a new menu item in your Cumulus application called 'CGM'.

You will get a serial number for the CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP with the full version of the product. After opening the Cumulus Client select 'CGM>License...' to open the license dialog.

The 'CGM Thumbnail Generator' License Dialog

Specify the information necessary to unlock the demo version. Click 'OK' to save the serial number information for this Cumulus Client application.

1.1 Tryout Version

The tryout version of the 'CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP' is a full version of the product, so you can evaluate all the functionality of the product. The limitation: you can only create one thumbnail at a time, so if you want to create a larger number of thumbnails, you have to do this one by one. The full version of the product allows to create as many thumbnails in one step as you like. The menu item 'Install Cataloging Listener', which allows to create the thumbnails during the cataloging process of Cumulus, is also deactivated in the demo version.

The demo version is for testing purposes only and you are not allowed to use it in a working environment! To order the product, just send an email to Heymann Consulting.

The preferences of the CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP

Before you can use the CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP you have to set the preferences of the application:

1. Open the Cumulus Client and open one Cumulus Catalog.
2. Select the menu item CGM>Configure...>CGM Support EJaP to show the Preferences of the application.
3. Specify the path to your installation of the 'cgm2img.exe' application, which is needed to convert the assets from CGM to JPEG. You can specify the path in the text box or click on the button '...' to select the path from a Chooser dialog.
4. Specify the 'Working Directory' in the text box or click on the button '...' to select the path from a Chooser dialog. All file conversions will be done in the specified directory.
5. Set the checkbox 'Empty working directory after creating thumbnails', if you want the application to delete the files created during conversion. Important: all the files are deleted from the working directory, not only the files created by the application!
6. You can also specify the size of the thumbnail in the preferences. As the thumbnails are also used as previews, we recommend a thumbnail size of 1024x1024 pixels. If you set the image width or image height to 0, the image will be scaled without loosing its dimensions. So we recommend a setup like the one shown in the preferences dialog screenshot to get the best thumbnail and preview.
7. In the Log preferences, you can manipulate the log messages that are displayed by the CGM Thumbnail Generator application. You can add the application error messages and the messages that come from the converter application 'cgm2img.exe'. If both log functions are turned off, only the number of error messages is displayed.

The CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP's application menu

After the configuration of the preferences you can use the CGM Thumbnail Generator as follows:

7. Select the records, for which you want to create new thumbnails and start the creation by clicking the menu item 'CGM>Create Thumbnails from CGM...'.
8. After a confirmation dialog, the application will convert the .cgm files (and only these!) with the help of the 'cgm2img.exe' application into JPEG format based on the application preferences.
9. If log messages are activated in the preferences, you will get Log Informationen in a message dialog that will tell you more about the success of the thumbnail creation.

10. Before you catalog files of type CGM, you can activate a so called 'Cataloging Listener' by clicking the menu item 'CGM>Install Cataloging Listener'. If the Cataloging Listener is active, the conversion for each .cgm file will automatically start while cataloging, so you do not have to start the thumbnail creation later on.

1. The application is an implementation for Canto Cumulus 7.5 (or higher) and the CGM Converter Software from Larson Software Technology, Inc.: 'CGM to Image'. You can find more informationen about the software and a tryout version on the Larson website at www.cgmlarson.com.

2. The JPEG files will be created in a temporary directory that can be configured by the user in the application preferences. All the application preferences will be converted into attributes used by 'CGM to Image'. When converting the CGM file into a JPEG thumbnail, a JPEG file and a text log file of the same name will be created. If selected in the preferences, the files will be deleted from the temporary folder after the conversion. Warning: all the files will be deleted from that temporary folder after using the CGM Thumbnail Generator.

3. The application supports the English and German language based on the current Cumulus Client setup.

4. The conversion of assets will only be started for files with the suffix '.cgm', all other files will not be accepted but ignored and will be listed in the error log.

5. In the preview view of Cumulus, an info message 'Asset not supported. Supporting module deactivated or not available. (thumbnail shown instead)' is displayed together with the thumbnail image. As Cumulus does not have a file filter for the CGM file format (that would be necessary to create a preview of the file), this message is displayed and can not be suppressed.

Version 1.0.0 - March 2008

This is the first version of the CGM Thumbnail Generator EJaP for Canto Cumulus 7.5 or higher.

Please send all your questions about the product to the email address support@heymann-consulting.de. We try hard to answer your questions quickly and improve our products by implementing functionality based on your feedback.