Important Information

Transcription

1 18 September 2014 Added changes between and January 2014 Added changes between 1.9 to February 2012 Added changes between 1.8 to November 2009 Added changes between 1.7 to November 2008 Added upgrade notes, serial output and file input ordering information, new and modified.sfc commands, and software changes. This revision corrects the formatting of a heading on page 6 of revision A. Important Information Avid recommends that you read all the information in this ReadMe file thoroughly before installing or using any new software release. Note: Search the Avid Knowledge Base ( for the most up-to-date ReadMe file, and other documentation available for this product, containing the latest information that might have become available after documentation for this product was published. This document describes compatibility issues with previous releases, hardware and software requirements, software installation instructions, and summary information on system and memory requirements, when applicable. This document also lists any hardware and/or software limitations.

2 Compatibility Notes and Issues... 5 Microsoft Windows... 5 Microsoft.Net Framework... 5 Avid inews... 5 Installation Notes and Issues... 5 Upgrading... 5.Net Framework Data Receiver v Configuration Files Upgrading to v Uninstall Required Before Upgrading to v SFC File for v CFG Files for v1.7 Not Backward Compatible... 7 Character Mapping... 7 Reverse List Characters... 7 inews Server... 7 Hardware and Software Changes... 7 Changes for v SFC File... 7 Host Names vs. IP Addresses... 8 Changes for v SFC File If... 8 SFC File ElseIfEqual... 8 Versioning... 9 Changes for v New Commands Process Test Story Parsing Variables Miscellaneous Changes for v NSML Changes for v MIME Formatting in SFC Debugger Tool Process Dialog Box File Input Ordering... 12

3 Serial Output Software Flow Control Windows FTP Server SFC Editing Dialog Box Story Parsing Variables New Format Keyword Searches Configuration Error messages Reverse Numbers with Separators IBroadcasterMessages.txt File Serial Ports SFC New and Renamed Commands for v Changes Prior to v Input not Interpreted Correctly Custom Code Page Support New Menu Option for Creating New Wire Instances Status for Stories to NRCS Summary Tab Change Process Information Dialog Box Editing Enhancements Online Help System Remove Button Editing Notifications Short Stories Missing Start/Stop Sequences Read in Raw Log File Output Character Mappings Known Limitations Administration Application May Not Reconnect to Avid Data Receiver Service Removing a Wire Instance Completely SFC Files Used With Multiple Instances Timeout When Stopping or Restarting Avid Data Receiver Service Configuration Changes Require Instance Restarting Miscellaneous Serial Data May be Detected as a Serial Mouse in Windows Log File Extension May be Hidden Administration Application Summary Tab Headings Unreadable After Initial Install... 22

4 Technical Support Information Accessing Online Support Copyright and Disclaimer... 24

5 Compatibility Notes and Issues This version of Avid inews Data Receiver is compatible with the following: Microsoft Windows Data Receiver is supported for use on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server This version of Data Receiver is not supported on any other Windows operating system. Microsoft.Net Framework Data Receiver requires Microsoft.Net Framework v3.5 Data Receiver setup installs.net Framework 3.5 for you if it is not present already. Avid inews Data Receiver requires inews 2.0 or later. All previous versions of inews are not compatible with Data Receiver. Avid inews 2.6 requires Data Receiver 1.5 or later with the output code page setting type for Data Receiver must be configured for Unicode only. Other output code pages for Data Receiver are not supported. Installation Notes and Issues Upgrading.Net Framework Data Receiver v1.9.2 Enabling.Net Framework v3.5 is required prior to Data Receiver installation on Server 2012 R2. You will need internet access of the Windows Install Medium to complete this procedure. Use the following procedure to turn on.net Framework v3.5: 1. Navigate to Control Panels > Programs > Programs and Features.

6 2. Select the.net Framework 3.5 as shown in the following illustration. 3. Click OK. Now.NET Framework v3.5 is enabled. Configuration Files Upgrading to v1.9 In Server 2008 R2 or 2012, configuration files are stored in: C:\ProgramData\Avid\Data Receiver. Data Receiver 1.9 is not seamlessly compatible with and earlier. The older.cfg files can be used, but they must be imported into the new application. To import older.cfg files into Data Receiver v1.9: 1. Write down the active wire instance tabs. The installation directory for DR 1.8 may have old cfg files that are no longer in use. 2. Uninstall the existing Data Receiver installation. 3. Install Data Receiver Select Wire Services > Add previously configured Wire Service 5. Select Find next to the Filename field 6. Navigate to the installation folder for the previous DR installation. 7. Select the *.cfg file that matches one of the instances from the old installation, and then select Open. 8. Confirm that the Name field matches the name of the instance selected, and then select OK. 9. Modify any log directories that you would like to change, and then select OK.

7 Note: The default values allow the process to write files without needing administrator elevation. Setting these folders to protected locations could result in problems running Data Receiver. 10. Select Yes to confirm addition of the wire instance. At this point the application displays the imported settings. If no changes are needed, you can now navigate to the Summary tab and start the wire instance. Additional instances can be added in the same fashion. Uninstall Required Before Upgrading to v1.7 Before upgrading an existing installation of Data Receiver to v1.7 or higher the old version must be uninstalled first using Add or Remove Programs from Windows Control panel. The existing configuration files are not uninstalled during this uninstall process. As a precaution, it is recommended that the existing configuration files or the entire system be backed up before proceeding with the upgrade of your Data Receiver. SFC File for v1.7 After modifying an.sfc file with the 1.7 version of the admin application, the format of the.sfc file is changed to the new format as described in the SFC New and Renamed Commands section of this document. Note: After modifying the.sfc it can no longer be used with previous versions of Data Receiver. CFG Files for v1.7 Not Backward Compatible Changes to the wire instance config (.cfg) files in Data Receiver v1.7 make them incompatible with Data Receiver v1.6. After upgrading from Data Receiver v1.6 to v1.7 a Data Receiver v1.7 system cannot be downgraded to Data Receiver 1.6 or earlier without manually editing the config (i.e wirename.cfg) files (not to be confused with the.sfc files). Character Mapping The additional character mapping list in the inews Output now defines the source and target values as Unicode characters. Previously, the target value was represented by a character in the target codepage. This can also be done in the.sfc file. It is unknown if there are target codepages that could have a character with no Unicode equivalent. Reverse List Characters Reverse List characters are now stored in the.cfg file characters instead of hex codes. Once a.cfg file using the Reverse List from an earlier version of Data Receiver has been loaded in Data Receiver 1.7, the Reverse List is converted to characters instead of hex codes and can no longer be read by earlier versions of Data Receiver. inews Server In addition to installing the Data Receiver software, the inews server must also be licensed and configured to allow the Data Receiver to connect. This is done using wire server resources on the inews server. See the Data Receiver Operations Manual or the inews Operations Manual v2.0 for more information. Hardware and Software Changes Changes for v1.9.2 SFC File In previous versions of Data Receiver, when processing the commands in the Story Format Configuration (SFC) file, it was possible to remove all data from the input buffer making it empty. Subsequent commands would then yield array out of bounds exceptions when

8 Host Names vs. IP Addresses attempting to reference input. All references to the input buffer are now validated to prevent these out of bounds exceptions. In previous versions of Data Receiver, when it attempted a connection to an inews Server and received a redirect response from the inews Server, it would construct a new address from the one provided in the response and the domain name extracted from the name supplied in the connect request that resulted in a redirection. If that host address was an IP address, Data Receiver incorrectly interpreted the IP address as a host name that included a domain suffix. So it appended a portion of the host address to the name supplied in the redirection message. This has been fixed; now, Data Receiver checks the host address and if it is an IP address, it does not append anything to the host name provided in the redirection message. Changes for v1.9.1 SFC File If In version 1.6 of Data Receiver, when there was no marked text, the match for an If command was only against the input buffer for the length of the pattern. Beginning in version 1.8, however, when there was no marked text and there were no wildcard characters in the pattern being matched, the If command would match all text in the input buffer starting at the current location. This behavior was a regression from DR 1.6 and has been fixed in v Using <If>string</If> now requires that the string be marked. In earlier versions you didn't have to mark because you could If from the current position. <Move>></Move> <BeginMark /> <FindForward>;</FindForward> <Move>-</Move> <EndMark /> <If>text/plain</If> SFC File ElseIfEqual Once an ElseIfEqual evaluates to true, all following ElseIfEquals will also evaluate to true. The following SFC always prints "ubf." <WireProcess> <Comment>IfEqual ElseIfEqual Else bugtest</comment> <SetVariable>%priority%=3</SetVariable> <IfEqual>"%priority%"="5"</IfEqual> <Copy>d</Copy> <ElseIfEqual>"%priority%"="4"</ElseIfEqual> <Copy>r</Copy> <ElseIfEqual>"%priority%"="3"</ElseIfEqual> <Copy>u</Copy> <ElseIfEqual>"%priority%"="2"</ElseIfEqual> <Copy>b</Copy> <ElseIfEqual>"%priority%"="1"</ElseIfEqual> <Copy>f</Copy>

9 <Else /> <Copy>r</Copy> <EndIf /> </WireProcess> The SFC should be coded as follows using Else followed by IfEqual: <WireProcess> <Comment>IfEqual ElseIfEqual Else bugtest</comment> <SetVariable>%priority%=3</SetVariable> <IfEqual>"%priority%""5"</IfEqual> <Copy>5</Copy> <Else /> <IfEqual>"%priority%""4"</IfEqual> <Copy>4</Copy> <Else /> <IfEqual>"%priority%""3"</IfEqual> <Copy>3</Copy> <Else /> <IfEqual>"%priority%""2"</IfEqual> <Copy>2</Copy> <Else /> <IfEqual>"%priority%""1"</IfEqual> <Copy>1</Copy> <Else /> <Copy>None of the above</copy> <EndIf /> <EndIf /> <EndIf /> <EndIf /> <EndIf /> </WireProcess> Versioning The installation program now displays the correct release version of Data Receiver on the Welcome screen.

10 Changes for v1.9 New Commands The UseCase and IgnoreCase commands have been added. The system defaults to UseCase, meaning all search and compare operations, are case sensitive. The IgnoreCase command is used to make search and compare operations case insensitive. The command remains active until changed. Usage is: <UseCase/> and <IgnoreCase/>. The LogMessage command has been added. LogMessage writes a message to the error log. Usage is: <LogMessage>This is the message in the error log.</logmessage> The IncrementVariable command has been added. IncrementVariable increments by one the integer variable. No action is taken if the variable is not an integer. Here is an example of this command used in conjunction with the Log Message command: <SetVariable>%myVar%=0</SetVariable> <IncrementVariable>%myVar%</IncrementVariable> <LogMessage>The current value of myvar is %myvar%.<logmessage> In this example, the message, "The current value of myvar is 1." will appear in the error log. The ClearAllMarks command has been added. The ClearAllMarks command clears the current BeginMark and EndMark. Usage is: <ClearAllMarks/>. The MarkFound command has been added. The MarkFound command sets the BeginMark and EndMark around the found value. No action is taken if nothing is found. Usage is: <MarkFound/>. The FindForward command has been added, which is used for wildcard searches. The character string %*% is used to represent a string of zero or more characters in length. For example, <FindForward>t%*%ing</FindForward> finds any word that starts with "t" and ends with "ing." This could locate words of various lengths, such as taping, talking, and training. The character string %?% is used to find a string of specific length, where each question mark represents one character. For example, <FindForward>t%???%ing</FindForward> finds "talking" and "texting" but not "taping" or "traveling." Process Test Process Test now displays red marks when BeginMark and EndMark are out of order. Blue marks indicate proper order. The Process Test window now has a Save Output button. Save Output saves the Process Test output to a file. In previous versions of Data Receiver, the Save As button in Process Test made a copy of the current SFC. The active SFC was still the original. This is changed. Save As now behaves like standard Save As, where a new copy is created and is also set as the active document. Story Parsing Variables Story parsing variables have been added. o %BeginMark% is a pseudo variable that identifies the current BeginMark. o o %EndMark% is a pseudo variable that identifies the current EndMark. %Current% is a pseudo variable that identifies the current position in the input buffer. Miscellaneous In previous versions of Data Receiver, the Avid Data Receiver service would fail to start if any configured CFGs could not be found. This is fixed. The service now starts properly, displays an 'Unknown' status in the Summary tab for the missing CFG, and posts an error in the Windows Event Log.

11 In Data Receiver 1.8.0, the Server Name field in Logging Level > Notification was cleared when the admin application was closed. This is fixed. In previous versions of Data Receiver, distribution codes would not work unless padded out to 10 characters. This is fixed. A distribution code can now be fewer than 10 characters and still distribute properly. In previous versions of Data Receiver, selecting Start before selecting Save in Process Test would result in loss of SFC changes made since the last save. This is fixed. Selecting Start will retain changes, but the changes will not save until Save is selected. In Data Receiver 1.7 and 1.8, the option to select the installation path was not available. This is fixed. The installation path can now be defined by the user. The location of configuration files is not user definable. In previous versions of Data Receiver, wire instances could not be created on machines that had no serial ports. This is fixed. If no COM ports are available, the serial options are disabled, and the other options are selectable. The Data Receiver summary pane now limits display to 1000 lines. An ellipsis at the top of the pane indicates that there are additional lines not being displayed. Data Receiver now allows setting a non-standard port for SMTP servers. The default is still port 25. "Remove selected Wire Services" is now only active when focus is in the Summary tab, preventing accidental deletion of instances. When an SFC is associated to a wire service, the selected SFC is copied to the configuration folder and renamed to match the wire instance name. Renaming a wire instance is no longer supported. Changes for v1.8 NSML Data Receiver v1.8 is updated to allow NSML v3 tags boolean, string, date, duration to work with the keyword searches. In previous versions of Data Receiver, keywords that appeared immediately after NSML tags were not found by the keyword server. This is fixed. Changes for v1.7 MIME Formatting in Better parsing control was needed for messages with MIME formatting, which is commonly used with BlackBerry, to properly decode messages. Now, messages are decoded and converted to Unicode, so there is no translation step needed. Character set encoding is part of MIME formatting. SFC Debugger Tool The SFC editor now includes an SFC debugger tool. The tool allows a user to test an SFC by running its commands against a story file. A user can also step through the commands to see how each command is executed on the story text. Note: The story file used must be in Unicode.

12 Process Dialog Box A new button was added to the Process dialog box, which allows you to change the font of the command parameter column. This was added because it is possible the default font would not display all Unicode characters. File Input Ordering The ability has been added to select the order in which files are pulled by the file input. In previous versions or Data Receiver, files were pulled from a folder in alphabetical order by file name. There is now a dropdown box that allows you to select whether files are pulled by name, by creation time, or by last write time. Serial Output A new Serial output type has been added. This will enable data to be streamed from any of the Data Receiver s input types to a standard serial port. The formatting of the data to be streamed is done in using the Story Format Configuration parsing language. Software Flow Control For Software Flow Control there is no option to define the XON and XOFF characters as is possible with Serial Input. The output XON and XOFF characters are the ASCII hexadecimal values 11 and 13 respectively. Windows FTP Server If you want to input stories to the Data Receiver from inews via Txnet, the following is a link to setting up the Windows FTP Server: The link contains instructions for Windows 2003 Server, but setup for Windows 2008 R2 or 2012 is very similar. SFC Editing Dialog Box In previous versions of Data Receiver, the Scroll bar moved when selecting a Text column in the SFC editing dialog box. This is fixed. The width of the second column and the width of the control are now changed to eliminate the horizontal scroll bar and horizontal scrolling when a cell in the second column is selected. Story Parsing Variables In previous versions, variables were not supported during story parsing. Now, variables are supported. Variables contain strings identified as a name enclosed with a leading and trailing percent (%) characters. They contain no embedded spaces or % characters. %ControlSet1% preset to contain the control characters (in hex) 0, 01, 02, 04, 05, 06, 07, 0a, 0c, 0e, 0f %ControlSet2% preset to contain the control characters (in hex) 10 through 1f %EncodeSet% preset to contain the three characters &, <, > %FileName% %Marked% %WireSource% preset as provided from the FILE input module is a pseudo variable that identifies the currently marked block preset from the wire configuration file.

13 New Format The syntax <process command= command > </process> is now deprecated. This syntax is still recognized when read from the.sfc file, but when the.sfc file is written, the new syntax is used. The new syntax uses the command name as the XML tag. For instance, a comment that used to look like: <process command= comment >This is a comment</process> now looks like the following: <comment>this is a comment</comment>. Keyword Searches In previous versions, Data Receiver only searched for keywords in the "title", "page-number", and "create-by" fields rather than explicitly naming the fields to be searched in the code, the entire fields section of the story was parsed. Each field was extracted from the story, shifted to lower case, and then searched. This is fixed. Now, fields to be searched can be named. In previous versions, Data Receiver did not use a list of word separator characters to find the start of words when searching for keywords. When searching for keywords, searches started at the first nonwhite-space, non-punctuation character following one or more white-space / punctuation characters. After searching for keyword matches the search location was advanced to the end of the current word. This is defined to be a punctuation character or a white-space character. So the text "at the first nonwhite-space character" is searched 7 times with starting positions of "at", "the", "first", "non-white-", "white-spac", "space", and "character". This is fixed. Now, Data Receiver uses a list of word separator characters to find the start of words when searching for keywords. Configuration Error messages Parsing error diagnostics now include the tag hierarchy as well as the file name and line number. These diagnostics are now sent to the admin application, if it is running, so the administrator can see why the wire won't start. Reverse Numbers with Separators The "Embedded Reverse Characters" list has been added. This is virtually identical to the inews PCU wire configuration "reverse" second parameter, the embedded character string. These are characters that can appear in a sequence of characters that will be reversed but cannot begin or end the sequence. IBroadcasterMessages.txt File In previous versions, the C:\IBroadcasterMessages.txt file used to get too large. In Data Receiver v 1.7 this file is no longer written. Serial Ports The admin application now recognizes and lists only serial ports that really exist on the computer. SFC New and Renamed Commands for v 1.7 The following table displays parsing language commands, variables, and their descriptions. A legend explaining the footnote characters, which appear with the name of some of the commands listed in the table appears at the end of the table. BeginMark Break¹ Mark the current position as the beginning of the marked block. A marked block only exists when the BeginMark and EndMark are set. Terminate a Repeat block by advancing to the command immediately following the EndRepeat

14 ClearBeginMark ClearEndMark command. Remove the BeginMark. A marked block only exists when the BeginMark and EndMark are set. Remove the EndMark. A marked block only exists when the BeginMark and EndMark are set. Comment <text> This is an informational command. Copyª <text with variables> This copies the supplied text to the output buffer. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to the copy. CopyEncoded¹ <text with variables> This copies the supplied text to the output buffer. All variable references are replaced with their content prior to the copy. Furthermore, each occurrence of each character in the content of the %EncodeSet% variable found in the text to be copied is encoded as an NSML entity prior to the copy. CopyFileName¹ [<characters to encode>] This copies the contents of the %FileName% variable to the output buffer. Furthermore, each occurrence of each of the characters to encode found in the text to be copied is encoded as an NSML entity prior to the copy. Normally, the Data Receiver input module supplies the FileName. Currently only the FILE input module does this. CopyMarked³ [<characters to encode>] This copies the contents of the Marked Block in the input buffer to the output buffer. Furthermore, each occurrence of each of the characters to encode found in the text to be copied is encoded as an NSML entity prior to the copy. CopyWireSource³ [<characters to encode>] This copies the contents of the %WireSource% variable to the output buffer. Furthermore, each occurrence of each of the characters to encode found in the text to be copied is encoded as an NSML entity prior to the copy. Normally, the Wire Source is specified in the Wire Service Configuration file. Delete² <text with variables> This deletes all occurrences of the supplied text string from the input buffer or just from the marked block if a valid marked block exists. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for the delete. DeleteCharacter¹ <text with variables> The deletes all occurrences of each character contained in the supplied text string from the input buffer or just from the marked block if a valid marked block exists. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for the delete. This allows a single command with multiple characters specified to be used instead of multiple Delete commands, each with a single character specified.

15 DeleteMarked Else This removes all characters contained in the current marked block from the input buffer. Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when all previous if commands have not been executed. ElseIf² <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the supplied text string matches the text in the input buffer at the current position when no marked block exists otherwise when the supplied text string matches the text in the entire marked block. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is no match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. ElseIfEqual¹ <text with variables> <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the first supplied text string matches the second supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is no match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Note that the two text strings must be delimited by a character that does not appear in either text string before variable references are replaced. ElseIfNot² <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the supplied text string does not match the text in the input buffer at the current position when no marked block exists otherwise when the supplied text string does not match the text in the entire marked block. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is a match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. ElseIfNotEqual¹ EndIf EndMark <text with variables> <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the first supplied text string does not match the second supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is a match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Note that the two text strings must be delimited by a character that does not appear in either text string before variable references are replaced. This denotes the end of a block of commands started with one of the if commands. Mark the current position as the end of the marked block. A marked block only exists when the

16 EndRepeat¹ BeginMark and EndMark are set. This denotes the end of a block of commands started with the Repeat command. FindForward² <text with variables> This searches the input buffer for the first match with the supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. Searching starts at the current position in the input buffer and continues to the end of the input buffer. If a match is found, the current position is set to the location of the first character of the matched text in the input buffer. Also, the Found flag is set otherwise it is cleared. In all cases the length of the expanded supplied text string is remembered and is used for the Move > command. This allows the current position to be advanced past the matching characters in the input buffer. FindMarked² <text with variables> This only searches the marked block portion of the input buffer for the first match with the supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. Searching starts at the beginning of the marked block in the input buffer and continues to the end of the marked block. If a match is found, the current position is set to the location of the first character of the matched text in the marked block. Also, the Found flag is set otherwise it is cleared. In all cases the length of the expanded supplied text string is remembered and is used for the Move > command. This allows the current position to be advanced past the matching characters in the input buffer. FindReverse² <text with variables> This searches the input buffer for the first match in the reverse direction with the supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. Searching starts at the current position in the input buffer and continues backwards to the start of the input buffer. If a match is found, the current position is set to the location of the first character of the matched text in the input buffer. Also, the Found flag is set otherwise it is cleared. In all cases the length of the expanded supplied text string is remembered and is used for the Move > command. This allows the current position to be advanced past the matching characters in the input buffer. If² <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the supplied text string matches the text in the input buffer at the current position when no marked block exists otherwise when the supplied text string matches the text in the entire marked block. All variable references in the

17 IfEqual¹ IfFound <text with variables> <text with variables> supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is no match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the first supplied text string matches the second supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is no match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Note that the two text strings must be delimited by a character that does not appear in either text string before variable references are replaced. Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the Found Flag is true. This is the result of the last FindForward, FindReverse, or FindMarked command. If the Found Flag is false, the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. IfNot² <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the supplied text string does not match the text in the input buffer at the current position when no marked block exists otherwise when the supplied text string does not match the text in the entire marked block. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is a match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. IfNotEqual¹ IfNotFound <text with variables> <text with variables> Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the first supplied text string does not match the second supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text are replaced with their content prior to using the text for matching. If there is a match the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Note that the two text strings must be delimited by a character that does not appear in either text string before variable references are replaced. Identifies the start of a block of commands that are only executed when the Found Flag is false. This is the result of the last FindForward, FindReverse, or FindMarked command. If the Found Flag is true, the block of commands is skipped and command execution resumes at the next command. Moveº + - B E M Z > This moves the current position in the input buffer. The supplied parameter string can contain any combination of the direction characters. A +

18 Repeat¹ Replace² <text with variables> <text with variables> advances the current position one character forward. A - moves the current position one character backward. A B moves the current position to the beginning of the input buffer. A E moves the current position to the end of the input buffer. A M moves the current position to the beginning of the marked block if the BeginMark is set, otherwise the current position is moved to the beginning of the input buffer. A Z moves the current position to the end of the marked block if the EndMark is set, otherwise the current position is moved to the end of the input buffer. A > advances the current position forward the number of characters that were contained in the last text with variables parameter processed. Typically this would be from the last FindForward, FindReverse, or FindMarked command, however, any command processed that has a single text with variables parameter causes the Data Receiver to remember the length of the expanded parameter for use with the Move > command. Identifies the start of a block of commands that are processed repeatedly until a Break command is executed within the block of commands. Typically the Break command is part of a conditional block of commands within the Repeat block of commands. Executing an EndRepeat command causes the Repeat command to be the next command executed. This replaces all occurrences of the first supplied text string in the input buffer or just in the marked block if a valid marked block exists with the second supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text strings are replaced with their content prior to using the text for the searching and replacement. Note that the two text strings must be delimited by a character that does not appear in either text string before variable references are replaced. ReplaceMarked <text with variables> This replaces the entire marked block with the supplied text string provided a valid marked block exists. Otherwise, nothing is done. All variable references in the supplied text string are replaced with their content prior to using the text for replacement. SetEncodeSet¹ <text with variables> This sets the content of the %EncodeSet% variable to the supplied text string. All variable references in the supplied text string are replaced with their content prior to using the text for replacement. The %EncodeSet% variable is available for general use, however, its primary use is for the CopyEncoded command. Note that the %EncodeSet% variable is preset to contain the three characters &, <, and

19 SetVariable¹ <variable>=<text with variables> >. This sets the content of the specified variable to the supplied text string. The syntax for specifying a variable is always % <name> % with no intervening spaces nor any % characters in the name. For instance, SetVariable %myvar%=something would set the variable %myvar% to contain the string something. ToLower¹ [<variable>] When no parameter is specified, the characters contained in the marked block are shifted to lower case if a valid marked block exists otherwise all characters in the input buffer are shifted to lower case. When a variable parameter is specified, the content of that variable is shifted to lower case. ToUpper¹ [<variable>] When no parameter is specified, the characters contained in the marked block are shifted to upper case if a valid marked block exists otherwise all characters in the input buffer are shifted to upper case. When a variable parameter is specified, the content of that variable is shifted to upper case. TruncateMarked¹ <number> When a valid marked block exists and there are more than the specified number of characters contained in the marked block, the EndMark will be moved so that only the specified number of characters are contained in the marked block. XslTransform¹ <Name of style sheet file> The specified file is used as an XSL Style sheet to transform and replace text from the input buffer. If a valid marked block exists it is used as the input to the XSL transform and the output of the transform will replace the entire marked block. If there isn t a valid marked block, the entire input buffer is used as the input to the XSL transform and the output of the transform will replace the entire input buffer. º New option > ¹ New command ² Parameter changed to support variable references within the parameter. ³ New optional parameter. ª Replaces Insert. Changes Prior to v1.7 Input not Interpreted Correctly In previous versions of Data Receiver, the input was not always using the proper character encoding specified by the input s configuration. This is fixed. Now, input is correctly interpreted.

20 Custom Code Page Support Data Receiver v1.6 supports custom code pages. This allows the user to define any byte-to-byte conversion of 5, 6, 7, 8 bit, or Multi Byte input data streams to UTF-16 Unicode (big-endian byte order). This allows the use of any wire source using any code page, and the ability to accommodate data streams using 2 levels of character shift or contain imbedded characters strings sent in a reverse order relative to the rest of the story text. New Menu Option for Creating New Wire Instances Data Receiver 1.6 has a new menu item for creating new wire instances from the Administration application graphical user interface. This tool creates the default folders for each wire instance where the folder name is the same as the wire instance name. Each instance folder created contains Backup, Cache, and Logs subfolders. Status for Stories to NRCS Data Receiver v1.6 provides a status indicator, on the Administration application Summary tab, for monitoring the flow of stories sent from the Data Receiver to NRCS system. Additionally, the time stamp in the Story to NRCS column must be within 1 minute of the time stamp in the Story Input column. If the time stamps for these two columns differ by more than 1 minute then the processed stories are not being successfully sent to the NRCS system and are being cached on the Data Receiver. Summary Tab Change The individual instance tabs, available in v1.5, under the Summary tab were removed. To view the Summary Log for an individual instance, select the row on the Summary tab grid corresponding to the wire instance. Process Information Dialog Box Editing Enhancements Process commands in the Command column and cut, copy, and paste commands are available through in the Process Information dialog box making editing of SFC files easier. A Save As feature was added allowing saving of different versions of story format SFC files making it easier to create and manage multiple SFC files, which differ slightly from each other. Online Help System Data Receiver 1.6 includes a help system accessible from the Administration application Help menu. Remove Button The button to remove wire instances from the summary tab has been removed. This functionality is now found only under the Wire Services menu of the Administration Application. This change was made in Data Receiver 1.6 to eliminate the risk of a wire instance being inadvertently removed when working with either the Start/Stop or Get Status buttons on the Summary Tab window. Editing Notifications In Data Receiver 1.5 it was not possible to edit the notifications entries for logging levels or addresses. In Data Receiver 1.6 the address and logging level can now be edited after they have been created. Short Stories In Data Receiver 1.5 if a story was received that was too short for the process file to process fully then that wire instance would stop processing any additional stories. In Data Receiver 1.6 if a story is too short to be processed it is simply dropped and then the processing of the following stories continue normally. Missing Start/Stop Sequences A check box setting has been added to the Serial Input Type to log messages if the serial wire stream is missing either story start sequences or stop sequences. The error messages are generated if two start or stop sequences are found in succession without a corresponding stop or start sequence in between. If start or stop sequences are missing it indicates that those stories were not complete and they will not have been processed.

21 Read in Raw Log File The ability to read in raw.log files is now supported for all Character Mapping choices for Input Translation. In Data Receiver 1.5 the ability to read in raw.log files was limited. Output Character Mappings In Data Receiver 1.5 if an output character mapping was specified for a non Unicode output code page type the instance would not start. This was fixed in Data Receiver 1.6. Known Limitations This section provides information on known limitations that were not addressed in this release. Any available workaround procedures are also documented, when possible. Note: For limitations related to compatibility of this release with previous versions/other products, see the section of this document entitled, Compatibility Issues. Administration Application May Not Reconnect to Avid Data Receiver Service If the Avid Data Receiver service is stopped and restarted with the Administration Application open it may not reconnect properly on start up. The Administration Application will not always reconnect properly to the Avid Data Receiver service if it is left open during a restart of the Avid Data Receiver service. The individual instances may appear as being Unavailable or the Story Input and Story to NRCS data will stop updating. Workaround: Close Administration Application before starting or restarting the Avid Data Receiver service. Removing a Wire Instance Completely When an instance is removed from within the Administration Application it is not removed from the WS.exe.config file. The wire instance will continue running in the background using resources such as an input COM port. To fully remove a wire instance from the Data Receiver follow these steps: 1. Stop the Avid Data Receiver Service under Windows Control Panel Services. 2. Open the WS.exe.config file using a text editor such as Windows Notepad 3. Locate the <WireInstance>Wirename.cfg</WireInstance> entry for the removed instance. 4. Delete the <WireInstance>Wirename.cfg</WireInstance> entry for the wire instance to be removed. 5. Save the File 6. Restart the Avid Data Receiver Service. SFC Files Used With Multiple Instances If the same SFC file is used with multiple wire instances, any changes made within one instance affects the behavior of all other instances using that same SFC file. Making minor changes for one instance may break all other instances using that same SFC file. Workaround: Make sure that all process files being used are only being used by a single wire instance. Timeout When Stopping or Restarting Avid Data Receiver Service Users may get a timeout message when attempting to restart the Data Receiver service (not to be confused with restarting an instance of the Data Receiver service) you can sometimes get a timeout message from Windows stating that the Data Receiver service did not respond in a timely manner. This is due to the Data Receiver service

22 attempting to finish processing of stories in its queue. The Data Receiver service will stop when it has finished processing its queue and no action is required. Configuration Changes Require Instance Restarting The following changes to a wire instance configuration require restarting of the wire instance: Input type. Miscellaneous Input character translation changes. Changes to the story Start and End sequence characters. Custom code page translation table changes. Output character translations. Output inews server name. Serial Data May be Detected as a Serial Mouse in Windows It is possible for Windows to mistakenly recognize incoming serial data as a serial mouse when the machine is power cycled. Microsoft has documented workarounds for this problem in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Workaround: Let the device be incorrectly detected by Windows, use the Device Manager to disable the incorrect device (don t remove it or it will be re-detected), and power cycle the computer. The device will remain in the Device Manager, but it will be disabled and the port will work correctly. Log File Extension May be Hidden By default Windows hides extension for known file types. If you associate the Data Receiver log files with a program (i.e. WordPad or Notepad) the.monday,.tuesday, etc extension will become hidden making it harder to tell what day the log file is from. Workaround: Avid recommends Windows folder settings be altered to always show file extensions. To set Windows folder settings to show file extensions: 1. Select Tools->Folder Options. 2. Click the View tab. 3. Uncheck the Hide file extensions for known file types check box. 4. Press the OK button. Administration Application Summary Tab Headings Unreadable After Initial Install After the initial install of the Data Receiver and the first time run of the Administration Application the column headers for the summary tab of the Administration Application may appear with nonsensical headings and be improperly formatted. This problem will only occur after the initial install of the Data Receiver and the first time that the Administration Application is run. Once resolved by performing the workaround this problem it will not reoccur on the same Data Receiver machine. Workaround: If this occurs simply close and reopen the Administration Application after at least one wire instance has been configured.

23 Technical Support Information Most products feature a number of coverage options. Avid Assurance service offerings are designed to facilitate your use of Avid solutions. Service options include extended telephone coverage, automatic software maintenance, extended hardware warranty, and preferred pricing on replacement parts. Offerings and options may vary by product and are not available for all products. For more information regarding Avid s service offerings, visit or call Avid Sales at AVID ( ). Program availability and details might vary depending on geographic location and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or your local Avid Reseller for complete program information and pricing. However, if you need help locating an Avid office or Avid Reseller near you, please visit or call in North America AVID ( ). International users call Accessing Online Support Avid Online Support is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search the Knowledge Base to find answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates, and to read/join online message-board discussions. To access Avid Online Support: Go to Note: Supplemental documentation for this release, if available, is provided on the Knowledge Base. For the latest up-to-date information, browse the Knowledge Base at Avid Online Support.

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