16
Using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge

This chapter describes Windows NT-specific issues for using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge.

Specific topics discussed are:

• Starting Oracle8 ConText Cartridge
• Using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters
• Creating User-Defined External Filters

Starting Oracle8 ConText Cartridge

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers can be started using one of two methods:

• Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Control Utility
• MS-DOS Command Prompt

Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Control Utility

To help Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers survive Windows NT console log off, use the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge control utility CTXCTL80.EXE to start, stop, and view the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers running on the Windows NT server/workstation.

The Oracle8 ConText Cartridge control utility interacts with a Windows NT service. This service manages the various Oracle8 ConText Cartridge server processes on that Windows NT server/workstation. The service is called OracleHOME_NAMEConTextService80 and must be started prior to using the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge control utility.

The Oracle8 ConText Cartridge control utility cannot list or stop Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers started directly by executing CTXSRV80.EXE. It can only manage Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers through the OracleHOME_NAMEConTextService80 Windows NT service.

To start Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers using the control utility:

1. Enter at the MS-DOS command prompt:

C:\> CTXCTL80

2. Enter at the control utility prompt:

COMMAND> START 1 [DML | DDL | LOAD | LING | QUERY]

MS-DOS Command Prompt

To start Oracle8 ConText Cartridge servers from the MS-DOS command prompt:

1. Enter at the MS-DOS command prompt:

C:\> START CTXSRV80 -USER CTXSYS/PASSWORD@CONNECT_STRING -PERSONALITY list

where:

• PASSWORD is the password for the CTXSYS user
• CONNECT_STRING is the alias for the database you want to connect to
• LIST is the list of personalities you want to start the ConText server with

IMPORTANT:   Oracle8 ConText Cartridge server processes started from the MS-DOS command prompt are stopped by Windows NT when a console user logs off the Windows NT console.

   

Using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters

External filters extend the filtering capabilities of Oracle8 ConText Cartridge. Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters are provided as a part of Oracle8 ConText Cartridge. These supplied external filters are installed and used on the server.

The steps to using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters are:

• Step 1: Identify Supplied External Filters and Wrappers
• Step 2: Modify Release 2.0 Supplied External Filters and Wrappers (Optional)
• Step 3: Specify Wrappers for Supplied External Filters

You can use the supplied external filters to filter documents manually. See the section "Using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters for Manual Filtering" for more information.

You can also define your own external filters. See the section "Creating User-Defined External Filters" for more information.

Step 1: Identify Supplied External Filters and Wrappers

The following Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters are provided with Oracle8 ConText Cartridge for Windows NT. These filters can be used for filtering documents in many of the popular desktop publishing and word processing formats. The executables for the filters do not provide ConText with the required arguments, so ConText also provides scripts that act as wrappers for the executables.

The supplied external filters and their wrappers are installed automatically when you install Oracle8 ConText Cartridge. If your text file format is not listed in this table, then you need to provide your own external filter and wrapper.

Note:   If you have upgraded from a release prior to release 2.3 of ConText, you may have existing external filters supplied by ConText. These external filters are no longer current and need to be replaced by the external filters supplied in this release.   You may also need to change your existing wrappers accordingly or use the wrappers provided by ConText in this release. See "Step 2: Modify Release 2.0 Supplied External Filters and Wrappers (Optional)".

   

Document Format	Version	Format ID	Wrapper Name	Windows NT Executable
AmiPro for Windows	1, 2, 3	19	AMIPRO	W033B16D.EXE
Lotus Freelance for Windows	2	85	LOTUSFRE	W114B16D.EXE
Lotus 123	2, 3, 4	20	LOTUS123	W020B16D.EXE
Lotus 123	5	N/A	LOTUS123	W020B16D.EXE
MS Excel	5	21	MSEXCEL	W021B16D.EXE
MS Excel	7	N/A	MSEXCEL	W021B16D.EXE
MS PowerPoint for Windows	2, 3, 4	84	POWER234	W109B16D.EXE
MS PowerPoint for Windows	7	N/A	POWER7	W116B16D.EXE
MS Word for DOS	5.0, 5.5	8	WORDDOS	W005B16D.EXE
MS Word for Macintosh	3, 4, 5	28	WORDMAC	W054B16D.EXE
MS Word for Windows	2	18	WORDWN2	W044B16D.EXE
MS Word for Windows	6	68	WORDWN67	W049B16D.EXE
MS Word for Windows	7	N/A	WORDWN67	W049B16D.EXE
PDF/Adobe Acrobat	N/A	57	ACROPDF	ACRONT.EXE
WordPerfect for DOS   WordPerfect for Windows	5.0, 5.1   5.x	3	WP5	W007B16D.EXE
WordPerfect for DOS   WordPerfect for Windows	6.0   6.x	1	WP67	W048B16D.EXE
WordPerfect for Windows	7.0	N/A	WP67	W048B16D.EXE
Xerox XIF	5, 6	43	XEROXXIF	W103B16D.EXE

 

The numbers in the Format ID column are used to create filter preferences for mixed-format columns that require external filters. A format ID is not provided for the following formats, because Oracle8 ConText Cartridge does not support mixed-format columns for these document formats:

• MS Excel version 7
• MS PowerPoint for Windows version 7
• MS Word for Windows version 7
• WordPerfect for Windows version 7.0

However, the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters for these formats can be used for single-format columns that contain any one of these formats.

Step 2: Modify Release 2.0 Supplied External Filters and Wrappers (Optional)

If you have upgraded from release 2.0 of Oracle8 ConText Cartridge, already have wrappers for the supplied external filters provided in release 2.0, already have preferences that call the wrappers, and want to use the new wrappers provided in this release, then do one of the following tasks:

• modify the names of the new wrappers to match the names of your existing wrappers
• modify your existing wrappers to call the new external filter executables
• modify the names of the new external filters to match the names of the previous external filters

If you do not perform one of these tasks, then you must drop your indexes, policies, and preferences and create new preferences, policies, and indexes.

Note:   If you modify your existing wrappers, the only information that needs to change is the name of the filter executable.

   

If you are using the beta PDF filter that was provided for Windows NT in ConText release 2.0 and want to use the new production PDF filter, drop any ConText indexes that you created with the beta PDF filter, as well as the policies and preferences that called the filter. Create new policies and preferences that use the new filter, and create new ConText indexes using those policies.

Step 3: Specify Wrappers for Supplied External Filters

To specify one or more of the supplied external filters for a column, you first create a Filter preference in which you specify the wrapper for each of the filters to be used, then you create a policy that calls the Filter preference.

You can create filter preferences for:

• Single Format Columns
• Mixed Format Columns

Single Format Columns

For single format columns, create a Filter preference that uses the COMMAND attribute (USER FILTER Tile) to specify the wrapper that invokes the filter executable for the format used in your column. The following example illustrates a script which calls PL/SQL packages that create a Filter preference for a column that contains documents only in AmiPro format:

BEGIN
CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE('COMMAND','AMIPRO.BAT'); 
CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE('AMIPRO_FILT', 
                             'AMIPRO FILTER', 
                             'USER FILTER'); 
END;

Mixed Format Columns

For mixed-format columns, create a Filter preference that sets the EXECUTABLE attribute (BLASTER Tile) once for each of the wrappers that invoke the formats you want to use in your column. The following example illustrates a script which calls PL/SQL packages that create a Filter preference for a column that contains documents in AmiPro, Adobe Acrobat, and WordPerfect 6.0 formats:

BEGIN 
CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE('EXECUTABLE',19,'AMIPRO.BAT', 1); 
CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE('EXECUTABLE',57,'ACROBAT.BAT', 2); 
CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE('MULT_FILT', 
                            'MULTIPLE FILTERS', 
                            'BLASTER'); 
END;

In this example, you do not have to specify the filter executable for WordPerfect 6.0, because Oracle8 ConText Cartridge provides an internal filter for WordPerfect 6.0. By default, when the Filter preference for a column uses the EXECUTABLE attribute (BLASTER Tile), Oracle8 ConText Cartridge uses internal filters for all supported formats for which an external filter is not explicitly specified.

Additional Information:   See Chapter 6 of the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide for more information about Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters.

   

Using Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Supplied External Filters for Manual Filtering

You can use the supplied external filters to manually filter your documents (files) before storing them in the database.

To use the manual filtering method:

1. Call the appropriate external filter executable from the MS-DOS command prompt for each document to be filtered, and specify two arguments:
• the name of the document to be filtered
• the name of the output file used to store the filtered text

C:\ORACLE_HOME\BIN> W049B16D TEST.DOC /N /T=OUTPUT.TXT

In the preceding example, a Microsoft Word 6 or 7 document named TEST.DOC is filtered using the W049B16D.EXE filter executable. The filtered output is stored in OUTPUT.TXT.


For a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, the syntax is different. For example:

C:\ORACLE_HOME\BIN> ACRONT TEST.PDF OUTPUT.TXT

2. Load the filtered, plain (ASCII) text from the output file into a database column.
3. Create a policy for the column.

Be sure to specify a Filter preference that uses either the ASCII internal filter or no filter.

4. Index the column.

Additional Information:   See Chapter 7 and Chapter 9 of the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide for more information on policies.

   

Creating User-Defined External Filters

If you define your own external filters:

• On UNIX operating systems, Perl scripts and UNIX shell scripts can be executed as user-defined external filters. On Windows NT, only .EXE, .CMD, and .BAT files are executed as user-defined external filters by default.
• To implement a filter as a shell script or Perl script on Windows NT (for example, to run a Perl script TEST.PL), associate files with a .PL extension with a script processor such as CCPERL.EXE. When the Oracle8 ConText Cartridge server process executes your TEST.PL user-defined filter, it calls CCPERL.EXE TEST.PL input file output file.

---