Oracle8 ConText Cartridge Administrator's Guide Release 2.4 A63820-01 |
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# D
External Filter Specifications

This appendix contains a list of the external filter formats supported for use in mixed-format columns. It also provides details for installation, setup, and usage of the external filters provided by ConText.

The following topics are covered in this appendix:

- Supported Formats for Mixed-Format Columns

- Supplied External Filters

  See Also: For more information about external filters, see "External Filters" in Chapter 8, "ConText Indexing".

## Supported Formats for Mixed-Format Columns

The following table lists all of the document formats that ConText supports for columns that use external filters and store documents in more than one format.

For each format, the format ID is also listed. This is the value that must be specified when creating a Filter preference using the BLASTER FILTER Tile with the executable attribute.

Note: This list does not represent the complete list of formats that ConText is able to process. The external filter framework enables ConText to process any document format, provided the documents are stored in a single format and an external filter exists which can filter the format to plain text. It also does not represent the list of formats for which Oracle provides external filters. For the complete list of external filters supplied by Oracle, see "Supplied External Filters" in this chapter.

See Also: For an example of using format IDs in Filter preferences, see "Creating Filter Preferences" in Chapter 9, "Setting Up and Managing Text".

Document Format | ID
--- | ---
AmiPro 1.x - 3.1 | 19
AmiPro Graphics SDW Samna Draw | 62
ASCII | 90
AT&T Crystal Writer | 46
AutoCAD (DXF, DXB) | 53
CEOwrite 3.0 | 78
Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) | 79
CorelDraw 2.x and 3.x | 59
CTOS DEF | 75
DBase IV 1.0; DBase III, III + | 37
DCA/FFT - Final Form Text | 27
DCA/RFT - Revisable Form Text | 0
Digital DX | 15
Digital WPS-PLUS | 47
EBCDIC | 89
Enable 1.1, 2.0, 2.15 | 11
Encapsulated PostScript Preview; Encapsulated PostScript Bitmap | 66
First Choice 3.0 Data Base | 13
FrameMaker (MIF) 3.0; FrameMaker (MIF) 3.0 Win | 42
Framework III, 1.0, 1.1 | 22
FullWrite Professional 1.0x | 31
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) | 51
Harvard Graphics | 87
HP Graphics Language (HPGL) | 83
HTML Level 1, 2, 3 | 91
IBM Writing Assistant 1.0 | 16
IGES | 52
Interleaf 5.2; Interleaf 5.2 - 6.0 | 32
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) | 58
Legacy 1.x, 2.0 | 41
Lotus 123 4.x; Lotus 123 3.0; Lotus 123 1A, 2.0, 2.1 | 20
Lotus Freelance | 85
Lotus Manuscript 2.0, 2.1 | 26
Lotus PIC | 67
Macintosh Paint | 88
Microsoft Windows Paint 2.x | 70
Macintosh QuickDraw (PICT) | 64
MacWrite 4.5 - 5.0 | 29
MacWrite II 1.0 - 1.1 | 30
Mass 11, Version 8.0 -8.33 | 36
MastSoft Graphics (MSG) | 49
Micrografx Designer (DRW) | 60
MS Access 2.0 | 39
MS Excel 5.0 - 6.0; MS Excel 4.0; MS Excel 3.0; MS Excel 2.1 | 21
MS Powerpoint for Windows 2, 3, 4 | 84
MS RTF; MS RTF (ANSI Char Set) | 17
MS Word for DOS 6.0; MS Word for DOS 5.0, 5.5; MS Word for DOS 4.0; MS Word for DOS 3.0, 3.1 | 8
MS Word for Mac 5.0, 5.1; MS Word for Mac 4.0; MS Word for Mac 3.0 | 28
MS Word for Windows 2.0; MS Word for Windows 1.x | 18
MS Word for Windows 6.0; MS Word for Mac 6.0 | 68
MS Works for Windows 3.0 | 69
MS Write for Windows 3.x | 7
MultiMate 4; MultiMate Advantage II; MultiMate Advantage; MultiMate 3.3 | 6
Navy DIF (GSA) | 35
OfficePower 7; OfficePower 6 | 44
OfficeWriter 6.0 - 6.2; OfficeWriter 5.0; OfficeWriter 4.0 | 9
OS/2 Bitmap; Windows Bitmap (BMP); Windows RLE | 63
Paradox 3.5, 4.0 | 38
PC Paintbrush (PCX) | 71
PDF (Adobe Acrobat) | 57
PeachText 5000 2.1.2 | 82
PFS:First Choice 3.0; PFS:First Choice 2.0; PFS:First Choice 1.0; PFS:WRITE Ver C; Professional Write 2.0 - 2.2; Professional Write 1.0 | 12
Quattro Pro DOS; Quattro Pro Windows | 45
Q&A 4.0; Q&A Write 1.x, Q&A 3.0 | 10
Rapid File 1.0 | 23
RGIP | 61
Samna Word IV & IV + 1.0, 2.0 | 25
Sun Raster Graphics | 65
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) | 50
Uniplex V7 - V8 | 77
Vokswriter 3, 4 | 74
Wang PC, Version 3 | 24
Wang WITA | 55
Windows Clipboard | 72
Windows ICON | 73
Windows Metafile (WMF) | 48
WiziDraw | 86
WiziWord | 56
Word For Word Intermediate Communications format (COM) | 34
WordPerfect for Windows 6.1; WordPerfect for Windows 6.0; WordPerfect 6.0 | 1
WordPerfect 5.1 (Mail Merge) | 2
WordPerfect for Windows 5.x; WordPerfect 5.1; WordPerfect 5.0 | 3
WordPerfect Graphics 1 (WPG) | 4
WordPerfect Graphics 2 (WPG) | 5
WordPerfect 4.2; WordPerfect 4.1 | 80
WordPerfect Mac 1.0 | 81
WordPerfect Mac 3.0; WordPerfect Mac 2.1; WordPerfect Mac 2.0 | 33
WordStar 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 | 40
WordStar 2000, Rel 3.0 | 14
WriteNow 3.0 | 54
Xerox - XIF 5.0, 6.0 | 43
XYWrite IV; XyWrite III Plus | 76

## Supplied External Filters

ConText supplies a set of ready-to-use external filters, licensed from MasterSoft (Inso Corporation), which can be used for filtering documents in many of the most popular desktop publishing and word processor formats.

### Availability of Filters

Because the external filters are supplied as executables, the availability of the filters is platform-dependent; however, the filters are generally supplied for the following platforms/operating systems:

- DEC Alpha

- Data General

- Hewlett-Packard HP 9000/9008

- IBM AIX

- Intel SVR4

- MS-DOS (Windows NT)

- SCO

- SGI SGI52/SGI52M

- SUN Solaris/Solaris X86/SunOS

  See Also: To verify the availability of the filters on your platform/operating system, see the Oracle8 documentation specific to your operating system.

### List of Filters

The following filters are supplied by ConText. The executables for the filters do not provide ConText with the required arguments, so ConText also provides scripts which act as wrappers for the executables:

Document Format | Version | Format ID | Wrapper Name | Executable Name
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
AmiPro for Windows | 1, 2, 3 | 19 | amipro | The executable names are operating system specific. It is generally not necessary to know the names of the filter executables because ConText supplies wrappers for each executable and the wrapper name is the value specified in the Filter preference(s) that use the filter. However, if you find it necessary to modify the wrappers, you may need to know the names of the filter executables. For more information about the names of the executables, see the Oracle8 installation documentation specific to your operating system.
Lotus Freelance for Windows | 2 | 85 | lotusfre
Lotus 123 | 2, 3, 4 | 20 | lotus123
Lotus 123 | 5 | N/A | lotus123
MS Excel | 5 | 21 | msexcel
MS Excel | 7 | N/A | msexcel
MS PowerPoint for Windows | 2, 3, 4 | 84 | power234
MS PowerPoint for Windows | 7 | N/A | power7
MS Word for DOS | 5.0, 5.5 | 8 | worddos
MS Word for Macintosh | 3, 4, 5 | 28 | wordmac
MS Word for Windows | 2 | 18 | wordwn2
MS Word for Windows | 6 | 68 | wordwn67
MS Word for Windows | 7 | N/A | wordwn67
PDF (Adobe Acrobat) | N/A | 57 | acropdf
WordPerfect for DOS; WordPerfect for Windows | 5.0, 5.1; 5.x | 3 | wp5
WordPerfect for DOS; WordPerfect for Windows | 6.0; 6.x | 1 | wp67
WordPerfect for Windows | 7.0 | N/A | wp67
Xerox XIF | 5, 6 | 43 | xeroxxif

Note: The PDF filter has a status of production for the following platforms: DEC, HP, IBM AIX, MS-DOS (Windows NT), SGI, and SUN (Solaris, Solaris X86, and SunOS) For all other platforms for which ConText supplies external filters, the PDF filter has a status of BETA.

### Supplied External Filters Installation

The supplied external filter executables and their wrappers are installed automatically during installation of ConText. The location and format of the executable and wrapper files are operating system dependent.

Note: If you have upgraded from a release prior to release 2.4 of ConText, you may have existing external filters supplied by ConText. These external filters are no longer up-to-date and should be replaced by the external filters provided in this release. You may also need to change your wrappers accordingly or use the wrappers provided by ConText in this release.

See Also: For more information about the location of the supplied external filters, see the Oracle8 installation documentation specific to your operating system.

### Supplied External Filter Setup

The supplied external filters do not require any setup, aside from creating preferences that call the wrappers for the filters; however, if you have upgraded from ConText release 2.0 and already have wrappers for the external filters provided in the previous release, as well as preferences that call the wrappers, choose one of the following actions:

- 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

Otherwise, you must drop your indexes, policies, and preferences, then create new preferences, policies, and indexes that use the new wrappers/filters.

Note: If you are using the BETA PDF filter provided in previous releases and wish to use the new production PDF filter, you should drop any ConText indexes that you created with the BETA PDF filter, as well as the policies and preferences that called the filter. Then, create new preferences/policies that use the new filter and create new ConText indexes using the policies.

### Supplied External Filter Usage

The supplied external filters have the following usage issues:

1. The wrapper name (e.g. 'amipro'), not the executable name, must be specified in the Filter preferences that you create for the supplied external filters.

   You generally do not need to know the name of the filter executables; however, if you find it necessary to modify the wrappers, it may be useful to know the names of the filter executables.

2. If a format does not have a format ID (e.g. MS Word for Windows, version 7), the external filter cannot be used in text columns that store multiple formats. It can only be used in text columns that store a single format.

3. Wrapper names are operating system dependent and may be different than the names listed. In particular, the wrapper names may have suffixes (e.g. '.sh' or '.bat') that your operating system uses to identify scripts.

   If your operating system requires specifying the complete name of a script in order to run the script, you must include any suffixes in the Filter preferences that you create using the supplied external filters.

   See Also: For examples of using the supplied external filters, see "Creating Filter Preferences" in Chapter 9, "Setting Up and Managing Text".

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