ILINX Capture for Android Now Available

Good news for all of you looking to do some document capture on the go, the ILINX Capture app is now available for Android.  It’s on the Google Play marketplace, so go check it out today!

Index Creation In SQL Azure

Doing some testing in SQL Azure, I found that table creation is a slightly different beast.  Simply using a SQL table creation script generated by the SQL Server Management Studio does not translate into the Azure environment.  I needed to make some modifications first to get the code working correctly, specifically how Indexes are created.

Below is a sample index generated by SQL Server Management Studio:

CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_TestTable] ON [dbo].[TestTable]
(
    [StringField] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, 
DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]

To get this index code to successfully work within Azure, I had to make the code look like the following:

CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_TestTable] ON [dbo].[TestTable]
(
    [StringField] ASC
)WITH (STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF)

I had to remove “ON [PRIMARY” from the end of the code, as well as removing the following commands: PAD_INDEX  = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, AND ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON.  After that, the index creation code worked successfully in this new SQL environment.

Windows Phone 8 Features Detail Leaks

If you have not seen the features list, check them out here.  I think the most important items from that list is the tight integration between Windows Phone and Windows, the desktop version.  According to various leaked info this layer will contain the kernel, networking stacks, security model, multi-core processor, and multimedia.

It would be interesting to see how much of it is true later this year.

ILINX Content Store

We are working on adding full text into the product.  If this is a feature you have been waiting for, contact your sales rep for more info.

Retry Logic

Sometimes an exception isn’t just an exception. For example, SQL can have connection or timeout issues and file IO can have problems competing for file access. In these situations, sometimes it makes sense to try executing the code again rather than letting it completely error out. Below is some C# sample code for executing some simple retry logic.

for (int retryAttempt = 1; retryAttempt <= MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS; retryAttempt++)
{
     try
     {
          // Perform code execution here
          break;
     }
     catch (Exception ex)
     {
          // Perform any logging here

          if (retryAttempt < MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS)
          {
               Thread.Sleep(1000); // Sleep 1 second before retrying
          }
          else
          {
               throw;
          }
     }
}

As you can see, it’s pretty simple.  Execute the actual code logic within the try block, and perform any necessary exception logging within the catch block.
Richard Franzen
Sr. Developer
ImageSource, Inc.

ILINX Content Store

We recently put a new version of Content Store that contained a few enhancements from our customers.  For more info, refer to the Download Center.

How to Convert Office File to PDF File Format in C#

How to Convert Office file to pdf in C#.

These codes are used for Microsoft Office products with the Save As PDF add-in installed.

Note that You will need to add a reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.(word,excel, or powerpoint)

<Word To PDF>

public string ConvertWordToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “Desired Output File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClasswordApp =
new rosoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wordDoc = null;
object inputFileTemp = inputFile;

try
{
wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open(refinputFileTemp);
wordDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat(outputFileName, WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatPDF);
}
finally
{
if (wordDoc != null)
{
wordDoc.Close(WdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges);
}
if (wordApp != null)
{
wordApp.Quit(WdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges);
wordApp = null;
}
}

return outputFileName;
}

<Excel To PDF>

public static string ConvertExcelToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “DesireOutput File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application excelApp =
new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
excelApp.Visible = false;
Workbook workbook = null;
Workbooks workbooks = null;
try
{
workbooks = excelApp.Workbooks;
workbook = workbooks.Open(inputFile);
workbook.ExportAsFixedFormatXlFixedFormatType.xlTypePDF,outputFileName,
XlFixedFormatQuality.xlQualityStandard, true, true, Type.Missing,Type.Missing, false,Type.Missing);
}
finally
{
if (workbook != null)
{
workbook.Close(XlSaveAction.xlDoNotSaveChanges);
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(workbook) != 0) { };
workbook = null;
}
if (workbooks != null)
{
workbooks.Close();
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(workbooks) != 0) { };
workbooks = null;
}
if(excelApp != null)
{
excelApp.Quit();
excelApp.Application.Quit();
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(excelApp) != 0) { };
excelApp = null;
}
}

return outputFileName;
}

<PowerPoint To PDF>

public static string ConvertPowerPointToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “DesireOutput File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass powerPointApp =
new Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass();
Presentation presentation = null;
Presentations presentations = null;
try
{
presentations = powerPointApp.Presentations;
presentation = presentations.Open(inputFile, MsoTriState.msoFalse,MsoTriState.msoFalse,
MsoTriState.msoFalse);

presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat(outputFileName, PpFixedFormatType.ppFixedFormatTypePDF,
PpFixedFormatIntent.ppFixedFormatIntentScreen, MsoTriState.msoFalse,
PpPrintHandoutOrder.ppPrintHandoutVerticalFirst,PpPrintOutputType.ppPrintOutputSlides,
MsoTriState.msoFalse,null,PpPrintRangeType.ppPrintAll, string.Empty, false, true, true, true, false,
Type.Missing);
}
finally
{
if (presentation != null)
{
presentation.Close();
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(presentation);
presentation = null;
}
if (powerPointApp != null)
{
powerPointApp.Quit();
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(powerPointApp);
powerPointApp = null;
}
}
return outputFileName;

}

Kyoungsu Do
Software Quality Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.