SendTo vMedia Automatic Filing Options

Overview:

As part of the feature expansion to permit SendTo_vMedia to accept drag & drop bulk filing, a superset of the profile features present in Spectrum Importer (SI) was brought over to SendTo_vMedia. The Phase II feature expansion implements the following new features:

  • There are now two drop zones.
    • The traditional Manual Filing Drop Zone
    • The new Automatic Filing Drop Zone
  • In conjunction with the Automatic Filing Drop Zone, a new set of configuration screens and named profiles have been established.
  • The Auto Filing Drop Zone implements fully automated drag & drop bulk filing (where the index keys fully classify each media object).
  • The Auto Filing Drop Zone also implements assisted-mode drag & drop bulk filing (where the index keys populate data entry screen fields, but the UI is still shown).
  • The Auto Filing Drop Zone drag & drop filing profile settings are global, as is the Spectrum Importer and other bulk importers.
    • The profile selection, as well as the settings for Manual Filing are user specific and are stored in the users' login HKCU registry and are user specific.
    • The profile data is stored in vMedia network root\ IMPORT_SendToAutofile.INI, which may be further restricted from unintended modification by implementing network security.
  • When starting SendTo_vMedia, a new drop zone UI is displayed:

The settings UI has undergone extensive revision. The settings (gear icon) now has a Settings Tooltip; hover over to reveal. The Auto Filing Drop Zone shows the currently selected automatic filing profile.


  1. Click on the gear icon to open settings.

  2. Click the [Automatic Filing Options] button (or press Alt-A) to display the new Automatic Filing Options Dialog.

NOTE: These settings in this dialog are tied to a specific automatic filing profile and are independent of the settings contained on the main settings page which are used for Manual Filing.

  1. Profile selection drop down, loads named profile from the INI file and sets automatic filing options as specified on the automatic filing options and the source file index control.
  2. Displays the Source File Index Control editing page, see below for features.
  3. Sets the folder processing options for automatic filing dropped folders.
  4. Sets the default drop action for automatic filing only. Also holds the setting for the assisted (with UI) and fully-automatic (no UI) option.
  5. Sets the dynamic destination path expression for media objects that will be copied or moved. Has no effect for media objects which will be linked in-place.
  6. Displays the standard profile management tools such as Add New, Save, etc.
  7. [Close] closes the Automatic Filing Options dialog.
  • Temporary non-persistent setting overrides can be made by updating the desired settings and clicking [Close] or [ESC] without clicking [Save Profile].
  • Permanent settings can be saved under a named profile (existing or new) by clicking [Save Profile].
  1. Click on the [Source File Index Control] button or press [Alt-I]. The following Sendto vMedia Autofile - Index Control dialog will replace the main dialog:

This dialog is similar to the Index Control editor within Spectrum Importer. However, visual cues have been enhanced to make identification of potential filing problems easier prior to the bulk drop being attempted.

  1. The standard expression editor typing area for each of the three available index expressions. General format is field=expression.
  2. NEW Both the COLOR and the wording of each index expression changes dynamically based on the internal sanity checks performed on the typed expression. Checks made include: Syntax, data consistency. Since the target database is not known at the time the profile is configured, only the right hand side of the equals sign is evaluated. Possible results are: BLACK-EMPTY= Expression is blank (not used), GREEN - VALID= Expression is valid (passes limited syntax sanity checks), RED - INVALID= Expression is invalid, most likely will result in an error.
  3. Quick reference to the non-field based processing variables that can be used in expressions.

Additionally, if the user attempts to close the Index Control dialog while one or more of the expressions are RED - INVALID, then an additional warning dialog is displayed:

The user can still exit the editor with the invalid index expression if so desired. At any point in time, if the index control system detects that all of the index control expressions are empty, or at least one fails the sanity check, a RED warning message appears next to the [Source File Index Control] button.