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Preview component

  • 4 January 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 683 views
Preview component
Userlevel 6
Badge +11
We are happy to announce a new component has been released for the Windows and Web GUI’s which enables end users to preview various documents like PDF’s, Word documents, Excel sheets, Powerpoint slides, images, web pages and many more from within the GUI. The preview component just needs a path to any file or URL you’d like to open.

The Windows GUI preview component uses the same preview technique as Windows Explorer. It uses the registered previewer if one is available. The Web GUI loads the file on the server and generates images which are sent to the client.

The preview component supports 50+ file formats, including PDF and Microsoft Office documents.

Usage

To use this new component you can easily use the screen type modeller in the Software Factory. Simply drag the preview component on your favourite screen type like you’re used to and watch the magic happen!

The preview component uses the first column in your table that contains a URL or file path and will try to preview it for you.



Software Factory G9.6

To make the preview component available in the Software Factory G9.6 you can add it by executing the following query:

code:
insert into screen_component_type 
values(
'Preview',
'preview',
'[path_to_gui]\images\icons\20x20\preview_20.png',
null,
null,
null,
null
)


Happy modelling!

4 replies

Userlevel 2
Badge +12
The Windows GUI preview component uses the same preview technique as Windows Explorer


I don't 100% agree. because files with extension ".msg" are not displayed. This would, in our case, make a big difference as quit a large percentage of uploaded or attached documents are emails (from outlook) saved as a file that then are uploaded in the application.

Windows Explorer does show a preview of such a document; The GUI does not. 🙄
Userlevel 7
Badge +5
Please create a ticket for this problem, @htimmermans.

I've looked into it shortly and it looks like the preview handler for MAPI data, including .msg files, is registered differenly in Windows than most other file extentions and requires a different implementation.
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

@Anne Buit Two questions on the Preview topic:

  1. When is support for the Preview component in the Universal GUI expected?
  2. It seems that .msg is still not supported in the Windows GUI, is that still pending? (We are going to need .msg support in Universal GUI soon for sure) 
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi Arie,

The previewing of documents will be handled mostly by Indicium, this functionality is currently passing QA checks. A blog on the subject will be posted here on the community soon.

Implementation in Universal to activate the preview functionality will follow shortly after.

The .msg extension is not yet supported but I've asked the engineers to see if they can shoehorn it in.

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