After a long back I am again using ROR,Could you please anyone can
help me how to invoke the client side resources such as scanners and
printers using ROR?
Actual requirement is the user scans a document(containing 10 to 100
pages) in his client machine(here the whole document should be in one
file like pdf or tif, not individual files) and the preview the
document to be shown for him/her. He/she can edit(means rotate/rescan
single page/flip/annotate/crop etc;) the scanned image and when user
clicks the submit the image has to be saved in Server Database on fly
without storing a copy in client machine(not even a temporary file).
Can anyone suggest me is there a way out in ROR to acheive this
requirement? If so what are the requirements and how to obtain?
We've used EZTwain-X in the past for
a .NET-based application.
It basically loads up an ActiveX application to scan, and then it
uploads the content to whatever URL you want it to be. It had a
problem using SSL uploads if I recall correctly, and new licenses are
discontinued anyways, but it will give you a good idea of how to
implement such a solution. It needs to be in the client-based (the
scanning) using an ActiveX or other plugin, then posting the resulting
file to the ROR script. If you have specific security instructions
(HTTPS, no temporary storage ..etc) you have to check the scanning
component for this.
Ruby and Rails won't be much use in solving this problem. Frankly, I don't know of any way to accomplish this in a Web environment. Your users will have to have their own way of creating a file out of the printed pages, whether that be a digital camera, a scanner, whatever. Once the file is in a binary format, you can easily use Rails and Paperclip or CarrierWave or just plain old file_column to upload and store that file. But there are so very many different ways to access and run a scanner across platforms, operating systems, and versions of either, that it would be pretty near impossible to have one system (like maybe a Java applet) served from your site that could handle them all.
