Using Single Source Imaging you only have to provide a single high resolution source image for each image used on a website. The Imaging Server dynamically generates all required image resolutions and image sections based on the source image. Read more about Dynamic Single Source Imaging here.
· How can I upload test images to the demo server?
Please feel free to upload some test images to our demo server (*.tif, *.jpg, *.fpx or *.pdf). To upload and test your own images to our demo server you need to:
Click "Live Demos" => "eRez Imaging Server 4" in the menu to the left. This opens up a new window containing the eRez image browser.
Click the "Public Uploads" folder in the list of folders on the left.
Click the "Upload Images" button (located at the top of the window).
Click "Browse" and select some TIFF, JPEG, FlashPix, EPS or PDF file(s) to upload. You can alternatively select a ZIP archive containing multiple images to upload. Please note that the server converts single-resolution images (without an image pyramid) into multi-resolution TIFF files when the upload is complete. The maximum image size for "flat" single-resolution images on the demo server is 13 megapixel. You can avoid the conversion and this limit by uploading images in FPX or TIFF format containing an image pyramid.
Click "Send Files" at the bottom of the upload window.
When the upload is finished you can access the image(s) by selecting the "Public Uploads" folder. Please note that we regularly remove images from the demo server and that the images are publicly available.
· Does FSI Viewer require a special browser Plug-in?
No. FSI Viewer is based on Adobe FlashTM plug-in and requires Flash 6 or above. More than 97% of all internet users already have the Flash plug-in installed on their computer (source: Adobe) and can start using FSI Viewer right away.
· Why do I need an Imaging Server?
The concept of dynamic single source imaging allows a single high resolution image to be used to retrieve images in different sizes based on that single high resolution image. An Imaging Server Software provides the necessary functionality to scale, rotate and/or enhance any image before delivering it to the User. In contrast to normal Webserver Software, where each image has to be stored once in every resolution needed (e.g. Thumbnails and alike), an Imaging Server Software creates each image requested on the fly.
Due to the different possible magnification states for each image displayed in FSI Viewer, an Imaging Server Software is mandatory.
· What is required to integrate FSI Viewer into a website?
Besides FSI Viewer itself, you additionally need access to a compatible Single Source Imaging Server. If you do not already own an Imaging Server, you can either obtain FSI Viewer and an Imaging Server individually, or you might obtain the complete software bundle including FSI Viewer + eRez Imaging Server. Currently FSI Viewer supports the following Imaging Server software:
YaWah eRez Imaging Server
iseemedia Imaging Server
TrueSpectra Imaging Server.
· How much network traffic does FSI Viewer add compared to static images?
Loading FSI Viewer itself causes network traffic only once per client due to the caching behavior of FSI Viewer. FSI Viewer itself causes about 56 kb per client for Flash plug-ins. Optional plug-ins add approx. 2-10 kb each and are cached as well.
Network traffic caused by image data depends on the viewer size and level of interest of an image and can be estimated by the following rule of thumb: The initial view of FSI Viewer does not cause more traffic than a static jpeg image. Additional traffic depends on the users behaviour (how many different image sections are viewed). Each different image section being viewed causes about the same amount of traffic as a static jpeg of the size of the FSI Viewer would. Reviewing image sections does not cause extra traffic as image data is cached by the browser.
· How does FSI Viewer display 3D presentations? What is required?
To create virtual 3D presentation you need images showing your object from different viewing angles. For example, if you want to create a 360° rotation around the y-axis in 8 steps, you have to rotate your object and take an image every 45°. You can find companies specialized in this kind of product photography here.
· Can FSI Viewer and its Add-ons be integrated into CMS / database systems?
Of course. Regarding HTML integration and compatibility, FSI Viewer is just like any standard Flash movie clip. So any website, CMS system or application that is capable of integrating a flash movie can be extended by FSI Viewer. You can find sample HTML source code here. As FSI Viewer can be configured using either XML files or HTTP queries, automated integration via server-side script can be easily accomplished. See the HTTP Queries Tutorial for more detailed information. Examples for integratiing FSI Viewer into some commonly used CMS are given in the tutorials.
· What is the difference between FSI Viewer, FSI Showcase and FSI Pages?
FSI Viewer offers the core functionality for communication with the Imaging Server and the user interface for interaction. While FSI Viewer alone is capable of displaying zoomable images, FSI Pages and FSI Showcase are both add-ons to FSI Viewer, which extend the functionality of FSI Viewer and can be purchased separately. FSI Showcase extends FSI Viewer adding the possibility of displaying multiple images within one FSI instance. FSI Pages adds functionality for online brochures, catalogs and shop integration.
· Do I need a seperate machine for running the Imaging Server Software?
A seperate machine to run the eRez Imaging Server Software is not needed. It can be installed aside of e.g. an Apache webserver on the same machine. Please refer to the system requirements in the eRez related FAQ section.
· Is it possible to use FSI Viewer on SSL secured web pages?
Yes. Please note that in this case all connections (including access to the imaging server) have to be established via SSL. Please refer to the tutorial "Using FSI Viewer in SSL environements" for details.
· Do I need any further software besides eRez and FSI Viewer?
No. FSI Viewer and eRez Imaging Server Software is all that is required to make use of the FSI Viewer capabilities and its add-ons.
· Are there any repeating fees?
As you obtain a full license of FSI Viewer, no repeating fees apply.
· What do I get with the eRez & FSI Viewer bundle?
As the name suggests, you receive a valid eRez Imaging Server Software license and a valid FSI Viewer license. This software bundle allows you to add the following features to your website:
The bundle contains the free plug-ins for FSI Viewer as well, which are: BackgroundImage, Chapters, ClockProgress, Contextmenu, CustomButton, ExtendedUI, History, Magnifier, MaxZoom, MouseModeSelect, Music, PageSounds, Resize, SoftwareCursor, TextBox and ZoomMeter.
IPTC defines a set of metadata attributes related to images. Using IPTC headers this metadata can be stored in the header of a JPEG and TIFF image files. The eRez Imaging Server in interaction with FSI Viewer makes use of this IPTC data i.e. to offer search capabilities in FSI Pages, store descriptive texts to display as a tooltip and alike.
· What are the system requirements on the client side?
Almost every internet user can use FSI Viewer right away without any special preparation or the need to download a plug-in, as FSI Viewer is based on Adobe FlashTM. The Flash plug-in is by far the most popular browser plug-in worldwide. More than 97% of all internet users already have the Flash plug-in installed on their computer (source: Adobe). FSI Viewer requires Adobe FlashTM plug-in version 6 or above.
· What are the system requirements on the server side?
There are no special requirements regarding the web server hosting FSI Viewer. FSI Viewer requires access to an Imaging Server though. Currently FSI Viewer supports the following Imaging Server software:
YaWah eRez Imaging Server
iseemedia Imaging Server
TrueSpectra Imaging Server.
· There is a grey frame around FSI Viewer and I need to click FSI Viewer once before it works. Why is that?
This issue applies to users of Microsoft Internet Explorer only. It applies to all ActiveX controls like Flash player, Java applets and alike. The reason is a patch for Microsoft Internet Explorer removing "Automatic Activation of ActiveX Controls" released in April 2006. We provide a workaround and a detailed description here.
· Do I have to configure my firewall for FSI Viewer?
FSI Viewer interacts with eRez Imaging Server using standard HTTP Requests on Port 80. Therefore no other ports need to be opened.
· Can I run eRez Imaging Software on a shared webhoster?
Shared webhosters usually have very restrictive policies regarding additional software being installed. These policies do not allow additional software being installed on the webserver, as other websites on the same server might be influenced. Implementing FSI Viewer into a website run from a shared webhost will therefore require a standalone machine running the Imaging Server Software.
· Can I run eRez Imaging Software on a managed server or server with root access?
If you have a server with managed administration, please contact the servers administrator about installing eRez Imaging Server Software on your machine. If you have administrative or root access to your server, you can install the software on your own.
· How does FSI Viewer communicate with Imaging Servers?
FSI Viewer accesses Imaging Servers using HTTP requests. The communication is based on the Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP) or similar protocols, depending on the type of Imaging Server being used.
· How do I update my FSI Viewer installation?
After you have downloaded your Update from the download area, log on to your eRez Management Console. From the menu choose "Install package". Browse for the file and click "Upload package". eRez will install the software.
· My firewall is blocking requests due to their content type. What can I do?
If your Firewall is blocking requests due to their content type, please add the mime type "application/x-shockwave-flash" for the filetypes .swf, .plg, .nlm and .skn to your webserver configuration.
· How can I use the XML validation of my browser to debug .fsi files?
Using the browser's built in XML validation of XML files is very useful for debugging the .fsi configuration files. You can open the .fsi file in your browser and use its built-in XML validation to detect possible faulty code easily. This requires the mimetype XML being registered to the "fsi" file extension, so the webserver sends the correct XML header to the browser, identifying .fsi files as XML content.
Adding MIME Types to Apache
When using Apache webserver, it is possible to register the .fsi extension as an XML mimetype, by opening the file "mime.types", that is usually located at /etc/httpd/ in a text editor.
Find the line application/xml xml xsl
and add "fsi" to it, so it reads application/xml xml xsl fsi
then save the file and restart the Apache webserver.
Adding MIME Types to IIS 5.0
MIME types can be registered in IIS 5.0 using the IIS snap-in.
For example, to add the XML MIME type to the default Web site using the IIS snap-in:
1. Select Default Web Site and bring up the Properties dialog box. 2. Select the HTTP Headers tab. 3. Under MIME Map, click the File Types tab and select New Type. 4. Type .fsi in the Extension field and text/xml in the Content Type field, and then click OK.
Order & Register
· How to order?
You can either purchase your copy of FSI Viewer from one of our resellers or directly from NeptuneLabs.
· How to register FSI Viewer?
You can request your license keys from the eRez Management Console using the menu entries "Get eRez License Key" and "Get FSI License Key".
Once you have received your FSI Viewer and/or eRez Imaging Server PID, log on to the eRez Management Console. In the menu you can click on "Enter eRez License Key" or "Enter FSI License Key". Copy and Paste your key into the related form and click on "Activate".
· What is Maintenance?
When ordering FSI Viewer, you can optionally purchase "Maintenance".
Purchasing Maintenance grants you free access to any Major update released within 12 months after the date of the purchase. Maintenance can only be purchased on the first order or when upgrading your FSI License. Your Maintenance can be prolonged after it has expired. The cost of maintenance depends on the license and add-ons purchased.
· What licenses are available?
FSI Viewer and eRez Imaging Server licenses are available for different purposes.
Besides licenses for standard commercial organizations, we offer special licenses for non-profit organizations and also service provider licenses. The licenses differ in the maximum number of images and usable cpu cores, resulting in the abilty of serving a different amount of customers. Please refer to Editions & Pricing.
· Where do I find my Product Identification (PID) Key ?
The PID will be sent to you after you have purchased the product. The PID is required to complete the registration.
· Is it possible to upgrade the license later?
Yes. Its possible to upgrade your license of eRez & FSI Viewer from i.e. Basic Editon to Standard Edition later if needed. In this case, upgrading to the latest major version is mandatory.
eRez Imaging Server
· What are the system requirements for eRez Imaging Server?
The hardware requirements depend on the amount of images being hosted and the amount of hits and image requests the server has to handle. The eRez Imaging Software will require:
2 GHz Pentium 4 or better
1 GB free RAM memory (2 GB recommended)
200 Mb free hard disk space*
Operating System: A Sun Java 5 enabled operating system, such as:
Linux (Intel x86, Intel x86 64 Bit, PowerPC and others)
BSD
Microsoft Windows® 2000, 2003, XP or Vista (32 or 64 Bit)
Sun Solaris 10 (SPARC or Intel x86)
Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server
Web Application Server: A Java Servlet 2.3 compliant Server, such as:
Apache Tomcat (recommended)
IBM WebSphere
Caucho Resin
BEA Weblogic
*The eRez software itself takes about 150 MegaBytes of diskspace, without any images. Additional space required depends on the amount and dimensions of your images. As a rule of thumb, around 100 images require one GigaByte of disk capacity.
· Which image formats are rendered in realtime?
JPEG, Flash, PNG, GIF, PDF and TIFF can be delivered to any webpage in real time. For optimal processing speed, master images must be saved with an embedded "Image pyramid". EPS, AI, INDD, PDF and PSD are supported indirectly, this means eRez will generate a TIFF file when a file of such format is uploaded. eRez also supports 8 and 16 Bit TIFF images and color management.
· Benchmarking / Machine Sizing
If you are unsure about what machine setup is needed to fit the needs of your website, don't hesitate to contact us. We have wide experience in this matter and can help determine your required setup in detail. We can also run benchmarking tests if needed.
· How to change Port 8080 to 80 using Tomcat?
Open the server.xml of your Tomcat installation found in "yawah/erez4/tomcat/conf" with your text editor. Find the line: <Connector port="8080"
and change it to <Connector port="80"
Make sure you change the HTTP Connector and not the AJP Connector. Furthermore make sure, that the Tomcat server has the right to bind to a port below 1024. This is important on linux systems.
· How to prevent directory listing using Tomcat?
Open the web.xml of your tomcat installation found in "yawah/erez/tomcat/conf".
Toggle the boolean as follows:
<init-param>
<param-name>listings</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</init-param>
· How to configure Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) with eRez?
To read the latest available Documentation on how to set up your IIS with eRez, please open the "eRez and IIS Integration" file in your windows installation directory. (Usually it is located at "C:/Program Files/yawah/erez411/iis"). Note that this file is only available on Windows Installations.
· Do I need a Database for my images to use the functionality of eRez?
No. You can organize your files in a directory structure. Additional information can be added to each picture and folder, but it is stored inside the images itself as IPTC data.
· Does eRez work with vector based graphic files?
No. eRez uses rasterized images. If you want to use a vector based graphic on eRez, save a copy of the vector based image format as a rasterized image format e.g. TIFF.
· Does eRez Imaging Server Software run on 32 / 64 Bit?
Yes, eRez Imaging Server software runs on both 32Bit and 64Bit based systems. Please note, that on 32Bit systems, no more than 2 GigaBytes of RAM can be allocated.
· How to prevent anonymous users from logging in?
Inside your eRez installation path, e.g. "erez4/WEB-INF/templates/config", open the file interface.html for editing with a text editor and change the line
#set($ALLOWANONYMOUSLOGIN = true)
to
#set($ALLOWANONYMOUSLOGIN = false)
This will disable login for anonymous users.
· How to improve treeview performance when having a lot of folder and images?
Inside your eRez installation path, e.g. "erez4/WEB-INF/templates/config", open the file interface.html for editing with a text editor and change the line
#set($USELIVETREE = false)
to
#set($USELIVETREE = true)
This will switch eRez from pre-caching the entire document tree to load the related tree entry only upon request.
· What is ZoomCache and when would I need it?
ZoomCache provides disk caching of image data from Imaging Servers, it stores all images requested from eRez in the exact way eRez delivers them. Once an image is cached, ZoomCache delivers the image, without the need for eRez to render the same image again for the next request. This way, using ZoomCache reduces server load especially regarding highly frequented websites and is optimized to provide image data for FSI products. As ZoomCache can be installed on a seperate machine optionally, delivering and rendering can be handled on different machines, increasing performance even more. The caching capacity of ZoomCache is only limited by the available disk space.
Support & Maintenance
· Do you offer customer training?
Under certain conditions, training customers to set up and configure FSI Viewer is possible. Please contact us to discuss the details.
· Does NeptuneLabs offer enterprise-level support services?
No, NeptuneLabs itself does not offer enterprise-level support, but you might want to ask your reseller.
· Do you offer installation service?
If you are unsure about the installation of eRez Imaging Server Software on your machine, we offer installation service.
· Where do I download updates?
Minor updates are freely available and can be downloaded in the download area of your FSI Viewer account. Major updates may require a new license key to be obtained, unless the new Major update is released within your maintenance period.
· What is the difference between Minor and Major Updates?
Minor updates may add additional functionality to FSI Viewer or fix some known issues and are available for free. A minor update increases the 2nd or 3rd digit in the version number, e.g. version 4.0.6 to version 4.1.5.
Major Updates increase the 1st Number of the version number, e.g. version 4.1.5 to version 5.0.0 and contain new features and functionality that has not been implemented before.
You can check your current FSI Viewer version by enabling the debug window.
Customization & Skins
· Is it possible to customize the design and layout of FSI Viewer or FSI Showcase?
Yes, FSI Skin Option and FSI Skin Option Plus offer this possibility. The possibilities in modifying the design of the FSI Viewer / FSI Showcase user interface are virtually unlimited. You just have to provide a design sketch representing the desired layout and design and you will receive a corresponding FSI Skin file.
· How do I configure FSI Viewer for my needs?
FSI Viewer can be configured by XML files. XML is short for extensible markup language and is pretty much like HTML, syntax-wise. These XML files contain parameters and values which FSI Viewer loads and interpretes on startup. Making use of different XML configuration files lets you have different appearances of FSI Viewer. Most parameters can also be set in the HTTP Request if needed.
Currently the FSI Viewer, with its add-ons and all the available plugins offers a total of over 400 parameters, allowing you to configure FSI Viewer to your needs and preferences. Further functionality and layout can be implemented with FSI Skin Plus if needed. Please refer to the FSI Parameters library for a list of available parameters.
· Do I have to brand my FSI Viewer?
FSI Viewer comes with a few default skins. These default skins contain the FSI Viewer Logo and NeptuneLabs information in the "About" box of FSI Viewer. When purchasing FSI Skin Plus Option, the logo and "About" box content is freely customizable. There is no requirement to display a logo or link to either fsi-viewer.com or neptunelabs.com
Catalogs with FSI Pages
· What do I need to publish catalogs on my website?
To have online brochures and catalogs, you need at least the FSI Viewer and the FSI Pages add-on and one of the supported imaging servers.
FSI Viewer provides the functionality to zoom into high resolution images. The FSI Pages add-on extends FSI Viewer to display images in an online catalog style. FSI Viewer relies on Imaging Server Software. Please see the related FAQ entry for details.
· What steps are required to publish a catalog with FSI Pages?
First you need to convert your PDF document into high resolution TIFF images. (The FSI Pages add-on comes with NeptuneLabs "FSI Pages Converter", which can automatically convert PDF files into such high resolution TIFF images. Please see the related FAQ entry.) Once these images have been created, you need to upload them to the eRez Imaging Server. The eRez Imaging Server webinterface lets you generate the Basic HTML Code to display the FSI Pages instance in your website with a few mouseclicks. Finally copy the HTML Code to your website.
· How to make links available in FSI Pages?
FSI Pages converter can extract links out of the PDF and save the link information inside the IPTC data of the images. If you publish your images from eRez webinterface, please select e.g. "Catalog w. links" from the "Configuration Preset" dropdown on the Options screen.
· How can we convert PDF to images?
The FSI Pages Add-On comes with NeptuneLabs "FSI Pages Converter".
FSI Pages Converter is a multi-platform tool, which can automatically convert a single or multiple PDF files into multiple high resolution TIFF images. (TIFF is the prefered file format for zoomable images.) Besides that, FSI Pages Converter detects links in PDF files, which can be used to add Hyperlinks to any given URL for each link found in the PDF file(s) or add search functionality to FSI Pages using IPTC data and more
· Are there any additional fees per Catalog or Page?
No. Within the limits of your license, you can publish as many images and catalogs as you like.
· How to Split a PDF into single pages?
If your PDF documents security settings are not restricted, you can choose the "Extract Pages" option from the "Documents" menu, to have Adobe Acrobat save your multi-page PDF as single page PDF files, which you can offer for download from within FSI Pages.
· Is it possible to display videos in FSI Pages?
Yes, this is possible by using the overlay feature of FSI Pages to embed other normal Flash .swf files into FSI Pages. Using a .swf file for streaming .flv files lets you play videos on your brochures pages, and, with some additonal scripting, add controls to stop or pause the video if needed.
General Questions