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Using ABBYY FineReader 10 with SAPERION 7.5.x

Where to begin

Say you are like me, and you use SAPERION 7.5.2 and you would really like to do some OCR stuff (Optical Character Recognition, for those not in the know) your primary option is either ABBYY FineReader 9, or 10.

We have opted for 10 as this is the latest and greatest supported by SAPERION, and it is a pretty solid product.

What nobody tells you

This is a nightmare to get working. At least is you are like me and this is the first distributed installation of ABBYY we wish to run.

You need to install ABBYY on all the machines you work on. At least this is in part correct. You will need to do some manual work on copying files to specific folders, you will also need administrative privileges for this.

SAPERION gives you basic instructions on how to do the actual installation for ABBYY on the server [1], but now I want to run SAPERION and ABBYY on a client that does not reside on our SAPERION server. My laptop.

How you know you missed something

*cough*

This should indicate to you that something is amiss. Upon further investigation you find that the file is indeed in the location, so this must mean something is stopping the file from actually running. This is the ABBYY License Server.

So let’s fix this

  1. We will do the simplest possible solution, and make it reusable across your entire network.

Let us assume you have ABBYY working on your server, but only on the server, then skip to the Configuring your LicensingSettings.xml file  section. If you don’t have it, simply follow the steps below to install ABBYY FineReader 10 on your SAPERION server.

  1. Make sure you have your serial number ready

  2. You will start working on the server until you have your Finerd10 folder configured correctly.

Assumptions

  1. That you have a properly installed SAPERION farm

If something is really unclear or doesn’t make sense in your environment, you might had a problem with SAPERION, which is likely causing havoc in your environment and nobody can access anything, even administrators

  1. If this is the case, someone royally cocked up your server installation.

  2. So stop now and drop me a mail, let’s make your life easier.

Installing the FineReader Engine and License Server on your server

Navigate to your installation ISO for SAPERION, we are going to install the FineReader Engine and the License Server for ABBYY.

  1. Look for the folder \x86\components\finerd10.

Let us start with the License Server first

  1. Unpack the License Server.zip compressed file, you can choose the same folder. Once it has finished, navigate to <zip location>\License Server\License Server

  2. Run ABBYY SDK 10 License Server.msi

  3. Choose your location and communication protocol

  1. You will get given a confirmation and then you can simple click Install

  1. Congratulations, your server has given birth to a beautiful new ABBYY License Server, you must be really proud.

Navigate to the installation path you specified for the License Server

  1. You now need to run your LicenseManager.exe

  1. Click on License > Activate and enter your serial number

If you have any questions, read the PDF called LicenseServer10AdminGuide.pdf in this location if you need more information on activating your license, this is under the Managing Licenses section from page 10.

Caveat, if you don’t know what you are doing, skip pages 1-9, they just serve to confuse you. This is only for a server installation and outlines the 2 ways of installing the FREngine and the License Server on a server only, ignore this for workstations or remote clients.

  1. Now navigate back to the ISO folder location and run the engine setup by clicking FRengine10.msi

My setup has been kind enough to pick up my SAPERION working directory

  1. Ideally this will be a subfolder in your SAPERION DMS-SHARE client directory, if you don’t have a DMS-SHARE for your SAPERION client, you have much bigger problems than OCR, refer to Assumptions.

  2. Once the setup completes you will have a Finerd10 folder in your Destination Folder.

  3. Please note that if you run a CLIENT.ini setup, this folder won’t copy over by default, but we will get to copying the folder later.

  4. Now you have to software on your server and life is grand, you might even be able to do OCR on your local client on the server, let’s make this bulletproof.

Configuring your LicensingSettings.xml file

  1. This is the part nobody tells you about and it is dead simple.

What do we need now?

safi1032.dll file, if this is not in your Application of Share locations for SAPERION, refer to Assumptions. You can find it under your installation ISO as well.

  1. This file needs to be in the same location as your archie32.exe file you use to run SAPERION, this should be in your base folder of your DMS-SHARE

  2. The Finerd10 folder under your DMS-SHARE

  3. The LicensingSettings.xml file in your Finerd10 folder under your DMS-SHARE

  4. Navigate to the Finerd10 folder.

  5. In all probability you don’t have a little xml file named LicensingSettings.xml

So create a file called LicensingSettings.xml in your Finerd10 folder and populate it with the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<LicensingSettings xmlns="http://www.abbyy.com/Protection/LicensingSettings">
<LocalLicenseServer>
<ConnectionProtocol ProtocolType="TCP/IP" />
</LocalLicenseServer>
<LicensingServers>
<MainNetworkLicenseServer ServerAddress="MY_SAPERION_SERVER's_IP_OR_NAME" ProtocolType="TCP/IP" />
</LicensingServers>
</LicensingSettings>

  1. Unless you have a server called MY_SAPERION_SERVER’s_IP_OR_NAME you will need to make some changes to this file to suit your environment

  2. If you use IKey for hardware licensing, refer to the ABBYY documentation

  3. Now look for LicenseManager.exe and run it, this is still in the Finerd10 folder

You should see a green box next to some details

  1. This means you have a working network license