Qualify is used to run tiff validations against a folder (or folder of folders) using the same validations that are performed by our other tools such as X9Assist/X9Validator and the Tiff Tester. Qualify allows you to determine if your bitonal black-white TIFF images are compliant with the x9.100-181 exchange standards. Qualify can optionally repair those images that are determined to be non-compliant. An output CSV is created that contains a single line for each image processed, where the CSV identifies actions taken for each input image. When running with image repair, you must provide the output folder where the image repaired images will be written.
Qualify is designed to validate free-standing tiff images that are not embedded within an x9.37 file. By analyzing and repairing images prior to creating your x9.37 file, you can ensure that the images you ultimately insert into your image cash letters are x9.100-181 compliant, which greatly reduces the potential for returned items. Qualify is designed to process a small quantity of images as well as bulk processing of a very large number of items. Qualify is implemented as multi-threaded, which allows it to maximize processor (CPU) usage and minimize overall elapsed time. You can run tens of thousands of images through a single execution.
Qualify requires that you provide a configuration (-config: on the command line) that defines the rules that will be used to perform image validations. An example is -config:x9.37. By specifying the x9 configuration, you can ensure that you are applying the same tiff validation rules as you would be using with X9Assist. These rules will provide a variety of validations such as tiff tags, multi-strip, EOFB validation, and so forth. If you have specific image validation requirements to be applied, you can create your own tiffRules.xml and then incorporate those into a custom configuration using the Configuration Editor. Refer to that topic within this user guide as well as relevant help videos on our website.
Output CSV format
The output CSV identifies the input images that are processed along with actions that have been taken for each. The -weo switch can be used to limit the output csv to only those images that contain validation errors (accepted images will not be written). Columns are as follow:
- Input image file name
- Inspection message
- Action message
- Repaired image file name (written to the output image folder)
- Image processing time in micro-seconds
Exit status
Validate will set the overall run exit status as follows:
- -3 = input file not found
- -2 = invalid function
- -1 = aborted
- 0 = run successfully with no image repairs
- 1 = run successfully with image repairs applied
Command line options
| Switch | Description |
| -awx | Abort when the selected output file already exists. The default action is to allow output files to be overwritten. Setting switch -awx will force an abort instead of overwriting the existing file. |
| -config: | Use a specific x9 configuration. When this parameters is omitted, the file header will be inspected to determine the most appropriate x9 configuration to be used. However, you may also provide a specific “-config:” value. For example, this parameter could be specified as “-config:x9.37″ or “-config:x9.100-187-2008″. |
| -sf | Indicates that subfolders (within the image folder) should be included. |
| -exti:”x1|x2|x3|…” | Provides a list of one or more file extensions that identify image files within the image folder to be selected for qualify. Images that do not match these extensions will be bypassed and not selected. Extensions are separated using the pipe character. Usage examples are -exti:tif and -exti:“tif|tiff”. Specifying a value of -exti:* will accept all extensions and is the default on Linux/OSX, etc. Note that quote marks are needed around this parameter due to the embedded “|” special character. |
| -imageRepairEnabled | Enables automated image repair; this function is disabled by default. |
| -imageResizeEnabled | Enables both automated image repair including automated image resize; these functions are disabled by default. |
| -ic | The output image folder for this run will be cleared when it already exists. This process will only remove files with commonly used image extensions. |
| -ipof: | Defines the number of images written within each subfolder that is created within the output “imageFolder”. Default is 1000. For example, a switch value of -ipof:500 will create new image subfolders every 500 items. A value of zero indicates that subfolders should not be created within the “imageFolder”. |
| -ia | Override to forcibly not abort when the output image folder is not empty. |
| -weo | Indicates that only image errors are written to the csv output file. |
| -j | A summary JSON file will be created with a suffix of “_summary.json” in the same folder as the output x9 file. |
| -t | A summary text file will be created with a suffix of “_summary.txt” in the same folder as the output CSV file. |
| -x | A summary XML file will be created with a suffix of “_summary.xml” in the same folder as the output CSV file. |
| -l | Will list all csv lines to the system log. |
| -batch | Invokes batch (folder based processing; see that earlier topic for more information. |
| -workUnit: | Assigns command line parameters and files from an xml file that was previously created and saved by the X9Utilities facility within X9Assist. This allows you to easily repeat an X9Assist task directly in X9Utilities batch. |
Sample CSV output file
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image1.tif,”accepted – 6134 240 1488 672 6.20 2.80″,,,545
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image2.tif,”accepted – 6586 240 1488 672 6.20 2.80″,,,19962
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image3.tif,”accepted – 6602 240 1488 672 6.20 2.80″,,,419
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image4.tif,”error – Tiff multi-strip images are not allowed number of strips(83.375) tag(278) typeString(SHORT_LONG) type(13) count(1) rule(tag278RowsPerStrip)”,”repaired(true) outputLength(4894) change(-2598) imageFormat(tif) xdpi(240) ydpi(240) drawDpi(240) width(1488) height(660) imageType(12) inputLength(7492) finalWidth(1488) finalHeight(660) widthInInches(6.2) heightInInches(2.75) resized(false)”,c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_output\bundle_000001\image4.tif,122564
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image5.tif,”error – Tiff tag type must be short tag(266) typeString(SHORT) type(3) count(1) expectedValues(=1|2) allowedVariance(=2)”,”repaired(true) outputLength(9818) change(-193) imageFormat(tif) xdpi(240) ydpi(240) drawDpi(240) width(1888) height(784) imageType(12) inputLength(10011) finalWidth(1888) finalHeight(784) widthInInches(7.866667) heightInInches(3.2666667) resized(false)”,c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_output\bundle_000001\image5.tif,144443
c:\Users\X9Ware5\Documents\x9_assist\files\qualify\qualify_input\image6.tif,”error – Tiff multi-strip images are not allowed number of strips(10.25) tag(278) typeString(SHORT_LONG) type(13)