ALCID: Archive/Log/Convert/Import/Download

These files are currently used in conjunction with the Form Portal for UConn's Office of Student Financial Aid Services. They archive, download, convert from PDF --> TIFF, and anything else required to get Form Portal submissions off of the Financial Aid website and into the ImageNow ImportAgent queue.

The process currently relies upon free/open-source software tools and libraries (PHP, gzip, GD, FPDF, GhostScript, cURL) and could be modified to use others (wget, ImageMagick, 7zip, gzip), either to simplify the process or adapt it to other environments. Rather than fetching the files with a utility like cURL (or wget), network volumes might also be mounted (e.g. with Samba/SMB, FUSE on Linux/Unix, or utilities like FTPUse on Windows).

Examples from these files always rely upon:

1. A set of PHP scripts preparing the documents for download
2. A Windows batch file grabbing the files and preparing them for ImageNow import

Since the PHP scripts are doing things that might also be accomplished with shell scripting, the heavy lifting could be done without Apache + PHP, on most Unix/Linux operating systems.

These files have been modified over the past 6+ years primarily by Sean O'Brien (sean.obrien@uconn.edu), John Wrynn (john.wrynn@uconn.edu), and Matt Smith (matt.smith@uconn.edu).

Alcid is another name for the Auk, a web-footed bird that is superficially similar to a penguin. These Web scripts and Windows batch files accomplish what is in the acronym above, only in a different order.

Content

php

PHP scripts currently on https://web2.uconn.edu

bat

Windows .bat files that act as a shim between the Web server and ImageNow.