Grooper Config - 2021
Grooper Config is part of the Grooper Product Suite. This program is used to configure settings specific to a server or workstation (whereas Grooper Design Studio is used to architect objects such as Content Models and Batch Processes used by all servers and workstations).
Grooper Config has three main purposes:
- Setting up new and connecting to existing Grooper Repositories.
- Installing product licensing
- Setting up and configuring Grooper Services, such as a Grooper Licensing service for a server to hand out Grooper licenses to client workstations.
About
Grooper Config is a system configuration application. This program allows for required system maintenance functions in order to get your Grooper installation up and running. Grooper Config is in charge of managing three things.
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FYI | Older Grooper users will notice Grooper Config's UI screen has changed somewhat in version 2021. These changes are detailed briefly below.
Grooper Repository Connections
Grooper Services
Licensing Activation
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How To: Grooper Repository Connections
A Grooper Repository is the environment used to create, configure and execute objects in Grooper. It provides the framework to "do work" in Grooper.
This environment consists of two things:
- A database connection
- A file store connection
The database stores Grooper nodes and their property settings (such as a Content Model or a Data Type or any other Grooper object). The file store location houses content associated with these nodes (such as the image file for a Batch Page object). Grooper is the application layer that sits on top of this two parts of the environment. It allows readable and writable access and the UI to create, configure, test and process the information stored there.
Connecting to a Grooper Repository is one of the first things you will do after installing Grooper to start designing (or implementing already architected) document processing solutions. This is done with the Grooper Config application.
⚠ | Grooper Config must be run as an administrator to perform most of its functionality. It performs functions that require elevated access in Windows. |
Creating a New Grooper Repository
Initialize Grooper Config
If this is your first time opening Grooper Config after installation, you will need to initialize the System Configuration. You will see the following dialog box appear.
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Upon initializing the system for the first time, you will see this screen. This is a totally unconfigured Grooper Config! From here, we can create new Grooper Repositories and connect to existing Grooper Repositories accessible on your network. If starting totally from scratch, you will need to create at least one Grooper Repository. |
Establish the File Store Location
Remember, a Grooper Repository is two things:
The file store simply needs to be a Windows folder you have readable and writable access to. In this case, it is a folder named "2021FileStore" in a parent folder named "GrooperFileStores" in the "Documents" folder of this server.
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The file store can be any folder you have writeable access to. However, using a fully qualified UNC path is always regarded as best practice. UNC paths can be established using the "Sharing" properties of a folder.
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Install SQL Express
⚠ | This step is only applicable to stand-alone Grooper installations on a local machine. If you are using the full version of Microsoft SQL Server and it is already installed and running, you can skip this step and continue to the next tab. |
Remember, a Grooper Repository is two things:
For Grooper Repositories, nodes and their property values are stored in tables in a SQL database. Node objects created in Grooper Design Studio are stored as rows in a table, with their property values in the row's columns. This can be anything from a Batch of documents, to a Batch Process used to process that Batch, to a Content Model referenced by the Batch Process to classify the documents in the Batch or any object used to execute document processing in Grooper. If you do not have a SQL environment already available, you can download and install Microsoft SQL Express directly from Grooper Config.
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Next, you can install SQL Express directly from Grooper Config.
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You will then be prompted through the SQL Express installation process. |
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Create a New Grooper Repository
Now that Grooper is initialized, we have a file store location, and we have an available SQL environment (either a full install of SQL Server or SQL Express) we can create a new Grooper Repository. Connecting to a Grooper Repository is the first thing you will do in Grooper Config. If you're not connecting to an existing Grooper Repository set up on someone else's Grooper installation, you'll need to create one.
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This will open up a new window to add Grooper Repository connections.
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Remember, a Grooper Repository is two things:
The first part of creating a new Grooper Repository is establishing the database connection.
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Remember, a Grooper Repository is two things:
Initializing the Grooper Repository connects the repository to the file store location and establishes the folder structure Grooper uses to store files.
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This will return you to the main Grooper Config window.
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After licensing your Grooper installation, you will be able to access the Grooper Repository in Grooper Design Studio. The Grooper Repository forms the root node of the Node Tree when the repository is selected in Grooper Design Studio. |
Connecting to an Existing Grooper Repository
Add the Repository Connection
Connecting to an existing Grooper Repository is very similar to creating a new one. If anything it's the exact same process, just with less steps. For this tutorial, we have a second machine that will connect to the Grooper Repository created in the Creating a New Grooper Repository tutorial. This machine has Grooper installed, but does not have a local SQL environment. However, it doesn't need one. As long as it has networked access to the SQL server where the Grooper Repository's database is created, as well as access to the Grooper Repository's file store location, it can connect to the Grooper Repository. |
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This will open up a new window to add Grooper Repository connections.
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Configure the Connection
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This will return you to the main Grooper Config window.
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After licensing your Grooper installation, you will have full access to the Grooper Repository in Grooper Design Studio. The Grooper Repository forms the root node of the Node Tree when the repository is selected in Grooper Design Studio. Any machine connecting to this Grooper Repository will have access to the objects in the repository. Each machine can create new and configure existing objects. Essentially, you have now networked access to the Grooper environment. |
Setting the Default Repository
You may have multiple connections to multiple Grooper Repositories on a single workstation. In Grooper Design Studio, you can access any Grooper Repository you're connected to. You can switch to a different Grooper Repository using the "File" menu, selecting "Change Repository" and choosing a Grooper Repository from the list. However, you can only have a single Default Repository. When opening Grooper Design Studio, Grooper always connects to and displays the selected Default Repository. In this case, the Default Repository is set to the repository named "Grooper2021". So, if we want to work in the repository named "Grooper Wiki", we have to switch connections as described above. If you switch to another repository and close Grooper Design Studio, the next time you open the program, it will still connect to the Default Repository first (in this case the "Grooper2021" repository). |
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The Grooper Unattended Client application also will only process Batch Process Steps in the Default Repository. In most cases, this does not really matter for Grooper architects building objects in Grooper Design Studio. Even when connected to a different Grooper Repository than the Default Repository, there are many different ways to apply an Unattended Activity to a Batch, Batch Folder, or Batch Page to test your object configurations. However, this can cause some confusion when attempting to create production level Batches and process their Batch Processes outside of the Default Repository.
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However, we're going to get a different result if we're working outside the Default Repository.
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We can resolve this issue by switching the Default Repository'. |
Change the Default Repository in Grooper Config
You can change the Default Repository in Grooper Config. First open Grooper Config.
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Set the Default Repository from Grooper Design Studio
You can also change the Default Repository directly from Grooper Design Studio.
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How To: Grooper Services
Grooper Services are various executable applications that run as a Windows Service to aid Grooper. Service Instances are installed, configured, started and stopped using the "Edit Services..." button of Grooper Config.
For example, Import Watcher is a service that watches an assigned external storage location, like a Windows folder or an email inbox, and will automatically import its contents into Grooper for automated Batch creation.
⚠ | Grooper Config must be run as an administrator to install and edit services. |
Install or Edit Grooper Service
Installing or Editing a Grooper Service
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This will bring up a new configuration window for Grooper Services, the "Service Manager" window.
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Stopping and Uninstalling a Grooper Service
Grooper Services are also uninstalled from the "Service Manager" window. The key thing to keep in mind is services must be stopped before they can be uninstalled.
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Once the service is stopped, you can uninstall it.
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Example: Installing a Grooper Licensing Service
Open Grooper Config
The Grooper Licensing service will allow one licensed machine to hand out licensing information to other workstations. To do this, the machine installing the service must have an installed version of Grooper that has been activated with a product key or licensing package. Refer to the Licensing Grooper tutorial for more information on how to activate your license.
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Add a New Service
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This will bring up the "Service Manager" window to install, configure and otherwise manage Grooper Services.
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Start the Service
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We need to start the service in order for this machine to start hosting license distribution.
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Now, this machine can use this Grooper Licensing service to hand out licensing information to workstations. We will discuss how to configure workstations to do this in the next tutorial. |
Example: Installing an Activity Processing Service to Throttle Step Processing
When automating Export steps in a Batch Process, you may need to execute the activity single threaded.
Unattended Activities in a Batch Process can be automated using an Activity Processing Grooper service. The Activity Processing service will act like a Windows service and automatically start tasks in a Batch, as processing threads in your system's resources become available. This is one of the ways Grooper leverages your system resources for parallel processing.
Imagine you're running Grooper on a machine with eight (8) processing threads. If you have a Batch with five (5) Batch Folders, and each one is on the Recognize step of the Batch Process, there's no need for your system to process each Batch Folder sequentially (with each Batch Folder waiting to be processed until the one before it is finished).
- You have 8 threads and 5 Batch Folders in this scenario.
- Each one of those threads can process one Batch Folder as a single task.
- With 8 available threads, all 5 Batch Folders could be processed concurrently by 5 individual threads.
- This is multi-threaded Activity processing.
However, depending on which external storage system you're exporting to, you may run into errors if you attempt to run the Export activity multi-threaded. Particularly when it comes to cloud-based systems, like SharePoint online or Box.com, their file transfer protocol expects users to upload files one at a time. If you have 5 threads all attempting to upload 5 different Batch Folders from the same machine, 4 of those Batch Folders are going to kick back to Grooper in an error state.
Instead, you must run the activity single-threaded, ensuring only one Batch Folder is processed at a time. As well as automating Batch Processing activities, Activity Processing services allow you to control thread resources by assigning activities a Thread Pool and limiting the number of maximum threads available for that Thread Pool.
Next, we will show you how to create a single threaded Thread Pool for an Export activity, and set up an Activity Processing service that utilizes it. This will effectively throttle your export, so Batch Folders are indeed only exported one at a time, avoiding any issues with external platforms that cannot handle multi-threaded exports.
Add a Thread Pool
The first thing you'll need to do is add a Thread Pool object. A Thread Pool defines the "bucket" of threads available to one step or another in a Batch Process. In our case, this will allow us to limit the number of threads the Export step uses to a single thread.
To add a Thread Pool:
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Assign the Thread Pool
Next, we need to tell our Batch Process which step should use our new Thread Pool.
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We want to tell the Export step of this Batch Process to use a different Thread Pool, the new one we just created.
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Configure an Activity Processing Service
On to Grooper Config! Grooper services are installed and edited using Grooper Config. Open Grooper Config to install a new Activity Processing service.
⚠ | Grooper Config must be run as an administrator to install and edit services. |
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How To: Licensing Activation
The last step in the process of installing Grooper is license activation. As of Grooper version 2021, license management is now done through Grooper Config.
Grooper can be licensed as "stand-alone" installations, where a single license is activated and registered to a local machine. Or, you can use a licensed installation as a server to hand out licenses to client machines. In this case, the licensed machine will run a Grooper Service, called Grooper Licensing. The client Grooper installations will then call to the service to receive their licensing. This way, a single product license can be used to register multiple Grooper installations.
Regardless, at some point you will need to activate a license on a single machine, whether that machine is a stand-alone install or hosting the Grooper Licensing service. We will start with licensing Grooper to an individual machine.
FYI | License activation changed somewhat in Grooper version 2021. Prior to this version, license activation was performed in Grooper Design Studio. As of Grooper 2021, license activation is performed in Grooper Config. |
Licensing Grooper to an Individual Machine
Obtain a Grooper License
First, you will need to obtain a Grooper license in order to register and activate your installation. You may receive your license in one of two ways.
- As a license key.
- This is by far the most common method. You will receive a serial number key you can use to activate the product online (something like "a1bc2de3-12a3-a123-a1b2345c6de7")
- As a license package.
- This is much less common. A license package is a ".lic" file you can use to activate the product. This is typically used for "locked down" environments where activating online is not an option.
⚠ | If you are planning on installing a Grooper Licensing service to hand out licenses to other workstations, the machine activating the license must be the one to install the service. If you try to install the Grooper Licensing service on a product that has not activated a license as described in the next steps, it will fail to distribute licensing to other machines. |
Open Grooper Config
License activation and management is performed in the Grooper Config application. Open Grooper Config and you will immediately see two things relating to licensing.
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Activate the License: Online Activation
This is the most common license activation method, activating online with a serial number key.
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Offline License Activation
Offline activation allows you to license your machine using a .lic licensing file. This is a less common activation method. This is more appropriate for scenarios where your machine cannot access the internet due to security restrictions.
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Verify Your License
After activating your license, you will see the License property change from being blank to Licensed to... followed by your company's name (or who the license is registered to). |
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You can also view more specific information about your license from Grooper Config.
You can expand the Licenses property to view even more specific information about your license. |
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