Configuring the CTPClient Application for Clinical Trials

The CTPClient application is a program for anonymizing images and transmitting them from image acquisition sites to principal investigator sites in clinical trials. This article describes how to configure, distribute, and run the program. The intended audience for this article is clinical trial administrators and their software minions.

CTPClient can be launched via the Java webstart mechanism, thus removing the necessity for installing CTP applications at the image acquisition sites. When run via webstart, the user accesses a URL on the principal investigator's CTP site, and the CTP site then downloads CTPClient and starts it. The recommended method for launching CTPClient via webstart is to use the CTP Application Server on the CTP site. For general information on the Application Server, see Using the CTP Application Server.

CTPClient can also be launched as a stand-alone application installed on the client computer. When run stand-alone, the program is started by double-clicking the program's icon or by launching a command window and entering the command:

java -jar CTPClient.jar [options]

where [options] is a series of quoted parameters, each in the form:

"param=value"

CTPClient is designed to be configured by setting the [options] parameters for the transmitting site. When run via webstart, these parameters can be supplied by query parameters in the URL, as in this example:

http://ctp.university.edu/webstart/CTPClient?param1=value1&param2=value2

Note that when any value includes whitespace or other illegal character in a URL, the value must be URL-encoded.

The parameters supported by the program are:

url

The URL of the destination HttpImportService.

showURL

"yes" to display a UI field for entering the URL of the destination HttpImportService. "no" to suppress the UI field, thus forcing the URL to be the value of the url parameter. The default value is "yes".

helpURL

The URL to be accessed when the user clicks the Help button on the CTPClient UI. If this parameter is missing, the Help button is not displayed.

windowTitle

The text to be shown in the title bar of the CTP Client window. The default is "CTP Client".

panelTitle

The text to be shown at the top of the main pane in the CTPClient UI. The default is "CTP Client".

protocol

The protocol to be used for communication with the CTP site's web server. This is supplied automatically by the Application Server.

host

The host IP address or domain name (and port) of the CTP site's web server. This is supplied automatically by the Application Server.

application

The name of the application. This is supplied automatically by the application server, and for CTPClient, it is "CTPClient".

daScriptName

the name of a DicomAnonymizer script file stored on the CTP server in the same directory as the CTPClient being served by the Application Server. When present, CTPClient downloads the script file from the server. When not present, CTPClient uses the default script built into the application.

daLUTName

the name of a DicomAnonymizer lookup table file stored on the CTP server in the same directory as the CTPClient being served by the Application Server. When present, CTPClient downloads the lookup table file from the server. When not present, CTPClient uses the default script built into the application.