FileSender

FileSender is a utility program for sending files via HTTP or DICOM. It is written in Java and requires Java 1.5 or better to be on the target computer. Its intended use is as a test program for MIRC development, but it can be used more generally to upload DICOM images to MIRC DICOM services or MIRCdocument zip files to MIRC storage services. It also uploads files to MIRC file services.

Instructions

The installer for FileSender is available on the RSNA MIRC site. Click the Download Software link in the left pane of the MIRC home page to obtain a list of all the available software.

To use the program, download the installer and run it. It will create a folder called FileSender and put the required files inside it. To launch the program, double-click the FileSender.jar file. You can create a shortcut to that file and put it anyplace convenient.

The left pane in FileSender is used to navigate to a file or a folder of interest. The pull-down menu in the header of the left pane lets you choose the root (drive) file system. The button in the footer bar lets you specify the extensions to accept. Enter an asterisk if you wish to accept all files, regardless of their extensions.

The right pane is used to specify the destination URL. There are four example URLs in the header bar:

• a typical transfer to the HttpImportService of a clinical trial service using HTTP
• a typical transfer to the HttpImportService of a clinical trial service using secure sockets layer (HTTPS)
• a typical transfer to a DicomImportService of a clinical trial service
• a typical transfer to a MIRC Submit Service using HTTP

FileSender supports secure sockets layer as well as standard HTTP. To use secure sockets layer, enter https: for the protocol in the URL rather than http:. You must also specify the proper port. If you are sending to a MIRC site, SSL is typically enabled on port 8443. If you run into certificate problems with a MIRC site, see Configuring Tomcat to Support SSL.

Once a file or folder is selected in the left pane and you have entered or selected a URL in the right pane and clicked its radio button to select it, clicking the Send button in the footer bar of the right pane starts the transmission.

• If you selected an individual file in the left pane, that is all that is sent.
• If you selected a folder and the Include subdirectories checkbox in the footer bar is not checked, then it just sends the files in the folder.
• If you selected a folder and also checked the checkbox, then it sends the files in the folder and the files in all the subfolders, walking the entire tree below the selected folder. When sending the contents of a folder, only files matching the specified extensions are sent.

FileSender includes a special mode for automatically unpacking and transmitting the contents of zip files like those constructed by the ManifestGenerator program. This mode is enabled by checking the Unpack zip files checkbox at the bottom of the right pane. When unpacking a zip file, this mode will unpack any contained zip files as well, allowing large datasets to be constructed by zipping together multiple zip files. FileSender will then, with a single command, unpack the entire tree of zip files down to their individual non-zip constituents and send everything. All extracted files are written to the default temp directory and deleted after transmission.

FileSender supports Content-Type setting based on the extension of the file being transmitted. This feature allows transmission of MIRCdocuments in the standard MIRC zip-file export format, defining the Content-Type as application/x-zip-compressed as required by MIRC Submit Services.

• To allow FileSender to set the Content-Type from the extension, uncheck the Force MIRC Content-Type box in the footer of the right pane.
• When using FileSender to transmit DICOM images via HTTP or HTTPS, however, be sure to check the Force MIRC Content-Type box.

The program creates a preferences file and initializes itself to the last settings of the previous run. Each time you run it, it lists all the previous destination URLs and gives you another blank space to add a new one. You can edit, reuse, or erase any of the URLs.

If you find any problems with the program, please post them on the RSNA Forum Site in the MIRC Forum's User Comments thread.