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1. Keyboard CaptUres eerte ettet tont tte treiber nece tpe ber teun entree lenti eee vean testem estet eee orte Record Key Sequence Data Editing hab ainsi ince be eate RAG e E dede ettet Pee eee Where Are My Settings hcec ette atentos lee aeta teet eet eet edet eere ette tends 43 Freefloat Link Scripting 4 eee esee e eese eee ee seen netos seen eta setas enne enses tease ese to ssepe sess season 44 lo Mun m 44 The RTENEETITTIUET RR 45 Script ATCP d 46 Event Methods eere eee eee e esee eee es setae tons enses so sense enses sees esa se ens ense esse ss senseenseeseesses FZ erii mm S 47 OnENd ARR RRRRERRR 47 oriData data length 5 stretto tons eee aca i a celer A teens en qe ie epe C IRE TRENT 48 onbotKeyUnatme uum Sissvedsousevan tertie ttes ete AEE E AERE ESE 49 onKeyboardCapture name data oe sseccsescsescsseccsssersescsscccnsecsseseneecssescssceesseesscecssecssecssneecsseesseesuseesneeeaeeseeesseeees 50 onExternalData data length ssscssecsssscsseesseecsseccssecsscccnseesssecssccssscesscessecsuscesscesssecsueessecesseesseesseeeseesseeeseeees 50 onTimer On CTS status eset acces edes et ecer oe as aduses ee eoe ore o eee nre ES UASA EASA LAETA EAA eL
2. In the example above the onTimer Interval has been set to 3000 milliseconds 3 seconds This means that the onTimer script method will be called once every three seconds This method can be used for adding timeout logic to a solution Example Output a time stamp to the active application at the onTimer interval function onTimer app send os date H M S Enter end Page 52 onCTS status This method is called when the hardware handshake signal changes state The argument status is true when the signal goes high and false when the signal goes low This description also applies to onDSR onRI and onDCD Example Outputs the state of CTS when it is changed function convertSignal status if status then return High else return Low end end function onCTS status app send CTS convertSignal status Enter end Page 53 Script Methods Lua is a generic script language and has methods to manipulate string tables files and so on However it does not contain any methods to retrieve the title of a window simulate keys etc So in order to activate an application window send key strokes and similar operations a number of internal methods in Freefloat Link have been exposed to the embedded Lua script engine The tables below offers an overview of the methods The methods have been grouped into areas of interest for easier reference Below
3. Hardware Pin Events zcv a CTS Low E DSR High E DSR Low RI High RI Low DCD High T DCD Low In a serial port there are four incoming signals called CTS DSR RI and DCD Freefloat Link can be set up to monitor these signals and generate an event when a signal is changed An event can be generated when the signal goes high and or when it goes low If the event is enabled in this dialog a corresponding method in the script will be called The default implementations of these methods send the signal name and its status high or low function convertSignal status if status then return High else return Low end end function onCTS status app send CTS convertSignal status Enter end function onDSR status app send DSR convertSignal status Enter end function onRI status app send RI convertSignal status Enter end function onDCD status app send DCD convertSignal status Enter end Page 19 Keyboard Tab The Interkey Delay specifies the delay that should be used between each key press when simulating keyboard data to an application For example Microsoft s Terminal Services client in full screen mode looses key presses if this is set to zero Note that this is a global delay A recorded key sequence may contain additional delays between key presses Page 20
4. Record Delays Click Finish to complete the keyboard capture definition If you have a USB HID barcode scanner which you have adapted the above example to you can now click OK until the main window of Freefloat Link is displayed set the focus to Notepad and test the keyboard capture If it works something like this should be displayed If you only get the barcode contents the keyboard capture is not working This is probably because a mistake was made in the setup of the scanner or the prefix sequence If you don t get anything and the keyboard seems to have stopped working then the suffix sequence is probably wrong Page 34 The default implementation of the script method onKeyboardCapture looks like this function onKeyboardCapture captureName data app send Keyboard Capture captureName data Enter I oo end Remember that you can have one or more USB HID scanners connected to your PC as well as a serial device at the same time Page 35 Record Key Sequence The Record Key Sequence dialog is used for recording key definitions hot keys and prefix and suffix of keyboard captures The New button removes any recorded key events and starts the recorder The list of events is not updated during the recording The Add button also starts the recorder but new events are added to the list instead of starting a new key sequence The Stop button st
5. Handle the tail of the dump local c length if c 8 0 then while c 9o 8 0 do numbers numbers c c 1 end app send numbers text Enter end end Page 48 To test the above example copy and paste the code into the script replacing the default implementation of onData Use Timeout as the Data String Terminator Connect a serial device to the serial port and make it generate some data Below is the output when reading a barcode containing W1711010814107013621 using a serial barcode reader S7 SL 37 SL JL 90 Si 90 MALOLO 38 31 34 31 30 37 30 31 81410701 33 36 32 31 MGE 3621 The last character 0d hexadecimal is the same as 13 in decimal notation The ASCII character with code 13 is carriage return This means the barcode reader is using carriage return lt cr gt as its data string terminator onHotKey name This method is called when you press a hot key The argument to this method is the name of the hot key that was pressed Example Message box displaying the hot key s name function onHotKey name app messageBox Hot Key Pressed name end When executed the above method will display a message box with the name of the hot key Page 49 onKeyboardCapture name data Called when a keyboard capture string has been received The arguments to this method are the name of the keyboard capture and the data Example Display the name
6. app messageBox Freefloat Link Script Goodbye end Page 86 exitWindows options Description Either logs off the current user shuts down the PC or shuts down and restarts the PC Arguments Argument Type Description Number optional Type of action to be performed Returns Nothing Constants The following constants define the type of action to be performed exitWindowsOpts LOGOFF 0 SHUTDOWN 1 REBOOT 2 FORCE 4 POWEROFF 8 b Please note that the default value for options is Logoff 0 The Force 4 value must be used in combination with Logoff 0 Shutdown 1 Reboot 2 or Poweroff 8 Use Force 4 with care since it will end applications without asking the user to save data Example Log off user function onHotKey name app exitWindows exitWindowsOpts LOGOFF end Page 87 getProfile Description Gets the current Freefloat Link profile Arguments None Returns A string containing the name of the current profile Constants None Example Display the current profile s name function onHotKey name app messageBox Freefloat Link Script Current Profile app getProfile end Page 88 getTickCount Description Gets the number of milliseconds elapsed since the system was started This method can for example be used to take time between events in Free
7. Makes the internal PC speaker beep with the specified frequency and duration Arguments Argument Type Description The frequency of the beep in Hertz The duration of the beep in milliseconds Returns true if successful false otherwise Constants None Example Issue a short beep 3000 Hz 50 ms when Freefloat Link is started function onStart app beep 3000 50 end Page 56 blinklcon icon duration Description Changes the notification icon color for the specified duration After the duration has elapsed the icon will return to the default color grey The operation is asynchronous in other words if blinklcon is called again before the duration for the first call has elapsed the new icon is set immediately by the second call Arguments Argument Type Description icon icon Number The icon color index duration Number The duration in milliseconds the color should be displayed before restoring the default color Returns Nothing Constants iconColors GREY 0 GREEN 1 YELLOW 2 BLUE 3 RED 4 h Example Please note the delay in the loop is needed to display each icon color for half a second Cycle through icon colors function onStart for i iconColors GREY iconColors RED do app blinkIcon i 500 app sleep 500 end end Page 57 log filename message Description
8. If you specify a length condition any data strings shorter or longer will not be modified by the wizard rules You can enter texts that should be present in the data string Entering 00 in the At Start field will check for 00 in the beginning of the data string Then any string that starts with something else will not meet the condition Click the Next button when you are done Page 13 Specify what should be stripped from the data string You can specify a number of characters to be stripped from the start or the end of the data string Or enter a text to be stripped at the indicated characters from the start characters from the end Here you can choose between two options QO Stripping a certain number of characters at the start and or the end of the data string or L Removing one or more texts at the indicated positions of the data string For example if you specify 00 in the field At Start and the data string is 0012345 the resulting output will be 12345 However if the data string is 9912345 nothing will be removed from the start of the data string If you leave all fields empty no text will be stripped from the data string Click the Next button when you are done Page 14 Enter up to three texts that should be replaced with another text Here you can enter up to three text replacements that should be done Enter the text you want to replace in one of the Search for fields and then enter
9. Key Settings A key definition is a named key sequence Key definitions are referred to in an expression passed to the app send method which replays the key presses recorded in the key definition When clicking the Key Settings button in the Keyboard tab the following dialog is displayed By default Freefloat Link defines many of the standard keys on the keyboard You can add edit and remove a key definition For example let s say you want to add the key sequence Ctrl A Click on Add in the dialog above Page 21 Enter the name Ctrl A in the Name edit box Note Enclose the name in curly brackets For example Home Then click on the button Page 22 Ctrl A Note Endose the name in curly brackets For example Home All key names must be enclosed in and Click Next gt Page 23 Edit Remove Insert Character Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording Record Delays Click New to start recording your sequence and then press and hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then press the A key Release both keys Click on the Stop button Note The Record Key Sequence is a dialog common for key definitions hot keys and keyboard captures It is explained in detail in a separate section later on Page 24 The dialog should now look like this Remove Insert Character Remove All Delays Remove All
10. Q freefloat Freefloat Link version 6 0 User s Manual Contacting Freefloat eere eee eese eee eese eese ene ta setas ense seta seta sense ease eo sees e tasto seas e sesso osis 5 What is Freefloat Link eere eese eese essen sees seen eta seta sense ense eth stes ta seen sean s etas e ta sense ense ena 6 icr E M M N 7 Supported Platforms R 7 Getting Started BRRBERIRERRERIRRRRIREREER bou perses props ps tis rS r tsis p opor Strio nsin 8 Starting Freefloat Link for the First Time sesessessossossesoesoossesossoosessossossessosoossosossoosesssssoss 8 Testing with a Serial Device esssesoesessossossessosoossessssoossssossoesessossossossossossessossessssossoesssssesese 10 Testing with a Hot Key sessessesesssssoesessossossessosoossesossoossesossoosessossossossossessessososssesossosssssossese 11 LITE p 4T Co PEE E E E E E A 13 Freefloat Link Settings eere esee sees sees sense ense ense roires oianean neor enr esse s 17 Main WindowW 4 eere cerne eene en tense en senate seta sense toast es sees etas esas ena seno ERIT ENDE issus 17 EC TUDIERPIE DT 18 The COMMUNICATION Tab ci eterne de e dee Hee HER euo e eH epe RES Here 18 Keyboard Tab ehe aen aene En en aa don ente dere RARES 20 Key Settings HOTKEY p
11. WELCOME 22355 EXCLAMATION 8531 DEFAULT 17491 The possible values of the options argument soundOptions SYNC 0 ASYNC 1 NODEFAULT 2 LOOP 8 NOSTOP 16 NOWAIT 8192 y Example Play the sound mapped to the system event Exclamation function onHotKey name app playSystemSound systemSounds EXCLAMATION soundOptions SYNC end Page 62 send data Description Sends keyboard data Arguments Argument Type Description The data to send The argument data is a string consisting of text key names and Unicode characters Type Sample String Description Text Rob was here Regular characters Key Name Enter Key names corresponds to the keys defined in the dialog Key Settings Unicode 65 Character in Unicode decimal notation 0x0041 Character in Unicode hexadecimal notation Returns Nothing Constants None Example function onHotKey name Send a regular string app send Rob was here Send the characters ABC by using Unicode notation app send 0x0041 0x0042 0x0043 Send enter using its key name app send Enter end Note e When you want send to send the characters and you need to escape those with a backslash There is a helper method called escapeData in the supplied file extra lua e If you specify a key name for a key that is not
12. Writes the message to the specified log file Note that logging with this method from the script is separate from the built in logging facility Arguments Argument Type Description filename String The path and name of the log file to write to The log message to write Returns Nothing Example function onStart app log c myscript log onStart called end Page 58 messageBox title message type Description Displays a message box with the specified title and message The type argument specifies the number and type of buttons used Arguments Argument Type Description title String The message box title message String The message to be displayed Number optional The type of buttons to use Returns A value from the constants in mbResults see below indicating the button clicked Constants Use one of the following constants for the type argument mbTypes OK 0 OKCANCEL 1 YESNOCANCEL 3 YESNO 4 ICONHAND 16 ICONQUESTION 32 ICONEXCLAMATION 48 ICONASTERISK 64 DEFBUTTON1 0 DEFBUTTON2 256 DEFBUTTON3 512 The possible return values are mbResults i OK 1 CANCEL 2 YES 6 NO 7 Page 59 Example Ask the user if she he wants to exit Freefloat Link and acts on the answer function onHotKey name local result app me
13. Windows enumWindows handle Description Enumerates all windows Arguments Argument Type Description handle Number The handle to the window whose child windows should be enumerated Specify null 0 to enumerate all top level windows Returns A table containing all the window handles of the enumerated windows Constants None Example Enumerate all top level windows place handle values and window titles on clipboard function onHotKey name local t app enumWindows 0 local stot for k v in pairs t do s string format 08x v stot stot s app getWindowText v n end Paste the clipboard into a program to display the result app setClipboardData stot end Page 66 findWindow title class Description Finds a window with the specified title and class Arguments Argument Type Description The title of the sought window String optional The window class of the sought window Returns The window handle if the window is found or null otherwise Constants None Example function onHotKey name Check if Notepad is running with no doc name given if app findWindow Untitled Notepad then app messageBox Freefloat Link Script Notepad is running else app messageBox Freefloat Link Script Notepad is not running end end Page 67 getForegroundWindow Description Gets the handle
14. app setClipboardData s local text textlen app getClipboardData app messageBox Clipboard Contents string format 9od characters r n textlen text end Page 75 Application Launch closeAppHandle handle Description Closes the application handle Arguments Argument Type Description The application handle Returns Nothing Constants None Example See the run method Page 76 isAppRunning handle Description Determines if an application is still running Arguments Argument Type Description The application handle Returns Nothing Constants true if the application is still running false otherwise Example See the run method Page 77 run program argument delay Description Starts a program with the specified arguments Arguments Argument Type Description The full path to the executable The command line argument string delay Number optional The number of milliseconds to wait until the started application is waiting for user input If this argument isn t specified the default wait time is 10000 ms Returns The application handle Note that this handle needs to be closed with the method closeAppHandle to avoid memory leaks If the application couldn t be started a runtime error occurs Constants None Example function onHotKey name local appHandle app run c windows notepad exe c Wt
15. EO DNE Tees Script MethOdSs seien vetet rerit EN AAEE TRU EVENTS Ree o a BURNS ERVERR E EPCE E e ROLES RUE UIRT Output User Feedback beep frequency duration ee etes eieeet tentes ttes tonat notet toss tto tts otto nitentes stis asttnstttos 56 blinkIcon icon duration wccccscsssestscssescssesessessescssssessesssssssssssssesssscssssesssessescssssessessssessssssesessesesssessesessssesee 57 log filename message messageBox title message type rsescssescsseccsescsseecssccenseesssceseccssecessseeuscesssccsseesssecsucecssecesseeseecessesseeeseeeeseeess playSound filename options 0 csessesscsseseccseecsseecsseccssecsssceseecssecssscesssecsssccssecssccsusecenseesssesuseesssessseesseceneeees playSystemSound systemEvent options send data tte sendSerialData data length iii redet fetten e esed vedo ee as re ere sendSubscriberData data length WindOWS etc rent etin etre deine enumWindows handle findWindow title class getForegroundWindow getWindowcClass handle ssesccssscsssecsesccesscsscnsecssseecssecsscecssecescesnseessseessecsuscessecessecsuseessecenseccuseesueeeneesseeeneeees getWindowText handle ou eceessssescsssccseeceseecssccsssccesecessecsssccssecsssecsusccssecessecsuccsssecssecsuseesuseeuseecuseesueesseesseesseeees setForegroundWindow handle setWindowText handle text eese te tetentn tetto ntetenin tato to states tata to tensa sen iata sesenta spese sa
16. Freefloat Link Left 3 string sub data 1 3 Extract a substring from the end of the string WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link Right 3 string sub data 3 Extract characters from position three up to position four Please note the difference in parameters Freefloat Link Mid 3 2 string sub data 3 4 From the first A in the string extract five characters including the A WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link Mid A 5 string gsub data A 961 Extracts characters from position six to the end of the string Freefloat Link string sub data 6 Scans for the first string and extracts all characters up to the second string 23 and CD is not included in the result WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link SubStr 23 CD string gsub data 23 CD 1 Page 105 The entire data string WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link Input data Inserts the current date in the specified format WLing 3 x Freefloat Link Date 96Y 96m 96d os date Y m d Inserts the current time in the specified format WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link Time 96H 96M os date H M Concatenations of expressions WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link X Left 2 Right 2 X string sub data 1 2 string sub data 2 WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link lt cr gt lt tab gt 13 9 x09 FC d013 ELO Combining text and key pre
17. The following script only sends data to a window who s title contain the text Notepad function onData data length windowTitle app getWindowText app getForegroundWindow if string find windowTitle Notepad then app send data Enter end end Page 99 Initialization String ro X DOa 8 0 Communication Keyboard Window Initialization Log Data Editing Initialization String Vo Bemve Start WLing when Windows starts up The Initialization String can be used for sending a command to for example a barcode scanner that needs some enabling or configuration command at startup In Freefloat Link the following script could instead be used to send commands to the equipment attached to the serial port function onStart output Hello scanner app sendSerialData output string len output end Note onStart is called when a profile is activated This happens when Freefloat Link starts but also when you click OK in the Settings dialog Similarly onEnd is called when Freefloat Link is exited and also when the Settings dialog is entered by clicking the Settings button in the main window Page 100 Filter Unknown Data Strings x Communication Keyboard Window Initialization Log Data Editing T c j ce see C Timeout E milliseconds Riter Unknown Data Strings WLinq 3 19 Filter Unknown Data Strings
18. a Windows API function called SendInput to simulate key presses to the active application This API is recommended by Microsoft because it takes care of differences between different keyboard locales For example on a French keyboard the letter A is positioned where the letter Q is on a US UK keyboard layout However this technique of simulating keys doesn t work with all environments and applications used on the Windows platform So far problems have been spotted with thin clients Terminal Services or Citrix Java applications and Flash applications To address this issue key sequences for digits lower case and upper case letters has been recorded and is present in the default configuration of Freefloat Link Script functions for translating digits and letters to key sequences are provided in extra lua Also the function sendData in the default script txt contains information about how to activate this feature Please note that the key sequences are tailored for the most common keyboard layouts OWERTY with non shifted keys for digits You need to modify some of these key sequences to make it work on for example AZERTY French and OWERTZ German keyboard layouts Page 111 Appendix B Lua Copyright Copyright 1994 2008 Lua org PUC Rio Permission is hereby granted free of charge to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files the Software to deal in the Software without restriction inc
19. and data of a keyboard capture event function onKeyboardCapture name data app messageBox Keyboard Capture Name name n Data data end If you have a keyboard captured defined called My USB Scanner and it captures the string 73105541 the method in the above example will display this dialog Name My USB Scanner Data 73105541 onExternalData data length Called when an external application sends data to Freefloat Link The arguments are the received data and the length of it External applications can send data to Freefloat Link They do it by finding the window handle of Freefloat Link s window and then send a WM COPYDATA message to the window Example Display data and length sent to Freefloat Link from an external application function onExternalData data length app messageBox External Data Received Data Length length bytes end Data Length 5 bytes Page 50 This feature makes it possible to create an application that integrates tightly with Freefloat Link For example the code in onExternalData could relay the data to a scanner to make it beep initiate a scan configure it etc Page 51 onTimer Called periodically at the specified timer interval This method receives no arguments settings EMEN 7 Use Log File Hide Window On Statup F On Incoming Data A on Timer Interval ms F Autostart
20. defined it will be ignored e When sending data to certain applications they might miss key presses if the key events are sent too fast or too early You may need to increase the setting Interkey Delay and or intersperse calls to send with calls to sleep or findWindow depending on the situation Page 63 sendSerialData data length Description Sends serial data to the COM port Note that Freefloat Link needs to be configured to use a COM port for this method to work Arguments Argument Type Description data String The data to send to the COM port The number of characters of data that should be sent Returns Nothing Constants None Example Send a binary string to the COM port function onHotKey name Build a string containing the characters null soh and stx local s string char O string char 1 string char 2 app sendSerialData s 3 end Page 64 sendSubscriberData data length Description Sends data to subscribers If there are no subscribers calling this method has no effect Arguments Argument Type Description data String The data to send to subscribers The number of characters of data that should be sent Returns Nothing Constants None Example function onHotKey name Send a string to all connected subscribers local s Hello Subscriber app sendSubscriberData s string len s end Page 65
21. sw saspe a windowOperation handle operation eee ees eees seen tentent tento ts totns tta tta tts ttna teta ttssttnss 73 CIPO AA oec ERN 74 getClipboardData 2 1 mter tt eet a a a eel ocean a is 74 setClipboardData text desinteres ina deti oes tociens oe deti order tg nn 75 Application Launch dne tiere tette dete eese entree teorie eden eben edente 76 closeAppHandle handle esssessssssssssssssscsssecsessscsssssssccsscsnscssccsuccscssucessceussssccescssscsnscsuccsucesscsuccsscsasesacsascenseeneeses 76 isAppRunning handle 4 3 exitio ettet leet tedio treten A ie ettet 77 run program argument delay escssscsscssseccesecsecsseecnsecssscesseccssccssseessecsuscesseesssecsueccnsceessecssecsucesnecsueeeseeess 78 SET EEAS 79 ClosePOrFt 5 ie ect tese ecards a coe eoe peste ete eee e citare teca he eR eee a eoe EROR DI DR EE openPort SOLD TR Stat s uite ose ni didvnsetiere river ttis teer vete HV p iv eret ieaiai 83 Seth TS Status 422i EEE e vere oberste rela verse b vete o OAE 84 Miscellaneous ean128 data strict ii ERU LH E E exitWindowsCoptlons eniro etre nana dee fecere dee lntuerep rt ibn eed eel eub ee o ree cere Deere RR ERANT 87 getProfile eee urere teretes S egre pesi A deett ete A EEEO eei Root 88 getTIckCoUnt aet i Rotes obstet esi bres des Mete eee oae ente e
22. the text you want to replace it with in the corresponding Replace with field Click the Next button when you are done Page 15 Enter text you want to be added at the start and or the end of the data string Key sequences like for example Enter may be used For a list of defined keys dick on the Key Settings button in the Keyboard tab In this last dialog you can enter texts that should be added to the data string at the start or the end When you are done click on the Finish button When you do you need to confirm that you want to create the wizard script The wizard script is a Lua script and can be modified manually afterwards if you for example need to add more advanced conditions or modifications Please note that the wizard script is overwritten each time you run the wizard Page 16 Freefloat Link Settings This section explains the settings in Freefloat Link For information about where the settings are actually stored please refer to the section Where Are My Settings later in this section Main Window From the main window you can control Freefloat Link modify the settings and so on Freefloat Link 5 12 lex Copyright c 1998 2012 Freefloat Profile Default Delete Action Description Unload Exitstreefloat Link Hides the main window Click the notification area icon to show the main window if it is hidden Settings amp j DisplaystheSettingsdial
23. to synchronize the script with an external application that does its job and then exits WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link WaitForAppExit 30000 function onData data length Launch Notepad if it could not be started the script is aborted which means there is no need to check the handle local appHandle app run notepad exe Wait until Notepad is exited while app isAppRunning appHandle do app sleep 100 end Close the handle to avoid leaks app closeAppHandle appHandle Tell the user we are done app messageBox Freefloat Link Notepad is gone end Page 109 If a script calls app closePort the script can start an external application that uses the same serial port When that external application is exited the script can re open the serial port by calling app openPort Open the serial port WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link OpenPort app openPort Close the serial port WLing 3 x Freefloat Link ClosePort app closePort Send data to the serial port WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link SendData abc data abc app sendSerialData data data len Note The profile switch is performed when the script has finished its execution Switch profile WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link SetProfile Profile2 app setProfile Profile2 Page 110 Appendix A Support for Thin Clients Java Applications and Flash Applications Normally Freefloat Link uses
24. In WLinq 3 x if no data editing format matched the input data the option Filter Unknown Data Strings determined whether the input data should be discarded or let through unmodified The same effect can easily be implemented in a Freefloat Link script function onData data length if string find data K06 1 true then app send data Enter end end The above script makes Freefloat Link filter all input data that doesn t start with the characters K06 Page 101 Input Data Replacements x Click Add to add an input data replacement Select a OK replacement and click E dit to edit a replacement Select a replacement and click Remove to remove a replacement Cae The replacements are executed in the order they appear in the list Use the up and down buttons to re order the replacements Search for Replace with Add Remove WLinq 3 19 Input Data Replacements Dialog The replacement function in earlier WLing versions was quite easy to use But it lacked power and flexibility Below is an example of a simple substring replacement It replaces all occurrences of the character K with the character X function onData data length app send string gsub data K X Enter end Multiple replacements can be done by storing the result in a string variable and repeat the process Here K is replaced with X and A is replaced with TEST function onData data length l
25. Scan Codes New V Filter Keys During Recording ees Stop Click Finish to complete the key definition Key definitions are used with the method app send from a script For example function onData data length app send data Ctri A end For more information about app send see the topic Freefloat Link Scripting Page 25 Hot Keys A hot key is a key sequence that when pressed causes the script method onHotKey to be called When clicking the Hot Keys button in the Keyboard tab the following dialog is displayed By default Freefloat Link does not contain any hot key definitions In the above dialog you can add edit and remove hot keys To add a hot key click on the Add button Page 26 Enter a name for the hot key and click Next Page 27 Remove Insert Character Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording Click on New and then press the key or a combination of keys to define your hot key For example press F12 Then click Stop Page 28 7 Filter Keys During Recording Record Delays Please note that the hot key sequence above consists of both the F12 down event and the F12 up event You can remove the up event from the key sequence to make the hot key feel more responsive but remember that if you do so the F12 up event will be passed to the application This
26. When Freefloat Link receives data from a device a hot key is pressed etc certain methods in the script are called The code in these scripts determines what action is taken The name of the script file is Script txt and is placed in the Freefloat Link application data folder The location of this folder varies depending on what operating system you are using If you need to make a backup of the script or copy it to another PC click on the Browse Script Folder on the Misc tab in the Settings dialog Windows Explorer is opened and displays the contents of the script folder When you edit the script remember to restart Freefloat Link to recompile the script or use the faster alternative of entering the Settings dialog and then exiting it If you make a mistake for example create a syntax error an error message is displayed when the script is compiled n Freefloat Link mcm X Unable to load Lua script script txt 15 expected near Also some errors can appear when the script is running so called run time errors Here are a couple of examples F Freefloat Link im v Error in Lua script script txt 17 Missing argument to function messageBox r Freefloat Link mem v Error in Lua script script txt 16 attempt to perform arithmetic on global 5 N x a nil value Page 44 The Lua Language From http www lua org about html Lua is a powerfu
27. aptures In the above dialog you can add edit and remove keyboard captures To add a keyboard capture click on the Add button Page 30 The following example shows how to define a keyboard capture for a specific USB HID scanner The scanner has been setup to send the key sequence Shift down Ctrl down A down A up Ctrl up and Shift up Enter the name then click the Next button The dialog Record Keyboard Capture Prefix is displayed Click on the New button read a barcode with the USB scanner and then click the Stop button Page 31 Edit Remove Insert Character Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording Record Delays Note that all the keys the scanner generates when reading a barcode gets recorded prefix barcode data and suffix In the dialog above the line directly after the prefix has been selected You need to click on the Remove button repeatedly to remove the key events for the barcode data and suffix from the list Page 32 Left in the list is a key sequence that only contains the key events for the prefix Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording E Record Delays Page 33 Click Next and repeat the recording but this time remove all the key events except the suffix Edit Remove Insert Character Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording
28. button Browse Script Folder will open Windows Explorer in the folder that contains the script configuration and the license file The button Wizard starts the wizard Please see the topic The Wizard for information about the wizard For information about scripting in Freefloat Link see the topic Freefloat Link Scripting Page 41 Misc Tab m M Mec V Use Log File c Xemp mylog bt Hide Window V On Startup On Incoming Data onTimer Interval 3000 ms M If you would like all the internal messages and events in Freefloat Link to be written to a log check the setting Use Log File and enter a valid path and filename in the edit box The log file is mostly used for troubleshooting a script When you check On Startup Freefloat Link s main window will be hidden on startup When you check On Incoming Data it will be hidden when serial data is received When a value greater than 0 is entered into onTimer Interval the script method onTimer will be called once during the specified time interval For example if you enter the value 3000 onTimer will be called once every third second Please take care when choosing a value here if you enter 1 ms onTimer will be called 1000 times per second This could make your PC unresponsive Of course this will be highly dependant on what code the onTimer method contains When the option Autostart is checked Freefloat Link will be started automatical
29. by another field the data must be delimited by a Group Separator GS ASCII 29 hex 1D An alternative name of this method is gs1128 Please refer to http www gs1 org for information about GS1 Application Identifiers Arguments Argument Type Description The GS1 128 data to be parsed and split into separate fields strict Boolean In strict mode spaces are not allowed in alphanumeric fields Returns A table where the keys are the Application Identifiers Als and the values are the contents of the fields If the parsing fails a nil value is returned The parsing can fail if the code is not a GS1 code or if the code doesn t follow the standard Constants None Example Parses and outputs a list of AIs and values function onData data length Parse the GS1 code fields app eani28 data true if fields then Output ATs and values for k v in pairs fields do app send AI k Value v Enter end app send Enter else app messageBox Freefloat Link Script GS1 parsing failed end end Page 85 exit Description Exits Freefloat Link Please note that the exit is not immediate Freefloat Link will exit as soon as the current script has finished executing Arguments None Returns Nothing Constants None Example function onHotKey name Will exit Freefloat Link as soon as this method has finished executing app exit
30. d and the format in WLinq 3 x is different Please refer to the Lua documentation for the Lua pattern format A big advantage with scripting in Freefloat Link is that more complex decisions can be made for example mixing length and pattern matching something that was not possible in WLinq 3 x Multiple criteria used in WLinq 3 x can be implemented by chaining if elseif statements function onData data length if length 9 then app send Nine characters data Enter elseif length 13 then app send Thirteen characters data Enter else app send Not 9 and not 13 data Enter end end Page 104 Data Format Output In a WLinq 3 x data format expressions was entered into the data format output edit box and combined with plus In Freefloat Link all the string operations are using the facilities of the embedded script language To make Freefloat Link simulate a possibly modified string as keyboard output you need to pass the string to the method app send Use the table below as a guide for converting expressions in WLinq 3 x to Freefloat Link Most string operations in WLing 3 x operated on the data input string implicitly In Freefloat Link the data string is an argument sent to the script methods onData onKeyboardCapture and onExternalData Constant string WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link ABC ABC Extract a substring from the start of the string WLinq 3 x
31. e created on the Start menu J Freefloat Link Freefloat Link hr Manual M Monitor Here you can start Freefloat Link this manual or the Monitor program Starting Freefloat Link for the First Time Navigate to the Freefloat Link folder on the Start menu and then click on Freefloat Link Freefloat Link starts and the main window and the licensing dialog appear r Unregistered Welcome to Freefloat Link MAC Address 00 24 81 1E 09 CA 021 Click Register and enter your license key supplied to you by your reseller Or click Demo to run Freefloat Link in demo mode The demo mode allows for twenty events to be handled Freefloat Link can be restarted to get twenty more events When Freefloat Link is licensed or you click the Demo button in the Unregistered Dialog the main window is displayed Freefloat Link 5 12 El Copyright c 1998 2012 Freefloat Profile Default Delete Please note that Freefloat Link adds an icon to the notification area the left most one in the picture below E a By default Freefloat Link tries to open the serial port COM1 with the settings 9600 bps 8 data bits no parity and one stop bit If your PC does not have a serial port called COM1 or if COM1 has been opened by another application Freefloat Link displays the following error message Page 8 r Freefloat Link Failed to open serial port COMI If this is a com port that exist on this y PC a
32. e filter time OR the timer has wrapped around extremely rare if lastCode data or elapsed gt duplicateFilterTime or elapsed lt 0 then Update last code and time lastCode data timeStamp app getTickCount Do not filter the code return false else Filter the code return true end end function onData data length if not duplicateFilter data then app send data Enter end end Page 96 Case Setting rc XA x Communication Keyboard Window Initialization Log Data Editing Inter character Delay E 3 ee WLinq 3 19 Keyboard Property Page The Case Setting function has been removed To achieve the same in a script use the appropriate sample from below Normal Case function onData data length app send data Enter end Upper Case function onData data length app send string upper data Enter end Lower Case function onData data length app send string lower data Enter end Page 97 Character Translation x Character ASCII Key Code Active Shift Ctl Alt Caps Diacritice Ext DK Em sm eee Edit Default WLinq 3 19 Character Translation Dialog In WLinq 3 x the only way to have WLinq press special keys like Home Page Down and similar was awkward First you had to choose a character position then redefine that position to map the character to for example t
33. ek letter B beta scroll down in the Character Map window until you find the character Click on it and note that the character s Unicode value is displayed in the status bar of the Character Map window The value is 0x03B2 Enter this value in the Unicode edit box r Edit Unicode Character A key sequence can contain both recorded key events and character elements Page 39 Data Editing Tab The Data String Termination setting tells Freefloat Link which character or character sequence terminates a data string received on the serial port Alternatively you can use a timeout value as a terminator This means that if Timeout is set to 30 ms Freefloat Link will terminate an input string when no data has been received for 30 ms Clicking on Select will display a list of characters from which you can choose the terminator Page 40 A terminator can be made up of more than one character and you can have multiple terminators For example you have a device that terminates the data string with cr If sometimes and etx sometimes Then the terminator would look like this Data Editing The Edit Script button opens the Freefloat Link script The name of the script file is Script txt and it is opened in the associated program normally Notepad The text editor SciTE knows the syntax of Lua It might be useful when writing Freefloat Link scripts The
34. est txt As an extra precaution app sleep 500 Send some text to Notepad app send Hi Wait until the user exits Notepad while app isAppRunning appHandle do app sleep 100 end Close the handle app closeAppHandle appHandle Confirm exit with a message app messageBox Freefloat Link Script Notepad is dead end Page 78 Serial Port closePort Description Closes the serial port Arguments None Returns Nothing Constants None Example See the openPort method Page 79 getDTR Description Gets the status of the DTR signal of the serial port DTR is an output signal Arguments None Returns A boolean which indicates the DTR signal status true high false low Constants None Example Display the status of the DTR signal function displayDTRStatus local s off if app getDTR then S on end app messageBox Freefloat Link Script DTR is s end function onHotKey name Display default from settings displayDTRStatus Modify status and display it app setDTR false displayDTRStatus app setDTR true displayDTRStatus end Page 80 getRTS Description Gets the status of the RTS signal of the serial port RTS is an output signal Arguments None Returns A boolean which indicates the RTS signal status true high false low Constants No
35. float Link Arguments None Returns The number of milliseconds elapsed since the system was started Constants None Example lastTime 0 Displays the time between each hot key event function onHotKey name Is this the first time the event happens if lastTime 0 then app send First event Enter else Display the time elapsed since last time this event happened local timeElapsed app getTickCount lastTime app send timeElapsed ms Enter end Remember time stamp for future calls lastTime app getTickCount end Page 89 lockWorkStation Description Locks Windows Arguments None Returns true if successful false otherwise Constants None Example Locks the Windows session function onHotKey name app lockWorkStation end Page 90 setProfile profile Description Sets the current profile in Freefloat Link Please note that a profile change reinitializes the Lua script engine and because of this any information held in global variables will be lost If you need any information to survive over a profile switch you will need to store it in a file The actual switch is delayed until the script has finished executing the current method Arguments Argument Type Description The name of the profile to switch to Returns Nothing Constants None Example myVar 0 function onStart app mes
36. function for the WLinq 3 x WaitForWindow Below is a full example of a script which waits for a Notepad window to appear activates the window and after a small delay sends the data to the window Some common situations where you need to wait for a window are when waiting for an Open dialog to appear after sending Ctrl O or when you have launched an application with app run and need to wait for it to be ready to receive input WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link WaitForWindow function waitForWindow pattern waittime Notepad 3000 local maxwaittime app getTickCount waittime local found false while app getTickCount lt maxwaittime and not found do local t app enumWindows 0 for k v in pairs t do if string match app getWindowText v pattern then found true break end end end return found end function onData data length local pattern Notepad if waitForWindow pattern 5000 then setForegroundWindow pattern app sleep 250 app send data Enter end end Page 108 No direct equivalent function for WaitForAppExit exists in Freefloat Link The same result can be achieved by using app isAppRunning Even though the sample below demonstrates a script that pauses until you exits Notepad Freefloat Link is not intended to have a script that interact with the user except for app messageBox since there may be side effects app isAppRunning is intended to be used
37. he Home key Then in the data output format you had to use that character in the output string for example Input x81 Freefloat Link has no character translation table instead you can record a custom key sequence and give it a name Edit Key Sequence VK NEXT down VK NEXT up Note Enclose the name in curly brackets For example Home Filter Keys During Recording Add Record Delays zm Cea om Come Page 98 The key name can then be used as an expression in the string passed to the send method function onData data length app send Page Down data end Send Pre and Postfix Keys This feature mainly existed for the integration of WLinq to Freefloat Access One When activated the key sequence Ctrl Alt 1 was sent before the data string and Ctrl Alt 2 was sent after the data string It enabled Access One to distinguish between keyboard and barcode data To achieve the same result record the key sequences and given them the names Prefix and Postfix and then use them in an expression function onData data length app send Prefix data Postfix end Lock Output Window x Communication Keyboard Window initialization Log Data Editing Hide window automatically on incoming data T Lock output window WLinq 3 19 Lock Output Window The Lock Output Window function can be implemented in a script
38. i boca a 89 lockWorkStatiOrn ette ecran entero reet oed eec iese Dea ope nba rab eee nc 90 setProfileCprofile 13 tto ee ei eret tee eR Du ei oe e a ae RR eee NG ee el ee RR RR RR 91 setTimer interval 4 reeeotecnote pu scesncsasuunadsaascuressecvncssyatensoassecssaieacesseasssnerssuodesbivessseraisnessestusdantieatousetaecuedea 92 SIS PC UIA niea po 93 Notification Area COI 5 eiiseeeesceececsvusvec ceo vec e eoe aes ea ess su sepece rara ctos dope beo deor aoa cos aeo co pe a aseo epi epe rors S 94 Migration guide WLinq 3 x to Freefloat Link eene eee reete eese eee seasons eene ss eta ano 95 Duplicate String Filter e eeeee eere sees eee eee seen sensns etas etn eta setas ense tos e ta setas toas eese to ao 96 Case Setting oian asana eriei i EN ar EN a EHE 97 Character Translation EENE I OAE EE EE EE EEA 98 Send Pre and Postfix Keys essesesscsesosoososoesososoososoeoosoesesoroesosossesoesosesoososocsososossosoesosoee ese 99 Lock Output WindOW esssesssessesssessossocesocesosssosssoesseossossossscesosesoesosesoeesscessessossscssocesossssseosso 99 Initialization String essesssessecsscssocesoesooesoeesseescosscosooesoesooesoessseescessoososesosssoessossssessesssssssssse 100 Filter Unknown Data Strings ssesoesessoesossessosoossesssscosossossossossossossesoossossessosoossssossosssssossess 101 Input Data Replacements eere Leere rese
39. ings dialog This method receives no arguments Example Beep on start function onStart Issue a short beep 3000 Hz 50 ms app beep 3000 50 end onEnd Called when Freefloat Link is exited It is also called when you enter the Settings dialog This method receives no arguments Example Beep on exit function onEnd Issue a short beep 1000 Hz 50 ms app beep 1000 50 end Page 47 onData data length Called when a data string is received from the serial port This method receives the data string in data and the length of the string in length Data may contain binary characters including the null character Please note that if the Data String Termination is set to be a character and that character does not match the terminator used by your serial device this method is never called Example Hex dump of serial data function onData data length local numbers local text Loop for each character in data for i 1 length do Append character to text part if string byte data i gt 32 then text text string sub data i i else Control characters are replace with text text end Add hex representation of the character numbers numbers string format 02x string byte data i Break lines at eight characters if i 8 0 then app send numbers text Enter numbers text end end
40. is not a problem because most application reacts to key presses on the down event but it may cause problems in some special circumstances Click the Finish button to complete the hot key definition Note A hot key sequence is global in Windows In the above case F12 is filtered out from all applications while Freefloat Link is running The default implementation of the onHotKey method looks like this function onHotKey name app send Hot Key name Enter end It simply enters Hot Key hot key name gt Of course hot keys can be made to do more useful things Page 29 Keyboard Captures A keyboard capture consists of a name a prefix key sequence and a suffix key sequence It is used to capture data strings from a USB HID device for example a USB connected barcode scanner For this to work the USB device needs to be configure to send a special key sequence before the data string and a key sequence that terminates the data string Please note that the prefix sequence should be chosen with care All the keys in the keyboard capture s prefix sequence will be filtered from regular keyboard input until a mismatch is found When a data string is captured by a keyboard capture the script method onKeyboardCapture is called When clicking the Keyboard Capture button in the Keyboard tab the following dialog is displayed By default Freefloat Link does not contain any keyboard c
41. l fast light weight embeddable scripting language Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics Put simply Lua is what makes data processing in Freefloat Link very flexible and powerful The reference manual for Lua can be found at the Lua site http www lua org There is also a printed book on the Lua language called Programming in Lua which is more accessible than the reference manual Apart from Lua and its built in language Freefloat Link exposes a number of useful methods to the script Page 45 Script Events When things happen in Freefloat Link for example a hot key or a data string is received on the serial port an event is generated This results in a script method being called The methods called when events happen are called event methods The table below is an overview and short description of all the different event methods For a more detailed explanation see the topic Event Methods below Event Handler When Called Freefloat Link is started Freefloat Link is exited A data string is received on the serial port onCTS Status change on CTS onDSR Status change on DTR Status change on RI Status change on DCD Page 46 Event Methods In this topic all the event methods are explained in detail onStart This method is called when Freefloat Link is started It is also called when you exit the Sett
42. luding without limitation the rights to use copy modify merge publish distribute sublicense and or sell copies of the Software and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so subject to the following conditions The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT TORT OR OTHERWISE ARISING FROM OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE Page 112 Appendix C Version History Version Changes Date Changed name of Lua DLL file to make it compatible with a Lua addon 2009 03 06 Fixed problem with empty hot key sequences nui Added the wizard 2009 04 02 Updates to the manual Us When 65 was used as a character notation there was a bug in the 2009 10 29 parser that sometimes made the character disappear On slow systems with a single CPU core there could be a race condition between the main program module and the licenser module 5 4 Added 30 day trial period 2010 10 05 Added scan codes for all default key sequence definitions This was done to avoid proble
43. ly when you login to Windows Freefloat Link will then be started with the profile for which you activated Autostart If you have two profiles one serving COM1 and the other COM2 you can check Autostart for each of those profiles One instance of Freefloat Link will be started at login for every profile that has Autostart checked Page 42 Set Password Dialog When you click Set Password button on the Misc tab the dialog Set Password is displayed Here you can set a password that is required when exiting Freefloat Link and when clicking on the Settings button in the main window To remove the password remove any text in the input box and click on OK Where Are My Settings A Freefloat Link configuration consist of mainly two parts the settings serial port configuration hot keys etc and the script file s As of version 5 1 the settings are no longer stored in the registry They were made file based to enable different users on the same PC to share the same Freefloat Link configuration The configuration is stored in the file Config dat Do not edit this file manually In version 5 1 the utility Settings Exporter was removed since it is no longer needed To determine where script and configuration files are located click on the Browse Script Folder button in the Data Editing tab of the Settings dialog Page 43 Freefloat Link Scripting Overview Freefloat Link has an embedded script language called Lua
44. ms sending Tab and similar keys in a thin client environment OEM version released for testing 2010 12 22 OEM version with extra tab in Settings dialog for easier configuration of 2011 05 05 scanner key Now blocks key sequences named numbers since they won t work The 2011 05 10 reason is that the syntax number is used as a format to specify the ASCII Unicode code for characters in the string sent to app send Added built in support for applications environments not supporting the way Freefloat Link simulates most keys Added appendix that explains how this feature is activated and how it works Removed remnants of code for overlapped I O that wasn t used It made 2011 07 08 third party serial drivers upset and caused Freefloat Link to hang This problem was noticed when trying to use Freefloat Link together with BlueSoleil Bluetooth software Added network communication Freefloat Datastar 2012 01 19 Minor fixes related to network communication 2012 02 24 Page 113 5 11 Fixed a bug that could crash Freefloat Link when data arrived 2012 06 07 Fixed a timing problem with trigger keys that crashed the OEM scanner 2012 07 12 driver DE New product name Freefloat Link 2012 08 31 Page 114
45. ne Example See the getDTR method Page 81 openPort Description Opens the serial port openPort and closePort can be used when you need to release the serial port start an application that uses the port for a while and then reopen the port Arguments None Returns A boolean indicating if the port could be opened If the port is being held open by another application a call to this method will return false Constants None Example Note This is only a code fragment function onHotKey name Close the serial port to let the external application use it app closePort Start external application and wait for it to exit Reopen the serial port app openPort end Page 82 setDTR status Description Sets the status of the DTR signal DTR is an output signal Arguments Argument Type Description The status to set true high false low Returns Nothing Constants None Example See the getDTR method Page 83 setRTS status Description Sets the status of the RTS signal RTS is an output signal Arguments Argument Type Description The status to set true high false low Returns Nothing Constants None Example See the getDTR method Page 84 Miscellaneous ean 1 28 data strict Description Parses the contents of a GS1 128 code earlier called UCC 128 or EAN 128 For variable length fields followed
46. nother application has the port opened like for example HyperTerminal or ActiveSync It may also be the case that there is a printer driver installed on the com port When Freefloat Link fails to open a COM port the notification icon turns red When this happens Freefloat Link s entire script engine is turned off If you plan to not use any COM port at all you need to click on the Settings button in the main window select the Communication tab and then remove the check from Enable For a list of possible icon colors and when they are used please see the topic Notification Area Icon Page 9 Testing with a Serial Device For this test to work you need a serial device for example a barcode scanner that uses the settings 9600 bps 8 data bits no parity and one stop bit If your serial device uses other settings please refer to later sections in this manual for information on how to adjust the settings in Freefloat Link to match those in your device Most serial devices terminates data strings with a carriage return ASCII code 13 This is also what Freefloat Link expects as default Connect your serial device to COMI start Notepad and activate it Read a barcode or take the action that makes your serial device send a string If Freefloat Link receives serial data the notification icon turns green LE If the icon does not turn green check the following The serial settings in Freefloat Link matches
47. ocal result string gsub data K X result string gsub result A TEST app send result Enter end Page 102 Criteria In the previous WLinq generation a data format was activated for a data string when the criteria of the data format matched Two types of criteria were supported length and pattern Edit Criteria xi Length Min E 4 Max 3 E Cancel C Sting Start position fi z Expression wr WLinq 3 19 Length Criteria for Data Editing Format In Freefloat Link the same function as a length criteria is implemented using an if statement function onData data length if length gt 9 and length lt 13 then app send data Enter end end An alternative approach could be function onData data length Code modifying the contents of data so that length is no longer valid if string len data gt 9 and string len data lt 13 then app send data Enter end end Page 103 Edit Criteria xi ee C Length tin f1 zi Ma 1 Cancel Expression koe WLinq 3 19 Pattern Criteria for Data Editing Format A pattern criteria like the one above could be implemented using the string find pattern matching method function onData data length if string find data K06 F then app send data Enter end end The format used for patterns in string fin
48. of the foreground window Arguments None Returns The window handle of the foreground window In special circumstances this can be null so you need to check the return value before further use of it Constants None Example function onHotKey name local handle app getForegroundWindow if handle 0 then app messageBox Freefloat Link Script app getWindowText handle end end Page 68 getWindowClass handle Description Gets the class name of the specified window Arguments Argument Type Description The handle of the window Returns A string containing the class name of the window or an empty string if the class name couldn t be retrieved Constants None Example Displays the class name of the foreground window function onHotKey name local class app getWindowClass app getForegroundWindow app messageBox Freefloat Link Script class end Page 69 getWindowText handle Description Gets the title of the specified window This method also works on child windows such as buttons edit boxes and similar controls Arguments Argument Type Description The handle of the window Returns A string containing the window title of the window or an empty string if the window text couldn t be retrieved Constants None Example Displays the window title of the foreground window function onHotKey name local title app ge
49. og Click in the Profile edit box enter a new Creates a new profile with the name you profile name and the click on Settings entered Delete Deletes the selected profile Note You can t delete the profile called Default Note If a password has been set clicking Unload or Settings will display the following dialog a Enter Password NET You must enter the correct password to display the Settings dialog or to exit Freefloat Link This feature blocks users from messing with the configuration Page 17 Settings Dialog In the main window click on the Settings button to display the Settings dialog The settings dialog consists of a number of tabs for different settings The Communication Tab V Enable Port The Port Speed Data Stop and Parity are the settings for the serial port for Freefloat Link to open and use The ports COM1 to COM256 are supported If you have a serial port that has a special name for example BSP2 you can enter the name in the Port edit box When DTR High or RTS High is checked the corresponding handshake signal of the serial port will be set Some serial devices require these to be set to enable communication Note The DTR and RTS handshake signal can be controlled dynamically from a script Page 18 Clicking on the Hardware Pin Events button will display the following dialog r
50. ops an ongoing recording Clear removes all key events from the list By using the Play button you can replay a recorded key sequence for test purposes When replaying first a pause of 3 seconds is made giving you time to set focus to the receiving application If you need more time please put an additional delay for the first key event Remove the check from Filter Keys During Recording if you want the keys to be executed while recording Check Record Delays to record the delays between key presses When replaying a key sequence that was recorded with this option on it will be replayed at the same typing speed as when recorded Page 36 Selecting a key event in the list and clicking on the Edit button will let you modify the properties of the key event Edit Key Stroke Virtual Key Code 0xa2 C Extended Injected Scan Code Oxid Alt Down Delay This is the information for the down event of the Ctrl key recorded Virtual Key Code Internally Windows has a table of values where each value corresponds to a key This table is different from the code that the keyboard hardware sends to the PC Applications in Windows use virtual key codes as input for text and for other keys Scan Code A scan code is the raw code that the keyboard hardware send to the PC Most but not all applications don t care about this information Delay The delay in milliseconds that should performed before this key e
51. p button The result should look like this Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording Record Delays Stop Click Finish click OK and click OK Activate Notepad and then press the key F11 on your keyboard The text Hot Key F11 should now be entered into Notepad Ej Namnl E Arkiv Redigera Format Visa Hj lp Page 12 The Wizard The wizard enables you to define a simple setup that matches and modifies a data string for example a barcode It is only intended to be used for very simple tasks For more advanced tasks you need to use the scripting language The wizard consist of four different parts Trig Strip Replace and Add You start the wizard by clicking on the button Wizard in the Data Editing tab of the Settings dialog Specify the conditions that should be met by the data string If all conditions are met the data string will be edited by the rules on the following pages Leave a field empty if you don t want to use that condition Filter data strings that doesn t meet the trigger conditions In this dialog you can specify zero or more conditions that should be met for a data string before it is edited by the wizard rules If a data string doesn t meet the conditions and the check box Filter Data Strings is checked the data string is filtered If the check box is cleared the data string is sent to the receiving application unmodified
52. received through a keyboard capture definition The serial port specified in the profile could not be opened Lg 99 2 Page 94 Migration guide WLinq 3 x to Freefloat Link Freefloat Link is based on the earlier product called WLinq Many functions present in WLinq 3 x has been removed in Freefloat Link The reason for this is to simplify Freefloat Link and to avoid confusion if there are more than one way to achieve a task This guide is meant to ease the transition from WLinq 3 x data formats to the new script based approach in Freefloat Link Other types of features that has been affected are also explained in this chapter Page 95 Duplicate String Filter x Communication Keyboard Window Initialization Log Data Editing Port Data DTR Speed Party C low 9600 No parity gt el Stop High __Defaut fi C Low Duplicate String Filter Hardware Pin Events 1000 milliseconds WLinq 3 19 Communication Property Page The Duplicate String Filter function has been removed The equivalent function can be achieved in a script duplicateFilterTime 1000 timeStamp app getTickCount lastCode function duplicateFilter data Calculate the time elapsed since last code was read elapsed app getTickCount timeStamp Do not filter the code if the code is different OR the time elapsed since last code was read is greater than the duplicat
53. rgument windowOperations CLOSE 1 MAXIMIZE MINIMIZE 5 RESTORE 6 TASKLIST 9 MONITORPOWER 11 SCREENSAVE 12 Example 4 Maximizes a Notepad window then restores it function onHotKey name local handle 2 app findWindow Untitled Notepad if handle 0 then app windowOperation handle windowOperations MAXIMIZE app sleep 2000 app windowOperation handle windowOperations RESTORE end end Page 73 Clipboard getClipboardData Description Gets the text from the clipboard Arguments None Returns The text contents on the clipboard as a string and the length of the data If the call fails or the clipboard doesn t have any text an empty string and zero length is returned Note that the terminating null is counted Constants None Example Displays the text length and content on the clipboard in a message box function onHotKey name local text textlen app getClipboardData app messageBox Clipboard Contents string format d characters r n textlen text end Page 74 setClipboardData text Description Sets the text on the clipboard Arguments Argument Type Description The text to set Returns Nothing Constants None Example Sets the text contents of the clipboard and then retrieves it function onHotKey name local s ABC
54. rogramming skills to accomplish the desired task For more advanced solutions basic programming skills are needed Page 6 Features Do OO DO OO D OOOO Event based architecture The dynamic script language Lua has been embedded which makes Freefloat Link very powerful flexible and extensible Multiple input sources Keyboard capture USB HID devices Hot keys Serial data RS 232 Serial handshake signal changes External application data Start end and timer events Multiple instances of Freefloat Link can be used at the same time Monitor program for real time inspection of events and output easing development of a solution or as an aid in troubleshooting Detailed log file Powerful key sequence recorder used for key definitions macros hot keys keyboard captures Polarity of serial output signals DTR and RTS can be set from a script Clipboard methods for faster transfer of data to applications Programs can be launched synchronously or asynchronously Default key definitions and ASCII Unicode data output are insensitive to keyboard locale Script user feedback through sounds wave files or internal speaker and message boxes GS1 128 UCC EAN 128 support Custom application interface for tight high speed integration with Freefloat Link Supported Platforms Windows 2000 Windows XP XPe Windows Vista Windows 7 32 and 64 bit Page 7 Getting Started When you install Freefloat Link shortcuts ar
55. sageBox onStart myVar is myVar myVar myVar 1 end Switches to the profile My Profile function onHotKey name app setProfile My Profile end Page 91 setTimer interval Description Sets the script timer to the specified interval This is the same setting as on the Misc tab in the Settings dialog To turn off the timer specify zero as the interval Arguments Argument Type Description The timer interval to set Returns Nothing Constants None Example When a hot key is pressed sets the script timer interval function onHotKey name app setTimer 1000 end Page 92 sleep duration Description Delays the script for the specified time Arguments Argument Type Description The time to wait Returns Nothing Constants None Example Outputs two periods with a one second pause between them function onHotKey name app send app sleep 1000 app send end Page 93 Notification Area Icon When started Freefloat Link adds an icon to the notification area also called the Systray sometimes It is used to indicate different states and events Please note that the icon can also be modified by a script Appearance Explanation Freefloat Link is idle Data was received from the serial port Data was sent to the serial port A serial hardware pin event was triggered OR Data was
56. ssageBox Freefloat Link Script Are you sure you want to exit mbTypes YESNO mbTypes DEFBUTTON2 if mbResults YES result then app exit end end Page 60 playSound filename options Description Plays the sound specified by the filename argument Arguments Argument Type Description The path and filename of the sound file options Number Specifies the behavior for the sound playback Use the constants in soundOptions Returns true if successful false otherwise Constants soundOptions 1 SYNC 0 ASYNC 1 NODEFAULT 2 LOOP 8 NOSTOP 16 NOWAIT 8192 j Example Buzz like a bee function onHotKey name app playSound c windows system32 buzzingbee wav soundOptions SYNC end Page 61 playSystemSound systemEvent options Description Plays the sound specified by the given system event Different system events can be mapped to sound files in the Control Panel Arguments Argument Type Description systemEvent Number The ID of the system event options Number Specifies the behavior for the sound playback Use the constants in soundOptions Returns true if successful false otherwise Constants Use one of the following values for the systemEvent argument systemSounds ASTERISK 10835 QUESTION 16211 HAND 18515 EXIT 17747 START 21331
57. sses WLing 3 x Freefloat Link Input lt tab gt 1 lt cr gt data Tab 1 Enter Reboot Windows WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link Reboot app exitWindows exitWindowsOpts REBOOT Reboot Windows forced WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link RebootForced app exitWindows exitWindowsOpts FORCE Starts the specified program WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link RunApp notepad exe h app run notepad exe closeAppHandle h Page 106 Please note that the Freefloat Link sample code below more realistically demonstrates what is needed when switching to another application A small delay is needed before sending input to the activated window or characters may be lost Also the example avoids an unnecessary delay when the target window already is the foreground window B e qdo a captio a a e e qo eju e pa WLinq 3 x Freefloat Link SetFocus Notepad function setForegroundWindow pattern local t app enumWindows 0 for k v in pairs t do local title app getWindowText v if string match title pattern then app setForegroundWindow v return end end end function onData data length local pattern Notepad local curWindow app getForegroundWindow local title app getWindowText curWindow if not string match title pattern then setForegroundWindow pattern app sleep 250 end app send data Enter end Page 107 There is no direct equivalent
58. t eese esee seta sense tn sess eost sess etas ense esse te seen seasons 102 M ICILEEEINOM ISI III T IE CI EERBEREEREEREECYRE 103 Data Format Output q 105 Appendix A Support for Thin Clients Java Applications and Flash Applications Appendix B Lua Copyright Appendix C Version History Page4 Copyright O 2008 2012 Freefloat Contacting Freefloat Office Freefloat P O Box 13101 S 402 52 Gothenburg SWEDEN Support and Sales Information Support http support freefloat com Web http www freefloat com E mail info freefloat com Page 5 What is Freefloat Link Freefloat Link is a flexible and powerful wedge software which enables you to capture data from serial and USB HID devices connected to your PC filter and modify this data and then enter this information into a receiving application Freefloat Link can be used to integrate for example barcode reading into an existing application without the need to adapt the target application Instead of using a large amount of functions and features which no matter how advanced they are never achieves true flexibility the design philosophy of Freefloat Link is to have only a basic set of settings and expose all methods to a dynamic script language For simple demands there is a wizard that can be used to create data editing rules This manual has a lot of examples for common uses This enables users without p
59. tWindowText app getForegroundWindow app messageBox Freefloat Link Script title end Page 70 setForegroundWindow handle Description Sets the specified window to be the foreground window Arguments Argument Type Description The handle of the window Returns Nothing Constants None Example Bring the Windows Media Player window to the foreground function onHotKey name local handle app findWindow Windows Media Player if handle 0 then app setForegroundWindow handle end end Page 71 setWindowText handle text Description Sets the title of the specified window This method also works on child windows such as buttons edit boxes and similar controls Arguments Argument Type Description handle Number The handle of the window text String The title to set Returns true if successful false otherwise Constants None Example Set anew title for a Notepad window function onHotKey name local handle app findWindow Untitled Notepad if handle 0 then app setWindowText handle My Text Editor end end Page 72 windowOperation handle operation Description Executes a window operation Arguments Argument Type Description The handle of the window The operation to perform on the window Returns Nothing Constants The following constants define the possible values of the operation a
60. the tables there is a reference section with a detailed description of each method When these methods are used in a script you need to prefix them with app for example app sleep 100 Output User Feedback beep Beeps with the internal PC speaker blinklcon Changes the color of the notification area icon Writes a text line to a log file messageBox Displays a message box playSound Plays a sound file playSystemSound Plays a sound associated with a system event send Sends keyboard data sendSerialData Sends serial data to the COM port sendSubscriberData Sends data to subscribers Windows Method Description Clipboard Method Description O Page 54 Method Description o O closeAppHandle Closes the application handle Serial Port Method Description i y O setRTS Sets the status of the RTS signal Miscellaneous 128 a 28 Parses the contents of a GS1 128 UCC EAN 128 code exit Exits Freefloat Link exitWindows Either logs off the current user shuts down the PC or shuts down and restarts the PC getProfile Gets the current Freefloat Link profile getTickCount Gets the number of milliseconds elapsed since the system was started lockWorkStation Locks Windows setProfile Sets the current profile setTimer Sets the script timer sleep Delays the script for some time Page 55 Output User Feedback beep frequency duration Description
61. those in your device The device requires one or both of the handshake signals DTR RTS to be set in a specific way Default they are both set to high Check that the serial device is connected to COM1 and turned on Make sure the device s cable is a standard RS 232 cable You don t have the Settings dialog open Ooo oo If the icon turns green but nothing is entered into Notepad your serial device probably uses a different terminator Do the following L Try clicking on Settings select the Data Editing tab select Timeout as the Data String Termination option and then click OK The data string will now be terminated after a small period of time has elapsed You may also use the Monitor program to troubleshoot data string terminator problems Page 10 Testing with a Hot Key If you don t have a serial device available or you do not plan to use one you could try to define a hot key as your first exercise Click on the Settings button in the main window then click the Communication tab and then remove the check from Enable to turn off serial communication Then click on the Keyboard tab and click on the Hot Keys button Click Add and enter a name for the hot key Name it F11 The Record Hot Key dialog is displayed Remove All Delays Filter Keys During Recording Record Delays Page 11 Click on the New button to start recording your hot key Press the F11 key on your keyboard and then click the Sto
62. vent is replayed Extended Some keys on a keyboard are called extended keys For example the extended flag is used to distinguish between the Enter key on the main part of the keyboard and the Enter key on the numeric keypad Injected amp Alt Down You should never have to modify these flags Up When checked the key event is a key release event Otherwise it is a key press event Page 37 The key event list in the Record Key Sequence dialog can also contain character elements To insert a character element click on the Insert Character button Edit Remove Remove All Delays Remove All Scan Codes V Filter Keys During Recording V Record Delays Then select the character element and click on the Edit button r Edit Unicode Character 0x0000 In the Unicode edit box enter the Unicode character value for the character you want produced when the key sequence is replayed The value should be a four digit hexadecimal value You can use the Windows utility program Character Map to find out the Unicode character value for international and special characters Page 38 L esa co 9p 710 12 3 4 8 5 e 7 8 9 G A B CD E F e Hi J K L M N o P o RIS T U Vw X Y ZH L V 4 je b e d e f g h 1 j k m n o p ja risitjujviw x vzit1 3 7 ieeja Lje s je jsp wu MEC at a PALS TSI For example to add a character element for the Gre

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