VFWGrab v1.07

Welcome to VFWGrab, A freeware application to post jpeg images to a web site via FTP or to any UNC filename from any Video for Windows device you may have installed on your computer. 

Features

• Small compact program which is customized via a simple ini file.
• Allows the size, quality, location of the jpeg file to be specified.

Usage

• You must have the VC 2005 SP1 Redist files installed. If you do not have these installed then you can download it from http://www.naughter.com/download/vcredist_x86.exe and then simply run the exe.
• You must have the GDIPlus.dll installed. This is standard on Windows XP and the redistributable version is available at http://www.naughter.com/download/gdiplus.zip. For further information on using and distributing this DLL please see the MSDN.
• To use the program, simple customize the "vfwgrab.ini" file (A sample one is provided) to specify the settings you want. The ini file can contain the following settings:

  DeviceIndex: The 0 based index of the Video For Windows device to use. By default "0" is assumed. This is only useful when you have multiple VFW devices installed on your machine.

  DeviceName: This is the name of the Video For Windows device to use. Setting this value overrides the "DeviceIndex" value.

  Width: This is the width of the image to capture.

  Height: This is the height of the image to capture.

  File: This is the filename to store the captured file to e.g. "c:\temp\capture.jpg". Setting this value will override any FTP settings present in the ini file.

  Server: This is the address of the FTP server to connect to e.g. "ftp.mydomain.com". You can use a IP address for this value either.

  RemoteFile: This is the name of the file which will be stored on the FTP server e.g. "/images/capture.jpg".

  Port: This is the FTP port number to use. By default 21 will be assumed.

  User: This is the username to use when logging into the FTP server.

  Password: This is the associated password to use when logging into the FTP server. Please note that since the username and password are stored in plaintext in the ini file, you should take appropriate precautions to ensure that this file is securely protected.

  TimerInterval: Some VFW devices take a while to initialize meaning that if you attempt to do a capture immediately after creating the VFW capture window, you will get an error. Using this value means that the capture will be delayed to avoid this problem. By default a value of 2000 (2000 Milliseconds) is used.

  JpegQuality: This is the Jpeg quality value to use. By default a value of 70 is used. This gives reasonable image quality while also reasonable compression.

  PeriodicInterval: This is the time in milliseconds between periodic captures. Note: If you specify this parameter then the application does not exit after the first capture has been taken.

  MaxCaptures: This is the number of captures to capture if periodic captures is enabled. After this limit is reached the problem will close.

  IncrementFilename: If this value is set to 1 then rather than using the file specified by "File" or "RemoteFile", each captured file will be unique, e.g. "capture1.jpg, "capture2.jpg" etc etc.

  FTPUI: If this value is set to 1 rather than the default value of 0, then a upload dialog will be shown by the program every time an FTP upload occurs.

  LocalTime: If this value is set to 1 (which is the default), then time and date stamps which can be created in the destination file are reckoned using local time. If set to 0, then time and date stamps are reckoned in UTC (aka GMT) time.

• Note that the "RemoteFile" and "File" parameters support a comprehensive set of replaceable date and time parameters. The full set of supported parameters are:
  • %a Abbreviated weekday name
  • %A Full weekday name
  • %b Abbreviated month name
  • %B Full month name
  • %d Day of month as decimal number (01 - 31)
  • %j Day of year as decimal number (001 - 366)
  • %m Month as decimal number (01 - 12)
  • %P AM / PM indicator
  • %U Week of year as decimal number
  • %w Weekday as decimal number (1 - 7; Sunday is 1)
  • %x Windows short date representation, namely Date representation + ‘ ‘ + Time Representation for specified locale as provided by 'Locale'
  • %y Year without century, as decimal number (00 - 99)
  • %Y Year with century, as decimal number
  • %H Hours in the day
  • %h 12 Hour format Hours in (00 - 12)
  • %M Minutes in the hour
  • %S Seconds in the minute
  • %% Percent sign
  • %#x Windows long date representation, namely Long Date representation + ‘ ‘ + Time Representation for specified locale as provided by 'Locale'
  • %#d, %#j, %#m, %#U, %#w, %#y, %#H, %#h, %#M, %#S  Remove leading zeros (if any).
• Then just run the VFWGrab exe. You should then get a capture file either on the FTP server or on the file system.
• To automate captures, you can use any command line scheduling program such as Task Scheduler as provided with Internet Explorer to run VFWGrab on a specific schedule or just use the new "PeriodicInterval" parameter provided in VFWGrab v1.02 and later. In combination with a simple HTML page which embeds the generated image and a meta refresh tag, you have a simple Web-Cam style picture using nothing more than a standard HTML page.

History

V1.0 (31 October 2000)

• Initial public release.

V1.01 (10 October 2001)

• Now uses v1.03 of my FTP transfer dialog class.

V1.02 (29 December 2001)

• Window startup style is now taken from the process startup details (for those in the know CWinApp::m_nCmdShow!).
• Provision of a new parameter "m_nPeriodicInterval" which allows a image to be taken periodically rather than once off.

V1.03 (3 June 2002)

• Application now uses GDI+ instead of the Intel Jpeg Library to support the saving of Jpeg files.
• Moved app to VC 6 to facilitate use of GDI+
• Now uses v1.06 of the authors CFTPTransferDlg class.

V1.04 (12 March 2002)

• Fixed a bug where the temp files VFWGrab uses to save the capture file to temporarily was failing to be deleted. Thanks to Alan Irvine for reporting this problem.

V1.05 (1 June 2002)

• Now includes a MaxCaptures setting. This is useful where you want to capture a set number of images periodically before the apps closes itself down.
• Now includes an IncrementFilename setting. This ensures that each captured file does not overwrite the previous one. Thanks to "Anthony Collins" for this suggestion.

V1.06 (15 September 2004)

• Removed gdiplus.dll from download as it is available as a separate download at http://www.naughter.com/download/gdiplus.zip. This download includes the September 2004 updated version of GDI+ which fixes a buffer overrun.
• Now uses v1.08 of the authors CFTPTransferDlg class.

V1.07 (26 January 2007)

• Updated the documentation to use the same style as the web site.
• Code now uses newer C++ style casts instead of C style casts.
• Optimized CMainFrame constructor code.
• Now uses v1.11 of the authors CAVICapWnd class
• Code is now built and delivered using VC 2005 SP1.
• Now uses v1.09 of the authors CFTPTransferDlg/CFTPTransferer classes.
• Now uses Themes when run on Windows XP.
• Prebuilt binary included in distribution is now compiled for Unicode.
• Addition of a new "FTPUI" configuration value.
• Code now no longer bothers requesting that the device set its video format to 24 BIT RGB.
• Default TimerInterval is now set to 2000 in the ini file included in the download.
• Main VFWGrab window is resized just to fit the specified client area on start-up. Thanks to Jason Pettiss for suggesting this update.
• Now includes comprehensive support for date and time replaceable parameters in the "RemoteFile" and "File" parameters. This functionality is provided by the author's DTime+ class library. Thanks to Jason Pettiss for suggesting this update.
• If the application is minimized when it is about to take a capture, the window will now restore itself (without stealing the focus). This ensures that an up to date image is captured. Thanks to  Jason Pettiss for suggesting this update.

Planned Enhancements

• If you have any other suggested improvements, please let me know so that I can incorporate them into the next release.

Contacting the Author

PJ Naughter
Email: pjna@naughter.com
Web: http://www.naughter.com
26 January 2007