This page contains online help related to the Mars, Inc. POD transmitter.
To download the most current version of the Mars, Inc. POD transmitter click on the link below:
click here to download the most recent POD transmitter application
click here to download the most recent zipped POD transmitter application
Download this application (10,588KB) to your workstation.
** DO NOT CHOOSE RUN from the web downloader. Instead CHOOSE SAVE from the web downloader. You must choose to download this application into a folder on your local workstation.
Once the download has completed place the executable file, PODTransmitter.exe, into a folder on your workstation. When you launch the application for the first time it will automatically install itself. If you are running Windows Vista allow the application to install. When you are running, you should see a screen similar to the one shown below.
One feature to immediately take note of, is that the screen is completely "stretchy". When the application is stretched, the viewport for the scanned document gets bigger as well as the controls on the window. You can stretch the viewport to be any rectangular shape and it can be zoomed out to be as large as your entire screen. You can use the gripper on the bottom right hand corner of the application to stretch the application screen to any desired size.
To setup this application click on the "Prefs" button located along the bottom left corner of the main application screen. When you click on this button you should see a dialog similar to one of the following. If you are intending to use SMTP as your e-mail transport then perform setup this tab. SMPT is the preferred method for e-mail transport.
If you are intending to use Lotus Notes as your e-mail transport then perform setup under this tab.
If you are intending to use VIM as your e-mail transport then perform setup under this tab.
The preferences screen needs to be setup one time. Once the preferences have been setup they are remembered. The preferences are divided into three main sections. The first section is company specific POD setup information. The second section is for email transport settings. The third section is for your TWAIN scanner settings.
This is the area where your company and other identification information is to be setup.
You should verify with Mars Inc. to obtain your proper carrier number. This number identifies your transmissions into the automated POD processing systems, and it is important that this number is correct for your company.
The Mars Inc. POD e-mail address is defaulted to the proper address. If this e-mail address is changed in the future then you will be notified. This is the e-mail address where your electronic PODs are delivered.
Your company name is used in conjunction with your carrier number to identify your transmissions to the automated POD processing system. Your company name should be the value that is expected by the POD processing system and should match with your company number. This name should also be verified with Mars Inc.
Your e-mail address is used to send back optional confirmation and information messages in cases where you need notification. Make sure this e-mail address is a valid e-mail address that you will be checking from time to time.
SMTP
This application makes use of the internet protocol SMTP to send e-mail messages. Using this internet protocol for POD transmissions eliminates many problems and issues that crop up when relying on other layered e-mail transmission technology or underlying business infrastructure. This application program is a self contained e-mail client, all by itself, and does not rely on the existence of, or the peculiar functionality of other e-mail technologies, such as MS Outlook, MAPI, or Lotus Notes Domino.
Contact your system administrator for the values required in the SMTP setup. If your SMTP setup is secure and requires a user name and a password then those values need to be input to the setup screen. If your SMTP setup does not require security and special port values then the configuration settings in the dialog can be left empty.
LOTUS NOTES
This application also has built in support for making use of the Lotus Notes client. Within the LotusNotes setup dialog in the preferences there is an entry for a session path. The session path is optional input. If omitted or empty, the default path to Notes.ini is used. If the session path is specified then it must be in the platform characterset, not LMBCS. If this value is non-empty then the path is used to initialize the session, and if the path is empty then default session initialization takes effect.
If the program is running on a Notes client, make sure the personal name and address book (NAB) contains a location document that specifies the mail server and database name, and make sure that location is the current one. The location entry in the notes.ini file specifies the current location.
If the program is running on the server, make sure the server's notes.ini file contains the entries MailServer and MailFile, which specify the mail server and database name respectively. If the application doesn't find a location document in the NAB, it looks in the notes.ini file for these values (on both server and client machines). Although you could add a location document to the server's NAB, you might not wish to do this, because that document will replicate to other servers.
When you start a Notes session, either by running this application program or by running the Notes client or Domino server, Notes reads configuration information from an initialization file, called notes.ini on most platforms.
The initialization file specifies many settings, including the location of the Notes ID file and the workspace file.
This is done by specifying the full path of the initialization file in the session path field in the Lotus Notes transport dialog under preferences.
Please note that an application program can't switch to a different ID or initialization file after Notes has been initialized.
TWAIN
This application will interface with most TWAIN scanners. However, not all TWAIN scanners are compatible, and not all TWAIN scanners are supported. The HP 5590 is the scanner that has been tested and approved for this application and is recommended that this scanner be used.
Using another scanner may result in inconsistant or undesired behaviors. With your scanner attached to the workstation, and your TWAIN drivers installed, click on the select source button to choose the scanner. Click on the test device button to see the default device setup dialog and to operate the scanner through the default user interface. Once you have selected a source then this application will remember to use that source when performing future scans.
OPERATION
Scan a single page or a multi page document by placing documents into the scanner and clicking on the scan button. You can scan one page at a time, or you can scan many pages at a time, depending on the features of your scanner. The scan feature will append scanned images onto the end of the current document until you have completed scanning all necessary pages. You can use the viewer forward arrow and the viewer backward arrow to scroll between the pages in your document. If you see that you have a bad scan, or see that you have some crumpled pages, or see that you have scanned in something extra by mistake, then you can delete those pages by clicking on the viewer delete "-" button. Rescan and review the POD document pages until you have the document image ready to go.
Enter the MBOL into the MBOL: field.
Enter the associated BOLs into the BOL list.
This application is 10-key pad ready. You can tab from the MBOL field into the BOL list, or you can use the enter key. You can enter values into the BOL list, and press the tab key, or press the enter key to automatically jump to the next field. Cut, copy, and paste are all available. You can also directly click on BOL number in the list in order to modify it. Tab, shift tab, enter, and arrow keys are all supported for quickly managing in place editing of the BOL list.
When you have your POD document ready, click on the send button. This button is the blue arrow located in the lower left set of buttons on the bottom of the application. This action will verify the entered information, prepare your image with the proper XML headers, and send the entire document "package" to the Mars Inc. POD processing system.
With every successful transmission a copy of your document is stored in a folder called "archive" that is automatically created within same folder as the POD Transmitter application. A subfolder for each day is created in the format of YYYY-MM-DD format, and each transmitted POD is saved into the proper folder with the name "HH-MM-SS". This gives you a simple way of finding a POD based on the date and time that it was transmitted.
To recall a POD back into your transmitter click on the archive button. This action will bring up a dialog that lets you locate a previously transmitted POD within the archive folder. Once you have selected an POD from the archive, it is loaded back into the transmitter, with all of the data fields in tact.
