EOLF with VirtualBox on Mac OS-X host - Works

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JJdeJong
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 7:52 am

EOLF with VirtualBox on Mac OS-X host - Works

Post by JJdeJong » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:41 pm

We got this setup working fine on a Mac OS 10.5 (Intel) host. The guest OS is Windows XP.

Make sure you set up a "USB filter" for the smartcard reader, reported as "Gemplus USB SmartCard Reader [0100]", and plug it in only after booting Windows XP in VirtualBox.

We run EOLF in one VirtualBox for the whole office. Other users connect to EOLF via remote desktop. So no need to install a server version in VirtualBox.

The guest OS can accesses our file server via Samba. The required PDF files are generated by our Macs on the file server, where they are retrieved by EOLF. Since we don't use the PDF handling software provided by the EPO this way, we have come across some glitches - the apostrophe character often turned out as white squares in the documents received by the examiners. This appears to be an issue within the EPO, when they transfer the documents from the online filing server to Phoenix, the system used by the examiners. The documents appear fine on the filing server and get garbled in the transfer to Phoenix.

Although we finally got EOLF working on non-Windows platforms this way, we hardly use it any longer - since there is no connectivity with our PMS, it takes way longer to prepare a filing with EOLF than a paper file with our PMS...

--JJJ


D. Van Haken
Posts: 70
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:14 pm

Re: EOLF with VirtualBox on Mac OS-X host - Works

Post by D. Van Haken » Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:26 pm

Dear JJdeJong,

one way to reuse the data in your own PMS is to prepare the filing in XML, including the referenced files, from your system and subsequently import it in the EPO online filing client. The latter can either be done via the FileManager (File -> Import -> Xml from file) or via the PMS interface (see epoline.org, downloadcentre, software, Online Filing: Online Filing V5 PMS development kit (for applicants and PMS providers)).

It takes an initial investment to create the code to produce the filing but this will pay of later. Many users, especially those with structured data in their own system, are using it this way.

Please contact me or support@epo.org if you require additional information.
regards,

Dirk Van Haken
Product Manager Online Filing
EPO


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