Linux / MacOSX left in the lurch ?

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twesthues
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Post by twesthues » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:47 pm

Dear Alex,

I'll take the risk in replying to your note :wink:

There are many aspect why epoline® online filing software is where and what it is today.

The vast majority of our users use either solely or in parallel to other systems, MS Windows operating systems, hence from a practical and economical perspective this is why we support only MS Windows at the moment.

However, in order to pay tribute to the open source concept and the potential exploitation to other systems such as Linux - you'll find under http://eolf.sourceforge.net/ that there has been established an open source forum for online filing. But the progress appears to be very hesitant.

As to the libraries for MacOSX or Linux - any information is highly appreciated and we could pursue the issue. However, officially we do not support these systems as yet.

On the other hand, the EPO follows the global trend in that server applications are developed and operated on Linux systems whereas client applications generally use MS Windows.

I hope the above is somewhat satisfactory even though it does not offer an immediate solution to your problem.

Not being an expert myself, I always wonder what capabilities the cross-over emulators for Windows under Linux or MacOSX have. Do you have any experience in that respect?

Thorsten Westhues (Quality Assurance)
at your service for the EPO Online Services Team!


basjan
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Post by basjan » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:12 am

At our office, one of the largest in the Netherlands, we are still looking into switching over to Linux. With OpenOffice supporting now WordPerfect this moment has come a bit closer.

I use Linux at my laptop for over two years now and have had virutally no problems. We do however not switch to Linux office wide as we cannot use Online Filing under Linux. The smartcard reader is indeed supported by Linux, but cannot be recognized in Win4Lin because this does not support USB device. This is the same for Wine and probably also for VMWare.

Unfortunately the online filing software is written in Delphi, which is not the most supported programming language in OpenSource country. This delays a port to another platform.

I personally have some experience in Cross-Platform development using wxWidgets (written in C++.-language) as a crossplatform Framework. Porting a program in C++ using wxWidgets causes virtually no problems. Code written under Linux can be opened in a Windows C-compiler and directly be comiled with hardly any errors.

The wxWidgets (http://www.wxwindows.org) Framework is developed to be used in Linux, Windows as well as Mac. This would according to my opinion provide an excellent developing platform for a next generation online-filing software


twesthues
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Post by twesthues » Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am

Dear Guest (LW)

whereas I can understand the frustration from unsuccessful installation
efforts and you have all sympathies, I'd like to comment on the comparision between eOLF and easyXXX :

1. It is correct that eOLF client software does not exist as a Linux Installation;
2. As the file formats generated are XML and PDF, a portability and platform independence is given at least for the data;
3. easyXXX does not use any smartcard infrastructure and does not (yet) replace the paper filing - especially the smartcard infrastructure is a global issue not limited to eOLF but also to other applications such as online banking etc.
4. What can be compared, would be the software provided by the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) PaTrAs - this also uses electronic signatures and only supports MS Windows OS up to now (see http://www.dpma.de/infos/projekte/patra ... ungen.html )

The EPO supports and develops packages for Linux on the server and backend side but not yet on the client side, mainly due to limitations in budget but also in demand of such solutions. However, in the long run, online filing by web services (SOAP) may become an option which would then at least allow any platform to communicate to it - although this does not solve the current lack of support for the smartcard infrastructure in the linux systems.

In the nearer future (Q1 2006), however, eOLF will provide a PMS/Gateway interface which would enable any Linux run Patent Management System to drive the online filing process completely without use of the eOLF GUI but with mere webservice protocol communication to the eOLF sending server installed on e.g. a MS Windows Server system at the user's side which has a smartcard reader connected and a smartcard "permanently" secured to it such that the whole process can be controlled by any PMS system, even if operated on Linux OS.

The above should provide at least some sort of way out of the current limitations with respect to the Linux world - however, this is not a quick solution as modifications on any PMS system are necessary in order to work with the mentioned interface.

So far from my side - please feel free to discuss any further.

Thorsten Westhues (QA)
at your service for the EPO Online Services Team!


alexthurgood
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Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:29 am

Post by alexthurgood » Tue May 30, 2006 9:53 am

twesthues wrote:
The EPO supports and develops packages for Linux on the server and backend side but not yet on the client side, mainly due to limitations in budget but also in demand of such solutions. However, in the long run, online filing by web services (SOAP) may become an option which would then at least allow any platform to communicate to it - although this does not solve the current lack of support for the smartcard infrastructure in the linux systems.

In the nearer future (Q1 2006), however, eOLF will provide a PMS/Gateway interface which would enable any Linux run Patent Management System to drive the online filing process completely without use of the eOLF GUI but with mere webservice protocol communication to the eOLF sending server installed on e.g. a MS Windows Server system at the user's side which has a smartcard reader connected and a smartcard "permanently" secured to it such that the whole process can be controlled by any PMS system, even if operated on Linux OS.
Hi Thorsten,

Sorry, I've been away for awhile, I shall try and come back more regularly ;-)

First question : where is SOAP development for eOLF headed, if anywhere ?

Second question : There are not any Linux/Unix based commercially available PMS that I know of, unless you have some insider information you would care to share with us ;-))

Third question : I've just downloaded the server sourcecode from sourceforge, but there appear to be no instructions about using it with Apache/Tomcat/Firebird, and additionally, is it really the latest version because it dates back to September 2005 ?

Alex


twesthues
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Post by twesthues » Wed May 31, 2006 9:12 am

Hi Alex,

having verified with development here is what can be said at this stage:

SOAP will be used for the gateway/pms interface to the eOLF local server - currently envisaged for later this year.

The version you'll find in sourceforge is receiving server related and the version will be updated in the near future, however, there is nothing with respect to the client software - and hence, I would not put any energy into trying to analyse the package as it is aimed at patent offices only.

Kind regards,
Thorsten
at your service for the EPO Online Services Team!


alexthurgood
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:29 am

Post by alexthurgood » Wed May 31, 2006 12:20 pm

twesthues wrote: The version you'll find in sourceforge is receiving server related and the version will be updated in the near future, however, there is nothing with respect to the client software - and hence, I would not put any energy into trying to analyse the package as it is aimed at patent offices only.

Kind regards,
Thorsten
Hi Thorsten,

Thanks, that what I thought. Oh well, back to the drawing board...

Alex


alexthurgood
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Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:29 am

Re: Linux / MacOSX left in the lurch ?

Post by alexthurgood » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:37 pm

alexthurgood wrote: Our firm is a Linux and MacOSX workstation outfit. Even though the card reader is recognised by my Linux systems, there is no way to load the cryptographic libraries because they are MS Windows only.

A further surprise is that one can readliy find specific SmartCard drivers for Linux on the GemPlus website (despite the fact that the card reader was recognized by my Linux system without them, but the PKCS#11 module library isn't. Sigh.
Just a quick update on the situation after some quick tests this month :

Gemplus now offers free driver downloads for Mac OSX and Linux. The Mac OSX downloads use the OpenSC framework, and you have to fiddle about installing a few other libraries first before even attempting to unpack and install the drivers from Gemplus. This involves installing Fink or Darwinports (operating subsystem management).

Under Mac OSX Tiger, the smartcard is now recognized, but unreadable, at least on my machine. It starts to read the data, uses the Muscle library, and then stalls on trying to obtain the functions available on the card. I have no idea whether this is down to a bug in the OpenSC framework or the drivers provided by Gemplus.

Still, aside from all of that, for as long as there is no platform independent client, we're still stuck.


Alex Thurgood


mbwallace4
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Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:47 am

Re: Linux / MacOSX left in the lurch ?

Post by mbwallace4 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:13 am

Judging from the time span this thread has run -- Linux (and maybe MacOSX) is still in the background as support for these OS is immature.

I'd like to see this thing under the web to make it cross platform.


ldo
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Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:43 am

Re: Linux / MacOSX left in the lurch ?

Post by ldo » Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:51 am

Hi all,

the first post was in year 2005, and still no Linux version available, see:
http://www.dpma.de/english/service/e-se ... index.html

A linux-server would be enough to start.

Is it so difficult? It looks like Europe is to be dedicated to Microsoft.

thank you for reply

kind regards

Lars


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

Re: Linux / MacOSX left in the lurch ?

Post by D. Van Haken » Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:06 am

Dear a.kuiper,

Both VMware and Parallel products will do the job. The preferred OS to select is Windows 7.
regards,

Dirk Van Haken
Product Manager Online Filing
EPO


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