Operation of Flowchart Modules

To run a job in batch, you use the flowchart modules at the upper left corner of the Cupboard. The modules can be linked together to form the batch operation. The flowchart modules pass messages to each other over their links, rather than passing images. Within the messages are two key elements, a directory name and a file name. The initial directory name is established as an absolute argument within the “start” module. This directory name and a blank file name are passed to the “Is” module.

The “Is” module uses a “filter” argument that consists of a “regular expression” to match to the file names within the specified directory. A “regular expression” contains wild card characters that are that are used to match to more than one character within a file name. For example, the asterisk character represents any number of missing characters. If one used the filter, “Smith*MB*.tiff, then any name that started with the word “Smith”, had the letters “MB” somewhere in the middle, and ended with the extension ”.tif“, would match the filter.

Having matched the filter to the file names, the “Is” module passes one message for each file name that matches the filter. If 5 file names match the filter, then 5 messages are sent, one at a time, each containing the directory name and one of the selected file names. The “rpt”, or “repeat” module, counts the incoming messages and waits until the loop completes before passing a message on to the next module.

The “exec” module receives the message containing the directory name and file name. With these names, it substitutes the names into the arguments of the attached job (“Untitled” in the above figure). The arguments specified within the attached job are special arguments, called dynamic variables. These arguments do not contain absolute path addresses and are explained below. How the directory name and file name are substituted into the dynamic variables is specified within the arguments of the “exec” module, itself. That is explained below, after the dynamic variables are defined.