FormAssist is distributed with FormSuite as a convenient, precompiled executable. We also provide the source code and Visual Studio project so you can customize FormAssist to better suit your needs.

Available Build Configurations

In the FormAssist project, there are several build configurations:

NuGet Package Dependencies

The FormAssist Demo has dependencies on the NuGet packages of each of the FormSuite components, i.e. FormsAPI, FormDirector, FormFix, ScanFix, SmartZoneICR, and SmartZoneOCR. It also has dependencies on Accusoft's ImagXpress, NotateXpress and PdfXpress NuGet packages, which are used to facilitate image loading and annotation for use in the demo, but which are not necessary to work with FormSuite.

The Visual Studio 2017 and 2019 project files provided with the included FormAssist source code use the FormSuite.Net NuGet package, which conveniently pulls in all of the above packages as dependencies in one go.

Dependencies are automatically handled.

Asian Language OCR Recognition

The FormAssist demo builds with the optional package Accusoft.SmartZone.Runtime.Asian.Win to provide OCR support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese languages. This package may be safely omitted if OCR support for these languages is not required.

Asian Language OCR Recognition requires a separate license for development and deployment. Please contact an Accusoft Sales Representative (info@accusoft.com) or see our pricing page for more information.

Customizing SmartZone NuGet Packages

Accusoft.SmartZone.Runtime.Win & Accusoft.SmartZone.Runtime.Asian.Win

The required OCR language resource files are copied to folder $(OutDir)assets after the MSBuild Target "Build" completes. By default, this directory is expected to be adjacent to the Accusoft.SmartZoneOCR.Net.dll assembly at runtime.

To change this location to a different directory:

1. Override the MSBuild property Accusoft_SmartZone_OCRDataPath in your project.
   • Example: To target a different directory name, such as $(OutDir)my_app

   <PropertyGroup>
       <Accusoft_SmartZone_OCRDataPath>$(OutDir)my_app</Accusoft_SmartZone_OCRDataPath>
   </PropertyGroup>

2. Provide this new location to SmartZone OCR with its OCRDataPath property before recognition is performed.

Troubleshooting

The troubleshooting section covers some common issues you may encounter and how to resolve them.

NuGet Package Restore Failed: (The Specified Path, File Name or Both are too long.)

To remedy, do one of the following:

• Enable long path support. See article Long Path Support (NuGet CLI).
• Override the location in which to install NuGet packages using a nuget.config file with a repositoryPath (packages.config only) or globalPackagesFolder (projects using PackageReference only) to provide a shorter path. See article nuget-config-file reference.
• Relocate your project to a directory with a shorter path.

The Specified Path, File Name, or Both are Too Long. (Accusoft.SmartZone.Runtime.Win Only)

During a build, Target "CopyAccusoftSmartZoneRuntimeWin" can fail copying OCR language resources:

To remedy, do one of the following:

• Relocate your project to a directory with a shorter path.
• Change the location where OCR language resources are unpacked. See preceding section, Customizing SmartZone NuGet Packages.
• Enable long path support. See article Long Path Support (NuGet CLI).

 PDF Xpress Evaluation License

A PDF Xpress Evaluation license needs to be enabled to avoid getting a "No license found for PDF Xpress" dialog.

Add the Evaluation License to a Machine

Run the following steps (preferred method):

1. Run the LicenseManger.exe app found in the licensing\licensemanager directory of the extracted FormSuite Zip file.
2. Click the Install an evaluation license with different edition link on the login dialog.
   
3. Select with a FormSuite Evaluation license, then click on the Activate link.
   
4. Click the Close button to finish.

Alternatively, a runtime version of the evaluation license is contained in the AccuComponent class (AccuComponent.cs) in the FormAssist project.  To enable this code, in the AccuComponent.PDFXpress property getter uncomment the following lines: