IMatch Anywhere and heic files

[Gerhard]

According to topic https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=9026.0
when Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtensions (and maybe Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension) are installed, IMatch can open heic files, because the codecs are present in WIC.

I can confirm, that this works for IMatch.

The question is, what is needed for IMatch Anywhere.
Both packages are installed and I see only low resolution "thumbnails" in IMS webviewer for heic files.
Is this working as intended or are there any tricks to get high resolution quality for heic files on IMS webviewer?

[Mario]

This works the same for both applications.

Where are your image files stored? On the same PC on which IMWS is running?
Are the WIC codecs also installed on the same PC on which you run IMWS?
Have you checked the IMWS log file for errors and warnings? Any reports in the IMatch WebViewer Admin Portal?

[Gerhard]

Super fast answer as always Oo.
Images are stored on a network share.
IMWS is running on a different machine(both mentioned packages are installed), no messages seen in the admin portal, but the log shows it:

10.27 17:42:47+    0 [13EC] 02  I>     File [170101] \\abc.com\DFS\Pictures_abc\2019\2019-10-25 Geburtstag abc\20191025_123420364_iOS.heic
10.27 17:42:47+    0 [13F4] 02  I>     File [170102] \\abc.com\DFS\Pictures_abc\2019\2019-10-25 Geburtstag abc\20191025_123420830_iOS.heic
10.27 17:42:47+  109 [13E4] 01  W> PTPIMultiMedia: Missing external helper executable 'E:\IMatchWebServices\xpdf\pdftopng.exe'  'v:\develop\imatch5\src\ptpicore\plugins\ptpimm\ptpimultimedia.cpp(306)'
10.27 17:42:47+    0 [13E4] 01  W> plug-in validation failed. Probably the installation is corrupted or files are missing. Try to reinstall IMatch.  'v:\develop\imatch5\src\ptpicore\ptpluginmanager.cpp(170)'

[Mario]

1. Always ZIP and attach the complete log file. Posting a few lines may miss the important bits.

2.  This installation seems to be incomplete. IMatch never installs into a folder named "'E:\IMatchWebServices\".
IMatch / Anywhere always installs into c:\program files\.. folder
Why does IMWS think it is installed in this folder? Did you somehow copy it there manually?

3. IMWS by default runs under the LocalSystem account and thus cannot access files stored on a remote computer.
This is a built-in security feature in Windows. You should get warnings in the IMatch WebViewer Admin panel about inaccessible files.
If there is no cache image on the PC running IMWS and IMWS has to fetch the original file but cannot, it will fall back to using only the thumbnail contained in the database.

IMatch WebViewer will display corresponding messages when you open it with user that has IMWS Admin privileges. Normal users don't see this message.
If you don't use authentication, all users are Admin users.

If you must access files on a remote computer in IMWS, please see the IMWS Admin documentation for details about how to change the user account under which IMatchWebServices runs on the PC. Switch it to a user account which has access to files on other computers.

Open the IMWS help system and in the table of contents on the right, click on the headline Service User Account.

[Gerhard]

1. complete log added, private information replaced. (log is from the test installation on my client pc)

2. IMatch allows to specify paths for installation, cache and other paths in config tool etc.

3. Service account is configured, I use authentication and I'm admin user. Other than heic images work well.

In the hope my server license is still valid, I installed IMWS on my client pc for testing now(default path, authentication enabled, service account used).
IMatch works with heic, IMWS on the same machine/user account "does not"(jpg works fine, but heic show only low resolution).

[Mario]

IMatch does not specify the path for installation. The Installer does not offer such an option.
How did IMWS end up in E:\ on your system? It cannot find plugsins and probably many other required files.

I see no error messages or warnings from failing to process HEIC files.
Many heic files are accessed.

Don't forget to switch logging to debug logging and also enable the web service log for additional info (see Admin documentation for details).
When IMWS accesses an HEIC file for the first time it creates a cache image by loading the HEIC via WIC. IMWS then only uses the cache file.
Maybe there is a problem with the IMatch cache on your system?

HEIC is like any other WIC format for IMatch.
Once the file is cached, IMWS will only ever use the file from the cache.
Except that HEIC has so many patents attached that it is almost illegal to read HEIC files (thanks to Apple and Nokia))

[Gerhard]

Cache folder and so on can be changed in the controller.
Installation path is indeed not so easy to find.
I install using msi command line and use "INSTALLFOLDER=E:\IMatchWebServices\"
This works without problems.

this is the error: PTPIMgr: No plug-in for extension '.HEIC'
complete logs attached.

With "Once the file is cached" you mean the cache file in the DB or the one created by IMWS?

[Mario]

Please install IMWS in the default installation folder and then repeat your tests.

[Gerhard]

please delete imatch_logs.zip  from last post(cannot edit previous post...), new upload is attached
test install is in default location and all uploaded log files are from test installation

[Mario]

Very strange. I see no error, except that IMWS complains about the missing PNG2PDF external helper utility. Which is not really needed in a IMWS context.
I also wonder why IMWS things that there is no plug-in for HEIC/HEIC - because these are processed via WIC codecs. Not external helper utility.

Please copy the file "pdftopng.exe" from your IMatch installation (c:\program files\photools.com\IMatch...) to the folder 'C:\Program Files\photools.com\IMatchWebServices\xpdf\' on the computer running IMWS. This should get rid of the error message in the log file and maybe this also solves this mysterious problem. Maybe a side effect.
I wonder why this file is not installed by the IMWS installer. I shall investigate that for the next build.

[Gerhard]

after copying the file, the low resolution images for heic are gone. Instead, I see the icon for the application I use to open heic files.

I added part of the log containing the image handling.

For me it seems, that image extraction is done via ffmpeg to jpg.
I tried the command with the installed ffmpeg and my own version of ffmpeg.
Both complain with:
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 000002285b3c8900]
moov atom not found

Same with ffprobe.

[Mario]

IMatch uses WIC codecs to process HEIC/HEIF files. This is done by the "engine", which is the same for IMatch and IMWS.
HEIC/HEIF is a very problematic format, especially patent-wise, fee-wise, royalty wise and money-grabbing Apple/Nokia-wise.

But, so far, when the user has installed the free Microsoft Windows HEIC/HEIF extension (which is a WIC codec), IMatch and IMWS were able to process these files. No difference to any other RAW format processed via WIC.

IMatch uses FFMPEG only for extracting thumbnails for video files. Not for HEIC/HEIF.