Using Perceptive Content's Document Transfer (XFER) Process

Overview

To provide departments/school with the ability to freely transfer documents within Perceptive Content the XFER process was created. It functions similarly to email in that you will have one central “Inbox” and many “Outboxes” for which to target the destination department/school. To clarify, documents going through this process are “copied” and those copies are sent to the destination department/school. Your original file is retained in your drawer and is temporarily routed to your “Complete” queue to signal the success of the process. Be advised, the images contained are based on SCI’s XFER process and the columns present, their order, and their titles, may differ in your final implementation based on your department’s needs.

 

Key Terms

• Drawer
  • This is the securable digital storage volume in which all documents in Perceptive must be stored. This can be thought of as a “digital lockable filing cabinet”. Every document in Perceptive, at all times, will be contained in a drawer. The primary drawer for this process is “…-XFER-Inbox” (insert the acronym or department moniker at the ellipse).
  • Since every department’s/school’s Perceptive buildout is unique, and therefore their internal amount/usage of drawers, each area is given a new standard “inbox drawer”. This standardization permits the fast and streamlined development/support of the process.
  • As part of the process, you will be tasked with changing the drawer from “…-XFER-Inbox” to the appropriate internal drawer used by your department/school. You can consider this like taking the documents from a central “drop box” at your office and putting them in their respective long term filing cabinets.
• View
  • Along with the access to your “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer (like having the keys to the filing cabinet), you will also be granted access to a document view named the same “…-XFER-Inbox”. This view is a configurable/filterable search tool that will display all documents currently contained in the “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer.
  • The primary reason this view would be utilized is in the event an end user does not change the “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer to one of their internal drawers before routing it out of the process. This permits you to locate the document and change the drawer.
• Queue - (light blue boxes in the “Document XFER Process - Backend Diagram”)
  • A queue is a location to temporary group documents being processed by either an end user or script. Just as a drawer can be thought of as a “digital filing cabinet”, a queue can be thought of as a “to-do pile”, a user’s/group’s desk, or the inbox in an email application. While every document in Perceptive must be stored in a drawer not every document will need to be in a workflow queue for processing. The document being in a queue is in “addition” to it already being in a drawer for storage purposes.
  • As part of the process, you will receive an “Inbox” queue following the same naming convention “…-XFER-Inbox”. This will be where most of your “reindexing” work on transferred documents will be performed. It allows you to keep track of the items processed and completed, and it provides you a single space to check to see if new documents have arrived at your department/school.
• Route - (black/green arrows in the “Document XFER Process - Backend Diagram”)
  • A route is a directional pathway between two queues. Documents route along these pathways during their processing.
  • The most common interaction you will have with “routes” is using the “Route Forward…” and “Route Up…” commands. The “forward” command routes the document along the defined flow of traffic to the next stage in the process. For example, after completing the drawer selection in the “…-XFER-Inbox” queue you route it to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue to be archived. Conversely, the “up” command routes the document back against the normal flow of traffic. For example, in the event an error is encountered sending a document to a department/school, the script sends the original document to “…-XFER-Error” queue for review. Once all values appear to be normal, the end user can “Route Up…” to send the document back to the “…-XFER To-…” queue it was originally processed by to try again.
• FCC - (File Conversion Component) this is an optional addition to the standard XFER process
  • The optional FCC queue can be placed before the “Inbox” queue, and its primary purpose is to attempt to convert all incoming documents/files to flattened .tif images. Any files/pages successfully converted will be appended onto the end of the document as additional pages. All documents, either successfully flattened or failures, will be routed forward to your “Inbox” queue.
  • The goal in using FCC to flatten document pages into .tif files is to enable the use of Perceptive Content’s “Annotation” objects. These objects can be applied anywhere on the page of a .tif file and include items such as text boxes, stamps (approved/denied), arrows, check marks, etcetera. Since not all departments use annotations in their processes the inclusion of the FCC queue is optional.

 

Document XFER Process

Document XFER Process - Backend Diagram (Standard)

 

Document XFER Process - Backend Diagram (w/ optional FCC Queue)

 

Document XFER Process - Inbox

When a department/school transfers you a copy of a document it will arrive in your “…-XFER-Inbox” queue and be stored in your “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer. The document will be indexed with the same values (Field1 - Field5, Document Type, and Custom Properties) as the original at the source department/school. From this point the document is your copy and you are free to do with it what you will.

 

 

Once received, please update any index values if necessary.

You must change the “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer to one of your internal drawers before sending the document to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue. There is a “Drawer Check” script monitoring documents leaving the “…-XFER-Inbox” queue. This script will prevent a document, still contained in a “…XFER-Inbox” drawer, from leaving the “…-XFER-Inbox” queue. Additionally, these documents will have the following error message appended into their “Notes” field:

 

“Update drawer value to a non 'XFER-Inbox' drawer before routing out of this queue.”

 

 

After changing the drawer (or any index keys) and saving, you may receive a “pop-up window” which asks you to either “append”, “replace”, or “cancel”. This situation occurs when an existing document has the exact same combination of “drawer”, “field1”, “field2”, “field3”, “field4”, “field5”, and “document type” as the document you are currently working on. At that point you can either:

• Append: add the document you are working on to the end of the existing document as additional pages (this should be the most common selection)
• Replace: replace the existing document with the one you are working on
• Cancel: cancel the drawer/index key changes you made on the document you are working on and change your values to something else.

 

After you change the drawer (and update any index keys as applicable), save it and route the document “forward” to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue.

 

Once sent to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue the document will be “archived” and removed from the XFER process after one hour. The document will still be retained in the drawer you selected and will be retrievable through your normal document views.

In the event you sent a document forward to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue before finishing any changes, you can access it again by:

1. If it has been less than one hour since you sent the document to “…-XFER-Complete” queue, you can open that queue and make the change there.

 

 

2. If it has been more than one hour, and you forgot to change the drawer from “…-XFER-Inbox”, then you will need to use the “…-XFER-Inbox” document view. The “Drawer Check” script should prevent this from occurring, but if it fails you will need to use this view. The view will show all documents currently within the “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer. This will include both items still within the “…-XFER-Inbox” queue as well as those that left the process before getting changed. You can easily identify the latter by looking at the “Workflow Queue” column, which will be empty.

 

 

3. If it has been more than one hour, and you changed the drawer from “…-XFER-Inbox” to one of your internal drawers, you may locate that document using your existing document views for that drawer.

 

Document XFER Process – Outboxes

                When sending a document to a department/school you will want it to either be:

1. Not in any other existing workflow queue. There will most likely not be a “route” from said queue to the desired “…-XFER To-…” unless otherwise requested previously.

 

 

2. Already in your “…-XFER-Inbox” queue or any another queue with predefined routes to your “…-XFER To-…” outbox queues.

 

 

In the event you are going to be sending documents frequently from/to another workflow process into/out of the XFER space, you can request new routes to be created to facilitate those processes.

               

                For option one (document not currently in a queue), you will be able to “add” documents in your drawer(s) to a workflow queue. To do so perform the following:

1. In general, ensure that the document you plan to send has:

1. all the correct index values
2. the drawer is set to one of your internal drawers (not “…-XFER-Inbox”)

When the script completes its operation, your original file will be moved to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue for archival, so you will want to ensure all values are as desired prior.

2. Locate and open the document you want to send
3. Select “Workflow” > “Add to Workflow…”

 

 

4. Select your department’s/school’s “…-XFER” process
5. Select the desired destination schools “…-XFER To-…” queue
6. Click “Add”

 

 

                For option two (document in a queue with existing routes), you will be able to select “route forward” to send the document from one queue, along a predefined route, to the next queue. To do so perform the following:

1. In general, ensure that the document you plan to send has:
   1. all the correct index values
   2. the drawer is set to one of your internal drawers (not “…-XFER-Inbox”)

When the script completes its operation, your original file will be moved to the “…-XFER-Complete” queue for archival, so you will want to ensure all values are as desired prior.

2. Locate and open the document you want to send
3. Select “Workflow” > “Route Forward…”

 

 

4. Select the desired destination schools “…-XFER To-…” queue
5. Click “Route”

 

 

                There are scripts watching the “…-XFER To-…” queues waiting for documents. Once it detects a document the script will:

1. Copy the original document and its contents
2. Place the copy in the destination department’s/school’s “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer and “…-XFER-Inbox” queue
3. Move your original copy from your “…-XFER To-…” queue to your “…-XFER-Complete” queue
4. The “…-XFER-Complete” queue will archive it after one hour
   1. In the event an error is encountered during the transfer the process, it cancels the operation and routes your original copy to your “…-XFER-Error” queue instead

Once your document leaves the “…-XFER To-…” queue and appears in the “…-XFER-Complete” queue the transfer can be considered successful.

 

Document XFER Process – “…XFER-Inbox” View

This view displays all the current documents contained in your “…-XFER-Inbox” drawer. All the documents displayed by this view should also be in your “…-XFER-Inbox” queue. Documents should not remain in the “…-XFER Inbox” drawer indefinitely. The purpose of this drawer is to act as a “temporary parking/drop off” area while end users determine which internal drawer(s) should be used for long term storage. As such, when a document leaves the “…-XFER-Inbox” queue it should already have its drawer changed to the applicable value (the “Drawer Check” script should ensure this).

 

In the event a document does not have its drawer changed from “…-XFER-Inbox” before leaving the XFER process, and the “Drawer Check” fails, you will need to use the “…XFER-Inbox” document view to locate it. You can easily identify the documents by looking at the “Workflow Queue” column, which will be empty. Open the document, change the drawer to the correct value, and save the document.