Ask the Expert: EMC Captiva 7.1 Further Enhances Intelligent Enterprise Capture Capabilities

Hi Stipe,

Yes, I've already been discussing with Engineering.  I will log this as an enhancement for Desktop and let you know about progress or if I have any additional questions.

Regards,

Justin

mbayrak,

We had tested the work around you mentioned in the initial release version of Captiva 7 (before 7.1 was released) and we were actually able to make it work, however, we felt it was not an efficient solution and was complicated so we remained focused on finding another solution.

Good news came quickly in that with Captiva 7.1, you can now define multiple tables using Captiva Designer and assign recognition zones to those multiple tables in a Captiva Extraction Project for a single image/template. This was an issue with the previous version of Captiva 7 but it has been fixed in the latest Captiva 7.1 release. You are now able to use multiple tables to extract data from a single image without needing any sort of workaround.

This Ask the Expert event has now ended. Thanks to our expert and those who participated in the discussion!

Just so you know, next week we're having the folowing ATE event:

- Ask the Expert: What's New in EMC Documentum 7.1?

Please, join us or let your peers know about it.

Cheers!

Stipe,

Would the following be an acceptable solution?

1. Desktop CommandLine option: -batchListFilter: . This filter is applied to batch list and only qualified rows are shown. The filter string is a Boolean expression on Batch list table row. A variable IALoginName may be used to represent current logged in name.

1. In Codebehind Finish routine, user may update the batch name property with logged in name taken from Desktop IA Value “Operator”.

Hi Justin,

I've been thinking about your suggestion, and here are my questions and comments:

Desktop CommandLine option: -batchListFilter:. This filter is applied to batch list and only qualified rows are shown. The filter string is a Boolean expression on Batch list table row. A variable IALoginName may be used to represent current logged in name.

Questions:

1. What language will be used in ? Captiva Expressions (), or c#, or VB.net? OR something else?
2. If it is Captiva Expression language, which IA values will be available there? _Batch, _Node, Step, Tree, Custom, Dynamic, UimData…?
3. TBH, I don’t really like this solution, because
   1. Syntax of the <batch list filter string> can't be verified. Also, it might be OK for certain batches, and fail for others (depending on process that batch originates from).
   2. Command line option -batchListFilter: needs to be configured in shortcuts to Captiva Desktop module, which means it is available to end-users (they can change or manipulate it).
   3. Customized shortcuts need to be deployed to users’ desktops (more or less manually), which is time consuming and error prone.
   4. We might need multiple shortcuts for multiple -batchListFilter: combinations.

Comments:

I was thinking of an alternative solution, and this is what I came up with (of course, I am not sure if this is technically feasible).

It would be ideal if you could add another event handler (technically a static method) into a class generated as Capture Flow Script for Desktop module instance. This method could have the following name and signature:

public static bool Desktop_ShowBatchInTaskList( IBatchNodeData node, Emc.InputAccel.CaptureClient.IModuleStartInfo moduleStartInfo)

Captiva Capture module could call this method in order to filter out certain batch from the batch list.

Here is the image of Captiva Designer’s Script editor containing one such method:

Benefits of this approach are:

1. It fits into “Capture Flow Scripting” paradigm introduced with Captiva 7.
2. _ShowBatchInTaskList is defined per step, which allows it to contain logic for the current step only. This is actually improvement over FilterBatchList architecture from IA6.5, which needed to contain logic for all processes and all steps inside single event handler.
3. I know that input parameter Emc.InputAccel.CaptureClient.IModuleStartInfo moduleStartInfo might be a bit “too much” (i.e. it allows us to access many aspects of module), but maybe you could add something like Emc.InputAccel.QuickModule.ClientScriptingInterface.IApplication app (I know that this is from different assembly, but just as an idea…). One way of another, event handler < Desktop_Module_Instance_Name>_ShowBatchInTaskList must provide information about the current application, user, departments,… so that we can have enough data to decide whether to display the batch in list or not.

One more detail:

I have noticed that Captiva Desktop module works differently with departments compared to IndexPlus and other “pre 7” modules. This is the difference:

When we launch Captiva Desktop module with command line option –department:dpt_1, module is started and it initially shows batches that have Desktop steps with department “dpt_1”. HOWEVER, user is able to switch to any other department, or to “unassigned”.

When we launch IndexPlus module with command line option –department:dpt_1, user is not able to switch to other departments, but he can only work with “dpt_1” department. In order to be able to switch departments, IndexPlus must be started with option –department:*.

Is this a bug or intentional behavior? If it’s intentional, I can see no point in setting command line option –department: for Captiva Desktop module other than selecting initial department.

Thank you for your efforts, and best regards,

Stipe

Hello Justin & James,

I was wondering, do you have any news regarding the ability to filter batch list in Desktop module:

1. Did you log this as an enhancement for Desktop?

2. Do you have any details about the progress?

3. Did you have a chance to review my comments in Re: Re: Ask the Expert: EMC Captiva 7.1 Further Enhances Intelligent Enterprise Capture Capabilities?

Best regards,

Stipe

Hello Stipe,

Apologies for the delay. 

We understand your concern but if we need to patch older versions, we would only consider a filter string in command line. It is not possible to enhance scripting infrastructure as a patch.

Answers to your questions:

1. The filter expression follows Captiva expression rules.
2. All variables come from the Batch list table non localized column names. In addition we support IALoginName.  We would list the column names. There is no other context available.

---------

Batch list is shown to user before we get to any batch context. Until user picks a batch from the batch list grid, we cannot ask IA Server for a tasks. Any scripting at task level is not suitable for this requirement. Yes, it is possible to provide a global script function to filter and reorder the table but this requires many changes and is not a good fit for a patch.

Please provide your thoughts to this response.  Regards,  Justin

Hello Justin,

here are the answers to your questions and some comments:

1. The filter expression follows Captiva expression rules.

-> OK, I can understand and accept this.

2. All variables come from the Batch list table non localized column names. In addition we support IALoginName.  We would list the column names. There is no other context available.

-> This is also OK. Does it mean that we will have "BTDescription" column at disposal? If so, we would be able to store some daa there that could be used for filtering...

--------- Batch list is shown to user before we get to any batch context. Until user picks a batch from the batch list grid, we cannot ask IA Server for a tasks. Any scripting at task level is not suitable for this requirement. Yes, it is possible to provide a global script function to filter and reorder the table but this requires many changes and is not a good fit for a patch.

->I also understand this. What I see as a problem in the whole concept is that filter expression actually written in the command line that starts Captiva Desktop. The filter expression can:

a) be rather lengthy

b) there might be problems with special characters within command line etc.

My suggestion is this (I know that it requires some more work, but it just might be worth trying):

1. Introduce "CaptivaDesktopBatchFilterProfiles". These profiles can be defined and administered on Captiva server, using aptiva Administrator (similar to Departments). "CaptivaDesktopBatchFilterProfiles"would contain name and Captiva expression.

2. Introduce startup flag -batchFilter for Captiva Desktop, which will point to "CaptivaDesktopBatchFilterProfiles" name (again, just like Departments).

If defined this way, batch filter expression would be:

a) hidden from enduser

b) can be loaded on Captiva Desktop startup, independently of specific batch...

Also please, give me the answer regarding Captiva Desktop behavior with -departments command line option (see my previous post for details...).

Thank you and best regards.

Stipe

Stipe,

Please email me directly to discuss this:  justin.bettencourt@emc.com  Thanks.  Justin

Hello,

I need to enable or disable text fields in the module eIndex based on the selection which the user of a list, example if you select the first option in the list, you must enable the text field " Name" , "Date" , if you select the second option in the list , you must enable other fields.

How I can do this?

Regards.@Captiva

I am creating batch for high management so it is a top secret documents , i need any tool to hide specific zones which contains prices from the agents ,,,,how to do that ,, i thought of annotations in image processor task ( I am using captiva 7.1 )

plz help , how to design this flow??

I do have a similar requirement where following would be the flow:

Scanplus->Desktop for indexing-> Verification Step(Desktop)-> Export.

Batch list need to be controlled.

Scanning operator who scanned can see his own batch at Indexing, private batch concept. Suppose there are 2 operators A and B then batches submitted by A cannot be viewed by B. We cannot go for department approach as the number of scanning operator is 200+

Let me know how to go about it, immediate support needed as we are left with few days.

Thanks

Shweta

Hello Shweta

You can use eInput modules for that.

It's possible to create private batch using eScan module. In that case only the batch owner (creator) receive the task to index the document.

I hope it is helpful for you.

Regards,

Makram