Document Capture for Alfresco – Part 2

IntrospeQt Alfresco Connector is responsible for integration of InstaCapture with the Alfresco document management system. The entire system is a distributed one where scanning can be done at one station, indexing at another and the connector to Alfresco installed in yet another. It is therefore an ideal solution for large companies that are situated across various locations geographically.

The Connector consists of a configuration module called iConfig.Alfresco and a release module called iConnect.Alfresco.

iConfig.Alfresco

iConfig is a simple application used to configure the connection between InstaCapture and Alfresco. It is designed to:

• Configure and connect to Alfresco server and release location
• Extract existing document types and associated meta-data from Alfresco and provide a mapping tool to map them to InstaCapture index properties.
• Perform connection testing to ensure connectivity for successful document transfer.  

Alfresco release configuration 

The first step is to set the parameters for the Alfresco release configuration as shown in the figure. To do so, follow the steps detailed below: 

1. Enter the connection settings

• Alfresco URL: Specify the server URL.
• User Name: Enter the user name.
• Password: Enter the password.

      2.   Enter  Batch Release Settings

• Release Every: Specify the intervals between releases.

Select the check box ‘Delete batches after successful release’ if the InstaCapture repository is to be cleared of records on release to Alfresco.

     3.    Click ‘Save’ to save the settings.

     4.    Click ‘Connect’ to test the connectivity to the Alfresco server.

     5.    Once the connection is successful, the Document Mapping Tab appears. If the connection is unsuccessful, a message pops up asking the user to verify the server parameters.  

Document Mapping

The second step in the configuration process is to set up the document mapping to Alfresco. To do so, follow the steps detailed below:

1. In the Document Mapping Console, select the InstaCapture Document Type to be mapped from the list of existing types.

      2.     To map the InstaCapture document type to an Alfresco Document type, select the appropriate document type from the drop down list provided from Alfresco.

      3.    Click ‘Map to add the document type.

     4.    The user can also import the Alfresco document type to create the InstaCapture document type.

     5.    The document mapping is complete and displayed under the ‘Document Class’ column of the table. Click ‘Remove’ to remove any mapping.

Property Mapping

The last step in the configuration process is to set up the property mapping to Alfresco. To do so follow the steps detailed below:

1. In the Property Mapping console, select the relevant InstaCapture Document Type to be mapped. This will display all the properties related to the selected document type. 
2. From the available Alfresco properties, select the appropriate property to be mapped.
3. Select the appropriate row from the listed rows of InstaCapture document properties.
4. Click ‘Map’ to add the mapping.

     5.    The mapping is displayed for the relevant document property. Click ‘Remove’ to remove any mapping.

Document Release Attributes

The release attributes specify the release format, release folder and document naming conventions. To set these attributes:

1. Select the required release format to Alfresco. The options are ‘TIF’ and ‘PDF’. The ‘PDF’ released to Alfresco is searchable.

     2.    Enter the appropriate ‘Release Folder’ name. This folder needs to be an existing one in the Alfresco server – it needs to be a space under the company root space.

      3.    To set-up an appropriate naming convention for documents released to Alfresco, select the relevant expressions from the drop down and concatenate as required or type in text into the ‘Name Expression’ field.

     4.    Click ‘Save’ to save the settings.

iConnect Alfresco

iConnect Alfresco is a simple module to release documents to Alfresco and view the release statistics. No configuration is required. 

1. Click on ‘Release Documents’ to initiate the release of documents. Once this application is started it will run as a tray application releasing documents to the Alfresco server. The log displayed will highlight success or error in releasing the batches to Alfresco along with the date and time stamps.

Click on ‘Release Statistics’ to view the statistics and reports on the batch release. This will display a detailed report on the release statistics.     

Once the scanned and indexed documents are released to Alfresco, they can be processed further if required. Thus the entire operation from scan to storage in Alfresco is seamless and highly efficient. With this set up in place, organizations can easily capture, securely transfer, store and access scanned documents from Alfresco.

Part 1