Data is essential in every sector of business. Not matter the field, companies rely on data accumulation and management day in and day out. When compiled, each piece of input provides companies with comprehensive databases of fundamental information that can be processed, stored, manipulated, and analyzed. Databases act as crucial repositories of information that often encompass vast sets of data. Given the mere amount of input involved, data accumulation and management can be a tedious and overwhelming task, especially when involving manual data entry, intricate spreadsheets, copious archives of documents, and clunky software.

While there are plenty of database solutions for processing and storing sets of data, such as SQL (MySQL, Access, Postgres, etc.) and NoSQL (Mongo, AWS, etc.), issues commonly arise during the processes of identifying and transferring data from raw unprocessed texts and images. Overall, data recognition and collation can be an incredibly tedious task in which small errors resulting from misreading and mismatching of input can disrupt entire database processes and outputs. Thus, the key to successful data management lies in the precision of character recognition and classification. With this in mind, we’ve tailored our solution to rigorously identify and meticulously catalog great amounts of data with accuracy in order to save you time, money, and headaches!

SimpleIndex provides an Unprecedented Control of Database Interactions

Open database integration is a powerful feature of SimpleIndex® and one that furthers its interoperability with custom programs. Instead of using a proprietary database, SimpleIndex allows you to map its index fields to cells in any database table. It can be configured to create new records, update existing ones or retrieve them for viewing. Using these three basic database functions, SimpleIndex is able to interface with and operate on any database.

Reduce Click Charges for Data Capture

If you operate a high-volume scanning department or service bureau, chances are you use software like Kofax to scan and index documents for your clients. If you do then you are well aware of the high cost of click charges and the inevitable mad rushes to purchase additional clicks at the end of a peak volume month.

There are some scanning jobs that need the multi-user batching and indexing features of these systems, but many do not. SimpleIndex® can help you save big on click charges by supplementing your primary scanning infrastructure, letting you perform smaller, less complex jobs in a separate workflow.

Many data capture and forms processing applications charge for every page you process, even if all the data being read is only on the first page. Starting SimpleIndex 9, you can automatically send a copy of the first page from each exported file to a separate folder for data processing, helping you avoid unnecessary processing time and license costs.

Jobs like these can be easily processed with SimpleIndex:

  • Simple scan-to-file with no indexing
  • All indexing is done via bar codes or database lookup
  • No custom export or API integration is required

The following scenarios usually require a more robust solution:

  • Multi-user workflows
  • Complex data extraction and forms processing
  • Direct application integration with APIs

Basically, SimpleIndex is great for 1-2 user workflows where a single user performs the whole scanning and indexing process, or where one person scans and another indexes on a separate workstation. When more than 2 users are required to keep up with indexing volume then it makes more sense to use a system designed for multiple users.

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Instant Integration With Any Application

SimpleIndex® provides a great alternative to “reinventing the wheel” using a document imaging SDK to implement scanning in your custom application. SimpleIndex uses a command line interface to enable developers to execute customized scanning workflows from another application. This lets you take advantage of SimpleIndex‘s TWAIN/ISIS scanning, zone OCR, barcode recognition and database export features without having to re-code them all yourself.

Whether you are an IT consultant creating an application for internal company use or a software developer looking to add scanning features to your application, SimpleIndex provides the easiest solution available.

To use SimpleIndex as a scanning front-end for your application, simply:

  • Create a SimpleIndex job file configured to scan, index and save files the way you want
  • (Optional) configure the database export to create/update document records in your DB
  • Use a “Shell” command to execute the job file from your program

When you execute the job file from your program, SimpleIndex will scan, read barcodes, OCR zones, etc. and organize the documents into the folders and filenames your program requires. The database export can be configured to add or update records in your database with information captured from the documents as well as the image file path or binary data. Index values can be passed from your program to SimpleIndex via the command line. The whole process can be configured to run minimized so the user never even sees the SimpleIndex screen.

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Automated Processing & 1-Click Interface

SimpleIndex® 1-click scanning and indexing is enabled with its command line interface. SimpleIndex job files can be saved and opened just like a Word document. When you open a job file, SimpleIndex begins processing a new batch automatically. Scanning, processing (OCR, barcodes, database autofill, etc) and export happen in sequence with no further input from the user.

For unattended processing, the command line interface lets you use Windows services and scheduled tasks to automate OCR, barcode recognition and database export tasks.

The Command Line Interface also allows SimpleIndex to be integrated with custom software applications with minimal to no programming required.

  • Field values, processing folders and other settings can be passed as command line parameters
  • Any SimpleIndex option can be set using XML job files
  • Database export links processed files to your app automatically
  • Control application behavior (display window, exit after processing, etc.)
  • Pre-Process and Post-Process features can execute other command line applications at start and end of batch

Unattended Server-Based Processing

SimpleIndex lets you run any SimpleIndex job as a Windows service for fully unattended processing. This is particularly useful for high-volume, high-demand applications where scanned images are coming from many remote workstations, as well as small and large implementations utilizing network scanners or digital copiers. In server mode, images are saved to a “hot folder” on the server where they are processed automatically. SimpleIndex performs barcode recognition, OCR and other indexing tasks and exports formatted files to storage and database servers.

Server processing licenses may be added to any version of SimpleIndex. Unattended processing is possible without a server license, but a user must be logged on to the workstation for it to execute. Windows services run automatically when the computer is booted up, even if nobody is logged on. You must have a Server license to run SimpleIndex on Windows Server operating systems.

SimpleIndex Servers can run multiple jobs on different schedules on the same server, or run multiple instances of the same job simultaneously to take advantage of multiple CPUs.

Integrate SimpleIndex in your Custom Application

Are you a developer looking for an easy scanning interface to use with your custom database application? Then SimpleIndex is the perfect solution for you!

With SimpleIndex, you can easily package pre-configured scanning and indexing settings for distribution with your application. SimpleIndex‘s command-line interface allows you to pre-set some or all of the index values for each batch, or even to hide the SimpleIndex GUI altogether. SimpleIndex can also interface directly with your database, inserting or updating index values and associating them with the images you scan. With SimpleIndex, you won’t have to write a separate import routine to get the new information into your database.

SimpleIndex is a far better option to developing your own scanning interface from scratch. If your application needs to use advanced features like barcode recognition or dynamic OCR, SimpleIndex saves you hundreds of hours of development time. If you need to let users preview each image, rotate, clean-up, rescan or index as necessary, why reinvent the wheel?

SimpleIndex means it is no longer too costly or complicated to bundle a full scanning application with your custom software. Being a SimpleIndex reseller means big discounts on every copy you sell. Sign up now!

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Database Integration

Unprecedented Control of Database Interactions

Open database integration is a powerful feature of SimpleIndex® and one that furthers its interoperability with custom programs. Instead of using a proprietary database, SimpleIndex allows you to map its index fields to cells in any database table. It can be configured to create new records, update existing ones or retrieve them for viewing. Using these three basic database functions, SimpleIndex is able to interface with and operate on any database.

Automatic Indexing Using Existing Data

The Autofill feature of SimpleIndex is an easy way to associate many index fields with one document without retyping data that already exists in another database. Autofill uses a database lookup to retrieve records that match a key value entered by the user. Blank index fields are then filled in automatically with the data from this lookup. The result is a document database with many different possible search fields, of which only one needed to be entered during scanning.

The key field may be typed by the user, or it may be read from the document automatically using barcode recognition or OCR. The lookup is performed either when the user changes this field or when the index values are saved. If the lookup finds multiple matching records, the user will be notified and the first set of values will be used by default.

When used with pre-index batches, key information can be read automatically from barcodes or OCR and matched to database records with a single click. Search on up to 99 index fields without a single keystroke!

Output to XML or Any Text Format

SimpleIndex offers direct export to pre-formatted XML files, as well as the SimpleExport module that can output any XML schema or text file format.

SimpleExport makes it possible to integrate with any third party database, application, or document management systems (DMS) that accept an XML or text file import.

SimpleExport converts the index values from a SimpleIndex job to any output format through XSL Transformations (XSLT). You may use one of the built-in scripts to export to a pre-defined system or design your own. SimpleExport runs automatically after each batch is exported, or it can run as an unattended Windows service.

SimpleExport can also be used as a standalone application for automating XSLT transformations, converting CSV or TSV (delimited text files) to XML, converting images to base64 or integrating other scanning applications with third party software.

Match and Attach Mode

SimpleIndex features “Match and Attach” mode, which combines the power of the Autofill feature with the ability to update existing records in your database. This lets you “attach” images to existing database records by “matching” them with values from SimpleIndex.

With other systems you must create a temporary database and write a custom import to match the scanned images to existing records. When indexing with OCR or barcode recognition, the entire process can be accomplished with our 1-click interface.

 

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Using alternate database schemas

In SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL (among others) user logons are associated with a default “schema” that determines which tables and views they can see.

Users may have access to other tables and views that aren’t in their schema. When connecting to the database these tables will show up in the list, but when you try to get the list of fields you get an “Invalid object reference” error.

To reference these tables, use [Schema].[Table] for the table name to explicitly reference the table.

You can also change the user’s default schema on the server to the one matching the table.

A third option is to create a view under the user’s default schema that selects the necessary records.

At the present time you cannot enter [Schema].[Table] in the wizard, so if you need to use this workaround configure the job in the wizard and modify the table name in the old job options screen.

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Access Database Connection String

If you would like to create a database string for an Access database that includes a password use this format:

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=path\database.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Database Password=db_password;

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How do I delete an image and it’s database entry?

If your Job Settings Wizard configuration’s of Database mode setting is set to “Update Existing Records”, the database record and the image will be deleted when you delete an image from a batch. The Table Name must be an updateable query or table and you must have sufficient permissions for both the database record and the file.

You cannot delete files with SimpleSearch. To enable retrieval users to change indexes, rename or delete files, use a SimpleIndex Standard license.

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How do I use the Media Wizard to create searchable DVDs or thumb drives?

To enable the Media Wizard, you must first create a job configuration that exports index information to an Access database. Once you have scanned all the documents for the CD or DVD and attached them to the database, create a second job that uses “Retrieve and View Records” to search and view these files.

The media wizard will be enabled in the Send menu whenever you have this configuration file open. The sample configurations included with SimpleIndex demonstrate scanning and searching with an Access database. Microsoft Access is not required to create the database.

The media wizard will copy the Access database and all of the files in your Output folder to a temporary folder, along with the SimpleSearch configuration and Autorun files needed to search the files from a CD or DVD. Simply burn all the files in this folder to create the searchable disc.

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How do I export index data to a database?

There are a variety of ways to connect to your database. Detailed instructions are provided in the Manual (check the Help menu). Here is a brief overview of the steps involved:

-Create a job configuration to scan and index files
-On the database tab, set the “Database Mode” to “Insert New Records”
-To use ODBC, enter the data source name or file in Data Source
-To connect directly, select your database type under “Select a Data Source” and click Start. A series of dialogs will prompt you for database connection information.
-Select destination Table or View and click Reload
-For each index field, select the corresponding database field that will receive that field value
-The “Output File Field” will receive the path to the exported file

Once you have created records in your database in “Insert” mode, you can change to “Retrieve and View Records” and use SimpleIndex or SimpleSearch to search and view the files.

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How do i setup Simpleindex to use a Database table field as a list file when the table is not the same as the table i am using on the Database Tab.

All you will need to do is put the table and field name you want to pull from in the Dictionary Matching & List Fields Box. It should be formatted just like the example below.
Example: Table Name|Field Name

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Is it possible to have the scanned image itself added to a database and not just the image path?

Yes. Image files can be inserted into binary fields in Access, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and other databases.

Check the “Store files as binary objects” option on the Database tab and the “Output File Field” setting can be mapped to a binary field.

If using PDF, MS Office or other non-image files, use the File Type Field to store the file extension of the stored file.

SimpleSearch mode will let you view files stored using this method as well.

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When exporting to a database, I get the error “Multi-step operation generated errors”

This error is usually caused when the data you are trying to insert does not match the data type of the database field. This could be a text value being inserted into a number or date field, or a text value that is longer than the maximum length of the field.

To avoid this error, be sure to use the correct Field Type and/or Template on the Index tab to force the user to enter data in the correct format. You may also need to adjust the data types or lengths for your database fields.

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How do you configure a field to select from a list of possible values?

List fields are populated using a text file or database field containing the values for that list. The text file scenario will be described first.

To configure a list field, go to the Index tab in the Job Options. Create a list field by selecting “List” for the field type and give it a name. In the “List File/Field” setting for this field, put the full path or UNC to the text file containing the list or click “Set” to browse to the file. If you have not created a file, you can put the path where you want the file stored here and click the “Edit” button. This will open the file in Notepad; new files will prompt you to create them.

On each line of the text file you will put one of the possible values that you want to be able to select from while you are indexing with SimpleIndex. You can copy this information from another source and paste it into the text file.
Save the file in Notepad and close it. The List field is now configured!

To use a database field, your configuration must be connected to a database using the settings on the Database tab. Any fields defined as “List” on the Index tab that have a corresponding field mapped on the Database tab will use the unique values from that field to populate the list.

You can check “Only allow values in list” to disallow users from entering a value not in the list.

Once the List index field is configured properly you can select the values from a drop down after scanning that appear in the main SimpleIndex window while indexing. It also makes the field autofill the closest match from the list based on the characters that you type in that field.

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Is it possible to restrict user access to certain documents in Retrieval Mode?

If the database you use to store index information has security access features, you can use these to manage access to documents with SimpleIndex retrieval mode.

In your database, create user accounts and groups and assign them the appropriate permissions to records in your document database.

In SimpleIndex, check the “Require Logon” option on the Logging tab to force the user to logon to the database using the accounts you created. When they search and view documents, they will only be able to access records that the corresponding database user has been assigned access to.

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How do you configure full text searching in Retrieval mode?

On the Database tab there dropdown in the lower portion of the panel for Full Text OCR Field. Put the name of the field that will store the full-text data there. This must be configured both for Insert and Retrieval mode configurations. The database field needs to be sufficient length to store the entire text of your document.

Of course, the Insert Mode configuration must have “Enable Full Page OCR” checked to generate full text data from images. Text from MS Office documents, PDF files and existing OCR text files can be used without setting this option.

When designing your Retrieval Mode configuration, create a Text field to use for full text search queries. On the Database tab, set the corresponding “Database Field Name” to the full text database field.

When searching on your full text field, SimpleIndex finds the text you enter no matter where it appears in the document. It is able to match partial words. It does not perform boolean or natural language searches. The text entered must match the document text exactly.

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What is “Match & Attach” mode?

Match & Attach mode lets you batch update multiple records in a database using the index data from your SimpleIndex job. For example, if you have a large backfile of documents that you want to scan and link to records in an existing database, you can use Match & Attach to find the corresponding record and set the Image Path field to the newly scanned file.

This allows documents to be indexed with a variety of information and then have it find a particular record based on up to three different key indexes in a data source.  It can then fill in additional data columns with indexed information along with the full text information, page count, batch ID and image path.

The Match & Attach uses the key field in the  “Autofill Settings…” in the Indexing & File Naming step of the Job Settings Wizard in the File menu.  Then fills the data into any blank columns for the record in the database and also changes any fields that are different.

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How do you configure the Autofill feature?

The Autofill feature of SimpleIndex is an easy way to associate many index fields with one document without retyping data that already exists in another application.

Autofill uses a database lookup to retrieve records that match a key value or values entered by the user or extracted with SimpleIndex. Blank index fields are then filled in automatically with the data from this lookup. The result is a document database with many different possible search fields, of which only one needed to be entered during scanning.

You can use one, two or three index fields as the key values to extract data from your data source.  These index fields can be any of the various types of manual and automatic fields.  Once the fields are matched the lookup information will get filled in to the Autofill Index fields.

Instructions

  1. Navigate to the Indexing & File Naming step in the Job Options Wizard under the File menu.
  2. Create an Index field(s) in SimpleIndex that will be used for the key matching value(s), which will pull the information from the database.  This Index field can be any Type other than Autofill.
  3. Click the “Autofill Settings…” button on the top right.
  4. Select the “Datasource:” configured in the Database step in the drop down or click the “New Data Source…” button to create a new connection.
  5. Click the Load button, which loads the data from the database.
  6. Select the Table or View that the data is in in the “Table or View:” drop down.
  7. Select the key field from the database that will be used to match against to pull the other data from the other columns in the selected Table or View from the “Database Key Field 1:” drop down.  If other index fields are required for matching the correct records select these in “Database Key Field 2:” and “Database Key Field 3:”
  8. Select the key index field from SimpleIndex that will be entered or extracted and used to match against the database in the “Index Key Field 1:” drop down.  If other index fields are required for matching the correct records select these in the “Index Key Field 2:” and “Index Key Field 2:”, making sure that the correct SimpleIndex fields are linked to the correct database columns.
  9. Click Finish
  10. Create new Autofill index fields for each piece of additional data needed to be filled in based on the key field(s).  The Template for each of the Autofill index fields should be the exact name of the column from the data source that should be filled.

By checking the “Allow manual input in Autofill fields” the users can edit the filled data manually.  By checking “Automatically select first matching record” it will select the first record in the table that matches instead of asking which record should be used, when multiple records in the data source have the same data.  By checking “Match on single Key Field” it will match on just one of the key fields, instead of requiring all key fields be match, when multiple key matching fields are used.  By checking “Cascading List Mode” each autofill field is displayed as a drop down list populated by the records that match the key field(s) and each selection filters the next list for matching values.

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How do I connect to an SQL Server database?

SimpleIndex has the ability to export, query or autofill from an SQL database.  This allows you to upload data that is indexed with SimpleIndex to a table or view, search against the database or pull information from the database based on a key value.

Insert New Data

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Database step
  2. Set the Database Mode to Insert New Records
  3. Click the “New Data  Source…: button
  4. Select the SQL Database radio button and click Next
  5. Fill in the “Server:”, “Database:”, “Username:” and “Password” for the SQL Database
  6. Click the “Build” button to generate the Database Connection String
  7. Click the “Test” button to confirm SimpleIndex is connected to the Database properly
  8. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or View that needs to be Inserted to
  9. Link all of the fields in SimpleIndex to the columns in the database that they should Insert to

Search Existing Data

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Database step
  2. Set the Database Mode to Retrieve and View Records
  3. Click the “New Data  Source…: button
  4. Select the SQL Database radio button and click Next
  5. Fill in the “Server:”, “Database:”, “Username:” and “Password” for the SQL Database
  6. Click the “Build” button to generate the Database Connection String
  7. Click the “Test” button to confirm SimpleIndex is connected to the Database properly
  8. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or View that needs to be Inserted to
  9. Link all of the fields in SimpleIndex to the columns in the database that they should Insert to

Autofill Based on Key Values

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Indexing & File Naming Step
  2. Click the “Autofill Settings…” button
  3. Select the SQL Database radio button and click Next
  4. Fill in the “Server:”, “Database:”, “Username:” and “Password:” for the SQL Database
  5. Click the “Build” button to generate the Database Connection String
  6. Click the “Test” button to confirm SimpleIndex is connected to the Database properly
  7. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or View that needs to be Inserted to
  8. Select the key field for the database column in the “Database Key Field 1:”
  9. Select the key field for the SimpleIndex index field in the “Index Key Field 1:”
  10. Set-up the Autofill fields that need to be filled in based on the key field

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How do I connect to an existing Access database?

SimpleIndex has the ability to export, query or autofill from an Access database.  This allows you to upload data that is indexed with SimpleIndex to a table or query, search against the database or pull information from the database based on a key value.

Insert New Data

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Database step
  2. Set the Database Mode to Insert New Records
  3. Click the “New Data  Source…: button
  4. Select the Microsoft Access radio button and click Next
  5. Click “Browse…” button under “Access Database:”, browse to the database file, select it and click Open
  6. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or Query that needs to be Inserted to
  7. Link all of the fields in SimpleIndex to the columns in the database that they should Insert to

Search Existing Data

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Database step
  2. Set the Database Mode to Retrieve and View Records
  3. Click the “New Data  Source…: button
  4. Select the Microsoft Access radio button and click Next
  5. Click “Browse…” button under “Access Database:”, browse to the database file, select it and click Open
  6. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or Query that needs to be Inserted to
  7. Link all of the fields in SimpleIndex to the columns in the database that they should Insert to

Autofill Based on Key Values

  1. Open the Job Settings Wizard and go to the Indexing & File Naming Step
  2. Click the “Autofill Settings…” button
  3. Click the “New Data  Source…: button
  4. Select the Microsoft Access radio button and click Next
  5. Click “Browse…” button under “Access Database:”, browse to the database file, select it and click Open
  6. Click the “Load” button under “Table or View:” and then select the Table or Query that is being filled from
  7. Select the key field for the database column in the “Database Key Field 1:”
  8. Select the key field for the SimpleIndex index field in the “Index Key Field 1:”
  9. Set-up the Autofill fields that need to be filled in based on the key field

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I know nothing about databases. Can I still use the database and Retrieval Mode features?

Yes! We’ve made it simple to create a database that you can use to store index information and perform searches with SimpleIndex Retrieval Mode.

Once you have configured a SimpleIndex job to scan and store documents on your network, use these steps to create a database to store index information for searching:

  1. Go to the Database step in the Job Settings Wizard
  2. Click “New Data Source…”
  3. Select Default and then click Next
  4. Click Yes when asked to “Copy default database to config file folder and configure settings?”
  5. The database will be copied to the folder that the Job Configuration is saved in and the name of the database will be the same name as the Job Configuration with all of the fields in SimpleIndex

This creates a database and automatically links it to your SimpleIndex Job Configuration for uploading to or searching from.

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