Designing Your Document Management Solution
If you have not yet decided on a plan for how to organize your scanned images for later retrieval, you should take some time to consider the possible options. There are several ways to search and view documents scanned with SimpleIndex®:
- Use SimpleSearch to use keyword searches to find and view indexed documents
- Use SimpleView to browse folders, search files, view, edit and annotate scanned documents without a database
- Use a third-party document management system for integrated searching, viewing, workflow, HIPAA compliance and other document-centric functions
- Use SharePoint to share documents online, create custom document workflows and employ records management standards
- Use the Windows Search Bar to search the names AND contents of files stored on Windows Server 2008 or later.
- Integrate SimpleIndex directly with your custom application using the Command Line Interface
- Work with our professional services team or an Authorized Dealer to create a customized solution or direct integration with virtually any application
- Use a custom database or spreadsheet such as MS Access, SQL Server or Excel to store the index data and provide links to the stored document images
Use existing data from your SQL Server database to populate document index field values and metadata. Export documents and data to any SQL Server database. Use your SQL Server database as a document management system.
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.
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.
- Published in Database & Retrieval
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.
- Published in Database & Retrieval, Export
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.
- Published in Database & Retrieval, Export
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.
- Published in Database & Retrieval
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.
- Published in Database & Retrieval
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 search
- Published in Database & Retrieval, OCR
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.
For details on how to configure Match & Attach mode, please refer to the manual.
- Published in Database & Retrieval, Export
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 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. To configure the Autofill feature first go to the Index tab and define the field that will be used to perform the lookup. Each value in this field should correspond to a single record in the database, usually defined as the “Primary Key”. This field can be any type, including Barcode and OCR for full automation. Next click “Configure Index Autofill” button. Here is where you will setup the database lookup. The “Match Data Source” is configured the same way as the “Data Sour
- Published in Database & Retrieval, Indexing & UI
How do I connect to an SQL Server database?
On the Database tab, choose “SQL Server” from the drop-down labeled “Configure Data Source”. Click the “Start” button.
You will be prompted to enter the SQL Server name and database name. Once selected, an OLE DB data source will be entered under “Data Source”.
You can add a default user to the “Data Source” using the conventions for OLE DB provider strings. With this configuration, all users will use the same SQL Server login. To configure individual logins, check “Require Logon” on the Logging tab. If you would like the users to select their name from a list, add each user ID using the “Add User” button.
- Published in Database & Retrieval
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. On the database tab, make sure “Create Generic Access DB” is selected in the drop-down and click “Start”. 2. Save the Access database in a location accessible to all SimpleIndex users. All the settings on this form will be filled in automatically after you save the database. 3. Change the “Database Mode” to “Insert New Records”. This means that when the job is run, new records will be added to the database as new files are processed. 4. Save the this configuration. 5. To create a configuration for searching and viewing, simply change the “Database Mode” setting to “Retrieve and View Records”. You may
- Published in Database & Retrieval