Integrating with another "Line of Business" application

[Jim_Holzer]

We have a line of business application that is currently storing documents.  It’s not a “document management” application – but, it is storing documents.  We want to move the documents stored in it; into OnBase - leveraging OnBase’s strength as a Document Management System.  We’ll be using a DIP Process to move the historical images.

The “Line of Business” application continually generates documents and pushes them to a folder on our network.  Moving forward; what we would like to do is set up an AutoProcess that would in “real time”:

1. Monitor this folder and,
2. When a document exists in it - OnBase will
   1. SWEEP or DIP the documents from the folder and,
   2. Import them directly into the “Awaiting Commit” queue

NOTE:  Our developers can provide us with a file containing the path; document name; index values; and the Image for these documents.

Here are the 64,000 dollar questions:

• Can something like this be set up?
• If so, what process would you consider DIP or SWEEP?
• Would both or either work?
• If so, which would you think would work best?
• Better still – is there a way that the documents could be pushed directly from the line of business application into OnBase?
• What OnBase reference material(s) would you reference – to help you?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[#2]

Jim,

Yes, you can absolutely do this!  I have done it pretty much in the same way that you are describing.  I used a dip process and monitored my folder for incoming documents.  The incoming document would be the .txt file that contains the indexes and location of the files for the DIP.  The DIP would then automatically run and import into a scan queue into the awaiting commit queue.  I used a scan queue so that I could schedule the commiting to occur without manual intervention.

The other way you could have documents stored directly into Onbase would be using the API functionality, but not every one has a certified API person on staff.

If you swept the documents into a scan queue and did not use DIP, you would have to manually index the documents and I don't think you want that.

Hope this helps!

[Jay_Gienty]

Jim - We do almost exactly what you describe using the sweep process.  The sweep service is setup to poll the folder every minute importing any docs it finds into a scan queue.  We use barcodes so they are automatically indexed.  There may be a way for you to use some type of OCR to extract keywords for a more automated process.

[Seth_Yantiss]

Jim,

You might see a couple thousand of these replys by the end of the day:  I do exactly what you describe a thousand times a day.

I'd use DIP rather than Sweep.  Sweep would require that you index the documents post import.  If your developers can provide you with a text file, you can use that file as your DIP file.  Have them add the document type to the Text file and you have a good general purpose DIP process.

I have written a DIP file generator that will create a text file with a ton of variable data.  We use it for generating DIP files from things like the name of the file, the directory where the file is located, the date of the file, etc.

DIP's a great way to go for importing documents in almost every case. 

Cheers,
Seth