Overview

Bluelake Software’s Kofax to Laserfiche Export Connector exports documents from Kofax Capture (aka Tungsten Capture) during the Export module step. It is compatible with Laserfiche versions 10.x through 12.x including Laserfiche Cloud, and Kofax versions 11.x and above.

Point and click configuration options include mapping individual Kofax Capture meta-data fields to Laserfiche Template fields, and dynamically naming documents and folders in Laserfiche based on meta-data values. Support is also included for multi-instance fields in Laserfiche, mapping from table fields in Kofax. 

The Kofax to Laserfiche Export Connector is intended for use in facilities where Kofax and Laserfiche are both accessible at the time of export out of Kofax.

In a service bureau context where the customer's on-premise Laserfiche instance is not accessible from Kofax, please check out our Laserfiche Import product. You can export documents out of Kofax using Kofax's standard Text Export Connector, and import them into Laserfiche with the same dynamic document and folder capabilities, along with support for multi-instance fields. For more information, see here: Bluelake Laserfiche Import

Kofax to Laserfiche Export Connector – Key Features

• Point and click configuration
• Support for multi-instance meta data fields
• Dynamic Document and Folder Naming based on meta data fields.
• In addition to release to Laserfiche, support is also included for concurrent release of meta data to text-based files in a variety of formats.

System Requirements

1. Windows 7, 10, or 11, or Server 2016 or above, with 20GB of available hard drive space for the application plus the temporary storage of documents as they are exported to Laserfiche.
   
2. Laserfiche 10.4 or above (including Laserfiche 11.x, 12.x and Laserfiche Cloud)
3. If connecting to a local instance of Laserfiche, the Laserfiche repository must be on the same network node as the machine on which Laserfiche Import is installed. 

Installation

Please visit https://www.bluelake.com/Home/KofaxToLFExport to request a fully functional demo version of the software that is limited to 30 days and 500 documents. Please contact us if you need an extension on the demo period. The installed application can be converted to a permanent license after purchasing the license key. After download, double-click the installer file (i.e. Kofax11ExportForLaserfiche11Setup.exe), The installer will locate the Kofax "bin" folder and set it as the target of the installation.

NOTE: The Export connector is typically installed and licensed on a single workstation or server that performs the export function for all workstations within the Kofax environment. This way, logging and error history can be centralized and more effectively tracked and managed. Once installed, the Kofax to Laserfiche Export process can only be run from the server or workstation where it has been installed, as a windows service or as a console application, the same as any Kofax Export Connector.

Before invoking the Export Connector configuration, the Kofax Capture installation should be tested and functional, and the Laserfiche client must be able to access and login to a valid Laserfiche repository.

Kofax Export Connector Configuration

1. After Install, register the Export Connector with the Kofax Capture instance:
   
1. From the Kofax Administration module, select Tools, then click the Export Connectors tile to bring up the Export Connector Manager window.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to the Kofax "Bin" folder and select the  KofaxExportForLaserficheXX-NewInstall.INF file (where XX = the version of Laserfiche) and select Open, as shown below. 
   
   NOTE: If you are upgrading from our Version 10 connector select the -UpgFrom10.INF file above.
   
   
3. Click the Install button as shown below:
   
   
   d. You should receive the Registration Complete message:
   
   
   
   
2. Add the Export Connector to an existing Kofax Capture Batch Document Class.
   Steps:
1. In the Kofax Administration Module, select a Document Class, right click and select ^“Export Connectors…”
      
2. In the Available Export Connectors list, single click to select Kofax to Laserfiche Direct Release and select Add
   
   
   
3. The Release configuration window will be displayed, as shown below.
   
   
   
4. Each of the available options for the Export Connector are explained below.
   

LF Server /LF Database
For on-premise Laserfiche installations, fill in the LF Server name, for instance, localhost ,  or click the browse button to pick from a list of  Laserfiche Servers detected by the Kofax Export Connector. Based on the Server selection, the Repository value will also be selected.

For Laserfiche Cloud, provide the Repository ID in the LF Server field in the form r-xxxxxxxx.laserfiche,com and leave the LF Repository field empty. Provide Laserfiche login credentials to connect to Laserfiche Cloud. Note, the designated username must be a named user. 

You can find the Repository ID by logging into the Laserfiche Cloud application, go to Account Administration, then select the Plan option and scroll down on the right pane to the Usage section.

      

User Name / Password
Provide a valid Laserfiche username and password combination or leave both fields blank for Windows authentication (on-premise

 only). The specified user name must be a Named (on-prem) or Full (LF Cloud) User. The "Admin" account is not applicable here unless is has been designated as a named user. 

Volume
Click the Browse  button to select a Laserfiche Volume from the list of available volumes. This is also the first test that the specified credentials are valid. For Laserfiche Cloud there will be only one volume displayed: "Cloud".

Template
Click the Browse  button to select a Laserfiche template from the list of available Templates in the specified Laserfiche Repository. After a template is selected, the field mapping tab will be populated with the list of Kofax fields on the left, and the available Laserfiche fields on the right.

      

Laserfiche Base Folder

Click the Browse  button to select the Laserfiche root folder to which documents will be imported. If the Subfolder naming option is selected,  subfolders will be created relative to this location.

Subfolder Naming Pattern
Check this box to enable the creation of subfolders under the selected Laserfiche base folder based on the combination of metadata values, static text, or both. To use this option, first, check the Subfolder Naming option box, then click the browse  button next to the Subfolder Text field. The subfolder naming window will appear, as shown below:

 

The Subfolder naming window provides an interface for adding nested folder levels below the specified Laserfiche Base Folder. Start by right-clicking on the Base Folder node, then click Add:

      

Single click to select the new folder level. The Folder Naming Pattern window will be highlighted in yellow, as shown below.

      

Provide the naming pattern for the current folder level. The naming pattern can contain up to 2 index fields, and each field can be preceded by static text. Click Update to save the current folder level:

      

      

After update, additional folder levels can be added, starting from the previous level added, as shown below.

      

When done adding dynamic folder levels, click Save to return to the main Export Connector configuration window.

      

Document Naming Pattern
Document names can be based on static text, meta data values and system reserved values, or combinations thereof. To use a custom
naming pattern, check the “Use Document Naming Pattern” check box, then type your static value(s) or right click to select from the list of meta data fields from Kofax and system values, as shown below:



For example, the following selection will named the document according to the metadata Contact Name, followed by space, hyphen, space, followed by the process date in YYYY-MM-DD format.


As values are selected from the list of available values they are appended to the existing selection but you can also move them around to arrange them in the sequence desired. Just make sure to include the opening and closing brackets surrounding each value for it to be interpreted correctly.
The available system values are as follows:

To access the local system's regional Date and Time formats, select Control Panel, Region and Language.

If file document naming pattern values are omitted, the Export Connector will use the literal “Untitled from Kofax” as the document name, and Laserfiche’s own internal handling

for duplicate document names will append a (2), (3), etc to the end of the document name to make it unique.

BEWARE OF BAD DATA: An important consideration when selecting fields for use in document naming, is the type of data that might appear in Kofax Capture index fields. If the selected field(s) contain characters that are invalid in either Windows or Laserfiche filenames, an error will result. The Export Connector has character replacement logic for forward slashes (“/”) that appear in meta data fields – it will convert these to hyphens – for instance 01/02/2012 becomes 01-02-2012. However, other unanticipated character values will not be adjusted by the Export Connector and will result in errors, if the resulting filename is invalid.

The Field Mapping Window
Mapping between Kofax fields and corresponding Laserfiche index fields is performed within the Field Mapping window, selecting Laserfiche fields from the dropdown list on the right to associate with corresponding Kofax fields on the left.

The completed mapping:

OCR Options

OCR options are applicable to on-premise Laserfiche instances only. Laserfiche Cloud will generally OCR all incoming documents that have a text layer or extractable text such as with scanned contracts, etc.

      

OCR Retries
When Laserfiche OCR is selected, and especially with large documents, OCR may fail due to inadequate memory or system resources on the local machine. The OCR retry option specifies how many times OCR will be re-attempted for each document in the event of OCR errors. Each time OCR is re-attempted, the process starts from wherever it left off at the last point of error and in environments where the Export station may be running with lower memory or CPU, this option will facilitate completion of the OCR process on larger documents. On more capable servers and export workstations, this option may not be needed at all. It is best to leave this value at "0" on initial setup and if OCR errors occur, try setting it to a value of "3'. If more than 3 re-attempts are required, consider adding more RAM to the processing workstation or move the Export Connector to a more powerful CPU.

Other Options:

Delete First Page of Each Doc
When checked, the first page of each document will be discarded prior to releasing the document into Laserfiche. This is useful when capturing documents with coversheets, where information from the coversheet is needed beyond the initial Kofax scan and separation step such as in validation, but it not needed when the document gets to the repository.

Release as PDF
When checked, documents will be released as PDF files into Laserfiche. For this to work, the Kofax Batch definition must also contain a PDF generation step, and “Enable Kofax PDF Generation” must also be selected within Properties for the given document class within Kofax.

 Click Save to save the changes, and Close to close the Kofax Release Script configuration window

VERY IMPORTANT

Make sure to Publish the batch definition in Kofax to make the configuration changes complete.

In Laserfiche if a field is specified as multi-instance, this is supported in the Export Connector with no special configuration in the Export connector itself except to define the fields in Kofax that might have Multi-values as Field Type "TABLE". When the export occurs, for any mapped field that is defined in Laserfiche as Multi-valued, the Export process will check for the specified Kofax multi-instance delimiter for that field and if found, it will assign multiple values to that field. If no delimiter is present in the field, it will create a single instance of that field associated with the document.

We also recommend that if you define table fields in Kofax, that you change the default table delimiter field in Kofax from the default value of semicolon (;) to something like a pipe (|) character, that is less likely to occur within text that might be captured within the given field in Kofax. You can change the default Multi-value field delimiter in Kofax by opening Batch Properties and selecting the Advanced tab:

The File Output configuration tab allows creation of a formatted text file in addition to the Laserfiche Export functions, with considerable flexibility in terms of structure and content. Note that this option applies to exporting meta data values only, not images. The purpose of this option is to update additional systems with meta data about the documents captured into Laserfiche.

The File Output Tab

Make Active
In order to perform a release to a file this option must be checked. Unchecking the option will preserve the configuration information for flat file output, but files will not be created.

File Type
Select ^“Default^” to create a file in the standard ascii comma-delimited format, or select ^“Custom^” to create a file in a custom format. If the “Custom” option is selected, file options and field and record delimiter specifications must also be provided.

Custom Format Options

Considerable flexibility is available for how data fields are written to the output file, as follows:

Quotes around text fields, hash dates:

This is a common format for Ascii files. Double quotes will be placed around text fields, no quotes will be added to numeric

fields, and date fields will be surrounded by “#” characters – for example #01/01/2004#.

Convert all fields to text, with quotes:
All fields will be converted to text, surrounded by double quotes (including numeric and date fields).

No quoted fields, no hash dates: All fields will be placed without addition of double

quotes or hash marks for dates.

Field Delimiter
Provide a decimal ascii character code value corresponding to the desired field delimiter OR the text representation of the desired delimiter. For instance, a tab character is a non-printable character and can be represented by placing its decimal value in this box, which is “9”. A pipe character “|” is also a good choice for a field delimiter and can be represented by simply typing it into the box or by providing its equivalent decimal value, which is “124”. You can also specify multiple character delimiters such as “@@”, “**”, etc. The idea is to select a delimiter that is unlikely to occur naturally in the meta data being exported from Kofax.

Record Delimiter
Select ^“CRLF^” for carriage return + line feed pair (standard ascii convention), or provide an ascii character code value, or specify none for no record delimiter.

File Output Location

Provide the windows directory location that will contain the flat files created during the Export process. Paste in the desired export path for the file ort click on the Browse  button to navigate to a Windows folder location. UNC paths are also supported as long as the underlying location is available at the time of Export and sufficient access rights are granted to the user and station where export is taking place.

Potential Gotcha: If Kofax Export is  running as a service, make sure the service user has write access to the selected path.

Filename

Provide the filename without extension to be used within the file output location, subject to the additional specification for the Increment/Overwrite/Append option explained further below. The file extension will be set as .TXT but the output filename prefix can be based on static text, meta data values, or system reserved values, and combinations thereof. To select meta data or system reserved values, click into the Filename field, then right-mouse click:

Please see the Dynamic Document Naming section above for descriptions of each of the reserved system values contained in brackets <>.

Increment/Overwrite/Append file options:

Increment will cause output file names to be automatically incremented when matching files of the same name are found at the beginning of the release process. The increment factor is 0001 through 9999. For instance, if TEST is the filename and a file named TEST.TXT already exists at the beginning of the Kofax export, the file TEST.TXT will be preserved, and a file called TEST0001.TXT will be created by the new export process. Each document exported from Kofax will result in one flat file being created by the Export process, with the filename incremented each time.
Overwrite will cause any matching file names to be overwritten during the Export process.  

Append will cause data from a current Export to be added to existing files of the same name. 

Selecting Kofax Fields for Output

To add a Kofax field to the list of output file fields, click the “Add Field” button, as shown above. The Kofax field selection window will appear. Use Shift + Left Mouse Click or Cntl + Left Mouse Click to select multiple fields at once. They will be added to the output list in the order that they appear in Kofax, or in the order that they were selected if they are selected one at a time.



After selection you can use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to control the field order that will appear in the output file.

Add daily document count to each record

 This option, when checked, prepends a record count field to the output file, that is initialized each day starting at “1”.

 For instance, in the example above we chose Application No, Company Name and Contact Name for “Custom” output with pipe delimiters and a Carriage Return + Line Feed (CRLF) as a record delimiter. The output might look like:

 60045|ABC Financial|Adam Smith
 60049|Ace Consulting|John Adams
 60056|Core Entterprises|Bill Garfield

With the “Add daily document count” option checked, the output would look like the following: 

1|60045|ABC Financial|Adam Smith
2|60049|Ace Consulting|John Adams
3|60056|Core Entterprises|Bill Garfield

 …and documents captured tomorrow would start at “1” again.

When completed, the File Output Configuration might look like:

Make sure to set the File Export to Active

Then click Save to save the changes to the Export Connector configuration.
You must Publish the batch class to commit the changes to the Kofax Capture System.

When first installed, Kofax to Laserfiche Export is granted a 30-day, 500 document license. After install, to view the license status, select Help, License Status, as shown below:



The license information will be shown, as depicted below:

To extend the demo license or to convert to a permanent license, please contact Bluelake for a license code. Upon receipt of the license code, click on “Request License” from the License Activation window will appear. Paste the license key into the Activation Box and click Activate, as shown below:

Click OK to overwrite the existing (demo) license with the updated license file:

You should then receive the “License File Created Successfully” message. Click OK.

The updated license information will be displayed.