Integration: Approaches for IntegrationOverviewIf you choose to have your application initiate the scanning process, it would be desirable to pass as much information that is known along with the scan request. This will reduce the amount of typing the scanning operator will have to do and will reduce the number of entry mistakes that can be made. If you permit the scanning to be initiated from the Image-Master side, then it would be beneficial to make access possible to the appropriate tables that store file number/debtor name information so that Image-Master can range/value check and/or present a grid of possible legal choices to the scanning operator. If you choose to use truly decoupled viewing, then a method for extracting debtor/forwarder name information from the file number would be beneficial. Many Image-Master customers use the sophisticated query tool inside the viewing module to locate documents and information based on many of the fields shown in the user-defined section of the Database Structure documentation. You may also want to consider writing an import routine either now or in the future that would parse the Image-Master database looking for new (status=blank, status1="N") or changed (status=blank, status1="C") documents and pushing out the appropriate data from your application. One other task that would be beneficial would be for your import routine to change the status field to a "C". Image-Master has an exported documents report that is keyed on this field that provides positive confirmation that documents filed within Image-Master do have a corresponding match in the integrated software. This has the added benefit of having the indexing information stored in two places, so if one program should become corrupted the documents can still be located from the alternate source. Also, you can re-export the index information as part of a repair operation to recover from a major failure. This import routine could be used to populate a table of scanned documents that could be presented flexibly and seamlessly from within your application. As an added benefit, whether you store the absolute paths and make calls (bypassing searching) or simply store the user defined field dataand make well-defined searches to quickly locate the desired document in a minimal number of keystrokes, will greatly enhance the user experience. Related Topics |