The Edge

EMC Captiva InputAccel - Dynamically Setting the “Write if Empty” Flag in the “Values to XML” (XML Export) Module

The Values to XML Module is used to write out XML data from InputAccel.  When you map the values to your template XML file, you have the option of checking the “Write if Empty” flag.  If checked, this flag will mean that the tag will still be written even if there is no data for that tag. 

  

Normally, the “Write if Empty” flag is checked or unchecked when you configure your InputAccel process, however, there may be a need to dynamically change this flag. 

Being able to dynamically change this flag allows you to decide whether to output empty tags from within your process VBA code, rather than having it set in the configuration settings.

InputAccel does not expose these flags in the IA Values which means that unless you manually expose these flags, you cannot alter their values dynamically. 

To expose the “Write if Empty” flags, you need to do the following…

1. Create a new text file called “ValXML.mdf” and store it in the same directory as your process.

2. Add the following code to your ValXML.mdf file… 

EMC Dispatcher - Using EMC Dispatcher to Read Index Data from “Black Box” Forms

A lot of old legacy forms that companies use were not designed to be scanned.  As a consequence they use black boxes like this…    

   

When using Dispatcher to automatically gather indexing information from documents, these black boxes do present a challenge.   There are two options and often you can find yourselves using a mixture of both.

Drop Out Method

Dispatcher gives us the option to use a drop out filter.  The basic principle of this is that Dispatcher tries to remove the boxes before reading the data.

To use this method, you need to do the following…

1. Obtain an image where the boxes are empty (i.e. not completed).  If you do not have blank forms available to scan, use an image editor that does not alter the compression, format or size of the image, such as GIMP.

2. Within Dispatcher Manager, select your template and switch to “Indexing View”.  Right click on your template and select “Change the indexing image”.

3. Navigate to your blank form image and select this.

4. Drag and drop your indexing field onto the form.  You can either cover the whole of the boxed area (a) or you can miss out the horizontal lines (b).  Usually b is the best method simply because Dispatcher has less lines to drop out; however, you can try both and see which works best for your form.