Question

Best practices for moving files from network drives to laserfiche repository

Laserfiche Ideas Import Agent User Group Discussions

Updated August 2, 2018

asked on August 1, 2018

Hello - does anyone have any tips/advice for moving electronic files on a network drive into the Laserfiche Repository? My organization is in its early stages of implementing Laserfiche and a particular department has requested to move documents their shared drive into the Laserfiche Repository so that they wouldn't need to search for documents in multiple locations. What are some of the pros/cons for doing this?

Thank you in advance!

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replied on August 2, 2018

Organize first! Get the documents on the shared drive into folders that match the destinations in Laserfiche.

Name each document according to your naming convention before they go into Laserfiche.

Then drag'n drop groups of documents at a time (a group being everything in a folder) into the target folders in LF.

When the window comes up for templating, set your metadata in a way that will work for the whole group of documents. You can put the name token in a general subject field to save time typing in key words that are searchable, since those same key words are normally already in the name... unless you use codes. If your naming convention is codes, you probably will have a metadata field for them as well, so you could use the name token in that field to save having to enter those all manually.

Take advantage of any other tokens you can in this window, then turn on the "Apply these properties to all entries imported in this batch" option. This will help minimize the work templating all the documents. You can always go in afterwards to add specific pieces of metadata on any entries that need it.

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replied on August 2, 2018

Thank you so much for your input, this is very helpful!

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replied on August 2, 2018

My first question would be what types of files are they looking to move? The types of files can play a role in what kind of pros/cons you might encounter because of how some electronic file types (non-native Laserfiche documents) are handled.

The next thing you would need to look at is how you will assign metadata to improve searching capabilities, folder structures, and access controls on the repository. Laserfiche has a lot more functionality so simply copying over the folder structure as-is may not be the most effective approach.

I would also say to start thinking about things like version control because features like this can be very beneficial if people will be making changes. Laserfiche versioning will make it very easy to go back and track every change with an easy interface for viewing or reverting.

Look at configuring Audit Trail before you make the switch too because that will help identify any problems with your access control configuration and monitor who adds, changes, or deletes documents from the repository.

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replied on August 2, 2018

Yes, Jason. Good points! I was assuming their repository was already at the stage you are suggesting.

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replied on August 2, 2018

Another tip - If you have Import Agent and/or Workflow up and running they will be very helpful. A little more work upfront to configure everything, but a lot more efficient and less room for human error.

Import Agent can automatically import documents from a network folder to a variable path and assign default templates/metadata. Workflows can automate a lot of repetitive tasks, like extracting metadata from file names, enabling version tracking, etc.

When we switched over to Laserfiche we had to import over 40 million images from a legacy system and Workflow was a life saver.

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replied on August 2, 2018

Thank you for the tip, Jason!

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Best practices for moving files from network drives to laserfiche repository

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