Question

Pushing data into LF client via Connector

Connector

Updated November 2, 2018

asked on October 15, 2018 • Show version history

When working with Laserfiche Connector, I have a challenge when writing data from another application to the Laserfiche client. When I execute the connector profile, it will place all the data in the appropriate metadata fields - so far so good.

The only issue is that the document does not recognize that it has been modified. The Save icon isn't illuminated and if I click the "X" to exit the document, it does not retain any of the metadata that has been pushed in. In order to save the information, I have to click on a metadata field that connector modified and the save icon will be illuminated (clicking an empty field doesn't do anything and the save button remains dark).

This is problematic because the user sees all of the information input into the fields, clicks the red "X" and none of the data is retained unless they remember to click again before closing.

I even used the "Click the specified button" action inside the profile to try and click the modified metadata field or the ">" button, but nothing worked because it appears that the client is waiting for a keystroke of some sort before it recognizes that the document has been modified.

I've experienced this in on a freshly installed 10.3.1 Client and Connector, as well as legacy installations. Surprisingly, it is an issue on both the Installed and web client.

So, my question is - is there a piece of xml I could paste in to make this workable or has anyone else come up with something that would allow for this?

Thank you all very much in advance, I appreciate your assistance.

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on November 2, 2018 • Show version history

Hi Mike,

We recommend you use "Assign template and fields in currently open Laserfiche document" action. You can gather information from applications, and specify token into fields. The feature is supported from 10.0. You can refer to help documentation.

Thanks,

Qinmei

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Replies

replied on October 15, 2018

Hi Mike,

I am using the "Assign templates and fields to documents" action in Connector.

If the document or even the LF Client is not open the the template and/or fields are assigned "quietly". i.e. the document, template or Client are not opened but the fields are assigned.

If the document is opened nothing appears to change; but it has.

Press refresh F5 or re-open the document and you will find that the data is there. You don't have to save it.

Well, that's what mine does!

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replied on October 16, 2018

Peter,

Thank you very much for the response, but I think that our use case may be a little different. The invoices are imported via import agent and are put in a folder where they are waiting to be input into the accounting application. They have no metadata, so I don't believe that using "Assign Templates and Fields to Documents" would work because we don't have a way to locate a specific document via a query.

This is why we have the users open the document in Laserfiche, key the information into the accounting software, use Connector to transfer the metadata to the document and then move on to the next invoice. Basic Connector functionality.

If the "Assign Templates and Fields to Documents" function works differently than I understand and can update a document's metadata simply because a user has the document open, that'd be great and would work in this situation. Unfortunately, I believe that it relies on a query to match a document and we have nothing to uniquely identify the document at that time because there isn't any metadata yet.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond, I appreciate your input.

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replied on October 16, 2018

Hi Mike, you are correct "Assign Templates and Fields to Documents" is not the way to go.

I have setup a new profile using "Write data to an application" action and have set a Laserfiche image as the target application using "UI Automation". I have set "When a user clicks the continue button" in Application details.

I have targeted a couple of template fields and have set the "Next Action" to Press Enter.

With this setup when I run the connector a popup advises "Action Required - Click the green play button in LF to insert data into control:"

I focus on or open the image and the green arrow will show. Clicking this adds the data to the template (the template must already be assigned to the image). I can now close the image and the data is retained.

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replied on October 16, 2018

Hi Mike, I have done more testing with my new setup and I have found it to be very unreliable. An error can be shown even when the template field exists. It would appear that the Connector is not targeting all images.

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replied on October 17, 2018

Peter,

Thanks much for looking into this. Unfortunately, setting things up with the Green Arrow still doesn't make it so that the client recognizes that a change has occurred to the metadata.

I'm kind of at a loss here. I thought this would be basic functionality but we're just going to have to make sure end users click on the metadata field so that the client knows that the field has been altered.

If anyone else has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

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Pushing data into LF client via Connector

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