I'm a very NEW user to Laserfiche, and I was asked if we can run a report in the repository to search zoning files in a date range? Like how many zoning applications were approved from Jan. 1 -July 31?
Thank you.
Hi Meredith,
To add on to Brianna's comments, this sounds like something you can definitely do using out of the box searching features. If you've got the metadata fields that you need like Approval Status, and a Date Approved field, then you can use the Field type search to limit down your results to documents that have a specific document template (in your case, probably Zoning File) with an Approval Status field of "Approved" and a Date Approved within a range.
If you haven't gotten these fields set up yet, I'd recommend making sure your metadata fields are set up with the right type--using a Date type field for relevant info will make it easy to run reports with ranges, for example.
Once you've got the results you want to list out, you can leverage the built-in reporting tool to get a list of your results. Hope this helps!
Thank you for both of your answers, I found out how to run a report. Our Zoning Filing are not uploaded to LF yet, that is the next project. When we start uploading these files what is the best practice for us to get into with setting up these fields that will be searchable?
Hi Meredith,
It's good that you're planning to get your fields sorted out before you get your zoning files in! In terms of what kinds of fields you want to place on your metadata template, you will want to think about what kind of information you usually sort by when you're looking at your zoning files. For example, you've already pointed out that you want to look for approval dates. In that case, you probably want a Status list field that people can toggle to Approved or Denied, and also a Date Approved date field that can be filled out either manually or through a workflow of some sort.
In general, I recommend identifying the kinds of fields that you use currently to find these files (maybe things like applicant name, location, parcel number, etc.) and mapping them to the most appropriate type of metadata field that will allow you to leverage specific search criteria. For example, by using a date field with dates that you're storing (instead of a generic text field), you'll get additional search options so you can search a range of dates. I'd also recommend checking out the Core 107 - Overview of Metadata presentation from Empower 2019 once it gets uploaded later this week.
Hi Meredith,
There are a variety of options depending on what information your documents have and what you are looking to do with the report. To provide better recommendations, I have a few questions: