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Feature request: add ability to specify fields in Quick Fields' Laserfiche Capture Engine's Search for Entries tab

posted on December 5, 2019 Show version history

I recently got bit by this bug, but the LF Capture Engine in QF has 2 ways to retrieve entries; Basic Retrieval, and Search for Entries. If you choose Basic Retrieval, and select any fields in the criteria, those fields are available as tokens in the token shortcut menus. If you change the capture method from Basic Retrieval to Search for Entries, the session is still able to read the fields of the source entry, but anywhere the tokens %(Field.FieldName) are in the QF session, they're now underlined in red, even though the field data gets retrieved.

I would like QuickFields to either let me choose from all of my fields in the source repository as tokens, or allow me to specify which fields I want the session to retrieve from both types of Capture Engine searches; not just the Basic Retrieval. The capture engine should work a lot like LF Workflow's "Search Repository" action, where you can specify (at the very least) which fields to retrieve, and maybe even an option to pick up some of the additional properties metadata (things like Page Count, Created By, Has Image, etc.).

Right now, I'd be happy if QF Designer's tokens were just aware of the fields I'm reading data out of when I have to use a search query to feed LF Capture Engine; it's like someone just copied the top half of the Search Repository activity from Workflow, and left out the important half.

I've included photos showing the exact same QF session, one where I've configured it to use a basic retrieval; and the field tokens work. The other photo uses a search for entries query, and the field tokens are (underlined to appear) broken. Like I said, the tokens still get populated, but QF Designer acts like the tokens are wrong.

Basic retrieval - field tokens work.jpg
Search for Entries - field tokens broken.jpg
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replied on December 5, 2019

Specifying the template name in the Basic tab does make the tokens appear because Quick Fields now knows which fields to show.

However, whether there is any data in them is controlled by the retrieval options on the Document Content page in Capture Engine. Regardless of your search options, you can still type in the field tokens anywhere you want to use them in the %(Field.FieldName) format and they'll work. You can ignore the red underlining.

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replied on December 5, 2019

I can't use the Basic retrieval, since the Laserfiche documentation (and my attempts to use it) recommend not running a search on the root of a repository, especially if it searches all subfolders. Even though the criteria is specific enough that it should only find 40-50 documents, the basic retrieval timed out and failed every time I ran it. That's why I changed to the query retrieval, and found out the designer has this bug. Also, I can't limit my search to one template because the documents I'm looking for have about 6 different templates.

Either way, I feel like this is a case of a crucial missing feature, a broken/incomplete option, or an undocumented behavior. The manual doesn't state that switching to a query in the LF Capture Engine will remove all of the %(Field.FieldName) tokens from the session's token list, and underline them all like they're broken. It also doesn't warn you that if you type these tokens in (carefully) by hand, that they're going to be read from the source entry; as opposed to the destination entry. That's why it feels like a missing feature; using one capture option populates the fields in the token menu, while using a different capture option removes those fields from the drop-down token menu (which I'm sure most of us rely on to prevent minor spelling mistakes from breaking our weeks minds projects). I'd be content if this was at least documented so I didn't spend a good hour banging my head against the screen, only to find the QF session was pulling the field data despite the copious red underlines.

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replied on December 5, 2019

That's fair. I wasn't dismissing the request, just explaining what you're seeing and how things work.

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replied on December 5, 2019

Sometimes QuickFields makes me feel like I'm a test pilot for the 737 Max; when everything goes okay, nobody eats dirt. When something's left out of the manual, but "working as the designers intended," well, that's a bad day for everyone involved. frown

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replied on December 5, 2019

I found someone else who noticed this bug back in 2018, and didn't get any official responses:

https://answers.laserfiche.com/questions/135479/Laserfiche-Capture-Engine-in-QuickFields-not-showing-retrieved-fields

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