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User’s Guide
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User's Guide | i
About this Document
1 Overview of eFLOW Describes the system, applications, flows, modules, and basic
concepts.
2 Application Designer Desktop Describes the user interface, desktop, menus, toolbars, and
workspace.
4 Flow Design How to create flows in a workflow, including modules and links,
their properties and events.
5 Form and Page Design How to design forms and work with pages.
6 Field Group, Table and Field How to create field groups, fields, and tables.
Design
7 Designing Screen Layout How to create and edit layouts for manual runtime stations.
8 EFI Design How to create, edit, link EFIs and perform recognition.
10 Defining Lookup Tables How to create lookup tables for manual runtime stations.
11 Rules and Validation Functions How to create and edit rules and validation functions.
12 OCR Engine Design How to configure OCR engines and configure recognition properties.
13 Virtual Engine Design How to create and edit virtual OCR engines and configure
recognition properties and voting algorithms.
Style Conventions
Names of menus, commands, buttons, and other elements of the user interface,
Arial Bold
including names of data manipulation functions.
Warnings, which indicate potentially damaging user operations and explain how
to avoid them.
Table of Contents
LEGAL NOTICE ............................................................................................. I
User's Guide | v
Table of Contents
8.8 PERFORMING FORM IDENTIFICATION AND REMOVAL: PAGE LEVEL REGIONS ......... 136
User's Guide | ix
Table of Contents
13.4 SETTING RECOGNITION MASK PROPERTIES FOR OCR FIELD ENGINES ................ 177
13.5 SETTING SEGMENTATION PROPERTIES FOR OCR FIELD ENGINES ...................... 178
13.6.1 Defining Voting Methods for OCR Page Engines ....................... 178
13.6.2 Defining Voting Methods for OCR Field Engines ....................... 178
13.6.3 Setting Virtual Engine Voting for OCR Field Engines ................. 180
User's Guide | xi
Overview of eFLOW
Designer Modules
1 Overview of eFLOW
This manual describes the designer modules of eFLOW. The first part of this
introduction deals with eFLOW as a whole, illustrating the part that the designer
modules play in the system:
Designer modules. See section 1.1.
Basic concepts. See section 1.2.
The second part of this introduction takes a look at the steps involved in the design
procedure:
Building an application. See section 1.3.
Defining OCR engines and virtual engines. See section 1.4.
Defining the application workflow. See section 1.5.
Running the system. See section 1.6.
The eFLOW system. See section 1.7.
User's Guide | 13
Overview of eFLOW
Basic Concepts
EFI1
EFI2 Form1 Flow1
EFI4 Form2
EFI4 Form2
Flow2
EFI5 Form3
In an application, you define how many forms and flows you want, which EFIs you
want to attach to them, and how you want the data processed. You define which OCR
engines will be used to interpret the form entries, and what type of image
enhancement and form-removal parameters to apply to achieve the best results. You
can group data items and apply logical and mathematical rules to ensure data
correctness and quality, and to reduce the number of exceptions that are returned to
the operator for manual data completion.
The form documents to be processed may be obtained from a number of different
sources.
Examples of input file sources:
Scanned image
Faxed image
Text document
Image file
The digital data output may be sent to almost any data management system that you
use.
Examples of output file formats/destinations:
XML
CSV
INI
SQL
Oracle DB
SAP
CRM
Sample applications have been supplied with the system in the directory “…\sample
Applications”, for use as reference applications. For your own work and tests,
however, you should create other applications.
page
page
form
separator
page
page
form
form
separator
form batch
separator
form
form
form
separator
User's Guide | 15
Overview of eFLOW
Building an Application
Creating an Application
During this stage you invoke the eFLOW Visual Designer program, and create a new
application. An application is the container that includes all the flows, forms, fields,
data specifications, lookup tables, rules, and screen layouts, in short all the logical
definitions to be used by the eFLOW system.
For more information on creating an application, see section 3.
During this stage you define all the flows, forms, and pages in the system, all the
fields that belong to these forms, and all the links between fields in a form.
For more information on defining flows, forms, and pages, see sections 4 and 5.
Defining Flows
You can define several flows. A flow describes how the forms are organized in a
batch, and also contains parameters for every stage of the data entry process.
For more information on defining flows, see section 4.
You can define several forms per flow. A form may contain one or more pages. Each
page should have its own EFI (Empty Form Image).
For more information on defining forms and pages, see section 5.
Defining EFIs
Form data is extracted from table items and fields. Specify which fields and tables
contain data that must be processed. It is important to identify the types of
information that are to be expected.
For more information on defining field groups, tables, and fields, see section 6.
You then define whether a value is mandatory or appropriate for each field. For
example, you may define that there must be a string in a name field. If there is no
string, the form will be sent to the Completion station. Define functions and events
that can be linked to certain fields in the runtime Completion station.
The flow event mechanism enables you to program the system’s reaction to a
specified event in the various stations. Sets of possible events are defined for the
Scan Portal, File Portal, Processing, ManualID, FormID, Completion, Exceptions, and
Export stations. You can specify functions to be executed when these events occur.
For more information on defining rules, functions, and events, see section 11.
User's Guide | 17
Overview of eFLOW
Defining OCR Engines and Virtual Engines
Defining Layouts
During this stage you customize the entire layout of the Completion screen, for one or
more stations, as per the end-user’s requirements. For example, you can build a
runtime Completion display that will provide tables of critical information in red. You
can provide buttons for better functionality. You can add icons to visually remind
operators of the expected contents of a field, such as a telephone for a telephone
number field, etc.
For a complete guide to using the Layout Designer see the Layout Designer online
help.
You then define the types of exceptions (exception categories), and exceptions. The
definition of exceptions is also part of form definition. Here, you define all the
problematic cases that may occur in the processed forms, and how these cases
should be handled.
For more information on defining exception categories and exceptions, see section 9.
During this stage, you define lookup tables - files that facilitate data entry in the
Completion station by providing drop-down lists of known possible field values.
Lookup tables can be associated with one or more forms. Each item in the lookup
table is associated with a corresponding field in the form.
For more information on defining lookup tables, see section 10.
every character it recognizes. The combined results from the OCR virtual engine are
merged using a voting algorithm.
For more information on creating virtual engines, see section 13.
Scanning Parameters
You need to select appropriate parameters for scanning. A good image should contain
data without noisy areas, and with unbroken lines and text. Tuning the scanning
parameters correctly is crucial to the performance of the whole system.
Form Recognition
The first thing that the recognition station does is to recognize (identify) every page
in the batch. Sometimes the results of the identification during the first try are not
satisfactory.
User's Guide | 19
Overview of eFLOW
The eFLOW System
1. Check that the scanning parameters are appropriate, and that all the data in the
form exists in the scanned image.
2. Check that the empty form image (EFI) was scanned properly.
3. Prepare a batch of forms for every EFI.
4. Create a multi-page TIF file with this batch.
This process should significantly improve form identification.
Integra™
Captures data from all types of structured forms including paper, fax, image files, the
internet and mobile devices. Integra automatically validates and delivers the data to
the target enterprise application. Integra’s exclusive advanced features deliver:
Greater operator productivity.
Unprecedented character recognition and error detection.
Powerful engines with an exclusive voting algorithm to achieve the most accurate
results.
Faster and more efficient form processing.
Quick and simple point-and-click application design.
Minimum human intervention, meaning reduced labor costs and higher data
integrity.
Freedom™
Reads, understands and processes incoming supplier invoices without the need to
predefine the structure of all of the various invoices. Freedom captures, validates and
delivers the data from the invoice to the required applications.
Freedom handles any type of invoice, including invoices with complicated tables
and multi-page invoices.
User's Guide | 21
Overview of eFLOW
The eFLOW System
Smart™
stations, where operators or supervisors perform specific tasks in the case of manual
stations, such as Completion or Exceptions.
The input images are captured by the scanner interface and transferred to the
Content Recognition module. Content Recognition consists of a general-purpose
image processing module and an interface to multiple OCR, ICR, and OMR engines.
The results of these engines are processed by a voting mechanism. The final results
of the image processing and recognition process are sent, if necessary, to data
completion. The full results (recognized and completed) are then sent, if necessary,
to the Exceptions module, and then to Export directories. The stored data and images
can be retrieved at any time.
Enterprise ScanPortal Use the ScanPortal module to supply scanned forms to the Integra
Portal system. This application supports a wide range of scanners,
Freedom
including those of the Kodak family.
FilePortal Use the FilePortal module to supply image files of previously Integra
scanned forms to the system.
Freedom
User's Guide | 23
Overview of eFLOW
The eFLOW System
Content FormID The FormID module receives data from the Enterprise Portal Integra
Recognition modules for FormID identification. It automatically identifies a
form using empty form images supplied during the design stage.
ManualID The FormID module receives data from the Enterprise Portal Integra
modules for form identification, when the FormID module cannot
identify the form due to poor scanning resolution or other
difficulties. The user can manually match a scanned image of the
form with the proper empty form image.
FreeMatch The FreeMatch module is the heart of the Freedom application. It Freedom
reads the page and identifies the required data. Freedom reads
the whole page, using a page recognition engine. It then locates
potential keywords and suspected data areas. If keywords are
missing (like the state and zip code in an address) the data is
recognized according to business and topographical rules (e.g.
state is always to the left of the zip code).
Manual The ManualMatch module deals with forms that could not be Freedom
Match identified by the FreeMatch module or have been sent manually
by an operator (Completion and Exception modules). If the
FreeMatch module could not find a single field in the invoice it is
sent to ManualMatch.
Content Completion The Completion module receives data from the Processing Integra
Validation module. The exact data it receives depends upon the design
Freedom
definitions, but typically is invalid or unrecognizable data.
Unrecognized data is completed manually, with or without the
help of data dictionaries. The entire layout of the screen can be
customized for one or more stations through the Layout Designer
application.
Exceptions Most forms have rules governing how various fields are filled in. Integra
For example, one field may require digits only, while another
Freedom
may require a valid address. Once these rules have been
defined, the operator cannot leave the data completion process
until they are obeyed. This can be a problem if an entry is
illegible or incomprehensible. The Exceptions module is designed
to deal with these cases. An exception is a mark on the batch
that allows the operator to leave invalid or incomplete data and
advance to the next form. The exceptions are reported later in
the exception report.
Tile The Tile module is used for mass validation and decreasing the Integra
substitution errors of the recognition engines. The module allows
for the immediate viewing of recognition engine results grouped
in order by alphanumeric character. The Tile module usually
receives data produced by the Processing module, but can be
applied anywhere in the system (using the dynamic workflow)
according to the specific needs of each project. Grouping the
results by fields within flows, for example by grouping machine-
type and handprint fields separately, makes it easier to spot false
results and send them for correction in the Completion module.
Thus substitutions can be more quickly eliminated.
Content Export The Export module exports data to XML and to the common and Integra
Delivery standard format, ASCII, and additionally exports both B&W and
Freedom
color images. During runtime, the Export module receives the
data, converts it to the defined format, and transfers it to the
export directory.
User's Guide | 25
Overview of eFLOW
The eFLOW System
OCR The OCR Analyzer module The OCR analyzer program calculates Integra
Analyzer statistical data for eFLOW form recognition. The statistics are
Freedom
prepared by comparing the batch state after the Processing
station phase (i.e. following automatic recognition) with the
batch state after the Export phase (i.e. following human
corrections). These statistics reflect the success of the
recognition (rejects and false positives) in terms of several levels
of recognition:
1.7.4 Scalability
The system is based on a 3-tier architecture for capturing, processing, and storing
the forms. The network structure facilitates adaptation to changing workloads and
functionality by enabling the addition/removal of system components from the
network with minimal software modifications (configuration definitions).
Once a decision is made to add stations to the system (for example, more content
recognition or content validation stations), the architectural design facilitates an
increase in computing and processing power. eFLOW and its products are fully
scalable.
eFLOW’s flexible configuration and design allows for easy adaptation to the rapidly
changing needs of the computer market. Investment in eFLOW is a smart move, as it
has an open-ended design that can always be built upon.
Menu Bar
Toolbar
Working Area
Toolbar
Working
Area
Application
Explorer
Object
Inspector
User's Guide | 27
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Toolbar
The object inspector displays the properties and events of any object selected in the
application explorer. Change the values of properties or set events using the object
inspector.
Button Description
Save the entire application, including all the flows, forms, pages, exceptions and all other tree
objects, including all properties and events.
Expand the application tree to see all the objects in the tree.
Collapse the application tree to hide the objects in the tree, displaying only the application name,
flow names and names of several categories, for example, exceptions, lookup tables.
Item Description
Save Save the entire application, including all the flows, forms, pages, exceptions and all
other tree objects, including all properties and events.
Save All A forced save that can be used even if the Save button is inactive.
Check Checks the design for usage errors and opens a dialog indicating problems. Problems
Application refer to errors listed in the logger. It is especially useful for checkboxes, if one of the
Integrity values has been forgotten.
Expand Expand the application tree to see all the objects in the tree.
Application Tree
Collapse Collapse the application tree to hide the objects in the tree, displaying only the
Application Tree application name, flow names and names of several categories, for example,
exceptions, lookup tables.
Item Description
User's Guide | 29
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Menu Bar
Application New Flow Create a new flow (collection of definitions describing the 4.2
parameters that define how forms will be identified and
processed) in the application.
New Exceptions Open a new exceptions category (used to sort exceptions 9.3
Category for workflow routing) in the application.
New Lookup Open a new lookup table (drop-down list of possible field 10.3
Table values used in the Completion station) in the application.
Flow New Supported Add and edit permissions to the flow for user/station access -
Permission and actions.
New Form Create a new form (physical form containing many types of 5.2
data) in the flow.
Set EFI order Arrange the empty form images (EFIs) attached to the 8.3
flow.
Form New Supported Add and edit permissions to the form for user/station -
Permission access and actions.
Page New Fields Create a new field group (fields linked together in specific 6.2
Group sequence) in the page.
Field Group New Supported Add and edit permissions to the field group for user/station -
Permission access and actions.
New Field Create a new field (blank spaces where the form data is 6.6
filled in) in the field group.
New Table Create a new table for the field group. 6.8
Field or New Supported Add and edit permissions to the field or column for -
Column Permission user/station access and actions.
New Rule Create a rule (defining logical relationships among fields 11.3
and/or columns) for the object.
Exception New Exception Create a new exception (notification in the Completion 9.4
station of invalid data in a field) for the exceptions
category.
Stations New Supported Add and edit permissions to the station for user/station -
Permission access and actions.
Services New Supported Add and edit permissions to the service for user/station -
Permission access and actions.
Roles New Supported Add and edit permissions to the role for user/station access -
Permission and actions.
Lookup Table New Lookup Add a new lookup item to an existing lookup table. -
Item
User's Guide | 31
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Menu Bar
Item Description
Object Inspector Click to view or hide the selected object's properties and events.
View Debug View the application debug information (TiS Logger). The logger is a separate window
Information of the application accessed through the system tray.
Get New EFI From Obtain an EFI from a selected image file. 3.4.2
File
Check integrity on Check that the application design operates correctly. Any errors are -
exit displayed in the logger.
Display node label If selected, displays the caption property instead of the name property in
Visual Designer.
Default Custom Select the default custom environment for creating vfunctions and -
Environment events for fields, field groups, columns, and stations. Options are:
Win32 DLL (DLL not written in .NET) – event can be defined only
Item Description
User's Guide | 33
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Object Inspector Window
The properties of an object (flow, form, page, field group, field, table) define that
object. Properties may be logical (name, type of data, format of data) or physical
(size, location etc.) For more information on object properties, see the properties
section under each type of object.
Objects can also be assigned events. Events are actions that are triggered at a given
station when the object is entered, exited, or a hotkey is pressed. .NET or Win32
DLLs are attached to these events to run special actions. For more information on
object events, see the events section under each type of object.
The following example shows all of the icons displayed in the tree structure:
Application 3
Flow 4
Form 5.1
Page 5.3
Field 6.5
Table 6.7
Column 6.9.4
Rule 11.1
Exception 9.1
Lookup Table 10
User's Guide | 35
Application Designer Desktop
The Application Explorer
Lookup Item -
Permission -
1. Click to select the source object, that is the object you wish copy.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the Copy option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted object, click the right mouse button
to open the drop-down menu. Select the Copy option.
3. Click to select the target object, that is the object to which you wish to paste the
source object.
4. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the Paste option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted target object, click the right mouse
button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the Paste option.
A copy of the source object will appear in the application tree under the target
object. You may change any properties as appropriate.
When you cut an object, you can still paste it back into the application object
tree.
To cut an object:
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted object, click the right mouse button
to open the drop-down menu. Select the Cut option.
The object will disappear from the application tree.
Once you have deleted an object, it is removed from the system permanently.
To delete an object:
User's Guide | 37
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Working Area
Using the working area toolbar, the user can designate areas, or Regions of Interest
(ROIs) where data recognition is to take place. Some of the fields in the form
displayed will be selected for specific processing needs. To do so, click on the Draw
OCR ROI or Draw OMR ROI buttons and drag the cursor to draw area.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you Field 8.10.1
OCR ROI wish to create an OCR region. Click to
draw the area. A rectangle will appear.
Click and drag the boundaries to fit the
space you wish to delineate. Once you
create an OCR ROI region you may
view and change its properties in the
object inspector. Click anywhere on
the EFI to start drawing an OCR ROI.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you Field 8.10.2
OMR ROI wish to create an OMR region. Click to
draw the area. A rectangle will appear.
Click and drag the boundaries to fit the
space you wish to delineate. Once you
create an OMR ROI region you may
view and change its properties in the
object inspector.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you Page 8.8
Removal wish to create a removal region. Click
ROI to draw the area. A rectangle will
appear. Click and drag the boundaries
to fit the space you wish to delineate.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you Page 8.9
FormID wish to create a FormID region. Click
ROI to draw the area. A rectangle will
appear. Click and drag the boundaries
to fit the space you wish to delineate.
User's Guide | 39
Application Designer Desktop
Using the Working Area
For specific information regarding the use of empty form images and the design of
screen layouts, see sections 8 and 7 respectively.
3 Application Design
While you can create and run more than one application, you can only work on
one application at a time in the Visual Designer.
User's Guide | 41
Application Design
Defining Exception Categories
You can also copy an existing exception category and attach it to the
application.
Name The exception category Name specifies the name of the exception category. This
name appears automatically in the Description text box in the Object Inspector
window after you create an exception category. You can change the description if
you want to insert information about the exception category that may be helpful to
you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the exception category contains, a
string of up to 31 characters.
Caption Specify the name for the exception category as it should appear on the screen.
Color Select a color for the exception category, used for display purposes, as viewed by
the supervisor in the Exceptions station.
User's Guide | 43
Application Design
Defining Application EFIs
However, first you must create an EFI. You can create an EFI either from a pre-
scanned image file, or by scanning a form, or from an empty electronic form.
The following section explains how to create an EFI from an image file of the form.
For more information on scanning a form to create an image file, see section 3.4.3.
1. In the Tools menu, select the Get New EFI from File option to instruct the system
where to look for the image file.
The following dialog appears:
To copy an EFI:
User's Guide | 45
Application Design
Defining Application EFIs
To delete an EFI:
To rename an EFI:
4 Flow Design
To create a flow:
User's Guide | 47
Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
The flow object will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the flow properties and events.
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl key,
press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key) a previously
created flow object.
Name The flow Name specifies the name of the flow. This name appears automatically in
the Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you create a flow. You
can change the description if you want to insert information about the flow that
may be helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the flow contains, a string of up to 31
characters.
Caption Provide a name for the flow, which clearly indicates its function.
Image Resolution Define the resolution of the scanned EFI. The default setting is 200 dpi.
Input Form
In some cases, you may want to associate information with batches that varies from
batch to batch. This is accomplished with a form that contains the fields you need,
defined in eFLOW terms as an Input Form. You define a form as an input form using
the Input Form property.
When you define a form as an input form, the scanner operator scans and assigns
this form once for each batch. Input forms are only used during the Input (Portal)
and Export stations.
In some cases you may want to add a pop-up window for post-scan information
(post-input). This allows the scanner operator to add information about batches. This
information is contained in a logical form (without template). It is only used in the
portal stations. Information may include scan date, number of forms, number of
pages, etc. It may be used for validation purposes, for example to ensure that the
correct number of pages were in fact scanned.
Form Separation
The eFLOW platform supports forms that contain more than one page. The Enterprise
Portal process uses these definitions to determine which scanned pages belong to
each form in the batch.
User's Guide | 49
Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
From the Input option group you can set input flow sub-properties.
Form Separation Define the end of a form. Click the + button to the left of the Form
Separator property to access the separation method pull down menu,
then click to select one of the separation methods.
Pages in Form For use with the Form Separator counter. Specify a page count for the
form.
Separation Use the pull-down menu to select which form separation method will
Method be used. The following options are available:
Batch Define the end of a batch. Click the + button to the left of the Batch
Separation Separator property to access the separation method pull down menu,
then click to select one of the separation methods.
Batch Name
Usually the eFLOW platform gives its own names to the incoming batches by
increasing the batch count number by one. In some cases it may be desirable to
preserve the batch names after scanning - for example, in the case of multi-page TIF
file names given by the scanner.
Select the Keep Batch Name checkbox to instruct the system not to rename the batch.
This may be deemed necessary to preserve the integrity of your file name
convention.
Search Path
The search path is defined using the Search Path property. This is the path that the
Enterprise Portal station examines for image files or electronic forms.
User's Guide | 51
Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
The eFLOW platform gives you the option of keeping a copy of the form image in its
original color. In some cases when forms are originally gray, it may be desirable to
preserve the original color.
Select the Keep Color/Gray Image checkbox to instruct the system to save the original
image.
Usually the eFLOW platform gives its own names to the incoming batches by
increasing the batch count number by one. In some cases it may be desirable to
specify similarity in batch names after scanning.
In the Batch Name Prefix text box, type a specific prefix which the system will assign
to any batch in the flow that is named by the system. This may be deemed necessary
to preserve the integrity of your file name convention.
In some cases you may wish to rotate images in the batch after scanning. For
example, in the case of forms where every second page is upside down, or sideways.
Select the Odd Pages Rotation or Even Pages Rotation properties when you wish to
rotate every odd or every even page.
OddPages Rotation Rotate the image of every odd numbered page in the batch during the Enterprise
Portal process.
Use the drop-down menu to specify rotating by 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°.
EvenPages Rotation Rotate the image of every even numbered page in the batch during the Enterprise
Portal process.
Use the drop-down menu to specify rotating by 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°.
Default EFI
Every flow contains one or more logical forms, structured documents that include one
or more pages to be filled with data.
Physically, a form can have several variations - different logo, differences in the exact
location or size of the fields on the page, and so on. The automatic imaging system
enables you to associate image files of several physical appearances to a single
logical form.
The EFIs are images of the empty forms. For every page in the form that is linked to
the flow, you can define one or more EFIs. As in many cases a form has several
variations, you should assign several empty form images to the same form, one for
each possible variation.
The eFLOW platform also allows you to link a default empty form image to the flow
using the Default EFI property. The Default EFI is used for identification purposes when
form identification fails. That is, when a form cannot be matched to any of the empty
form images that have been defined for the forms in the flow, a default empty form
image can be provided.
Use the Default EFI property drop-down menu to select an EFI.
User's Guide | 53
Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
You can only choose from one of the EFIs that have been linked to the flow's
pages.
If you have not yet created and linked any EFIs, no EFIs will be available. You must
first create the EFI, see section 3.4.2.
For more information about linking EFIs to the flow's pages, see section 8.3.
The Processing properties allow you to define the set of page recognition options -
image enhancement filters that are applied in the Processing station. To select a
processing property, select the checkbox.
Default EFI Define the default EFI that will be used if identification fails on a specific page.
Registration Use when forms contain a small amount of constant data, such as lines and boxes.
Not Original Select when using poor-quality forms (e.g. photocopied). This option is also
recommended when the scanner is suspected of producing poor-quality images
(e.g. fax).
Bad Beginning The recognition engine will compare the filled-in form with the empty form starting
at the top left corner of the form. When the engine concludes that there is no
match between the filled-in form and the empty form, it stops the comparison.
In some cases, you may already realize that the top left corner may cause
problems during the comparison (e.g., it is dirty, there is extraneous information
there, etc.). In this case, the engine stops the comparison immediately.
Bad Margins Instruct the recognition engine that the forms were truncated during scanning (or
the paper itself is truncated).
Unrecognized Char Click on the button to select the symbol that represents an unrecognized
character. The operator in the Completion station sees the selected character
(such as *) in place of unrecognized characters.
In the Enhancement text box you can define the sets of image enhancement filters
applied in the Processing module. The following four enhancement options are
available:
Before FormID Define the set of image enhancement filters that are applied in the Processing
module, to each page, before identifying the page.
Different For Odd/Even Allow the user to set two different sets of page enhancement before the
Pages FormID process, one set for even pages and another set for odd pages.
On Identified Page A DIF file contains the scanned image after form removal. Define the image
enhancement filters to be applied in the Processing module to each page,
before they are saved as DIF images.
On Unidentified Page Define the set of image enhancement filters that are applied in the Processing
module to pages that have not been recognized. Enhancement to apply if page
is not matched.
You can perform enhancement in more than one place in the flow. In each instance,
you can combine elements of the five enhancement filters.
In Integra, the FormID algorithm allows the Processing module to recognize the type
of form and process accordingly. This is accomplished by defining one or more
regions in the EFI as form recognition regions, in the case where there are several
types of forms that differ only by these regions. If at least one FormID region does
not comply with predefined conditions then the form is not matched to the EFI. In
certain cases the quality of the form image may make recognition difficult. Or,
conversely, a form may have constant data that makes recognition easier. It is
important to provide the eFLOW Platform with this information using the following
processing properties.
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Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
To enhance the image of a field prior to OCR, either click the button to open the
Setup Image Enhancement window or enter the enhancement string directly in to the
Enhancement Properties edit field.
The Setup Image Enhancement window allows you to attach enhancement filters
(Deskew, Noise, Lines, Character, and Rotate) and displays a preview of results.
The image on the left is the image before enhancement, while the image on the right
is the enhanced image obtained using the defined filter properties.
This Setup Image Enhancement window contains command buttons that allow you to
alter the display as follows:
Button Description
Use the zoom scrollbar to shrink or enlarge the image by 1% with each click.
As you add enhancement filters from the available options, the corresponding
commands, called tokens, are added to the string in the Enhancement edit box.
For example, if you click the Wipe Black Background button, the token "/b" appears in
the Enhancement edit box. If you click Deskew and Register at and define the desired
coordinates, the token "/d10,10" is displayed.
Three buttons affecting these tokens appear in all five tabs:
Button Description
Apply the selected enhancement and update the enhanced image viewing area accordingly.
To change the values, first remove unwanted token(s) from the enhancement
string. Either delete the token(s) directly in the enhancement edit box, or click
the delete last token button to remove tokens from the end. Changing the
properties and clicking the Apply button will not apply new properties.
From the Deskew tab of the Setup Image Enhancement window, you can the following:
Correct a skewed image and apply registration (alignment) according to specified
coordinates
Erase the black background that is produced by some scanners around the page.
To deskew or realign an image, you must specify the new coordinates of the top left-
hand corner of the image. This is called the registration point. You deskew an image
by using the Deskew and Register at button and text boxes:
To deskew an image:
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Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
The corresponding command token and selected coordinates are added to the
enhancement string.
3. Click the Apply button to de-skew the image and view the effect on the image.
The options in this tab apply to whole pages rather than to single ROIs.
In the Noise, Lines, and Character tabs whose descriptions follow, enhancement
properties defined via the EFI Setup window will be applied to one ROI only. To
apply these properties to the whole page, you need to define them from the
Process tab in the Flow Setup window.
From the Noise tab of the Setup Image Enhancement window, you can eliminate excess
noise (specks) and shadows from a scanned image.
Using the Noise Filter button and options, you can define the maximum
size of a speck of noise (n by n pixels) and the method of noise removal.
1. In the Noise Filter spin box , enter the maximum speck size.
2. If you want to apply a more thorough form of noise removal, select the Strong
checkbox.
3. If you want to apply the pepper algorithm for noise removal, select the Pepper
checkbox.
4. Click Noise Filter and then the Apply button to apply the filters and view the effect
on the image.
Strong and Pepper are two specific algorithms for noise removal.
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Flow Design
Defining Flow Properties
Eliminating lines
The Lines tab of the Setup Image Enhancement window allows you to eliminate
horizontal and vertical lines that are part of the EFI, leaving all the characters intact.
In this tab you can specify removal of horizontal and vertical lines, and the minimum
length and length/thickness ratio for this removal.
The default is to remove only those lines that are longer than 50 pixels, and whose
length is at least 20 times greater than the thickness.
1. In the Removal Horizontal Lines spin box, enter the minimum line length for
removal.
2. In the Removal Vertical Lines spin box, enter the minimum line length for removal.
3. In the X/Y Ratio spin box, enter the minimum thickness ratio for horizontal lines.
4. In the Y/X Ratio spin box, enter the minimum thickness ratio for vertical lines.
5. Click the Remove Horizontal Lines and Remove Vertical Lines buttons.
The corresponding token and properties are added to the enhancement string.
6. Click the Apply button to apply the filters and view the effect on the image.
The Character tab of the Setup Image Enhancement window allows you to define how
characters are enhanced.
Option Description
Connect Gaps Connect characters that have been broken during scanning. The property defines the size
Over of the gaps that will be connected.
1. In the Dot-matrix Filter spin box, enter a value and then click the Dot-matrix Filter
button.
The corresponding token and selected properties are added to the enhancement
string.
2. In the Connect Gaps Over spin box, select the value in pixels and then click the
Connect Gaps Over button.
The corresponding token and selected properties are added to the enhancement
string.
3. Click the Apply button to apply the filters and view the effect on the image.
Rotating Images
The Rotate tab of the Setup Image Enhancement window allows you to rotate the
image:
To rotate image:
1. From the Rotation list box, select the image rotation and then click the Rotation
button.
2. Click the Apply button to rotate the image.
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Flow Design
Workflow Visual Designer
In the Export properties you can define what images or data are saved, and where
they are saved.
Original Input Export original images, including JPG and GIF files.
Registered Image Export the registered input image. (The registered image is the original image
which has been deskewed).
FormOut! is used during recognition. The algorithm sets the FormID using one or
more regions in an EFI.
• INI file.
• Delimiter Separated - If selected, a new property will appear where you will
select the delimiter character.
• Delimiter Separated - If selected, a new property will appear where you will
select the delimiter character.
Default Encoding The character encoding that will be used by the XML document, if files are
exported as XML.
Export Path This is the path to which the images will be exported.
Before you can use the Workflow Designer you must understand your requirements
and plan the project. You can then define a flow that matches your project plan.
The working area of the Workflow Designer shows a schematic diagram of the flow.
Each box represents a station. Changing this diagram actually changes the flow of
stations in the system.
The Workflow Designer profoundly affects how the runtime stations operate. It
defines:
Stations that are used.
How many stations are used (for example, one or two Completion stations).
In which order the stations operate.
There are several predefined flow templates. You can choose the one that most
resembles your project plan, and then adjust it by adding/removing stations and
changing the routes between them.
Module Description
Module The standard modules of both Integra and Freedom: FilePortal, ScanPortal, Processing, FormID,
ManualID, Completion, Tile, Organizer, Exception and Export.
Note: every module has properties accessible through the Properties Viewer.
Data Provides parameters for routing rules and exception rules, through which you determine which
router collections (which forms) will be routed between the modules.
Every module fetches (gets) collections from a data router at the start of its operation and
returns (puts) collections back to a data router at the end of its operation.
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Flow Design
Steps to Create a Workflow
Before setting up a workflow, you should specify and set all the necessary
properties, definitions and exceptions for the application that you wish to use.
To create a workflow:
2. In the main window, click where you wish to place the module.
The icon for the module will now appear in the main window with a default name.
3. To define a module, click to select it. Specify property values in the Object
Inspector window.
4. To move a module, click to select it, then drag and drop it to the desired location.
5. To copy, paste, cut or delete a module, click to select the module.
6. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted module, click the right mouse button to
open the drop-down menu. Select the Copy, Paste, Cut or Delete option.
7. To create data routers (links) between the modules, click the center of a module to
select it. Then click the center of the module to which it should be connected.
A data router will appear between the modules.
8. To define a data router, click to select it. Specify property values in the Object
Inspector window.
9. When you have finished making all changes, save the workflow.
The new workflow will be implemented when you open the Enterprise Controller.
Standard Modules
FormID Receives images from the Enterprise Portal module and performs automatic
form recognition and form removal.
ManualID Receives data from the Processing or the FormID module for FormID
identification. Unrecognized data is completed manually, with or without the
help of data dictionaries. Forms undergo manual form recognition and form
removal.
Processing Receives collections created by any of the Enterprise Portal modules. This
station is one of the most important parts of eFLOW, it is responsible for
recognizing as much data as possible. The images undergo image
enhancement, and optical character recognition.
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Flow Design
Steps to Create a Workflow
Completion Receives data from the Processing station. The exact data it receives
depends upon the design definitions, but typically is invalid or unrecognizable
data. Unrecognized data is completed manually, with or without the help of
data dictionaries.
Exceptions Collects the exceptions that were marked for batches during the Completion
station and presents them to the exception handler for clarification and
resolution. The exception handler will resolve the exceptions, clarifying
information that was missing or incorrect on the forms.
Export Exports data to XML and ASCII formats, and additionally exports both B&W
and color images. During runtime, the Export module receives the data,
converts it to the defined format, and transfers it to the export directory.
Additional Modules
Organizer Allows you to delete pages from a multi-page batch, insert new pages into a
new multi-page batch (also by scanning), and resort or rescan pages.
Tile Displays in tile format all data recognized by character (for example, all
characters recognized as an A). Allows you to identify which characters are
correct and which are not.
SimpleAuto Custom station that performs Get and Put functions for collections using
customized CSM.
Controller Station that displays a run-time workflow and its stations graphically, and
enables a user to monitor and control each of the flows of the application,
performing actions such as opening additional stations where necessary and
deleting collections or moving them from one station queue to another.
Freedom Modules
FreeLearning Allows you to correct ROIs that were not identified during
processing. Select characters in the image and assign them to the
relevant fields. This in effect teaches the system the correct location
of ROIs for similar forms. This information is then used to build a
new script that will be used for forms of this type.
ManualMatch Used to find manually different scripts that will match different types
of documents.
FreeProcess Performs data identification using virtual engines. Once an image file
is received, the FreeProcessing module processes it and then
generally sends them together with the text results to the
FreeCompletion queue. The goal of the FreeProcessing station is to
recognize as much data as possible to minimize the need for manual
recognition in the FreeCompletion module.
FreeException Collects the exceptions that were marked for batches during the
FreeCompletion station and presents them to the exception handler
for clarification and resolution. The exception handler will resolve the
exceptions, clarifying information that was missing or incorrect on
the forms.
Smart Modules
Categorizer Receives forms from Portal or FreeMatch stations. Sorts forms into predefined
categories or classes. Delivers classification data to Export station.
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Flow Design
Workflow Module Properties and Events
General Name The module Name specifies the name of the module. This name appears
automatically in the Description text box in the Object Inspector window
after you create a module. You can change the description if you want to
insert information about the module that may be helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the module contains, a string
of up to 31 characters.
Module Work Unit Specify whether the module works with collections or individual forms.
Parameters
Max Work Units Specify the maximum number of collections that the module receives
upon request.
Read Ahead Improves performance by performing the Get function in advance for the
number of work units specified in the value.
Timer Interval The timer interval in seconds. Related to the OnTimer event, which is
fired every time the value of the timer interval second counter is reached
when a station is idle.
Idle Interval The idle interval in seconds. Related to the OnIdle event, which is fired
every time the value of the idle interval second counter is reached when
a station is idle.
Keys List Specify a list of function keys that will trigger function the OnKey events
per station.
Single Instance If set the module can be launched only once on the same machine.
Workflow Fill Color Fill the module box in the specified color.
View
Text Color Display the module box’s text in the specified color.
Attachment Define which file types are received or saved by this module.
Type
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Flow Design
Workflow Module Properties and Events
Great care must be taken in setting this property to ensure smooth workflow
results.
The window shows a tree of flows available in the application. Click the + sign to
the left of any object to reveal the objects underneath it in the tree. Objects
displayed have their priorities enabled according to the hierarchy.
3. To change the order of priorities within the hierarchy, click to select a flow or form
priority.
4. Use the up and down arrows on the right to move them within the hierarchy
tree.
5. To exclude specific flows or forms, select the object to exclude, then click the
button in the toolbar.
6. Click OK to complete the selection.
7. You can attach rules to a flow or form. Create rules using the Rules Editor tool.
Click the Rules Editor button to open the Rules Editor dialog box.
8. Use the dialog box to create rules that will be applied during routing. For more
information on building rules, see section 11.3.
The tools available in the property are listed below. Note that tools for a specific
object become available as the object is selected in the tree. Not every tool is
available for every object.
Button Description
Remove a priority.
FilePortal Properties
Property Description
StandBy Automatic stations are usually set to standby in production so that incoming forms will be
processed automatically by the station.
StandBy Defines how often stations on standby should look for new batches to process.
Interval
ScanPortal Properties
ISIS Level - This parameter sets the scanner ISIS scan level.
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Flow Design
Workflow Module Properties and Events
FormID Properties
Property Description
StandBy Automatic stations are usually set to standby in production so that incoming forms will be
processed automatically by the station.
StandBy Defines how often stations on standby should look for new batches to process.
Interval
ManualID Properties
Confirm Default EFIs - If selected the default EFI will be used if a form is not
recognized.
Processing Properties
Property Description
StandBy Automatic stations are usually set to standby in production so that incoming forms will be
processed automatically by the station.
StandBy Defines how often stations on standby should look for new batches to process.
Interval
OCR Only If checked then the module checks only OCR and does not perform FormOut! If unchecked
Mode the module performs both OCR and FormOut!
Completion Properties
Property Description
Field Group Filter Open a dialogue window to select which fields will be handled by this station:
Tile Properties
Property Description
Horz. Cell Set the horizontal dimension of each display tile in the Tile module. The tiles are the cells in
Size the table where the characters are displayed in this station.
Vert. Cell Sets the vertical dimension of each display tile in the Tile module. The tiles are the cells in
Size the table where the characters are displayed in this station.
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Flow Design
Workflow Module Properties and Events
Export Properties
Property Description
StandBy Automatic stations are usually set to standby in production so that incoming forms will
be processed automatically by the station.
StandBy Interval Define how often stations on standby should look for new batches to process.
Custom Properties
Property Description
StandBy Automatic stations are usually set to standby in production so that incoming forms will be
processed automatically by the station.
StandBy Defines how often stations on standby should look for new batches to process.
Interval
Property Description
Field Group Open a dialogue window to select which fields will be handled by this station:
Filter
FreeLearning Properties
Property Description
Form Count Holds the information from a defined number of forms in the Learning station before being
to AutoSave transferred to the learning database. For example, if this value is set to “3”, then the
Learning station will keep the learned information from 3 forms before storing the
information in the database.
This function is useful in cases were there are large files that take a long time to save to
the database.
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Flow Design
Defining Data Routers (Links Between Modules)
FreeCompletion Properties
Property Description
Doc Merge Mode Define how the system decides how many pages are in one document, for example,
automatically or manually (defined by the operator).
Template From the drop-down list, select Learning only or Learning with completion to determine if
Teaching Mode this station will be executed as learning only or as learning and completion.
FreeBuild Properties
In order to filter what collections and forms pass from module to module, use
the routing rules priorities and exceptions.
Property Description
Name Specify the name that you would like the data router to have. All names should be unique.
The name field is case sensitive.
Description Give a short identifying description so that other users will understand the purpose of the
data router.
Great care must be taken in setting this property to ensure smooth workflow
results. The workflow depends the source station and the target station. You
must consider this carefully when adding a data router.
1. Select a data router for which you wish to set routing rules.
2. Do one of the following:
In the Object Inspector, click the button to the right of the routing rules
property.
While the cursor is on the data router, click the right mouse button to access
the drop-down menu. Select the Routing Rules option.
The Routing Rules window appears:
Flow Rules
Flow rules determine in which flow the station participates (of the flows defined under
the application). The dialog box shows a tree of the active flows. Click the expand +
sign to the left of any flow to reveal the objects underneath it in the tree.
By default, all flows are selected for routing, symbolized by the Routing Enabled
button appearing to the left of the object.
If you wish to exclude specific flow select the object that you wish to exclude, then
click the Routing Disabled button on the routing rules toolbar.
Click OK to complete the selection.
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Flow Design
Defining Data Routers (Links Between Modules)
The data router will be filtered for fields, forms, pages or other disabled objects. Only
enabled objects will be allowed to pass through to the next module.
FormID Rule
You may specify the forms to which the routing rule will apply. Select the desired
radio button:
All forms.
Recognized forms only (forms that are matched to an EFI).
Unrecognized forms only (forms that are not matched to an EFI).
Click OK to complete the selection.
Form Rules
This tab is enabled only when the work unit of the station is defined as the form
(instead of the batch).
To specify which forms should be routed along the data router, use the Enable or
Disable buttons located on the routing rules toolbar.
Click OK to complete the selection.
Exception Rules
Exception rules define what happens in the case of data that does not pass basic data
checks set by the user. In the Routing Rules dialog, click on the Exception Rules tab.
The following screen is displayed:
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Flow Design
Defining Data Routers (Links Between Modules)
Select the desired radio button to determine how the data router filters exceptions:
Ignore exceptions (if exceptions are irrelevant).
Must have at least one exception (for example, the Exceptions station).
No exceptions allowed (for example, the Export station).
Must have at least one of the following exceptions (for example, if there is more
than one Exceptions station).
Use the last radio button choice to select collections or forms with exceptions that will
be allowed to pass through to the next module. If you make this selection, choose the
exception category and the exceptions that you wish to permit to pass along the data
router. Check the required checkbox next to the exceptions to be included.
The data router will be monitored (filtered) for collections with matching exceptions.
Only matched collections will be allowed to pass through to the next module.
You can create custom rules by selecting the Custom routing rules expression radio
button located at the bottom of the dialog. Click the Rules Editor button to open
the Rules Editor dialogue box. For more information about building rules, see section
11.3.
For example, if a field value is greater than 100, you may wish to send the batch to a
given station. If a field value is less than 100, you may wish to send the batch to a
different station. Invoices of differing amounts may be treated differently as to
exceptions.
The modules selected and put together as a workflow in the Workflow Designer
window are shown in the runtime Controller and run using the Module Activator.
Before running the workflow you must save the workflow and exit the Visual Designer.
When you open the Controller, all the modules from the workflow will be available in
the Controller window.
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the flow you wish to add a
form to.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Form option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted flow, click the right mouse button to
open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Form option.
The form object will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the form properties and events.
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Form and Page Design
Creating and Defining a New Page
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl key,
press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key) a previously
created form object.
The general properties of a form consist of the Name, Description, and Caption. The
name specifies the name of a form and should be alphanumeric.
The name appears automatically in the Description text box in the Object Inspector
after you create a form. You can change this Description if you want to insert some
comments about the form that may be helpful to you. The Caption is the name that
appears on the screen.
The Name specifies the name of the form.
The Description provides a short, user-defined description of the form.
The Caption is the name of the form that appears on the screen throughout the
various stations.
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the form you wish to add a
page to.
The page will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the page properties and events.
You can copy, cut and delete a page as with other objects in the application tree.
The general properties of a page consist of the Name, Description, Caption, and EFI.
Once you specify a name for the page, it appears automatically in the Description text
box. The page name should be alphanumeric.
You can change the Description if you want to insert some comments about the page
that may be helpful to you. The page Caption is the name that appears on the screen.
User's Guide | 83
Form and Page Design
Creating and Defining a New Page
1. Select the EFI property and click the button to the right of the EFI property.
The EFI Linking window appears.
In the application tree, under each page will be a list of EFIs with checkboxes.
2. Select an EFI from the list and click the checkbox to attach the EFI to the page.
The EFI is displayed in the preview panel on the right.
3. It is possible to link more than one EFI to a page. If you want to add more EFIs,
select additional checkboxes.
4. Click OK to complete the link(s).
EFIs need to be tested for accuracy. A group of pages (a batch) is tested to verify
that the system can automatically identify what EFI it belongs to. The system returns
the exact percentage of matching for each page. You can see from the results if there
are any problems with identification. If so, you can use EFI tuning options to make
the matching more flexible, or change the EFI. For more information on changing
EFIs, see section 8.3.
When you compare a batch to the EFI, you also see the exact location of all the ROIs
on the actual recognized pages. You can resize or move an ROI so that it will have
the best location with respect to the images.
This comparison is especially useful if you have fields with no bounding boxes,
so on the EFI it is very hard to know exactly what size and location to give to
the ROI.
The EFI must be tested to ensure that recognition is good. Recognition of 97-100% is
considered optimal. The lower the EFI recognition score, the more noise appears in
the DIF file. The default EFI minimum recognition level is set to 87%, which you can
modify to change the EFI minimum recognition level. For more information on EFI
tolerance, see section 8.5.1.
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Form and Page Design
Ordering Pages
Field groups can be made of fields that appear in separate areas of the form.
They do not need to be adjacent.
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the page you wish to add a
field group to.
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Field Group, Table and Field Design
Field Group Events
The field group will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the field group properties and events:
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl key,
press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key), or drag and drop
a field group object.
The field group Name appears automatically in the Object Inspector after you create a
field group. The field group Name should be alphanumeric.
In order to set field group events click the Events tab heading which appears in the
Object Inspector after you create a field group. You can toggle between the Properties
tab and the Events tab by clicking the tab headings.
Trigger Description
OnEnter Specify an event that is triggered when entering the group view.
OnExit Specify an event that is triggered when exiting the group view.
Hotkey Specify an event that is triggered when the operator presses a hotkey.
XXX
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Field Group, Table and Field Design
Ordering Field Groups
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the field group to be moved.
2. Holding the left mouse key down, drag the field group to the desired location.
The field group will appear in the desired location. All of its properties and any
sub-contents (i.e. fields, field groups, tables, etc.) will move with it.
Field groups and tables link fields together in specific sequence for event
management and easy viewing in the Completion station.
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the field group you wish to
add a field to.
2. From the Selected menu, select the New Field option.
3. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted field group, click the right mouse button
to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Field option.
The field will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will display
the field properties and events.
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl key,
press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key), or drag and drop
a field object.
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Field Group, Table and Field Design
Creating New Fields
The field name appears automatically in the Object Inspector after you create a field.
The field name should be alphanumeric.
Property Description
Name The field Name specifies the name of the field. This name appears automatically in the
Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you create a field. You can change
the description if you want to insert information about the field that may be helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the field contains, a string of up to 31 characters.
Caption Specify the name for the field as it should appear on the screen.
Auto Tab When a field is assigned a maximum setting, the user will automatically tab to the next field
once the maximum number of characters is entered (in the Completion station).
Use the field mode property to specify settings for regular fields and special fields in
electronic form. Click the drop-down list box arrow to choose from one of these
options:
Mode Description
Radio Button Displayed as radio buttons. Only one may be selected. (Only for electronic forms.)
The field type property allows you to define constraints on the field values, if you
know what type of data belongs to the field. If any type of data may belong to this
field, leave the type undefined. The field is then allowed to contain any type of data.
Use the field type property to specify what general type of information is expected,
that is numerical (date, time, integer, or float), or text. When a specific type of
information is always expected in the field, specify this here.
Click the button to the right of the type property to display the Field Type Settings
dialog box.
The Field Type Settings dialog box enables you to create and edit a mask format. The
Field Type Settings buttons let you select from predefined masks. Use the buttons to
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Field Group, Table and Field Design
Creating New Fields
specify what general type of information is expected, that is text, integer, float, date
or time.
If you select a particular mask, the mask format appears in the edit boxes below the
buttons. You can modify the mask or use it as is, or you can erase the mask you have
made using the Erase Mask button.
For more information on editing masks, see 0.
Select the most appropriate edit mask:
Type Description
Select the most appropriate field type for the information that will appear in the field.
The information displayed in the value sections under the buttons will change
according to which field type is selected.
The field type chosen will limit the user to a specific format, accepting only valid
characters. For example, in a data entry field for telephone numbers you might define
a field type that accepts only numeric input. If a user then tries to enter a letter in
this edit box, your application will not accept it.
Text Type
For text you can specify the minimum and maximum expected length of the text.
Integer Type
For an Integer type you can specify the minimum and maximum length of the
number expected, if known. Integers have a maximum length of 9 digits.
To specify the acceptable range, you enter the values in the Value section's Min and
Max text boxes.
For Min, the value of the field cannot be less than the entered value. If you do not
assign a value, the minimum value is not examined.
For Max, the value of the field cannot exceed the entered value. If you do not assign
any value, the maximum value is not examined.
For Default, if there is no other value, this value is applied to the field.
Float Type
Settings for a float type are similar to those of an integer type. You may specify the
minimum and maximum length of the integer, but also how many digits are expected
before and after the decimal point.
For Min and Max length the decimal point does not count, i.e. 1.23 = Min length of 3.
Decimal length is the number of digits you want to have after the decimal point. If you
want only integers, select zero. (This is the same as selecting the integer type.) The
floating digit Decimal Length is always the floating digit + 1.
You may also specify a default value for the field.
Date Type
When the field type is set to date, the following drop-down list box appears:
In this list box, you select the format of the date in the field. The following formats
are available (d=day, m=month, y=year):
dd/mm/yy
mm/dd/yy
yy/mm/dd
dd/mm/yyyy
mm/dd/yyyy
yyyy/mm/dd
The year may appear as two or four digits.
The default date type is dd/mm/yy. Predefined date fields are fixed and cannot be
changed, i.e. only the six date formats listed above are available from this list box. If
you wish to specify another date format, you must create a mask property.
For the date type you may specify a minimum and maximum acceptable date for the
field. eFLOW will accept only dates that fall in the range that you have specified. In
the Value section, use the Min and Max fields, to define the limits of the acceptable
range. Enter the dates in the format that matches the date format you selected.
You can alter the specified date by entering adjustments in the Min or Max fields.
When you mark the Now checkboxes, eFLOW takes the current date from the system
as the minimum or maximum limit.
For example, if you want the minimum acceptable date to be one week ago and the
maximum acceptable date to be the current date, in the Min field, enter the date in
the appropriate format 7 days previous to the present date (i.e. one week ago). For
the Max field click the Now checkbox and leave the Max field blank (i.e. today by
default). The eFLOW Platform will now accept only dates that fall between one week
before the current date and the current date.
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Time
Validation Description
Double Typing Specify that completion results will be accepted after being confirmed at the Completion
station. (That is, two operators must confirm results.)
ReadOnly Specify that a field is read only by clicking the read only flag.
Value Required Specify that the field must contain a value to be considered valid.
Edit Mask
The edit mask is used during runtime to display field information. Specify a mask that
represents what text is valid in the field.
The edit mask also restricts the characters that a user can enter into the field in the
Completion and Exception stations. It checks the validity of entered characters and
formats. If the user attempts to enter an invalid character, the edit control will not
accept the character.
Define which characters are acceptable in a field, and how a field will be displayed in
the Completion and Exception stations. The edit mask setting relates to the field type
previously selected.
Once you click the Edit Mask button the Input Mask Editor window opens:
Predefined Masks
You can use the predefined masks scroll box at the right to scroll through predefined
masks. Click to select any predefined mask, and the rest of the dialog box will be
filled in automatically.
Mask Description
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Mask Description
Long Zip Code Zip code number with extra four digits.
Select a predefined mask to use as your edit mask. When you select a mask from this
list, the eFLOW Platform places the predefined mask in the Input Mask edit box and
displays a sample in the Test Input edit box.
Input Mask
To create your own mask you must first create an input mask using the input mask
parameter. The input mask parameter defines the length, character type, fill
character and other information that define the edit mask. The input mask consists of
three different sections separated by semicolons.
The first section of the input mask defines the length and character type of the
data that may appear in the field using the special characters defined in the table
below.
The second section of the input mask is a single character that indicates whether
literal characters from the mask should be included as part of the text.
The third section of the input mask is the character that is selected to fill in for
blanks (the characters that replaces an empty space displayed in the field).
For example, the input mask for a telephone number with area code could be the
following string:
(000)_000-0000;0;*
The ten 0 characters in the first section require that a numeric character only may
appear in this position. The underscore character automatically inserts a space into
the text.
The 0 character in the second section indicates that literal characters will not be
included in the edit box. A text of 10 digits will be edited during the Completion and
Exception stations.
The * character in the third section indicates that the asterisk is used as a blank in
the mask.
Following are the special characters used in the first section of the input mask to
define the type of character that may appear in the field:
Character Description
! If a ! character appears in the mask, optional characters are represented in the input mask as
leading blanks. If a ! character is not present, optional characters are represented in the input
mask as trailing blanks.
> If a > character appears in the mask, all characters that follow are in uppercase until the end
of the mask or until a < character is encountered.
< If a < character appears in the mask, all characters that follow are in lowercase until the end
of the mask or until a > character is encountered.
<> If these two characters appear together in a mask, no case checking is done and the data is
formatted with the case the user uses to enter the data.
\ The character that follows a \ character is a literal character. Use this character to use any of
the mask special characters as a literal in the data.
l The l (lowercase L) character permits only an alphabetic character in this position, but doesn't
require it.
a The a character permits an alphanumeric character in this position, but doesn't require it.
c The c character permits an arbitrary character in this position, but doesn't require it.
9 The 9 character permits a numeric character in this position, but doesn't require it.
# The # character permits a numeric character or a plus or minus sign in this position, but
doesn't require it.
: The : character is used to separate hours, minutes, and seconds in times. If the character that
separates hours, minutes, and seconds is different in the regional settings of the control panel
utility on your computer system, that character is used instead.
/ The / character is used to separate months, days, and years in dates. If the character that
separates months, days, and years is different in the regional settings of the control panel
utility on your computer system, that character is used instead.
_ The _ character automatically inserts spaces into the text. When the user enters characters in
the field, the cursor skips the _ character.
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Any character that does not appear in the preceding table may appear in the first
section of the mask as a literal character. Special mask characters (those that appear
in the above list) may appear as literal characters if preceded by a backslash
character (\).
Clearing out the input mask parameter (erasing the text box) removes the mask.
When working with multi-byte character sets, such as Japanese shift-JIS, each
special mask character represents a single byte. To specify double-byte
characters using the L, l, A, a, C, or c specifiers, the mask characters must be
doubled as well. For example, LL would represent two single-byte alphabetic
characters or a one double-byte character. Only single-byte literal characters
are supported.
Specify a character to use as a blank in the mask. Blanks in a mask are areas that
require user input. This edit box relates to the third field of your edit mask.
By default, this is the same as the character that stands for literal spaces. The
two characters (empty space and literal space) appear the same in an edit box
in the Completion and Exception stations. However, when a user edits the text
in during these runtime stages, the cursor selects each blank character in turn,
and skips over the space character.
Literal characters are inserted automatically, and the cursor skips over them during
editing in the Completion and Exception stations.
Check to store the literal characters from the edit mask as part of the data. This
checkbox toggles the second field in your edit mask.
A 0 in the second section indicates that literal characters should not be included in the
edit box (the box which contains characters to be edited) in the Completion and
Exception stations. Any other character indicates that they should be included.
Test Input
Use Test Input edit box to verify that your mask works. This edit box displays the edit
mask as it will appear on the form.
Masks
Choose Masks to display the Open Masks File dialog box, where you click to select a
file.
Display Rule
Specify under what conditions a field will be displayed in the runtime Completion and
Exception stations.
Use drop-down list box to select the condition for displaying the field. You may
choose among the following options:
Rule Description
Value Required
Property Description
LookupItem Choose a lookup table item and associate it with the field.
Once you have associated a particular item with a field, any field appearing later in the
hierarchy tree may only receive the lookup table items following the one assigned.
Note: The lookup table items should appear in the same order that they appear in the
ASCII file containing the data.
For example, there are three fields in one field group, and three items in a lookup table.
If that first field is assigned lookup table item 2, the second field may only be assigned
lookup table item 3. Because the second field is assigned lookup table item 3, then the
last field will not have a lookup table item available.
Quick Lookup Creates a list of common field values. This property allows the user to display and select
field values from the list when processing a form. For example, the area code field may
have a list of area codes that are commonly used.
ShowListbox Choose the key that when pressed will automatically bring up the list-box of lookup table
exceptions.
Automatic Fill Completes a value from the dictionary once the operator enters characters sufficient to
enable the field's unequivocal identification.
Check the Supported selection box to enable the Tile module. If the tile property is
enabled, the following properties appear:
Character filter Open a virtual keyboard to select characters to be displayed in the Tile station.
Max. Char. Confidence Set the minimum recognition confidence level for a specified character to be
displayed in the Tile station. (Default is 100%, meaning that all of the specified
characters will be displayed.)
For Display Set the number of unrecognized characters at which the whole field will appear in
Completion as one unrecognized character (*).
For Process Set the number of unrecognized characters at which processing will cease, and the
whole field will appear in Completion as one unrecognized character (*).
Property Description
Export Field Flag for archiving this field. (Some fields may be useful for the purposes of
validation, but not necessary for export. Select fields for export, if not all fields are
desired.)
Exceptions Attach an exception to the field. Click the button to the right of the property to
display the Exceptions window. Select the most appropriate exception. Choose
from among the exceptions that are already created.
Following the exceptions property will be a list of available exceptions for the field.
To view these exceptions, click the + button to the right of the exceptions
property. You may also attach exceptions using the Exceptions window.
In the Completion process, the operator can mark exceptions on the batch, and
leave invalid data. The exceptions are reported later in the exception report. For
more information on exceptions, see section 9.
BuiltIn rules Override the default behavior of built-in rules. Click on the + button to the right of
the BuiltIn rules property to display and change the existing rule defaults. Options
are:
FieldEmptyCheck
FieldLengthCheck
FieldValueTypeCheck
FieldRangeCheck
FieldCompletionCheck
LookupTableCheck
ROIDelimiter Insert a specified character (such as - or /) that will function as a separator in the
case of multiple ROIs in a field.
The ROI is the Region Of Interest representing the area of the form in which the
field appears.
VirtualEngine Designate the recognition engine that will be used to recognize contents of the
field. This will set the default virtual OCR engine for the regions. To override the
default, a different virtual OCR engine must be entered under the ROI properties,
virtual engine property.
The virtual engine is the group of OCRs used to process and recognize the data in
the field. For more information on virtual engines, see section 13.
Property Description
Doc Merge Auto Action Determines where in a multi-page document to take recurring field values (such
as invoice number or date) from. Options are:
First page
Last page
First occurrence
Last occurrence
Multi Document Accepts multiple documents that contain the same ROIs.
Event Description
OnChange Specify an event that is triggered when changing the contents of the
field.
Scripts are used to check certain properties in a field at the specified event times.
Common properties are:
Types of characters.
Length of string.
Consistency.
A script may be specified in one of two ways:
Type or search for a .NET or Win32 DLL path in the text box to specify a pre-
existing script.
Create a new script in one of the custom environments..
For example, you may wish to have the field checked for certain characters when the
operator has finished keying in changes at the Completion station. In other words,
when the field is exited, you want to run a set of actions. A script may be specified for
the OnExit property.
To create a rule:
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the field you wish to add a
rule to.
The rule will appear in the application object tree under the field. The Object
Inspector will display the rule properties:
For more information on rules, see section 11.
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree. click to select the field you wish to add a
validation function to.
The validation function will appear in the application object tree under the field.
The Object Inspector will display the validation function properties:
For more information on validation functions, see section 11.4.
To create a table:
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the field group you wish to
add a table to.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Table option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted field group, click the right mouse
button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Table option.
The table will appear in the application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the table properties and events.
4. In the table properties select the number of rows that will be processed in the
table.
6. Stand on the column separators and manually drag them to the correct location (if
needed).
7. For every column, set the properties, type, virtual engine etc.
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl key,
press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key), or drag and
drop a table object.
Location Description
Top The distance from the top of the page (in pixels).
Creating Rows
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the table you wish to add a
column to.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Column option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted table, click the right mouse button to
open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Column option.
The column will appear in the Application object tree. The Object Inspector will
display the column properties and events.
You can also copy a previously created Column. To copy the Column, do the
following:
To copy a column:
1. In the Application Visual Designer tree, click to select the column you wish to copy.
2. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted column, click the right mouse button to
open the object drop-down menu. Select the Copy option.
3. Click to select the table you wish to paste the copied column to.
4. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted table, click the right mouse button to
open the object drop-down menu. Select the Paste option.
All the column properties are defined using the Object Inspector window. When you
select a column by clicking it in the application object tree, its properties are
automatically displayed.
The column name appears automatically in the Object Inspector after you create a
column. The column name should be alphanumeric.
Property Description
Name The column Name specifies the name of the column. This name appears automatically in the
Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you create a column. You can
change the description if you want to insert information about the column that may be helpful
to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the column contains, a string of up to 31
characters.
Caption Specify the name for the column as it should appear on the screen.
Type When a specific type of information is always expected in the column, specify this here.
Click the button to the right of the type property to display the Field Type Settings
window. Select the most appropriate edit mask.
Mode Mode of display. Click the drop-down list box arrow to choose from one of these options:
This property defines the column's mode of display in the Completion station.
Specify what sort of validation checks will be performed on the data to be found in
the columns location.
Validation Description
Double Typing Specify that completion results will be accepted after being confirmed at the Completion
station. (That is, two operators must confirm results.)
ReadOnly Specify that a field is read only by clicking the read only flag.
AutoTab When a field is assigned a maximum setting, the operator will automatically tab to the
next field once the maximum number of characters is entered
Validation Description
EditMask Define a data format, such as date or phone number, that determines which characters
are acceptable in a field, and how a field will be displayed.
Click the button to the right of the property to display the Input Editor Mask window.
Select the most appropriate edit mask.
Display Rule Specify under what conditions a field will be displayed in the runtime Completion and
Exception stations. Values: Always, Never, When Empty, When Not Empty, When
Unrecognized.
Value Required Specifies that the field must contain a value to be considered valid.
Specify what sort of validation checks will be performed on the data to be found in
the columns location.
Property Description
LookupItem Choose a lookup table item and associate it with the field.
Once you have associated a particular item with a field, any field appearing later in the
hierarchy tree may only receive the lookup table items following the one assigned.
Note: The lookup table items should appear in the same order that they appear in the
ASCII file containing the data.
For example, there are three fields in one field group, and three items in a lookup table.
If that first field is assigned lookup table item 2, the second field may only be assigned
lookup table item 3. Because the second field is assigned lookup table item 3, then the
last field will not have a lookup table item available.
Quick Lookup Creates a list of common field values. This property allows the user to display and select
field values from the list when processing a form. For example, the area code field may
have a list of area codes that are commonly used.
ShowListbox Choose the key that when pressed will automatically bring up the list-box of lookup table
exceptions.
Automatic Fill Completes a value from the dictionary once the operator enters characters sufficient to
enable the field's unequivocal identification.
Specify character values such as maximum and minimum length of strings, case
sensitivity, number of decimal points.
ChangeCase Choose from three case-sensitivity options for processing of column field
contents:
Do not change.
Padding Info Select when you want the column field to always have a certain
character/number length (i.e., cents would always be 2 characters). Padding
characters may only be inserted at the beginning or end of a string, such as
lead or decimal zeros.
Character Chose the character to be used for padding empty spaces, such as 0 for
decimal values.
Click the button to the right of the property to display the Character Map
window. Select the character to be used.
Length Specify the number of characters used for padding. The fixed size of the
region.
Insert Chars Specify that a character to be inserted into the column field during
Processing.
For example, a zip code or area code may be automatically added to a field.
Position Select the start position where the characters are to be inserted during
Processing.
Position Select the start position where the characters are to be inserted during
processing.
ExcludeChars Select characters that should be excluded from column field during
Processing.
Click the button to the right of the property to display the Character Map
window. Select the character to be excluded.
For example, eliminating characters (such as #) in the field that are not
relevant data.
Virtual Engine Select the default OCR virtual engine to be used during the Processing
station for character recognition for the column field.
The Tile module is an optional station usually located before the Completion module
to make the Completion module more efficient. The Tile module groups by recognized
character all the characters that were recognized by the system and offers useful
tools to determine which characters were falsely recognized, quickly and simply.
Using the Tile module, it is possible to identify, which characters are correct and
which are not. The Tile module displays the characters in a tile format, which allows
the user to browse through each character and accept it or reject it. All characters are
grouped together to allow for easy identification.
Check the Supported selection box to enable the Tile module. If the Tile property is
enabled, the following properties appear:
Character filter Open a virtual keyboard to select characters to be displayed in the Tile station.
Max. Char. Confidence Set the minimum recognition confidence level for a specified character to be
displayed in the Tile station. (Default is 100%, meaning that all of the specified
characters will be displayed.)
The bad character Level property sets a number of unrecognized characters per field
at which the whole field will appear in the Completion station as a single unrecognized
character (*). It may simply be faster for the operator to visually check the data from
the field and type it, rather than trying to correct a field with too many unrecognized
characters (asterisks). If enabled, this property is typically set at 3 or more.
For Display Set the number of unrecognized characters at which the whole field will appear in
Completion as one unrecognized character (*).
For Process Set the number of unrecognized characters at which processing will cease, and the
whole field will appear in Completion as one unrecognized character (*).
Defining the field export properties, exceptions, setting the region delimiter
properties:
Property Description
Export Field Flag for archiving this field. (Some fields may be useful for the purposes of
validation, but not necessary for export. Select fields for export, if not all fields are
desired.)
Exceptions Attach an exception to the field. Click the button to the right of the property to
display the Exceptions window. Select the most appropriate exception. Choose
from among the exceptions that are already created.
Following the exceptions property will be a list of available exceptions for the field.
To view these exceptions, click the + button to the right of the exceptions
property. You may also attach exceptions using the Exceptions window.
In the Completion process, the operator can mark exceptions on the batch, and
leave invalid data. The exceptions are reported later in the exception report. For
more information on exceptions, see section 9.
BuiltIn rules Override the default behavior of built-in rules. Click on the + button to the right of
the BuiltIn rules property to display and change the existing rule defaults. Options
are:
FieldEmptyCheck
FieldLengthCheck
FieldValueTypeCheck
FieldRangeCheck
FieldCompletionCheck
LookupTableCheck
Doc Merge Auto Action Determines where in a multi-page document to take recurring field values (such
as invoice number or date) from. Options are:
First page
Last page
First occurrence
Last occurrence
Multi Document Accepts multiple documents that contain the same ROIs.
Every column can be assigned events. Events are actions that are triggered at the
Completion station when the group is entered, or exited, or a special key is pressed.
.NET or Win32 DLLs are attached to these events to run special actions.
Typical events may be inserting a necessary character not included in the form data,
deleting an unnecessary character included in the form data, changing a common,
known incorrect character to a known correct one, etc.
In order to set column events click the Event tab heading which appears in the Object
Inspector after you create a Column. Toggle between the Property tab and the Event
tab by clicking the tab headings.
The following events are available:
Event Description
1. In the Application Explorer, expand the "Invoices" flow to one level down, to
reveal the "InvForm" form:
2. Expand the "Invoices" flow to one level down, to reveal the "InvForm" form:
3. Select the "InvForm" by left-clicking it.
4. Right-click "InvForm" to display the shortcut menu.
8 EFI Design
1. In the Tools menu, select the Get New EFI from File option to instruct the system
where to look for the image file.
The following dialog appears:
EFIs are linked to specific pages. You must select a page from the application
object tree to link an EFI to.
To link an EFI:
1. Select the EFI property and click the button to the right of the EFI property.
The EFIs linking dialog opens:
2. To examine an EFI, click the name of the EFI (not the checkbox). The EFI will
appear in the preview panel on the right of the dialog.
3. To link an EFI to the page, select the EFI in the tree on the left of the dialog.
4. Click the checkbox to the left of the EFI.
5. Click OK to complete the link.
To unlink an EFI:
1. Select the EFI property and click the button to the right of the EFI property.
The EFIs linking dialog opens. In the EFIs linking dialog box, all EFIs linked to the
page will have checks in their checkboxes.
2. Choose the EFI that you wish to unlink from the page. Click the checkbox to clear
it.
To save an EFI:
To find out the purpose of any button, place the cursor anywhere on the button and a
tool tip will appear below it.
The EFI toolbar has slightly different buttons enabled for the page object and for the
field/table objects. For the field, table or column objects, OCR Region of Interest and
OMR Region of Interest buttons are enabled. For the page object, the Removal Region
of Interest and FormID Region of Interest buttons are enabled. This is due to the
different needs of recognition at the page, field and table level.
Form recognition takes place at the level of entire pages, using FormID Region of
Interest. Field (data) recognition, in contrast, takes place at the individual field level.
Viewing Images
You can change the way the image is displayed in the viewing area by using the
following buttons. Use the Zoom Factor scrollbar to shrink or enlarge the image by 2%
with each click. When you select one type of region all of the other types are not
displayed.
Pan Image Click to select the hand tool cursor, allowing you Page, group,
to move the EFI around in the workspace. field
Draw OCR Select the area in the EFI where you wish to Field
ROI create an OCR region. Click to draw the area. A
rectangle will appear. Click and drag the
boundaries to fit the space you wish to delineate.
Once you create an OCR ROI region you may view
and change its properties in the object inspector.
Click anywhere on the EFI to start drawing an
OCR ROI.
Draw OMR Select the area in the EFI where you wish to Field
ROI create an OMR region. Click to draw the area. A
rectangle will appear. Click and drag the
boundaries to fit the space you wish to delineate.
Once you create an OMR ROI region you may view
and change its properties in the object inspector.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you wish to Page
Removal create a removal region. Click to draw the area. A
ROI rectangle will appear. Click and drag the
boundaries to fit the space you wish to delineate.
Draw Select the area in the EFI where you wish to Page
FormID create a FormID region. Click to draw the area. A
ROI rectangle will appear. Click and drag the
boundaries to fit the space you wish to delineate.
Selection Click to select the selection cursor, allowing you to Page, group,
Mode select any object in the workspace. Once you field
select an object you may view and change its
properties. Drag object boundaries to resize, drag
and drop object to move it within the layout
workspace.
Region Use the drop-down to select which ROIs you wish Page, group,
Type Filter to display, or click the button to cycle through the field
options.
FormOut! Test the FormOut! effectiveness for the scanned Page, group,
Test form. You will be prompted to select a TIF batch field
for which to perform the FormOut! test.
Rotate Rotates the image. Each click rotates the image Page, group,
clockwise by 90°. Note that this rotation is not field
retained in the EFI file.
Zoom Bar Select the zoom percentage at which the EFI is Page, group,
displayed using the sliding zoom bar. field
2. To set the tolerances, drag the slide bar or click the arrows to change the current
tolerance settings. The values displayed on the right change accordingly.
Vertical 1-100 1/8" Vertical shift between the TIF image and the EFI.
Horizontal 1-100 1/8" Horizontal shift between the TIF image and the EFI.
Scaling 1-5 1% Amount by which the TIF size may differ from the EFI size.
Rotation 1-6 1° Angle that the TIF may be rotated relative to the EFI.
Note: The default matching index is 87%, which is suitable for most
uses. Change only in special cases.
Scaling Difference 1-5 1% Difference between the vertical scaling and the horizontal scaling.
Property Description
Recognition Select an algorithm to be used for Form recognition: FormOut!, FeaturesID, DropOut.
Engine
Default The default algorithm determines the type of removal that is performed on the entire filled
Algorithm form. You can also specify the removal algorithm for a specific ROI, if you are using the
FormOut! recognition algorithm.
Line When variable data overlap constant data, lines in the variable data may be cut. Line
Connection connection reconnects the broken lines.
This parameter is set if you are using the Remove or Safe Remove recognition algorithm.
Integrity The integrity radius specifies the radius of the information that should be preserved
Radius around a point where variable and constant data overlap.
For example, when someone fills in a form, a letter might overlap the box that is filled in.
The constant data would be the lines of the box, whereas the variable data is the filled-in
information.
This parameter is set if you are using the Remove or Safe Remove recognition algorithm.
Try Rotations This FormOut! feature is used when recognition has initially failed. It allows the user to set
the angle of rotation (90°, 180° and 270°) of the form as the system attempts to
recognize the form again.
From the Name list box, select the page recognition engine that the eFLOW platform
should use, either DropOut!, FeaturesID or FormOut! These algorithms will determine
how the EFI (Empty Form Image) is removed from the REG (Registered Image, or
pre-processed TIF) to produce the DIF (Difference) file.
FormOut! performs form identification and standard form removal (i.e. it removes
the EFI from the REG to produce the DIF).
FeaturesID uses an alternative algorithm and almost always recognizes the forms,
but does not perform form removal. It is less sensitive than FormOut! to small
changes in the form. This algorithm is very rarely used.
DropOut! uses yet another algorithm to identify forms that have had EFI details
removed during scanning (for example, if a special ink and color bulb is used to
remove the EFI during the scanning process). You must therefore provide
additional information for processing.
If the form is not a drop-out form, use FormOut! Only if it fails should you try
FeaturesID.
The default algorithm determines the type of removal that is performed on the entire
filled form (you can also specify the removal algorithm for a removal ROI).
Select the default algorithm using the list box for the Default Algorithm property.
The following table describes the default removal algorithms:
Option Description
Keep Everything Both constant and variable data in the DIF file. This is used if certain data in the EFI,
such as decimal points or slashes or dashes, are necessary to the field.
Keep Nothing Neither constant nor variable data in the DIF file (it will be blank). This option is used in
conjunction with removal ROIs to include only selected areas of the form in the DIF file.
Remove Only variable data in the DIF file (i.e. it removes the EFI from the REG to produce the
DIF). This is the default.
Safe Remove Variable data and some constant data that overlap the variable data in the DIF file. The
amount of constant data, included in the DIF file, is defined by the integrity radius. This
algorithm is used in cases, such as handwritten signatures, where important data may
appear outside the ROI.
When variable data overlap constant data, lines in the variable data may be cut. Line
connection reconnects the broken lines. The line connection parameter specifies
whether the line connection algorithm should be applied to gaps created by the
removal of overlapping data during the removal process. Line connection is therefore
relevant only to areas where the remove algorithm is applied. Line connection is
valuable if OCR or ICR is to be applied to the form, because connected lines are much
easier for OCR engines to read than are broken lines.
Line connection parameters are set from the Line Connection list box in the Object
Inspector.
The following table describes the line connection options:
Option Description
Double Horizontal Improve the line connection process when there are two horizontal lines very close
together.
Double Vertical Improve the line connection process when there are two vertical lines very close
together.
The integrity radius specifies the radius of the information that should be preserved
around a point where variable and constant data overlap. The integrity radius is
therefore relevant only when the Safe Remove and Remove algorithm are applied.
Filled-in information often overlaps the constant data of the form. This could lead to
the loss of sensitive information (such as part of a signature) during removal of the
constant data. To prevent the loss of such information, apply the Safe Remove
algorithm and Integrity Radius to such areas, to retain all overlapping constant and
variable data within the integrity radius.
Specify the integrity radius from the Integrity Radius list box buttons in the dialog box.
The options retain all the data within the integrity radius from the intersection of
constant and variable data.
The following table describes the integrity radius options:
Low 0.07 cm
Medium 0.14 cm
High 0.21 cm
This parameter helps to identify the EFI that matches the form. If the form has been
rotated during scanning, it detects the misalignment and rotates the form before
attempting to match it with an EFI.
For example, if no presorting is done and the forms may be input upside down, select
both the 0° and 180° options.
3. Find the batch file containing the TIFs for the forms you wish to compare to your
EFI. Select this file and click the Open button.
Testing proceeds immediately. Both TIF and DIF files are displayed, while results of
the FormOut! test are automatically displayed at the bottom of the window.
The image of the scanned test form - the TIF file - is displayed on the left. If the EFI
is well-defined and eFLOW was able to match it and remove it from the scanned
image, the net image - the DIF - will be displayed on the right, and the results area
at the bottom of the screen will show a page-by-page listing with the EFI name and
the quality of the matching (in %) for each page scanned. Anything above 80% is
considered a good match.
If the EFI is not defined sufficiently well, the results area will show the error
message: FRM could not be matched with EFI. In this case, and in the case of
poor or unsatisfactory matching, the EFI must be rescanned and/or its parameters
adjusted.
To adjust (fine-tune) the EFI and ROI parameters, return to the Application Visual
Designer and change the properties in the Object Inspector.
The dialog contains the following buttons for controlling the process:
Property Description
Run the current batch. Used to run the test batch after rescanning of the EFI and/or fine-
tuning of the EFI parameters.
Run the selected page. Used to re-run selected pages of the test forms after rescanning of the
EFI and/or fine-tuning of the EFI parameters. You can select individual pages from the results
area at the bottom of the screen.
Property Description
If the DIF is currently displayed, click to view the EFI selected for comparison. If the EFI is
already displayed when this button is clicked, the DIF is shown as it appears after FormOut!
These buttons allow you to increase/decrease the size of the image. Zoom out, return to
original size, or zoom in.
Just as EFIs are linked to specific pages, regions are linked to either pages,
fields, or columns, depending on what purpose they serve. Removal and
FormID regions, which are used for form identification, are linked to pages.
OCR and OMR regions (the regions where data recognition is performed) are
linked to fields or tables.
Be careful to select regions that contain the same information for all of the
forms that you wish to identify as being of the same type.
1. From the object tree, select the page for which you wish to create a FormID region.
Top Select the starting point setting for the ROI. Defined automatically
when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Left Select the distance from the left for the ROI. Defined automatically
when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Width Specify the ROI width. Defined automatically when you create or
resize the ROI manually.
Height Specify the ROI height. Defined automatically when you create or
resize the ROI manually.
Slice X Columns Split field vertically into two or more ROIs. Select how many columns
to create with the OCR's ROI.
Slice Split the OCR's ROI vertically into a number of columns, as defined by
the value in the columns property.
Slice Y Rows Split field horizontally into two or more ROIs. Select how many rows
to create with the OCR's ROI.
Slice Split the OCR's ROI horizontally into a number of rows, as defined by
the value in the rows property.
Note: the FormID algorithm you select must match the identification
region you choose.
FormID Algorithm
The following table describes the form recognition algorithms that are available for an
individual region of interest. The FormID Algorithm property contains three options for
FormID:
Match EFI The contents of the region of interest must be exactly as in the EFI.
1. From the object tree, select the page for which you wish to create a removal
region.
2. Click the Removal Region button in the EFI toolbar at the top of the EFI
workspace area.
3. Point at the image and click and hold the left mouse button.
The pointer becomes a cross.
4. Drag the cross to create a rectangle over the desired region, until you reach the
size that you want.
5. Release the mouse button.
A blue rectangle appears over the region. The ROI properties will be displayed to
the right in the Object Inspector.
Top Select the starting point setting for the ROI. Defined automatically
when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Left Select the distance from the left for the ROI. Defined
automatically when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Width Specify the ROI width. Defined automatically when you create or
resize the ROI manually.
Height Specify the ROI height. Defined automatically when you create or
resize the ROI manually.
Slice X Columns Split field vertically into two or more ROIs. Select how many
columns to create with the OCR's ROI.
Slice Y Rows Split field horizontally into two or more ROIs. Select how many
rows to create with the OCR's ROI.
Slice Split the OCR's ROI horizontally into a number of rows, as defined
by the value in the rows property.
Removal Algorithm Select from among several options for form removal.
Ignore Ignore mismatches if the region may contain constant data that
differs greatly from the constant data in the EFI. The contents of
such a region will not be taken into consideration during form
recognition.
Note: use this option with care, since too many ignored regions
may significantly reduce the ability of eFLOW to recognize the
form.
The following table describes the removal algorithms that are available for an
individual region of interest.
Option Description
Keep Nothing Exclude any data found in the TIF image and block out form areas that should not have
been written in.
Safe Remove Include the variable data and some of the constant data that overlaps the variable data.
Used for capturing signatures and other sensitive data. The amount of constant data,
included in the DIF file, is defined by the integrity radius.
Thin Remove Removes constant data with extra care within a region whose constant data overlaps
variable data.
OCR regions can be defined in terms of the type of text and numbers that will
consistently be found in it. Once you have defined a region of interest, you can define
the OCR parameters to be applied to it. Define these parameters using the Object
Inspector.
Once OCR regions have been created and defined, OCR recognition engines are
allocated to each OCR region. These OCR engines are defined using the OCR Visual
Designer. OCR engines can be set with sophisticated parameter control, and the OCR
Visual Designer provides user-friendly tools for fine-tuning and for generating and
checking recognition results.
During the runtime stage, OCR engines are used to recognize field data using OCR
virtual engines and individual engines.
1. From the object tree, select the field or table for which you wish to create an OCR
region.
2. Click the OCR Region button in the EFI toolbar at the top of the EFI workspace
area.
3. Point at the image and click and hold the left mouse button.
The pointer becomes a cross.
4. Drag the cross to create a rectangle over the desired region, until you reach the
size that you want.
5. Release the mouse button.
A red rectangle appears over the region. The ROI properties will be displayed to
the right in the Object Inspector.
Location Top Select the starting point setting for the ROI. Defined
automatically when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Left Select the distance from the left for the ROI. Defined
automatically when you create or resize the ROI manually.
Width Specify the ROI width. Defined automatically when you create
or resize the ROI manually.
Height Specify the ROI height. Defined automatically when you create
or resize the ROI manually.
Change Case Choose from three options for processing of region contents:
Do not change.
Force Allows the user to direct the OCR engines to get only numeric or
Alphanumeric only alpha characters as results.
Padding Info Select when you want the region to always have a certain
character/number length (i.e., cents would always be 2
characters). Padding characters may only be inserted at the
beginning or end of a string, such as lead or decimal zeros.
Char Chose the character to be used for padding empty spaces, such
as 0 for decimal values.
Length Specify the number of characters used for padding. The fixed
size of the region. For example, cents would always be 2
characters.
Insert Chars Specify that a character to be inserted into the region during
processing. For example, a zip code or area code may be
automatically added to a field.
Position Select the start position where the characters are to be inserted
during processing.
Exclude Chars Select characters that should be excluded from region during
processing. For example, eliminating characters (such as #) in
the field that are not relevant data.
Virtual Engine The virtual OCR engine assigned in the virtual engine property
under field properties is allocated as the default, and therefore
this field is normally left empty. (The option none is selected).
Entering a different virtual OCR engine in this field will override
the default virtual OCR engine as allocated under field
properties.
Slice X Columns Split field vertically into two or more ROIs. Select how many
columns to create with the OCR's ROI.
Slice Y Rows Split field horizontally into two or more ROIs. Select how many
rows to create with the OCR's ROI.
Other Associated ROIs are linked to fields. Use this property to change the field
Field to which an ROI is linked.
Order in Field For a multi-region field. Use when a field is divided into different
regions. Set/change the order in which the OCR virtual engines
read ROIs in the field. The order in which regions are linked to
the field determines the order in which they are read.
1. From the object tree, select the field for which you wish to create an OMR region.
2. Click the OMR Region button in the EFI toolbar at the top of the EFI workspace
area.
3. Point at the image and click and hold the left mouse button. The pointer becomes a
cross.
4. Drag the cross to create a rectangle over the desired region, until you reach the
size that you want.
5. Release the mouse button.
A red rectangle appears over the region. The ROI properties will be displayed to
the right in the Object Inspector.
Location Top Select the starting point setting for the ROI. Created and changed
automatically when you create, size/resize the ROI manually.
Left Select the distance from the left for the ROI. Created and changed
automatically when you create, size/resize the ROI manually.
Width Specify the ROI width. Created and changed automatically when you create,
size/resize the ROI manually.
Height Specify the ROI height. Created and changed automatically when you create,
size/resize the ROI manually.
OCR Virtual The virtual OCR engine assigned in the Virtual Engine property under Field
Engine properties is allocated as the default, and therefore this field is normally left
empty. (The option "none" is selected). Entering a different virtual OCR engine
in this field will override the default virtual OCR engine as allocated under Field
properties.
OMR Caption For electronic forms. Specify a caption for the checkbox or radio button.
Mark Size If there is a mark, select the size (Small, Medium, and Large). If there is more
than one, select Multiple.
If Not Filled Write a string to be placed in position if the region is always empty (not filled).
Slice X Columns Split field vertically into two or more ROIs. Select how many columns to create
with the OMR's ROI.
Slice Split the OMR's ROI vertically into a number of columns, as defined by the
value in the columns property.
Slice Y Rows Split field horizontally into two or more ROIs. Select how many rows to create
with the OMR's ROI.
Slice Split the OMR's ROI horizontally into a number of rows, as defined by the
value in the Rows property.
Other Associated The field associated with this region. You may link the region to a different
Field field using this property.
Order in Field The order in which regions are linked to the field (determines the order in
which they are read).
Selecting an ROI
The cursor will turn into a hand tool when you select the ROI.
Moving an ROI
To move an ROI:
Resizing ROIs
Deleting an ROI
To delete an ROI:
To create a region for a table, first create an ROI for the entire table.
1. From the object tree, select the table for which you wish to create an OCR region.
2. Click the OCR Region button in the EFI toolbar at the top of the EFI workspace
area.
3. Point at the image and click and hold the left mouse button.
The pointer becomes a cross.
4. Drag the cross to create a rectangle over the desired region, until you reach the
size that you want.
5. Release the mouse button.
A red rectangle appears over the region. The ROI properties will be displayed to
the right in the Object Inspector.
6. By default, each table has one row. If there is more than one row in the table,
specify the number of rows using the Row property in the Object Inspector.
7. By default, the table object will contain one column. If there is more than one
column in the table, you must create a new column object for each additional
column actually on the EFI.
8. Click to select the table and do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Column option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted Table, click the right mouse button
to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Column option.
For example, in the following figure, several new columns and rows have been
created for the table displayed in the working area:
The ROI properties are displayed to the right in the Object Inspector. You can set
the properties through the Object Inspector.
Resize a Column
You can resize a column edge to any other width within the table ROI.
To resize a coumn:
Deleting an ROI does not delete the column objects in a table. They still exist in
the application explorer tree.
9 Defining Exceptions
Exception categories are not only logical groups of exceptions. They also manifest
themselves in the Completion and Exception stations.
Exception categories are used by the workflow as filtering devices. For example, it is
possible to filter forms sent to a specific workflow module by specifying that only
forms with field exceptions belonging to a specific exception category should be
transferred.
A new exception category will appear in the application tree following the
application and all its attached forms, pages, fields groups, and fields.
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl
key, press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key) a
previously created exception category.
Property Description
Name The exception category Name specifies the name of the exception category. This name
appears automatically in the Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you
create an exception category. You can change the description if you want to insert
information about the exception category that may be helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the exception category contains, a string of up to
31 characters.
Caption Specify the name for the exception category as it should appear on the screen.
Color Select a color for the exception category, used for display purposes.
To create an exception:
1. In the application explorer window, click to select the exception category that will
contain this exception.
2. Do one of the following:
In the Selected menu, select the New Exception option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted exception category object, click the
right mouse button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New
Exception option.
You can cut (holding the Ctrl key, press the X key), copy (holding the Ctrl
key, press the C key), and paste (holding the Ctrl key, press the V key) a
previously created exception.
Exception Description
Property
Name The exception Name specifies the name of the exception. This name appears automatically
in the Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you create an exception.
You can change the description if you want to insert information about the exception that
may be helpful to you.
Exception Description
Property
Description Provide a short description specifying what the exception contains, a string of up to 31
characters.
Caption Specify the name for the exception as it should appear on the screen.
Always Click to specify that the exception will be available to all fields/cases/forms in the
Available Completion and Exception stations.
Selected Specify which action (check) is to be performed when the field is tagged with an exception.
Action Options are:
• Check the rest of the rules—Continue to check the field for compliance with other rules.
Mark the exception and move on.
• No check in the current field—Do not continue to check the field for compliance with
other rules. Disregard the whole field.
• No check in the current group—Discontinue checking for compliance with rules for the
entire field group. Disregard the whole field group.
• No check in the current page—Discontinue checking for compliance with rules for the
entire page. Disregard the whole form.
• No check in the current form—Discontinue checking for compliance with rules for the
entire form. Disregard the whole collection.
Hot Key Specify which hotkey (key combination) will be associated with a specific exception. This
hotkey is used in the Completion and Exception stations to attach an exception to a field or
column.
There are two different ways to link an exception. Choose either option A or
option B.
1. In the object tree, click to select the field to which you wish to link an exception.
2. In the properties viewer, select the exceptions property.
3. Select the exception you wish to link from the list of exceptions that appears
underneath the exceptions property.
4. Choose the appropriate exception by clicking the drop-down arrow list to the left of
the exception.
5. Select the True flag. The exception is now linked to the field.
1. In the object tree, click to select the field to which you wish to link an exception.
2. In the properties viewer, select the exceptions property.
3. Click the button that appears to the right of the exceptions property.
The Exceptions window appears, displaying exception categories.
4. To the left of the exception categories, click the + flag to view the exceptions.
5. When you locate the exception you wish to link, click the checkbox to the left of the
exception.
6. Click the OK button.
The exception you have selected is automatically flagged True in the Object
Inspector. It is now linked to the field.
There are two different ways to link an exception. Choose either option A or
option B.
1. In the application explorer window, click to select the field whose exception you
wish to remove.
2. In the properties viewer, select the exceptions property.
3. Select the exception you wish to remove from the list of exceptions that appears
underneath the exceptions property.
4. Choose the appropriate exception by clicking the drop-down arrow list to the left of
the exception.
5. Select the False flag.
The exception is now removed from the field.
1. In the application explorer window, click to select the field whose exception you
wish to remove.
2. In the properties viewer, select the exceptions property.
3. Click the button that appears to the right of the exceptions property.
The Exceptions window appears, displaying exception categories.
4. To the left of the exception categories, click the + flag to view the exceptions.
5. When you locate the exception you wish to remove, click to clear the checkbox to
the left of the exception.
6. Click the OK button.
The exception you have selected is automatically flagged False in the Object
Inspector. It is now removed from the field.
1. Open the quick lookup property. (In checkbox fields the property is called Items).
2. Add all available values in the window, one value per line.
3. Click the OK button.
4. In the Show List box property, select Auto or the hotkey that will open the drop
down list (list box).
5. If desired, select the Automatic Fill option. If selected, the system will automatically
complete the values.
For example, if the operator enters ca the system will automatically complete
cash. If the operator enters cr the system will automatically complete credit.
1. Create a text (.txt) file that contains the data in the following format (4 fields, 3
options):
data1,data2,data3,data4
data5,data6,data7,data8
data9,data10,data11,data12
2. Right click on the application name and select New Lookup Table.
A new lookup table object with a default new Lookup Item is created.
3. Add new lookup items and provide names for them. Refer to the table below for
Lookup Item properties.
Quick Lookup definitions that were defined in eFLOW 3 are automatically
converted to TiS Quick Lookup Tables, and are added to the explorer tree.
4. If desired, select the Automatic Fill option. If selected, the system will automatically
complete the value in this field.
MS SQL
TiS LIORA
Legacy
Original text Source of the raw data of the TiS legacy database
file
Memory Size
Items
(String or
Integer)
TiS SHIRA
Fuzzy
Exorbyte SHIRA
To create a rule:
1. In the application explorer window, click to select the field to which you wish to add
the rule.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Rule option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted field or table item object, click the
right mouse button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New Rule
option.
A new rule object will appear under the field or table item. You must now define
the rule using the rule properties.
Name The rule Name specifies the name of the rule. This name appears automatically in the
Description text box in the Object Inspector window after you create a rule. You can
change the description if you want to insert information about the rule that may be
helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the rule contains, a string of up to 31
characters.
Caption Specify the name for the rule as it should appear on the screen.
RuleString Error message displayed in case the rule is not met. The error message appears in the
Completion interface when the text input by the operator does not conform with the rule.
RuleMessage A string that defines the rule. Rule strings are constructed of field values, constants and
operations.
Rules can be built with the assistance of the Rules Editor. Click the button to the right
of the property to access the rules editor window. For more information on the Rules
Editor, see section 11.3.1.
Exceptions Select from a list of available exceptions for the rule. The operator selects the most
appropriate exception to send to the Exceptions station.
Show Message and Stop – Display error message in the status bar, but don't move to the
next field. The operator must open an exception.
Show Message and Query User – Display error message in the status bar and notify
operator of error, but don't move to next field. The operator views a query, and must
open an exception.
Show Message and Open Exception – Display error message in the status bar and attach an
exception, but don't move to next field. The exception is opened automatically, and the
operator must choose from a predefined list of exceptions.
Attach Exception and Continue – Attach an exception and continue to the next field.
Display Type Select from the drop-down to display message in the status bar or to show message box.
You can edit an existing rule or create a new one. Rules are built from the Rules
Editor dialog box.
To build a rule:
1. From the Object Inspector, locate the RuleString field and click the button to the
right of the property to access the Rules Editor window.
The Rules Editor screen appears:
When you finish building a rule, it is entered into the rule string property.
Mathematical Expressions
Types
Constants
If you type numbers or dates in the rule, these remain constant even as the field
values change. For example, you can specify that a field will always have a given
value, such as AreaCode=212.
The supported constants are:
Number constants
Any number. Syntax: with or without decimal point
Variables
A variable is a field name or column name, and the value of the variable is the
content of the field or column.
Syntax: idnumber. The table is the active table.
If you set one column equal to another column, every cell in the first column
must be equal to the corresponding cell in the second column. Similarly, if you
specify that column one is greater than column two, every cell in column one
must be greater than the corresponding cell in the column two.
Operators
Numerical + Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
= Equal to
<> Between
OR Logical OR
Telephone Number
A credit card number may appear as a sixteen-digit number in four groups of four
digits separated by a space. The syntax is as follows:
0000 0000 0000 0000
A vehicle license plate number may appear as two alphanumeric characters followed
by a dash, two required digits, an optional digit (represented by the 9 character),
another dash, and two more alphanumeric characters. The syntax is as follows:
CC-009-CC
Building Functions
1. In the application explorer window, click to select the field to which you wish to add
the validation function.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New VFunction option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted field object, click the right mouse
button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the New VFunction option.
You must now define the validation function using validation function properties.
The following validation function properties appear in the Object Inspector.
Name The validation function Name specifies the name of the validation function. This
name appears automatically in the Description text box in the Object Inspector
window after you create a validation function. You can change the description if you
want to insert information about the validation function that may be helpful to you.
Description Provide a short description specifying what the validation function contains, a string
of up to 31 characters.
Caption Specify the name for the validation function as it should appear on the screen.
Exceptions Select from a list of available exceptions for the validation function.
Show Message and Stop – Display error message in the status bar, but don't move to
the next field. The operator must open an exception.
Show Message and Query User – Display error message in the status bar and notify
operator of error, but don't move to next field. The operator views a query, and
must open an exception.
Show Message and Open Exception – Display error message in the status bar and
attach an exception, but don't move to next field. The exception is opened
automatically, and the operator must choose from a predefined list of exceptions.
Attach Exception and Continue – Attach an exception and continue to the next field.
Display Message on Status Bar – Display validation message in the status bar.
Events OnValidate – type in the function or methods or click the browse button to specify
one (see Defining Event Functions in the Appendix)
Validation functions are functions that you define which perform validation checks for
a selected field. You can edit an existing validation function or create a new one.
Validation functions are built from the Visual Basic window.
For example, you can create a VFunction that checks that either:
Both credit card number and expiration date are filled,
Or both fields are empty.
The main parameters that appear in many engines are the following:
Language/Classifiers – Select the natural human language (such as English or
French) and the type of character (such as hand- or machine-print).
Mask – Set the allowed characters, such as A-Za-z (alphabetic) and 0-9
(numeric). Special characters (such as & or @) can also be defined.
Character size/height – Set min/max values for character size.
Distance between characters.
Grid removal/noise processing/enhancement.
The Default button will restore engine default settings.
Menu Bar
Toolbar
Working Area
Toolbar
Working
OCR Area
Explorer
Object
Inspector
1. In the OCR Visual Designer tree, click to select the engine tree node.
2. Do one of the following:
In the Selected menu, select the New Engine option.
Click the right mouse button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the
New Engine option.
The engine object will appear in the application object tree. User-created engine
objects are symbolized by the new engine object icon. The Object Inspector
will display the engine object's properties and events.
1. In the engine explorer window, click to select the engine object that you wish copy.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the Copy option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted engine object, click the right mouse
button to open the drop-down menu. Select the Copy option.
When you cut an engine object, you can still paste it back into the engine tree.
Once you have deleted an object, it is removed from the system permanently.
When you set values for an engine, these values will be set for all copies of the
engine also.
The general properties of an engine consist of the engine name, engine description
and caption. The engine Name appears automatically in the Description text box in the
Object Inspector after you create an engine. You can change this Description if you
want to insert some comments about the engine that may be helpful to you. The
name should be alphanumeric.
OCR field engines are engines that recognize the content of the fields based on the
recognized EFI or script.
The OCR field engine types include:
Ceyes (Ligature)
Character
ExperVision TypeReader®
Gentriqs
Inlite Research Barcodes
KADMOS™
NestorReader™
OCEAEG
OCEReco
Parascript
RecoStar
OCR page engines are engines that recognize all of the words in the image to help
script recognition.
The OCR page engine types include:
ExperVision
Ocr
Omnipage
Ricoh
Abbyy
Each engine type has its own specific set of parameters that can be set and fine-
tuned so that the best possible recognition can be achieved. An engine object is a
combination of the engine type and the engine-specific parameters. Parameters are
set in the Engine Attributes window.
Minimal Confidence
Enter a percentage using the Minimal Confidence button to specify the minimal
confidence a resolved character must have for the result to be accepted.
This means that after the engine recognition algorithms are complete and each result
is assigned a confidence value, results with lower confidence values than specified will
be rejected. The default value is different for each engine and is related to general
engine behavior.
Enhancement
What is Segmentation?
Property Description
Min. Confidence Enter a percentage using the Minimal Confidence button to specify the minimal
confidence a resolved character must have for the result to be accepted.
This means that after the engine recognition algorithms are complete and each
result is assigned a confidence value, results with lower confidence values than
specified will be rejected. The default value is different for each engine and is
related to general engine behavior.
Attributes Each engine type has its own specific set of parameters that can be set and fine-
tuned so that the best possible recognition can be achieved. An engine is a
combination of the engine type and the engine specific parameters. Parameters
are set in the Engine Attributes window. Each engine has its own properties.
UseSeparateSegmentator You can use the recognition of one engine (i.e. how it reads characters) and the
segmentation of another engine (i.e. how it separates characters). Use this
checkbox to select a different engine segmentation.
In addition, the following properties are available for OCR page engines:
Property Description
Clean Process Select the checkbox to execute another noise removal algorithm.
Hand Print Select the checkbox for pages including hand-printed text.
Machine Print Default checkbox selected for pages including machine-printed text.
ICR Engine Select from the drop-down list of previously created virtual field engines.
Virtual engines contain attached engines, symbolized by the attached engine icon.
Many recognition engines are supplied with the system, each suitable for a certain
kind of text or data. When combining engines in a virtual engine, choose engines that
are most suited to the type of data that will be found in the specified region.
Several OCR results can be merged to improve recognition. The combined results
from several OCR engines can be merged using a voting algorithm.
You may attach user-defined engines to any virtual engine that is user-defined. You
may also order engines, re-order them, copy and paste, drag and drop, and delete
engines from a virtual engine.
1. In the OCR Visual Designer tree, click to select the engine object tree.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the New Virtual Engine option.
Click the right mouse button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the
New Virtual Engine option.
The Virtual Engine will appear in the engine object tree. Virtual engines that are
user-created are symbolized by the new virtual engine icon. To the right of the
desktop, the Object Inspector will display the Virtual Engine properties and events.
1. In the engine explorer window, click to select the engine you wish to copy.
2. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted engine, click the right mouse button to
open the object drop-down menu. Select the Copy option.
3. Click to select the virtual engine to which you wish to attach the engine.
4. With the mouse cursor on the highlighted virtual engine, click the right mouse
button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the Paste option.
A copy of the engine will appear in the engine object tree. This engine or template
copy is called an engine link, symbolized by the engine link icon.
When you cut an OCR engine, you can still paste it back into the engine object
tree. Once you have deleted an object, it is removed from the system
permanently.
For example, you can define the recognition mask so that only upper- and lowercase
characters between A and E are allowed.
In the Character Map specify the following string:
A-Ea-e
All these settings are per OCR virtual engine, which may be connected to one or
more regions.
Segmentation Description
Property
Monospaced Check when all the characters in the field are the same width.
Width Min and Max width per ROI. Define the maximum and minimum allowed width of the
characters in pixels. Characters which are over the limit (smaller or larger) will be
ignored.
Height Min and Max height per ROI. Define the maximum and minimum allowed height of the
characters in pixels. Characters which are over the limit (smaller or larger) will be
ignored.
Super When the Super segmentation checkbox is selected, eFLOW employs the voting
Segmentation technique to the segmentation results of several engines. This provides better
recognition because the coordinates are calculated for the best probability.
The methods are Safe, Normal, Majority, Order, and Equalizer. The default is Normal.
The following example illustrates the different outcomes that can be obtained from a
group of results from different engines.
An OCR virtual engine contains four engines, which return the following results for a
certain field:
Real Value: 253478
Engine Result
1
25***8
2
2*5378
3
253478
4
2*34*8
5
25***8
* The asterisk indicates that the character was not recognized by the engine.
The following table describes the algorithms for each voting method and shows the
results that each algorithm would return in the above example.
Safe The result of the vote must be unanimous, i.e. all engines must return the same 2****8
result.
Normal The voting is unanimous if there is no conflict. Only engines that returned a 25**78
result are counted.
Majority This is a simple majority vote. If there is no majority, then the result is rejected. 253478
Order The first engine (according to the order in the OCR virtual engine) that is above 255378
the confidence threshold determines the result.
Equalizer The result is normalized by an algorithm that uses lookup tables and weighted 253478
rankings to compare and improve engine recognition results.
Property Description
Max Guesses Use the Max Guesses property to set the maximum number of failed guesses before
recognition fails. (Default is 1.)
Enhancement
Click on the button to specify the image enhancement to be applied before an
engine performs recognition. For more information on enhancement, see section 4.3.5.
Keep Select the Keep Enhancement checkbox to specify that image enhancement is to be
Enhancement applied to the DIF image file. To disable, click to clear the check.
Voting Method
The Equalizer is a sophisticated voting method. Each engine has a voting table. The
Equalizer compares the confidence levels results according to the confidence tables of
each engine. This process is done for each character separately.
Example
Let's assume 3 engines. All have the same confidence table for all guesses. The string
to be recognized is the word Hello.
Score 0 1 2 3
Confidence H E L L O
Score H E L L O
Total H (7) E (3) E (6) F (3) L (7) L (3) I (2) O (5) 0 (3)
Confidence Tables
The default values of confidence tables for first and other guesses:
OCE - 20,40,60,101
AEG - 20,50,99,101
CGK - 20,45,90,101
Charactell - 20,35,75,101
Kadmos - 20,70,85,101
Gentriqs - 50,90,99,101
Nestor - 95,97,99,101
Ligature - 95,97,99,101
Others - 20,40,85,101
Equalizer Parameters:
Common Parameters:
Property Description
Normal – Select if you wish to accept the Equalizer results only when the best recognition
result is returned by all the engines, even if it is returned with a low confidence. There is
essentially no second choice.
Majority – Select when you wish to accept the best recognition result from the majority of
engines.
Safe – Select if you wish to accept the results only when all the engines return the same
recognition result as the first choice, with a high confidence level.
Overlap Set the minimum required overlap between the first engine and the rest of the engines.
(Recommended value more than 50.)
Min. First Specify a minimum acceptable confidence level for primary guess.
Max. Second Specify a maximum acceptable confidence level for secondary guess.
Min. Difference Specify a minimal acceptable confidence level difference between primary and secondary
guesses.
Mask Specify a string field mask using symbols: A (alphabetic), N (numeric) and C (character).
For example, to accept a field where the expected value is 2 alphabetic characters
followed by 3 numeric characters, enter the following string into the text box:
AANNNN
Mapping Specify a mapping string separated by semicolon. The first letter is the mapping
character, the others are alternate characters to be mapped to first character.
For example, if different A characters may appear (â, ä, æ, à, á, å) in a field but only
the A character is desired, the following string would be entered into the text box:
aâäæàáå
Since many engines exist to recognize specialized character sets, string mapping is
usually not necessary.
Engine Parameters:
Use these properties to specify how the Equalizer algorithm will work with the engine
results.
Property Description
Confidences1 If you do not wish to rely on Equalizer’s conversion statistics for engine results, you
(Primary Guess) can provide your own conversion scale.
Use for the primary guess of all engine results: provide a string used to convert
confidence levels to Equalizer rankings (0-3). Separate confidence levels with
commas. The string you provide is a series of confidence percentages, which
correspond to Equalizer scores 0, 1, 2, 3, in this order.
Confidences2 If you do not wish to rely on Equalizer’s conversion statistics for engine results, you
(Secondary can provide your own conversion scale.
Guess)
Use for the secondary guess of all engine results: provide a string used to convert
confidence levels to Equalizer rank. Separate confidence levels with commas. The
string you provide is a series of confidence percentages, which correspond to Equalizer
scores 0, 1, 2, 3, in this order.
Guesses Specify the number of engine guesses that the Equalizer will accept and use.
1. In the engine explorer window, click to select the virtual engine that you wish to
copy.
2. Do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the Copy option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted virtual engine, click the right mouse
button to open the drop-down menu. Select the Copy option.
3. To paste the engine object do one of the following:
From the Selected menu, select the Paste option.
With the mouse cursor on the highlighted virtual engine, click the right mouse
button to open the object drop-down menu. Select the Paste option.
A copy of the virtual engine will appear in the application tree below the other
virtual engines in the application. If you wish to define this as a distinct virtual
engine, change the properties accordingly.
When you cut a virtual engine, you can still paste it back into the engine object
tree. Once you have deleted an object, it is removed from the system
permanently.
The engine tester toolbar contains the following buttons for controlling processing:
Button Description
Start the engine testing procedure. Click to open the Engine Tester window.
Click the right most button to jump to the last page in the form.
The two middle buttons are used to move one page backwards or forwards, respectively.
The page location in the form is displayed in the central display box.
Resize the image. zoom out, return to original size, or zoom in.
Creating a Region
Before performing any operation on a test region, you must first create it.
To create a region:
1. In the working area, click anywhere in the desired area of the form image
displayed.
The cursor will turn into a cross shape.
2. Click and drag the cursor over the area that you wish to define as a region.
The area will be highlighted in yellow.
3. To deselect the region, click anywhere outside the field.
Make sure to choose a barcode to test a barcode engine setup, numbers to test
numerical recognition, and so on.
You must now set test parameters, then run the test.
Region Definitions
Specify a minimum and maximum number of characters, words and lines expected
for the field being tested.
Virtual Engines
If you are not testing a virtual engine (consisting of several recognition engines
working together), this data box will appear. You must select a test engine using the
drop-down list box.
When testing a virtual engine, this will not appear.
To Start Processing
When you have chosen a test region and specified field definitions and virtual engine,
click the Run Test button at the bottom of the Engine Tester. Once activated,
processing begins.
If results are not satisfactory, change the engine, the region definitions and/or virtual
engine parameters, and retest until you receive satisfactory results.
Appendix A
Overview
You can define your own action routines to act on object contents. These action
routines, called events, are executed upon specific window events, such as entry to or
exit from a field, or upon keying of specific function keys. Events are defined for the
station interfaces. They are triggered when the operator performs an action in the
Completion or other stations.
The available function keys are: F1-F12 and combinations of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift.
This Appendix contains a list of the system events that can be programmed using the
.NET managed functions.
Before building events, the setting for Default Custom Environment must be specified
(see below).
To build an event:
1. In the Application or Workflow Visual Designer, click the object for which you wish
to create an event.
The available events appear in the Object Inspector under the Events tab.
2. You can create events either by writing Win32 DLLs, or by using one of the two
custom .NET environments:
VS IDE environment for VB.Net projects, or
#SharpDev IDE environment for C# projects).
See Default Custom Environment option in the Options menu.
1. In the Application or Workflow Visual Designer, click the object for which you wish
to create an event.
The available events appear in the Object Inspector under the Events tab.
If you do not have an existing DLL and wish to write a method in .NET:
1. In the Default Custom Environment dialog, make sure the browse_events_only option
is unchecked.
OnEnter Triggered when entering [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree node
the field
OnChange Triggered when changing [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree node
contents of field
(after the change)
OnExit Triggered when exiting [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree node
field
OnExiting (Completion only) Triggered [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree node
when exiting field
OnKey Triggered when key [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree node
pressed
(before change)
(before change)
The same (corresponding) event prototypes are used for the OnAnyFieldEnter,
OnAnyFieldChange, OnAnyFieldExit and OnAnyFieldKey assigned to the form.
OnPrePutCollections Performed just before the module [in-out] boolean Allow action
returns the forms/batches to the CanPut to occur.
system.
OnPreCreateCollections Performed just before creating the [in-out] boolean Allow action
collection. Used by Enterprise CanCreate to occur.
Portals only. Used by Enterprise
Portals only.
OnPreDeleteCollections Performed just before deleting the [in-out] boolean Allow action
collection. Used by export only CanDelete to occur.
FilePortal Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the FilePortal module has the
following events:
[in-out] variant
AdditionalData
OnEndFileGather Performed
after file
gathering
has ended.
[in-out] Boolean
AbortSession
ScanPortal Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the ScanPortal contains the following
events:
[in-out] Boolean
AbortSession
[in-out] boolean
PrepareBitmap
[in-out] Boolean
AbortSession
[in-out] short
PageNumber
[in-out] Boolean
DiscardPage
[in-out] Boolean
AbortSession
[in-out] Boolean
CanRescan
[in-out] Boolean
CanDelete
CanDelete Boolean
[in-out] Boolean
CanDelete
ManualID Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the ManualID module contains the
following events:
[in-out] Boolean
AbortProcess
[in-out] boolean
AbortProcess
Invoked
before calling
FormOut!
[in] Pchar
NewPageLastEFI
[out] Pchar
NewPageNextEFI
[in] short
NewPageNextEFILen
PageImage Pointer to
bitmap
[in-out] Boolean
AbortProcess
[in-out] boolean
AbortProcess
Completion Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the Completion module has the
following events:
Exceptions Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the Exceptions module has the
following events:
OnExceptionSet Invoked just before user [in] FieldData ITisFieldData Dynamic tree
moves to the next node
exception.
Export Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the Export module has the following
events:
[in-out] Boolean
CanExport
[in-out] Boolean
CanExport
[in-out] Boolean
WriteXML
[in-out] Boolean
WriteFile
Controller Module
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the Controller module has the
following events:
[in-out] Boolean
bCanDoAction
[in-out] Boolean
bDetailsNeeded
[in-out] Boolean
bCanDoAction
Freedom Modules
Aside from the generic events listed previously, the Freedom modules also have the
following events:
For more information on the Freedom modules, see sections 4.7.13, 4.7.14, and
4.7.15.
Appendix B
Utility Kit
The eFLOW Utility Kit can be accessed by double clicking the eFLOW icon and
selecting Utility Kit. The eFLOW Utility Kit screen is displayed:
CSM View
A utility for viewing and editing raw setup information.
Never modify any parameter using this utility unless you are 100% sure of
what you are doing (or if you are instructed to do so).
Collection Information
A utility for viewing collection data. This utility enables the user to log on to Integra
or Freedom disguised as any defined workflow station, and to view the raw collection
information that can be routed to the specified station. (Collection data can also be
dumped to a file in XML format.)
eFLOW Folder
The main folder under which all fixed eFLOW data is installed (BIN, Help, OCRs etc.)
PixTran ScanOnly
Opens a scanning application that can be used to scan in documents.
OCR Viewer
Viewer to display OCR page results.
Index
General Index
(event functions ............................................ 197 DropOut!...................................................... 134
acceptable range ............................................ 97 Dynamic Workflow
action routines (events) ................................. 197 and Controller ............................................. 82
algorithms for individual Region of Interests .....140 EFI
application ..................................................... 14 adjusting the view ..................................... 130
Application Empty Forms ................................. 13, 86, 126
Collapse Tree......................................... 28, 29 enhancement viewer .................................... 57
EFI ............................................................ 45 Flow ........................................................... 54
Empty Form Image ..................................... 45 removal regions......................................... 142
Expand Tree .......................................... 28, 29 Tolerances ................................................ 132
Save..................................................... 28, 29 EFI details removed....................................... 134
black background EFI enhancement
wipe out..................................................... 58 magnify displayed image .............................. 57
calculates statistical data ................................. 26 select another image .................................... 57
characters broken during scanning.................... 63 shrink displayed image ................................. 57
Collapse Application Tree ............................ 28, 29 EFI properties ............................................... 132
Column EFIs......................................................... 44, 54
Create ...................................................... 115 eFLOW Tool Bar .............................................. 28
Column Events .............................................. 123 eliminate excess noise ..................................... 60
Column name................................................ 116 eliminating lines .............................................. 62
Column validation properties ................... 116, 117 engine
Completion general properties...................................... 176
customize layout ......................................... 18 engine description ......................................... 176
validation rules .................................. 108, 163 engine name ................................................ 176
Completion module ......................................... 25 Engine Test
constants ..................................................... 166 results ...................................................... 196
Content Delivery module ................................. 25 Engine Tester tools ........................................ 193
Controller ...................................................... 23 enhancement builder ....................................... 56
copy an operator ........................................... 165 Enhancement tokens ....................................... 58
current date as limit........................................ 97 Enterprise Manager ......................................... 26
date range ..................................................... 97 Equalizer ...................................................... 187
decimal length ............................................... 97 learn from past performance ....................... 187
default removal algorithm ....................... 140, 142 Equalizer algorithms ...................................... 187
define Exception Category
character enhancements .............................. 62 name ......... 43, 70, 94, 116, 155, 156, 164, 168
input form .................................................. 50 exception rules ............................................. 153
OCR engines .............................................. 178 Exceptions setup ........................................... 153
OCR virtual engine engines.................. 181, 182 ExperVision TypeReader ................................. 176
RIO’s ........................................................ 139 Expland Application Tree ............................ 28, 29
define FormID for region ................................ 140 extraneous lines.............................................. 63
definition of a Flow ......................................... 48 FeaturesID ................................................... 134
deskew ......................................................... 58 field
deskew and register ........................................ 58 acceptable range ......................................... 96
DIF .............................................................. 135 define validation .......................................... 17
DLL .............................................................. 170 Field