Category: Alfresco

ifresco Profiler – demo plugin – capturing of incoming invoices through Barcode and OCR

There is now a demo plugin for the ifresco Profiler to show, how easy and fast incoming invoices can be captured in the Alfresco ECM/DMS. Incoming invoices captured this way can e.g. in Alfresco get continued processing from IT-Novum through the Alfresco-SAP Integration. We lately presented this solution in an Alfresco-Webinar (next appointment 8.10.2013) together with IT-Novum  and Alfresco.

Functions demo plugin – incoming invoices capturing:

  • Capturing of incoming Invoices through scan, PDF-printerdriver, folders, drag&drop (TIFF, PDF)
  • Manual splitting of document-stacks
  • Barcode recognition with splitting of documents as well as barcode filter-function and deleting of barcode pages.
  • Capturing of metadata with profile mask –  Beleg-ID (“Invoice-ID” / =Barcode), Lieferant (“supplier”), Straße (“street”), PLZ (“postal code”), Ort (“city”), Belegnummer (“invoice number”), Belegdatum(“invoice date”), Rechnungsbetrag (“invoice amount”) – search for supplier number and name through an external XLS table with selection of the linked information – street, postal code, city
  • Area-OCR to adopt values from the shown document into a field.
  • call and capture tags
  • Batch – background processing for PDF-OCR and Alfresco upload
  • AutoOCR integration to store searchable PDF documents into Alfresco
  • Automatic naming or building of the folder structure from the captured metadata – number, company, invoice type, year, invoice number, invoice date

ifresco Demo plugin - Eingangsrechnungserfassung

The demo plugin is to be considered as example and can be adjusted and extended functional as well as from the data model to individual requirements.

Description of the installation and access data for the demo server as well as the process of the working steps >>>

Download – ifresco Profiler base software >>>
Download – ifresco demo plugin >>>
Download – ifresco demo plugin add on >>>

ifresco Profiler – scan, edit, OCR, barcode, capture metadata, Alfresco integration

The ifresco Profiler provides important, easy-to-use page oriented document processing functions for PDF and image document, on any workplace. It enables the possibility of quickly and easily storing documents with metadata with individual and specific profiling masks in Alfresco as searchable PDF’s. Area OCR with an integrated OCR Engine, creating of searchable PDF’s on export with the integrated OCR or extern AutoOCR Server, barcode recognition for file names and document split, export to folder, as e-mail attachment or via installed plugin’s to Alfresco together with metadata, are some essential features of the Software.

The application consists of 2 components – the profiler basic software, which contains all general functions, and one or more installable plugins. These plugins represent the interface to Alfresco and allow to use individually to the requirements and field of application adjusted profiling masks. The complete logic for the metadata, filing structure and naming is displayed in a plugin.

ifresco Profiler base:

  • Processes PDF and image files – black & white, grayscale, color – without having to keep an eye on file format and color – all functions are implemented across.
  • Integrated scan function to scan documents via local connected scanners. The scan settings can be chosen directly by preconfigured scan-profiles.
  • Capturing of documents out of folders – display as document list e.g. for multifunction devices, network scanners wiht scan to folder function or via printer driver created, also as to process via e-mail received documents.
  • Quick changing of the document names – with automatic selection of the next file in the list, after finish of the change.
  • Area OCR by local integrated OCR engine, to assign file names.
  • Deleting / cutting out areas
  • Page preview – zoom, paging, turning – as well as thumbnail miniatures of the whole document
  • Page oriented document processing – turn pages left/right, delete pages, page moving in the thumbnail view via drag&drop.
  • split total document – at marked pages, after x pages, after barcode.
  • Merge single documents to a total one – specifying the order, automatic deleting of the single documents.
  • Export – into a folder, send as e-mail attachment or store into Alfresco with metadata via profiling – in the native format as PDF image or PDF-OCR
  • Within the export – generating of searchable PDF-OCR documents by the local integrated iOCR engine or by the via web-service integrated AutoOCR Server with Abbyy OCR
  • Intelligent OCR processing – only image pages get OCR processed – normal PDF pages get taken over without changes .

ifresco Profiler plugins:

The profile form and the logic of the profiling for the deposit of the documents in Alfresco gets realized from the ifresco Profiler via plugins. Because every company has it’s own data model and deposit logic, the plugins get developed and implemented individually after specifications. Here it’s possible to fall back to already realized plugins. For testing and illustration of the possibilities there is a demo plugin as well as already realized plugins available.

  • installable plugins – for profiling and capturing of metadata for filing of documents in Alfresco.
  • One or more plugins can be installed, chosen and with that, also switched to other Alfresco servers – each plugin contains its own individual logic for the profiling as stand-alone installed .NET / C# application which inserts itself into the ifresco Profiler base framework and uses its functions.
  • parallel displaying of the profile mask and the document preview with the capturing of the metadata.
  • free programmable logic and functions of the profiling mask with e.g. extern XML template rules with dynamic fields to always build the name / title the same, access to external data sources – MS-XLS, SQL, web-service (e.g. SugarCRM), linked tables and pre-assignment of fields with values of the table, type ahead part-string search over single or combined fields, usage of Alfresco categories as lookup’s, assignment of existing Alfresco tags, automatic new applyment of tags, automatic creation of the Alfresco folder structure as well as the file names out of profile field values, searching for folders in Alfresco, counter via web-service, stamping of the document with informations from the metadata before the upload, searching for in Alfresco available documents and takeover of profile values and so on.
  • interactive processing – with OCR and upload or alternative
  • background / batch processing – for PDF-OCR conversion and Alfresco upload – the user is already able to continue working while the OCR processing and the Alfresco upload takes place in the background.
  • preserve existing profile values / delete mask
  • automatic loading of the next document in the list – processed document gets deleted ore moved into the archiving area after upload.

Download ifresco Profiler >>>

 

New Features ifresco Transformer for Alfresco – with AutoOCR version 1.10.3

Because of the new version of AutoOCR 1.10.3 there are new features available for the ifresco AutoOCR Transformer:

  • iOCR – new default OCR engine in addition to Abbyy
  • intelligent processing of PDF documents
  • Alfresco integration – ready to test without installation of an OCR server – you can use our AutoOCR Test server accessible from  the internet.
  • New Step by Step installation and setup documentation.

iOCR – additional OCR engine available

Starting with version AutoOCR version 1.10.3 the setup installs iOCR as default OCR engine which can be used standalone or in addition to the Abbyy OCR engine. iOCR has no page license limitations and is able to process PDF, TIFF or JPEG as input and can generate searchable PDF´s and TXT files.

Differences between iOCR and Abbyy

  • iOCR supports not so much languages like Abbyy
  • no mixed language recognition – only one main language can be selected
  • not the same level of accuracy and recognition quality like Abbyy
  • no image pre-processing functions
  • no page orientation detection (autorotate)
  • Not so much functions and features to configure and input / output formats.

But iOCR is a good solution for low cost and high volume OCR recognition e.g. to extract text information from PDF´s and images to built up a full text index (e.g. Alfresco Transformer > TXT) and to create searchable PDF´s from scans with a good quality.

The best is to make tests with own documents to see which OCR engine best fits your needs. Both engines Abbyy and iOCR can be installed and used parallel – you only have to create different OCR profiles for the different settings and OCR engines. Both OCR engines can also be tested by the use of our ready to use AutoOCR test server (autoocr.may.co.at)

Intelligent PDF processing:

A PDF document can contain only images from a scanner or can be created e.g. by a printer driver or by a direct PDF export. An image PDF does not contain any text and has to be OCR processed. The other “normal” PDF´s already contains text and does not need to be OCR processed. The Alfresco Transformer is not able to recognize it and to decide if a PDF has to be OCR processed or not. OCR processing costs time and resources and so starting with AutoOCR version 1.10.3 we implemented an “intelligent PDF-OCR processing”. When this option is checked on then each PDF document which is sent to the AutoOCR server is checked, and if the file already contains text – the PDF is not OCR processed. In this case the PDF or the extracted TXT data is direct sent back without OCR processing. To enable this feature the OCR profile on the AutoOCR server has to be configured for “intelligent OCR processing of PDF files”

PDF - intelligent OCR processing - Abbyy PDF - intelligent OCR processing - iOCR

AutoOCR Test server – ready to use

With the installation of 2 AMP´s you can integrate the AutoOCR server with Alfresco.  The integration works like a standard Alfresco Transformer or can also be used via Scripting or Java. The communication between AutoOCR and Alfresco is done via HTTTP(S) using REST.  To make it more easy to start testing AutoOCR  and the Alfresco integration you can use our ready installed and configured AutoOCR test server (autoocr.may.co.at) which is reachable over the internet and which has both OCR engines (Abbyy and iOCR) installed.

Step by Step – Installation and Setup documentation

With this document each step for the installation of the Abbyy Engine,  of AutoOCR, the licensing, the use of our test server and the integration with Alfresco are described in detail with screen shots.

Download – Installation and Setup documentation – ifresco AutoOCR transformer for Alfresco >>>

Test and Demo version is available – please contact us >>>

ifresco AutoOCR Transformer – OCR processing integrated with Alfresco Share

The AutoOCR Server is integrated via REST as a dynamic configurable Alfresco document transformer. AutoOCR creates searchable PDF´s or other document formats like TXT, DOC(X), XLS(X), PPT(X), XML, RTF and HTML from image of PDF files. The OCR functions can be used via Java, JavaScript or as a document transformer. Config is done from the Share UI which also has a new document action “Transform” and gives access to all Alfresco transformers.

AutoOCR is an OCR server / service which is based on the obviously best OCR engine from Abbyy. The AutoOCR server has a REST web-serverice interface which was used to integrate it with Alfresco. AutoOCR is able to convert image- or PDF- files to searchable PDF´s. In addition to PDF other document formats like TXT, DOC(X), XLS(X), PPT(X), XML, RTF and HTML can also be created.

The configuration is simple and uses OCR profiles to summarize all possible settings. With an AMP install module  the direct integration of AutoOCR to Alfresco is realized. OCR functions are available in   Alfresco as a dynamically configurable transformer. Appropriate bindings allow the use of the OCR out services also from JavaScript and Java. From Alfresco 4.0, the configuration and monitoring will be done directly on the UI of the Share Administrator console.

In addition, we have extended the  Alfresco share document actions with the Alfresco Transformer integration. Transformer functions are available on  any document via the share interface and allow the conversion of documents into different formats.

AutoOCR as Alfresco Transformer:

The OCR function can be bound to a folder as an action. So if e.g. a scanned document will be placed in this folder, the processing starts automatically started and the document will be passed to the AutoOCR server. The result is a searchable PDF or other document format that can be immediately sought and found on the Alfresco full-text index.

AutoOCR JavaScript binding for Alfresco:

The JavaScript API allows direct access to the AutoOCR service from Alfresco scripts. From Repository JavaScripts (Webscript controller script, scripted actions) all the features of AutoOCR API can be adressed. This API is completely independent from the integration of AutoOCR services as Alfresco Transformer.

Alfresco Share – “Transform” document action

By implementing the additional “transform” document action to the Share UI you can use all your Alfresco transformes and not only the AutoOCR transformers. The “transform” action is implemented general and not only OCR specific.

Highlights / features:

  • Direct AutoOCR integration as Alfresco transformer with REST web service interface.
  • Separate AutoOCR service / server which does not strain the Alfresco server
  • Based on ABBYY – the leading OCR engine
  • Easy configuration by selecting OCR profiles – all available ABBYY OCR engine settings are combined.
  • In addition to PDF other output formats can be generated (TXT, RTF, DOC, etc.)
  • Dynamic transformer configuration at runtime using the Alfresco Share Admin interface.
  • JavaScript client for the AutoOCR service, available in Alfresco repository scripts (WebScripts, actions, etc.)
  • Java client for the AutoOCR service, for use in Java code.
  • The Java client itself has no dependencies for Alfresco.
  • New Share document action “Transform” enhances Share not only with OCR but with all supported transformers.

Requirements:

  • Alfresco 4.x – dynamic configuration via Share Userinterface
  • Alfresco 3.x – manual configuration w/o Share UI
  • AutoOCR from Version 1.9.8 on Microsoft Windows as a service
  • ABBYY FineReader Engine 10 (starting with 10.000 pages per month)

20-autoocr-admin-status 22-autoocr-admin-transformerconfig2 23-autoocr-admin-jobs 01-autoocr-action-menu 02-autoocr-shareaction-dialog 03-autoocr-shareaction-transform-waiting 04-autoocr-shareaction-results 05-autoocr-shareaction-transformed-docs

Step by Step – Setup & Installation documentation for ifresco AutoOCR Transformer >>>

Test and Demo version is available – please contact us for details >>>

Price information you can find here >>>

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