Capture flows

For administrators who decide what happens to a capture: the steps a channel’s captures run, the rules that send each part to a folder, how to check and publish a flow, and how to try it before it files anything.

What a flow is

A capture flow is the line of steps that the captures of a channel run. It has one fork: the routing rules, which send each part to a folder, give it a type and a title, and fill in some of its data. A flow cuts a batch, reads it, routes the parts and files them. It is not a workflow. What happens to a document after it is filed, such as approvals and deadlines, runs on Keel; see Workflows.

You make flows in Administration › Capture flows. You need Manage capture for the whole institution.

A channel names one flow in its Flow setting; see Capture channels. A channel with no flow runs its own settings. A capture keeps the version of the flow it started with: a new version changes the captures that arrive afterwards, not the ones already waiting.

The Capture flows page

The page lists the flows with their Name, State (On or Off), Version, Channels and Captures this month. A flow that has not been published says “not published”.

New flow opens New capture flow. Write the Name and a Description and choose Create. The new flow has the two steps every flow has, Split and Filing, with A person files.

Choose a flow to open it. On its page, Rename changes the name and the description, and a table lists each published version with its Note, Published by and Published on. The flow can be shown in two ways, chosen with How the flow is shown: as a Drawing, with a box for each step and a fork at the rules, or as a List. They show the same flow.

Steps

A flow has these steps, each at most once and always in this order. Split and Filing are in every flow. Choose Add a step to add another, and Remove the step in its panel to take one out.

Step	What it does	Its settings
Barcodes	Reads separator sheets and registration labels.	Separators, Registrations, Blank pages; see Separator sheets and registration labels.
Split	Cuts the files into parts.	Documents: As the capture says, One document or One document per file.
OCR	Reads the text of the pages.	None.
Extraction	Reads the data of each part with a capture template.	Template (Automatic or one template) and Required.
Validation	Asks a person to check what was read.	Validation by a person: Never, When it does not conform or Always.
Routing	Chooses the folder, type, title and data of each part by rules.	The rules and Otherwise, see below.
Filing	Files the parts.	Filing: Automatic filing or A person files.
Keel	Starts a Keel process for each filed document.	The Keel process.

Extraction reads the text of the pages by itself, so a flow that has it needs no OCR step. In a flow without Extraction, add OCR when the text of the pages should be read before filing.

With A person files, nothing is filed by rule: the capture waits in To process and a person files it. With Automatic filing, the rules file the documents as the person who switches the flow on, with that person’s access worked out again at each filing. The screen says “Automatic filing uses the rights of the person who switches the flow on.” If that person loses the right to file in a unit, the captures that would go there wait.

Rules

Choose Routing and then Add a rule. The rules are tried in order for each part, and the first that fits takes the part. Move up and Move down change the order, and Remove the rule deletes one.

The rule Building permit applications: when the field property_address was read from the form, the part goes to the year dosar of position III-1

A rule has these parts.

Name, shown on the part that the rule takes: Rule “{name}”.
When: all the conditions fit or any condition fits.
Conditions. Choose Add a condition, then a Fact, then an Operator, then the value. For A field read, also choose the Field. Remove the condition takes one out.
Then: what to do with the part, see Where a part goes.

A condition looks at one fact about the part.

Fact	Of	Operators
The channel	The channel the capture came by.	is, is one of
The separator sheet	The sheet that started the part.	is, is one of, is missing, is there
The registration	Whether the part is linked to a registration.	is missing, is there
A barcode	The text of a code on the part that is neither a registration’s nor a sheet’s.	is, starts with, matches (a regular expression)
The template	The template the part was read with.	is, is one of, is missing, is there
The type	The document type of the part so far.	is, is one of, is missing, is there
A field read	The value of a field of the template, with a person’s correction.	is, contains, starts with, is one of, is greater than, is less than, is missing, is there
The conformity	Whether the data conform to the template: conforming, not conforming or confirmed by a person.	is
The sender’s domain	What follows the @ in the sender of a message.	is, is one of
The message’s subject	The subject of a message.	contains
The file name	The name of the part’s file.	matches (a pattern with * and ?)

Texts are compared without regard to case, accents or the amount of white space. is greater than and is less than compare numbers and dates, and are false for anything else. A fact the capture does not have makes the condition false, is missing included: a sender and a subject belong to messages only, and a step that did not run on a capture, such as the codes of a message that holds no pictures, leaves its facts unknown. A step that ran and found nothing leaves the fact empty, and is missing then holds.

Where a part goes

Then and Otherwise can set the destination, the type, the title and the data of a part.

Destination is A library folder, The dosar of the year of a position (choose the Unit and the Position), The type’s folder, or No new folder. With the dosar of the year, the rule finds the open dosar of the position for the current year among the folders of the unit. If the unit has no such dosar open, the capture waits and says so.
Type is the document type the part gets.
Title is a text for the part. The screen says “{field:cheie}, {date}, {channel} can be used.” Write the key of a field of the template in place of cheie: {field:property_address} stands for the value of that field. {date} stands for the day the capture was received, and {channel} for the name of the channel. The title has between 1 and 300 characters.
Data are values of fields of the type. Choose Add a datum, write the key of the type’s field in The type’s field in place of the cheie1 the screen suggests, and choose whether the value comes written here or from the field of the template. Remove takes one out.

Otherwise says what happens to a part no rule takes, under A part no rule fits: a person chooses the folder (the capture waits and says “No rule of the flow fits part {n}; choose the folder.”), or goes to a destination.

Two things win over the folder of a rule, as they do for any filing. A part linked to a registration is filed in the folder of its register. A type that has its own default folder is filed there. The check warns about the second. What a person set on a part is never changed by a rule.

Check

Choose Check. It saves your edits and reads the flow step by step and rule by rule. It says “The flow has no problems.” or lists the problems. A mark on the step or the rule in the drawing, and a line beside it in the list, show where each one is.

Errors stop you from publishing and switching on. Warnings do not.

Problem	What it says	Kind
Unknown step	The step {name} is not installed on this server.	Error
Steps out of order	The steps run in their order, each at most once; Split and Filing are required.	Error
Wrong settings	The step {name} is not filled in correctly, and what is wrong.	Error
Template off	The template chosen is not in use.	Error
Unknown field	The field {key} is in no template of the Extraction step.	Error
Wrong destination	The destination is not a library folder or no longer exists.	Error
You may not file there	You may not file in the unit {unit}; automatic filing would use your own rights.	Error
Wrong Keel key	The Keel process name has 1 to 200 printable characters, no spaces.	Error
Rule never applies	The rule {rule} never applies: a rule before it always fits.	Warning
The type’s folder wins	The type {type} has its own default folder; the document goes there, not to the rule’s destination.	Warning
Dosar closed	The destination’s dosar is closed.	Warning
Keel off	Keel is not configured; the Keel step will be skipped.	Warning
Two processes	The destination folder already starts the process {process} for every document; two processes would start.	Warning

Publish and switch on

Your edits are a draft. Save keeps them. Discard the draft deletes the saved draft, and the flow keeps its last published version.

Choose Publish. In Publish the flow, write a Note if you want one and choose Publish. If the flow is on and files automatically, and you are not the person it files as now, the dialog says “Automatic filing will use your rights.” Whoever publishes a flow that is on, with automatic filing, becomes the person it files as.
Choose Switch on. Channels can now be given the flow, and Apply a flow offers it. If the flow files automatically, the dialog says “Automatic filing will use your rights.” Publishing and switching on both run the check for you and refuse when it finds an error.
In Capture channels, open each channel that should run the flow, choose the flow in Flow, and Save.

Switch off stops channels from being given the flow and stops Apply a flow from offering it. It says “Channels can no longer be given this flow and Apply a flow no longer offers it; captures started with it go on.” A channel whose flow is switched off runs its own settings again for new captures, its own Automatic filing included, until the flow is switched on.

Try on a capture

Try on a capture runs the flow on a capture of the inbox, whether it waits or is filed, without changing anything. Choose the Capture, choose Trying The draft or The published version, and choose Try.

The flow Incoming mail tried on the evening scan: for each part, the rule that takes it, the folder it would go to and whether the author may file there

For each part it says which rule takes it (“Rule {name}”, or “No rule fits; Otherwise”), the folder and unit it would go to, and whether “The author may file here”. If the part would wait, it says “Waits at {step}: {reason}”. If a step did not run on that capture, it says “The steps {steps} did not run on this capture.” Show the path marks on the drawing the steps the part passes. Facts lists the facts the rules saw. They are personal data, so the try is for people who manage flows and may also work the capture.

The Keel step

When your institution has Keel, the Keel step starts one Keel process for each document the flow files. The Keel process is the key of the process. Only the identifiers of the document, its folder, the capture and the flow are sent to Keel. No title, field value or file name is sent. Keel reads the document through its own account.

A draft of Incoming mail with a Keel step: the Keel process incoming-mail, and the warning that Keel is not configured

Without Keel, Check warns “Keel is not configured; the Keel step will be skipped.” The documents are filed, and no process starts. If a start rule of the destination folder already starts the same process, Check warns about Two processes. See The Keel integration.

Before real use

Draw the flow and choose Check until it has no error.
Choose Try on a capture with three real captures of each channel that will run the flow, and compare what it says with what a person would file.
Check that the person who will switch the flow on may file in every unit the rules send parts to.
Publish the flow, Switch on the flow, and give it to the channel.