HP provide an export connector (release script) for Kofax Capture to enable you to export scanned documents into HPE Content Manager (formerly HP Records Manager / Trim Context).
This has been around for a while and is used in most HPE Implementations in it’s most basic form.
You can find the reference information here.
Sometimes it’s good to look a better ways of doing things.
This article assumes that you are comfortable with the basic operation of the export connector but are looking at ways to improve, basically getting a more joined up capture system.
We are going to look at;
- The Basic Experience
- A Better Experience (For a lookup scenario)
- Implementing that experience
- Configuring the Export Connector
- Writing a Lookup Function
- Calling the Lookup Function
- Fine Tuning
Ok so here goes.
Basic Experience
A lot of times the export connector is used in manual mode.
Every time a document is indexed the user sees the export connector (The panel underneath Trim Control Panel), clicks “Create Record”. They then get the Record Creation screen which they fill in using the mouse. If the names of your Kofax field and Trim fields align then they are defaulted (See Trim_Title in this example).

Better Experience
So a better experience is not to see the Export Connector at all. If the record can be created using just Kofax then manual indexing will be quicker and if you are using ICR / OCR / Recognition it can be potentially automated.
So we want something like below. We don’t really want to see that ugly record creation screen.

User just keys in the unique reference and the rest of the data should be pulled in from Records Manager, they can eyeball the image to make sure it matches, then the record should be automatically created.
Implementing
Ok so we know what we want but how to do.
Configuring the Export Connector
So to ensure that the export connector is working but not visible we set it to automatically invoke.

Writing a Lookup Function
So when the user keys in a unique reference we want to lookup information from Records Manager. So where is this going to come from? Well normally each record you scan is going into a folder and that folder will often carry all the meta data we need to visually check an image.
So our lookup is going to be to Records Manager which means a lookup function using the SDK.
This we can do using the .NET scripting built into Kofax.
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' This sub looks up the folder and gets the details from the dedicated folder in Trim Private Sub Lookup() ' Connect to the default database on the Trim client Dim db As New Database db.Connect() ' Create field definition for the user defined fields that we will be working with Dim fielddefLastName As New FieldDefinition(db, "Last Name") Dim fielddefFirstName As New FieldDefinition(db, "First names") Dim fielddefDOB As New FieldDefinition(db, "Date of Birth") Dim fielddefNI As New FieldDefinition(db, "National Insurance (NI) Number") 'Set the Search criteria Dim titleCriteria As String Dim recordtypeCriteria As String titleCriteria = Employee_Number.IndexField.Value recordtypeCriteria = FolderRecordType ' Search object Dim records As New TrimMainObjectSearch(db, BaseObjectTypes.Record) ' Build Search Criteria String Dim st As String st = String.Format("title:""{0}"" and type:[name:""{1}""]", titleCriteria, recordtypeCriteria) records.SetSearchString(st) For Each resultRecord As Record In records ' Set the Kofax fields on the document to the values retrieved from the Trim folder for that person. Last_name.IndexField.Value = resultRecord.GetFieldValueAsString(fielddefLastName, StringDisplayType.Default, True) First_names.IndexField.Value = resultRecord.GetFieldValueAsString(fielddefFirstName, StringDisplayType.Default, True) Date_Of_Birth.IndexField.Value = resultRecord.GetFieldValueAsString(fielddefDOB, StringDisplayType.Default, True) NI_Number.IndexField.Value = resultRecord.GetFieldValueAsString(fielddefNI, StringDisplayType.Default, True) ' Set the container for the scanned document to be the matching employee folder in TRIM. I.e. put the record in the employees folder TRIM_Container.IndexField.Value = resultRecord.LongNumber ' Set the title field of the scanned record TRIM_Title.IndexField.Value = Employee_Number.IndexField.Value Next db.Disconnect() End Sub |
What the script does is;
- Connects to Trim
- Finds the folder that matches our unique reference
- Copies the meta from Trim back to Kofax so that the indexing user can see it
- Ensures that when release the scanned document will be put in the correct folder (by setting the special Kofax field TRIM_Container
- Ensures that the title is correct on the scanned document by setting the special Kofax field TRIM_Title
Calling the Lookup Function
The lookup function can be called as the post processing event on your unique lookup field.
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Private Sub Unique_Number_FieldPostProcessing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Kofax.AscentCapture.NetScripting.PostFieldEventArgs) Handles Unique_Number.FieldPostProcessing Try ' Get the details for the entered employee number Lookup() Catch ex As Exception MsgBox("Lookup Failed:" & vbCrLf & ex.Message) End Try End Sub |
Fine Tuning
Ok so you get the gist of one way of getting a better, more joined up capture experience for Kofax to Records Manager.
To get this ready for production you will also have to consider;
- Kofax users moving backwards and forwards through batches and potentially changing values.
- Setting a default destination container (This stops the manual record creation screen from randomly appearing in older export connector versions).
In Summary
The out of the box Kofax to Records Manager integration provides a good starting point.
With judicious use of scripting and configuration, however, you can make the two products really tightly integrated.
This can really reduce the time taken to scan documents especially with higher volume capture scenarios.