Uploading Large Files with ILINX Capture and IIS

From time to time I receive questions about large file uploads with ILINX Capture. ILINX Capture can upload files of any size. The limitation is within Internet Information Services(IIS) and or the amount of memory installed in the web server. This is not only true for ILINX Capture, but and ASP or ASP.Net application.

Depending on the architecture of the ASP or ASP.Net application files being uploaded to the web server are typically streamed into the web server’s memory during the upload process before being written to disk. Depending on the number of user concurrently uploading files and the size of the files being uploaded will determine how much physical memory should be installed in the server. By default IIS has a 200KB size limit for uploading a single file. This can be increased, but not any higher than necessary or you may risk overconsumption of the web server’s memory.

Configuring File Upload Size in IIS 6

1. Open Internet Information Services Manager by clicking the Windows Start Menu and Run. Type inetmgr and click OK.

2. Once IIS Manger opens navigate the tree and right click the server name and click properties.

3. From the server properties window check the Enable Direct Metabase Edit checkbox and click OK.

4. Browse to the C:\windows\system32\inetsrv directory and edit the Metabase.xml file with a text editor such as Notepad.

5. Search for the attribute AspMaxRequestEntityAllowed and edit the value to the size in bytes that you want to allow for a maximum upload size. Save and close the Metabase.xml file.

AspMaxRequestEntityAllowed=”204800″

6. Open the Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSOAP\30\SOAPISAP.

7. Modify the MaxPostSize key. Set the decimal value to the maximum upload size in bytes and click OK.

8. Reboot the web server to ensure the changes have taken effect.

Configuring File Upload Size in IIS 7

1. Open Internet Information Services Manager by clicking the Windows Start Menu and Run. Type inetmgr and click OK.

2. Navigate the tree to the Virtual Directory that you would like to enable large file uploads.

3. In the Features View pane double click ASP.

4. In the ASP setting pane edit the Maximum Requesting Entity and Response Buffering Limit columns. Set this to the maximum file upload size in bytes and click Apply.

 

5. Open the Windows Command Prompt and enter the following command. Change the maxAllowedContentLength to your maximum file upload size in bytes and hit enter to execute the command.

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\appcmd set config “Default Web Site” -section:requestFiltering -requestLimits.maxAllowedContentLength:104857600

9. Open the Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSOAP\30\SOAPISAP.

10. Modify the MaxPostSize key. Set the decimal value to the maximum upload size in bytes and click OK.

11. Reboot the web server to ensure the changes have taken effect.

Bryan Wilhelm
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

ILINX Capture Custom Weblookup

This example demonstrates how to use a .Net Web Service WebLookup in the ILINX Capture Client.  The sample C# project can be downloaded at http://downloads.ilinxcapture.com/samples/ilinxweblookupsample.zip. You will need to create an ILINX Document Type with at least the following three fields.

• Client Account Number
• Document Type
• Sub Type

This example only returns the following XML String to ILINX Capture to populate the 3 index values.  The XML string is in the same format that was provided to us from the ProcessXML Function parameter IndexXML.  The Value node of the XML is the index data that is then populated in the web client.  This data can be manipulated in many ways before returning to the calling ILINX Capture Web Client.

<ILINX><IndexList><Index><Name>Client Account Number</Name><Label>Client Account Number</Label><ReadOnly>0</ReadOnly><Visible>1</Visible><Value>Client Account Number</Value></Index><Index><Name>Document Type</Name><Label>Document Type</Label><ReadOnly>0</ReadOnly><Visible>1</Visible><Value>Document Type</Value></Index><Index><Name>Sub Type</Name><Label>Sub Type</Label><ReadOnly>0</ReadOnly><Visible>1</Visible><Value>Sub Type</Value></Index></IndexList></ILINX> 

To use the web service it must be published to an IIS Web Server.  Once published to the web server you must access the web service and generate a WSDL file.

1.       Navigate to the new Web Service ASMX file, for example: http://lptbryan/ilinxweblookupsample/ilinxweblookupsample.asmx?wsdl

2.       Save this file to the C:\inetpub\ILINX\QXServices or equivalent in your environment as the filename.WSDL, for example ilinxweblookupsample.WSDL

3.       Open the newly created file with a text editor like notepad and modify the ProcessXMLResponse section.  Chagne ProcessXMLResult to Result.

 

Original WSDL File

 

Modified WSDL File

 

4.       Navigate to the section <wsdl:service name=”Service1″> and change the address location for both port name=”Service1Soap” and port name=”Service1Soap12” to use the DNS or load balanced name of your server if applicable.

 

5.       Add the Web Service WSDL file name to the ILINX Capture Index of choice.

 

6.       Your new web service should now be ready to use.

7.       Log into the ILINX Capture Client and tab out of the Index that was just configured to use a Web Service Lookup.

Before tabbing out of field

 

After tabbing out of field

 

Bryan Wilhelm
Senior Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Oracle Content Management – IPM 11g Links

Looking for some useful links to information about installing Oracle IPM 11g?  We have been performing successful Oracle IPM 11g implementations and will be providing useful information, as well as, tips and tricks on this blog.

Here are the main links that have been leveraging for some valuable information related to this next generation ECM Suite:

Oracle Content Management Description	URL
Overview	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/overview/index.html
Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index.html
Documentation	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/documentation/index.html
UCM 11g Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index-085241.html
IPM 11g Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index-ipm-088963.html

Ryan Keller

ImageSource, Inc.

ILINX Product Suite

I am not usually out to promote specific products on this blog, but I have been getting really excited about the latest advancements in the ILINX Product Suite.  It is an area that I, among other experienced ECM technologists, have utilized our expertise in creating and refining solutions that can provide real world value for businesses implementing or utilizing ECM solutions.  Take a minute to read this quick post and judge for yourself the value that ILINX Products can provide for your organization.

You may be hearing the word ILINX used in Enterprise Content Management circles more and more these days.  From the humble beginnings of a simple release script connecting a document capture system to an ECM repository the ILINX Product Suite has grown into a set of powerful, easy to use products that provide quick ROI.  There are multiple levels to the ILINX Product Suite ranging from a full blown web client based document capture system (ILINX Capture) or an ECM Repository (ILINX Content Store) to variety of middleware products that can provide time savings and productivity boosting results like ILINX Integrate.

If you are not familiar with all that the Product Suite has to offer, check out the ILINX website for the details and product demos.

-Ryan Keller

The Unkown Security Risk In Your Office

The topic I wanted to touch on this week has to do with the security of documents in your organization.  Specifically, the security risks posed by printers, copiers, and multifunction devices in your office.   I have travelled around the country implementing document capture solutions, like ILINX Capture, that leverage the use of typical office multifunction devices and it amazes me how many companies do not know of this security risk.

How it started…

As technology advanced and data storage became more cost effective the internal workings of printers and multifunction devices changed.  The processing of documents for printing, scanning, and copying was offloaded from the computer or print server to the actual printer/copier device.  To handle the onboard processing for these devices, manufacturers began adding hard drives to printers, copiers, and multifunction devices.

What’s the risk…

In most cases, the hard drives in the printer, copier, and multifunction devices store a copy of every document that is printed, scanned, or copied.  This can be no big deal as long as the device is located in your office, but when the device is retired the documents on the hard drives are usually not wiped off and they go with the device.  Now you have a hard drive floating around with any number of confidential documents creating a huge security risk and possibly compliance violations.  The devices usually are packaged up and shipped overseas for a fraction of the original purchase price.  This is a scary thought because anyone could have access to your documents now.

The following is a recent news report that CBS News did on this very subject:     http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6412572n

What can you do…

• If you are leasing these devices, understand the contract between your company and the vendor/manufacturer.  Many times it is detailed in the agreement that the customer is responsible for the documents on the hard drive.  If it is up to your company to dispose of the records, take responsibility and ensure that this is done prior disposing of the device.
• Many manufacturers offer disk security and cleanup features for these devices.  It will most likely cost extra money, but the few dollars may be nothing compared to outfall of losing sensitive and confidential information.  One thing to keep in mind is that not all manufacturers will bring this topic up at purchase time.  Their number one objective may be to keep the price down and close the sale.
• Help spread the word of this risk.  Again, it amazes me how many organizations have no clue about this risk and with the publicity it will be getting in the near future we should see some progress in this area.

Please feel free to leave comments and let us know about your experiences and knowledge related to these devices and the risk they pose.  Thank you.

Ryan S. Keller

ImageSource, Inc.

Mobile Capture: Remote Capture taken to another level

I am on the road quite a bit as part of my job.  While on the road I acquire quite a number of physical paper receipts that I must care for until I submit an expense report to the accounting department.

Over the years I have misplaced a few of these receipts causing headaches for myself and accounting. Lost receipts won’t verify expenditure, so I have to call and get copies.  Nobody loves making or getting this kind of call!

Since I always have my iPhone, I have tried different versions of mobile capture applications.  Some are free; most others aren’t.

I’ve just downloaded a free one. This one was created by the same company that brought us the Award Winning ILINX® Capture ‘Distributed Capture software’ — ImageSource, Inc.-.

For those of you on the road frequently as a way of life, this new iPhone application has extended the functionality of ILINX® Capture to allow Mobile Capture. It is an excellent tool to add to your belt.

ILINX® Capture Mobile:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ilinx-capture-mobile/id370256882?mt=8

What sets this mobile capture application apart from other mobile capture apps?

1. Ease of use
   1. Take a photo (Or use a photo you already have on your iPhone)
   2. Add Index values (Optional)
   3. Enter the email address you want the mobile capture item to be sent to
   4. Hit send
   5. Have recipient check their inbox for your industry-standard PDF file.  (If you entered Index values the recipient will see them in the body of the email)
2. Other mobile capture applications require you to install an application onto your pc or laptop to sync up with your iPhone to download your captured items.
3. Now I don’t need to wait until I get to my laptop to offload the receipts from my iPhone

I can now scan receipts on the plane, at my lunch table, at the hotel desk… It’s a great feeling to have this wrapped up before my trip is complete.

The expense scenario above is just one way to use ILINX® Capture Mobile, just think of how many ways your current business process could benefit from the use of Mobile Capture technology.

Robert Gartner

Sr. Systems Engineer

Oracle IPM 11g Released!

For those of you who have not heard Oracle has released the next generation of their Enterprise Content Management Software, Imaging and Process Management (IPM) 11g.  This version is the first major step that Oracle has taken to tightly integrate the product into Oracle’s overall software architecture…IPM 11g has been completely overhauled to be part of the Fusion Middleware (FMW) tech stack.  From the ECM perspective, Oracle now has a complete seamlessly integrated end to end offering that includes the storage repository, document management, business process management, library services, web publishing, records management, reporting/monitoring and application integration.  This creates many advantages for customers that use or plan to use other Oracle products in their workplace, as well as, integrating and leveraging existing investments in non-Oracle software.

I have been working as a Systems Engineer and Project Manager with the IPM software base for over 8 years, through the Stellent IBPM acquisition, all the way back to the Optika Acorde and eMedia days.  A couple major differences in implementing the latest Oracle 11g version are the requirements for Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) for the storage repository and Oracle WebLogic Server for the application/web server.  I look at both of these requirements in a positive light.  UCM and WebLogic Server are powerful robust products that provide standard approaches to managing content storage and applications, respectively, from the FMW perspective.  With that said, if you do not have experience with either UCM or WebLogic, you will need to get up to speed with them to succeed in an IPM implementation.  Neither of these products can be installed through the “Next, Next, Next, Finished!” approach, so careful upfront planning and architecting is required to ensure a successful implementation. 

Let’s talk about the new user interface a little bit.  Oracle has followed suit with the rest of the major players in the ECM world by creating a complete web based interface for performing all administrative and end user functions.  This makes administration duties of the system much easier than in past versions that require administration to be done through the “thick” client.  Also, by moving to the WebLogic Server the full featured web interface is now much more browser agnostic than in the past.  The image viewer comes in two flavors that support over 400 file formats; a zero footprint view only version and the a re-written java applet that allows for full annotations, annotation security, and server based conversion/rendering for access speed.  The following are a couple of screen captures of the user interface from IPM 11g:

The Client Interface

The Zero Footprint Viewer

The Java Applet Viewer

Lastly, I would like to touch on a feature that is often overlooked when implementing ECM solutions, application integration. Oracle has done a great job in IPM 11g to provide some powerful capabilities for leveraging investments into Oracle and non-Oracle applications through integration.  For a process where users are assigning metadata to a record in their business application, through application integration this data can be pushed to and associated with the document stored in IPM 11g. Another example of integration would be the image enablement of a business application.  In this case a user could be accessing records in their ERP system a hotkey, menu item, or button in the application screen can retrieve and display the document from IPM without the user ever having to leave their business application.  These capabilities can create significant efficiencies in an organization through increased user productivity, the reduction of training and the simplification of support and administration. 

All in all I see the changes that Oracle made in IPM 11g as great additions to an already strong platform.  Oracle has a product that not only adheres to their architecture model, but also will provide many benefits to the customers that use it.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information related to our experiences with Oracle IPM 11g.

Ryan Keller

Project Manager

ImageSource, Inc.

  

It’s All About the Database

The key component to any content management/archive/workflow system is the database. Many times this key component is overlooked at the time a new imaging system is put in place, often the database is placed on an existing server which already has many critical duties or it is a new install placed on the same server as the imaging system software. These choices might be fine for a proof of concept, but as a system takes on more data and more users the database becomes the performance bottle neck.

As with any database, issues will rarely arise within its first year of usage, the data is slow to grow and performance of queries is quick and responsive since the load put on the system is minimal. During this time with minimal data the number of active users in the system at any one time is low as well. There are more inserts taking place than data retrievals. But the point of putting in one of these systems is not that the amount of data and the number of users will remain small for any length of time; most organizations bought their software and underwent the installation and configuration process with the goal of creating a vast repository that would make access to their content easy and quick for a large community within their organization.

It is when the system has finally been adopted fully and has enough content to be useful that the undersized database server will start to become a problem for the return of data to the users. I have seen systems where the input of new data is scheduled to go in during the off hours to compensate for the inability of the database server to perform inserts as well as retrievals during business hours. By this time the money for the original project is long since gone and often times the stake holders have forgotten about the decision to use a less than desirable database server configuration as a short term solution during the software’s “Pilot phase”.

No where does this problem raise its head more often than in a workflow system configuration. The audit history of actions builds quickly, as does the number of transactions moving through the system. Users will become frustrated when trying to check the history of transactions and they encounter long delays or retrieve no data at all. Timed events which cannot traverse the entire queue within the time period allotted will impact the system and keep the processor and memory continually strained at high limits. This can go from slow response to actually a big problem very quickly. A workflow system is almost always put in to make processing business needs faster (among other things such as accountability and tracking of the state of a current request).

On top of which this shortcoming is going to happen exactly at the systems busiest time of the year (naturally more data input and retrievals), just when the business unit is least able to afford it to be offline. The opportunity for moving to a new database server will not be available until the busy time has passed and the system has less demand put upon it. The opinion of the business group about their system, IT support staff, and vendor can all be called in to serious question since their perception is that the software used to work and it doesn’t anymore.

At the time of implementation, the high end server, dedicated to the system’s databases and probably the most expensive server by far, should not be seen as a “nice to have” option. You want to put in a total solution which will be robust enough to handle all foreseeable needs over the next few years. Ideally, the system will need little maintenance other than normal database maintenance procedures if the servers are sized correctly. The system needs to be looked at from the perspective that it will be more than a success for the immediate user base and will need to be able to archive other departments’ documents, manage other departments’ content, and bring more business workflows online.  It really comes down to planning to succeed.

Jeff Doyle

Senior Systems Engineer

Image Source Inc.

  

Business Process Optimization

For those of you who attended my breakout session at the NEXUS ECM Conference on automating business processes this topic will be familiar to you.  If you missed the session, this blog will provide a glimpse into the world of automating and optimizing business processes. 

There are many different ways to approach process automation and optimization and the purpose of this blog topic is to provide information based on my industry experience.  I will discuss identifying processes within an organization and then automating those processes utilizing a number of valuable implementation strategies.

Why Automate?

From my experience in the Enterprise Content Management industry, I have found the main reasons to automate or optimize a business process are as follows:

• Gain Process Efficiencies
• Process Quality Improvement
• Improve Reporting, Tracking & Auditing

Process Identification

Let’s take a look at identifying a business process that could be automated.  When looking at processes to automate or optimize, the starting point is to identify a process and then extensively research the process to get a clear understanding of the current state.  A good place to start with this research is to look at all of the inputs and outputs of the current process.  This can include documents, data and communication associated with accomplishing tasks in a process. 

Next, we will want to evaluate the identified process to determine what manual steps in the process can be automated.  From identifying the steps we then can determine which ones will provide the best return for the business and/or user.

The last key to identifying and evaluating business processes is the inclusion of the user community in the analysis of the current process to determine; 1) what is currently working well, 2) what could use improving, 3) what are the major deficiencies and 4) what is on the user’s wish list for the process.

By following these steps in identifying and evaluating a business process you will set yourself up for success when architecting and implementing a solution for automation or optimization.

Implementation Strategies

Now that we have discussed identifying business processes let’s take a look at some implementation strategies to assist you in automating/optimizing the process.

• Understand the Business Process: As discussed earlier in the post, it is critical to fully understand the process that you are automating.
  • Evaluate current bottlenecks
  • Determine the user interaction with the current process
• Require Ownership at All Levels: In order to get full acceptance of the solution you are implementing you should ensure that the entire team is on board and understands the benefits to them and the organization.  This includes:
  • Executive Level
  • Departmental Management
  • End Users
• Know what to Automate: Don’t automate every manual process for the sake of automation.  Determine the return value associated with the re-engineering of the process.  In some cases it will make more sense to keep the process manual.  For example, in a customer service organization, it may be more beneficial to provide human interaction to a customer instead of sending an automatically generated email.
• Educate Yourself on Existing Systems: Understanding the current infrastructure in place can be critical when determining the return on investment and initial cost of the process re-engineering. 
  • If there is already an Enterprise Content Management system in place, you should be able to leverage this for tasks associated with document capture, document management/archival, workflow, etc…
  • Line of Business systems (Oracle E-Business, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, MSFT Great Plains, etc…) can be leveraged for storing metadata associated with the documents you are capturing.   Using software like ILINX Integrate, these LOB systems can then be image enabled to retrieve documents directly from your document management system without ever leaving the LOB system.
• Promote Ongoing Analysis & Optimization: This strategy is key to creating and maintaining truly efficient and optimized processes within an organization.  Let’s take the following example:
  • A manual process is identified to automate
  • The process is automated with success using the above implementation strategies
  • Everyone is happy and uses the new and improved process
  • Now that the process has been improved it is common to call the project a success and never look back.  This may work for some time, but eventually the process will need to be evaluated again to determine if additional automation or optimization needs to take place.  Over time business processes evolve and technology changes, so this step can be imperative to keep your business process streamlined.

 In summary, we have taken a quick look at the process of identifying business process to automate and optimize, as well as, some strategies for success when taking on the task of business process re-engineering.  Please feel free to post comments related to this information or your own experiences related to this topic. 

Ryan S. Keller

Project Manager

ImageSource, Inc.