Many of our clients ask us if there is a way to check for a set of expected documents in a folder and have some way to indicate that files are missing in that folder. For example, let’s say that we have a “client” folder and we expect to find a certain set of documents in that folder, regardless if they are stored in sub-folders or not. And, if any files are missing, we’d like the folder icon to change color.
In this month’s article, we’ll explore how we can use Laserfiche Workflow and Laserfiche Templates to make this an easy to run process.
Run an “Inventory Check” on a folder
Step 1: Build the “Indicator” Template (If documents are missing)
1. Open the Laserfiche Administration Console and navigate to the Metadata Management node.
2. Assuming you don’t apply a template to your folders already, select the Templates node and press the New Item icon to create a new Template. (Alternatively, you can right-click and select New Template…)
3. Name the template Missing Documents and set the color in the top-right corner.
4. Save the template by clicking OK. Confirm that you want to create the template.
Alternative if you already have assigned a template to the folder:
Copy the folder template, then rename it and set the default color. By doing this, we can keep the existing fields (and values) but still mark the folder with a color that stands out amongst the normal folders. We’ll tell Laserfiche Workflow to use this template copy when it finds missing documents.
Step 2: Build the Laserfiche Search
1. In the Laserfiche Client, navigate to your folder where you would look for the files to see if any were missing.
2. Use the Advanced Search pane to define the following criteria:
a. The Within Folder filter.
b. The Name criteria. Enter one of the document names here
c. The Search Syntax criteria
3. Run the Search
4. Select all the text in the Search Syntax results and Copy it from the gray box. We will paste this into the Laserfiche Workflow that we will build, next.
Step 2: Build the Workflow
1. Launch the Laserfiche Workflow Designer application and configure your new workflow to use the desired repository.
2. Name the new Workflow with a name that reflects the purpose, for example, “Client Files Inventory Check” or something similar.
3. Configure the workflow as a Business Process by checking the box in the properties pane on the right side of the Designer. This will allow the workflow to be run from within the Laserfiche Client (both Web or Windows) in order to manually check a selected folder for missing documents.
4. In the Workflow, add the Search activity and paste the Search Syntax that you had copied from the client.
5. Modify the Search syntax in the Workflow to search for more than just one document. We’re going to search for all of them. We do this by using the Pipe Symbol (|) to search for any or all the files that should be in folder. We can search by file name, field value, or other criteria. In this example, we’ll search by document name.
a. Below is the original syntax with just one document type being searched: ACH Authorization
b. We need to modify the search. Here is the updated syntax to look for all 5 documents we are expecting to find in the folder. Notice that we need to enclose the {LF:Name=} searches into a group, by adding Parentheses to the beginning and end of the search. Within the parentheses, we search for any of the five documents by separating them with the pipe symbol, as shown below.
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