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By Kyle Knebel January 2023 Consultants Corner As a Laserfiche Cloud Administrator or Process Designer, you have a new tool in your arsenal. Handwriting recognition is now built into the Capture Profile suite of Process Automation tools. Capture profiles and extract data from documents to be used in a business process. These profiles can extract both typed and handwritten data. This month’s article will focus on building and using a capture profile to capture data from a U.S. Federal W-4 form. Below is an example of a document with the template fields filled with the handwritten information from the scanned W-4. So how do we build this so that a form, such as this W-4 Federal Employee Tax Withholding Certificate, can be scanned to the repository and the information captured from it? We’ll need to do two things, build a Capture Profile and then use it in a Workflow. Both of these steps are done in the Process Automation area of Laserfiche Cloud. Step 1: Build the Capture Profile Navigate to “Process Automation” by selecting it from the Application Selector at the top-right of the Cloud interface. Select the “Capture Profiles” tool on the Process Automation screen to build a capture profile. Next, select New > Capture Profile and name it. You’ll then want to upload a sample document. Click add a sample document to add one or more images (.png, .jpg, .gif, .bmp, and .tiff) or .pdf files that are samples of the pages you want to capture data from. Having selected your sample document, preview your sample document, then press Save. The sample file will upload, and then you can add Zones around the areas where the text will be captured. In the Profile Editor, you will move your cursor to the top-left corner of the area you want to “box” and then drag while holding down on the mouse button. The cursor will look like a “cross-hairs” icon, as highlighted below. Drag down to the bottom-right corner of the area to be “boxed” and release the mouse button. Best Practice: The green zone box will grab nearby text, so it’s better to make the box a bit smaller and tighter to the area in which text will typically be found. It will then pop up with a Zone dialog box. Choose “Text” unless you are reading a Barcode. Give the Zone a name, like “First Name” or “SSN,” etc. Best Practice: Use the “Relative” Zone position to improve the accuracy of captured data by automatically adjusting the zone position to account for the shifting of the page's text. Press the blue “Select anchor text” link in order to mark the anchor text. In the example below, I’ve used the word First as the anchor point. Once you’ve marked the anchor point, press OK to save the Zone settings, and continue this process until you have all your zones configured. Just remember that the information in these zones will be used later in your workflow as tokens. Make sure that the Zones are capturing the correct values and no more. Finally, press the Publish button at the top-left to make this Capture Profile ready for use in a Workflow. Step 2: Build the Workflow The workflow you will build can be started by many different conditions or schedules, so I won’t go into those options now, but the workflow design itself is fairly straightforward. Navigate to the Workflow Designer, Select New, Name your new workflow appropriately, maybe “Handwritten W-4 Processing”, and begin editing the workflow. The workflow will use the “Run Capture Profile” activity, which can be targeted to the workflow’s starting entry or a different entry. Of course, the affected entry should be a handwritten W-4; otherwise, the capture profile will not grab the expected values. Configure the properties of the “Run Capture Profile” activity so that it uses the profile you just built in Step 1. I’ve decided to run my workflow against the “Starting Entry,” and It will use my Capture profile, and it’s the latest version. Best Practice: If you have gone back to edit your capture profile, you will need to refresh the profile version being used, as indicated below by the green checkmark. Use the Refresh button next to the “Manage capture profiles” to update the workflow with a list of the latest versions of your capture profile. Then select the most recent Major version. At this point, you could add a Rename activity or other activities that would use the values captured from the W-4. I renamed my document using static text and the capture profile values. I selected the Capture profile tokens from the previous activity. Then I added a third activity to apply the Field Values to a template, which will be assigned to the Starting W-4 document. With these three activities running on the W-4 document, it will get renamed and the metadata assigned by the workflow. At this point, you can expand and enhance your workflow as appropriate to your needs, but this simple example should get you well on the way to using Laserfiche Cloud’s new Handwriting recognition capabilities. I think you’ll find it incredibly useful. Happy New Year from all of us at Cities Digital! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel December 2022 Consultants Corner As a Laserfiche Administrator who wants to begin writing your own custom integration with a 3rd party application to Laserfiche products, where do you start? An API stands for “application programming interface,” where two or more computer programs communicate with each other. As of Nov. 2022, you can use the Laserfiche SDK or the API to interact with Laserfiche and 3rd party software. The SDK is used when building a “compiled code” project. It includes code libraries that can be referenced, and they ease the burden of connecting to a Laserfiche server. Your SDK license includes documentation regarding libraries, methods, types, and some examples to get you started. Laserfiche integrations can be built using either the SDK to create a compiled executable program that can be installed on workstations or an API (new as of November 2022). SDK: Any functions you might find in the Laserfiche Windows client, for example, can be recreated programmatically with the SDK. For example, CDI has created integrations with CRM systems and in those programs, they have functions like creating a folder or renaming a folder in the Laserfiche repository based on data found in the CRM. So, when the integration needs to create a folder or apply metadata to an entry in the repository, the API will do that work for us. An application built with the Laserfiche SDK has stricter rules about how to connect to a repository and what data can be sent, and in what format. API: Unlike a compiled code project with SDK dependencies, API connections are more generic and use web calls (using JSON) as a way to make a connection to your Laserfiche API end point and then to your repository. Less coding is needed since it makes calls to an end-point URL using standards HTTP Web calls like GET and PUT. Previous to November 2022 you could only send an API request to Laserfiche Cloud repositories. Now you can also make an API connection to a self-hosted Repository end point. It uses industry standard REST communication protocols and syntax. It does have its own rules for how to communicate to a Laserfiche repository, however. The API does include How-To guides, examples, and libraries. Here is an example: Could I just write some script and add it to Workflow? what else could I do? Workflow has two script-related activities, “SDK Script” and “Script.” SDK Script – assumes you want to communicate with the LF Repository specifically and already have the reference to the repository listed. Script – Allows .Net functions without interacting with the Laserfiche Repository specifically, although you can add this into the code if you want. Could I add JavaScript to Laserfiche Forms? Yes, you can use JavaScript in any form in any process. It can respond to user actions, as well as perform calculations on fields and columns of table data. It can be used to run lookup rules on fields already pre-populated. It can validate the information in required fields and much more. Laserfiche Forms 10.4 and above has several design templates, including one specifically for JavaScript, which can be found when you open the Forms Designer and select Design Patterns from the Business Process Library. I hope this article whets your appetite for discovering how to use advanced programming in Laserfiche products. Maybe the gift of the Laserfiche SDK is coming to you this holiday season? Happy Holidays to you! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

2022 Laserfiche 11 Updates Laserfiche has released an overview of upcoming features for self-hosted clients. The updates include the Laserfiche API server, new Forms enhancements, and improved support for automating installations and upgrades. Summary of important updates: Laserfiche is actively working on self-hosted upgrades and some of the following features will be released throughout 2023 Forms designer updates will include JavaScript Shared calendars and Forms holiday support, add files to a form from the repository Environmental promotion features DirectShare folder and password updates, soon availability for Avante Forms Auditing - requires Forms Professional Admin pages to support Single Sign-on Enterprise Deployment Guide is forthcoming SCIM support for Azure AD (already for Okta) - Auto user access provided to the directory server Laserfiche 11 Forms layout designer/drag/drop forms pieces enhancements Dynamic Field Rules, no scripting required Dynamic Rules for Regex for Forms Fields Add Windows Groups directly to Forms Groups Delete abandoned draft forms feature Direct approval buttons in emails with action buttons forthcoming New deployment toolkit, support for upgrading an existing system, UI wizard for creating configuration files Dynamic Field Rules and Conditions Set based on other field values Required fields Disabled/enabled fields, pagination, and action buttons Field value validation Conditions based on multiple field values No scripting required Directly through the UI without external libraries Validations and requirements managed on the backend Forms Layout Designer Customization Easier customization: JavaScript support Append choices to lookup results for dropdown Accept barcode scan for single line and number field Support using variable for number/currency/date/time/geolocation default value Specify row labels for table fixed number of rows Pagination and search for large tables and collections for easier end-user experience Other Laserfiche Cloud parity or new features such as: Payment gateway Image preview for uploaded images Default signature for submitters The text above in a field Bulk applies a CSS class to multiple fields Forms Layout Designer - File Sets Store content directly in the repository when processes are ongoing Directly reference existing content Avoid duplication/missed records classification Correctly manage retention rules and considerations for content in active processes Direct Share is Getting More Flexible Increase share transaction up to 1GB+ Increase share expiration by up to 30 days Share entire folders as ZIP files Support coming for Avante Laserfiche API Server REST-based repository endpoint Follows the same requirements as SDK for licensed connections Available at no cost as a stand-alone download for existing Laserfiche 11 customers How-to guides Examples Libraries Developer Community Features in Laserfiche API Retrieve entry listings Read metadata Export documents Execute searches Create folder structures Write metadata Import documents Deployment Toolkit Initial administrators, repositories, and sites are all created Directory server, Laserfiche server, forms, Laserfiche web client, and audit trail Forms portal distributed to the correct machine Deployment Toolkit Application Connections To email server To repository Between forms and workflow CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel As a Laserfiche Administrator, at some point, you may want to give your Laserfiche users some freedom, some mobility, dare we say it, some “Mobile App” access to their Laserfiche Forms and Repository. Your users can download the Laserfiche App for their iOS, Android, or Windows devices to connect to a Laserfiche repository. And they could even download Forms for offline use. Once you’ve set up and configured the Laserfiche Mobile Server, your staff can connect to the Mobile Server through the App. So, what’s the strategy for getting Laserfiche “mobile”? Do you want users to import documents from Cloud-based services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or OneDrive for Business? Do you want to enable image processing on the Laserfiche Mobile Server? Do you want to support Microsoft Office Online Server, Esri ArcGIS Maps, or Google Maps? Preparing to support mobile users using the Laserfiche App requires that you have the Laserfiche Mobile Server configured, as we will explain below, and some minimum system and software requirements. System and Software Requirements Laserfiche recommends that you have a web server with 64-bit or Dual-core processors and a minimum of 2 GB RAM running Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0. You must have Laserfiche RIO or Avante 8.3 or later installed. Additional requirements are to be found here: https://go.laserfiche.com/support/webhelp/laserfichemobile/10/en-us/lfmobile/lfmobileadmin.htm#Installation_and_Configuration/Requirements.htm%3FTocPath%3D_____2 Laserfiche Mobile Server Install the Mobile Server on your server. Note, if you are going to enable image processing (the OmniPage OCR engine), then it is highly recommended not to install on a machine that also hosts the Laserfiche Server or Laserfiche SQL database.’ Follow the steps to: Select the Language Accept the license agreement Choose the Setup type (Typical, Complete, or Custom) Provide the Activation key, Activation file, or list the LFDS RIO server with which to license the software Set the Laserfiche Service Settings, which is the default account the Laserfiche Web App Service should use when IIS is configured for anonymous authentication. Allow IIS to be reset. Proceed to the Mobile Server Configuration Page or run Cloud Import Services Cloud Import Services must be installed on the same computer as the Laserfiche Mobile server with which it will be used. Follow the steps to Select the Language Accept the license agreement Run the Custom Setup if a new location is desired; otherwise, choose the default. Allow the installer to verify prerequisites and click Run to check and install any missing Microsoft components. Finish the installation wizard. Once you have installed Cloud Import Services, you will need to link your repository to the relevant cloud servers, which is done on the Laserfiche Mobile Server Configuration page. Laserfiche Mobile Server Configuration page This image is a screenshot of the main Configuration page. We will step through the sections like Connection, Security, General, etc. Connection Here you will connect the Laserfiche app to a repository and determine how users will authenticate to that repository. You can add a Forms server and a connection to the Laserfiche Directory Server to take advantage of Single Sign-On functionality. At the top of the screen, you can click the Import Web client Configuration link to import the web client repositories, the Windows and/or repository users allowed or denied access to the repository, and the Laserfiche Directory Server settings onto the Laserfiche Mobile Server Configuration page. Select the first option to import the web client settings from your current machine. Select the second option to import the web client settings from another machine. Then, enter the web server machine name or URL in the top text box (For example, https://machinename/laserfiche) and the credentials to access the Web Client Configuration page. Press Import when finished. Note: You must have the right to remote into the webserver to import the web server configuration page settings. If you want to make it easier for your users to open the Laserfiche app and sign in, you can create a link using the Generate link to open and auto-populate the app Sign-in page link. Enter or select the repository you want automatically populated on the app Sign-in page. Enter or select the Forms server you want automatically populated on the app Sign-in page. The read-only link will be displayed at the bottom of the dialog box. Press Copy Link to copy the newly generated URL Next, you’ll want to set your Repositories Settings. If the repository is not already loaded, click the “Add new repository” link. For any repository, set the Domain name and default Volume, Authentication, and Allowed/Denied accounts in the Repository Settings section. If you have a Forms server and you are using Offline Forms, you’ll want to configure a Laserfiche Forms Server. 1. In the Forms server name (optional) box, type an alias for the forms server you are adding. 2. In the Forms server URL box, type the URL for the Laserfiche Forms server where the forms are located. http://LaserficheFormsServer/Forms where LaserficheFormsServer is the name of the Laserfiche Forms server containing the forms you want users to have access to. Be sure to enter http:// or https://, a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), and a forms virtual directory (i.e., http(s)://FQDN/FormsVirtualDirectory or http(s)://mycomputer.laserfiche.com/Forms). Example: http://myforms.laserfiche.com/Forms Note: You can use https:// to use SSL and secure your connection. 3. If the Forms server added has been configured to use Laserfiche Directory Server, you must select the SSO checkbox and ensure the Forms server has been registered by the Laserfiche Directory and licensing site configured under the Laserfiche Directory Server section of this Configuration page 4. Once the Forms server details are configured, press Add. To remove a Forms server, press the. Note: Select the radio button next to the Forms server you want the Laserfiche app to connect to by default. 5. Set the Forms Server Settings Finally, you’ll set the Laserfiche Directory Server information. Configuring the Laserfiche Directory Server section lets users take advantage of the single sign-on feature. If the Laserfiche Server, Laserfiche Forms, and the Laserfiche app have all been registered to the same Laserfiche Directory Server, signing in to one application will automatically sign in to all. Note: The Laserfiche Server, Laserfiche Forms, Laserfiche Mobile Server, and Laserfiche Directory Server must be on version 10 or later to use the single sign-on feature. Security The Security section on the Configuration page enables you to define certain security options, whether to disable exporting to other apps and whether to display watermarks on document images. Notice that you can encrypt Laserfiche electronic documents in the devices' local file system. Encrypted documents can only be viewed by someone with appropriate rights in Laserfiche. Enable this feature by clicking the 2nd check box in the list titled “Encrypt Laserfiche electronic documents stored in devices’ local file systems.” A companion setting can be set to prevent users from exporting electronic documents from the Laserfiche app to other applications on their mobile device by setting the “Prevent users from exporting to other apps…” check box. General Notes: If you use the iOS, Android, or Windows app with Laserfiche Mobile 9.0 or earlier, electronic documents will be encrypted even though this option is not available during configuration. Important: For the iOS app, if you choose to encrypt Laserfiche electronic documents, the device must have a passcode set to ensure complete security. When a user opens an electronic document in the app, a decrypted version will be generated. If a passcode is set, the decrypted version will be protected by iOS encryption after the device locks. Export Note: Compressed PDFs may result in low-resolution documents. Watermarks Note: Tag watermarks will be displayed regardless of whether this option is selected or not. You can only configure watermark settings if you have the Watermark feature on the Laserfiche Server housing the repository. General The General section on the Configuration page lets you configure the Laserfiche app email properties, who can access the Laserfiche Mobile Server Configuration page, set different logging levels, turn to trace on or off, and enable or disable JPEG compression in the app. Most of these are self-explanatory. Services The Services section on the Configuration page lets you configure Microsoft Office options to edit Office documents in the app, import options to import documents from OneDrive and Google Drive, and map options to use the map feature in the app. Devices In Laserfiche Mobile 9.2.1 and later, there is a Devices section on the Configuration page. This section lets you monitor and search for each time a user signs in and out of your repository and Forms servers from specific devices. You can also block certain devices from accessing the Laserfiche app. Pressing the green Search button will show the search results in the Log section. You can navigate through the log by clicking the page buttons at the bottom of the Log section. The Log section can be filtered by defining search criteria in the section above. The Blocked Device section allows you to select a device shown in the Log section and then mark it, as shown below. We hope you found these strategies and guidelines useful as you plan your implementation of the Laserfiche App. Give your users a sense of freedom and mobility to see and interact with Laserfiche content, no matter where they work! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel October 2022 Consultants Corner As a Laserfiche Administrator, you will eventually have to deal with a Zombie Workflow. You know, the workflow won’t end, and keep filling up your log files. The one that endlessly cycles and creates documents, even when no user caused the file to move. It’s like it has a mind of its own, and nobody can stop it. So, what’s the best way to end a “zombie” workflow? At CDI, we’ve seen a number of these spooky situations arise. Have you seen this nightmare before? Now let’s terminate those zombies! Launch Workflow Designer 1.) Launch your Laserfiche Workflow Designer and select the Rule Manager tab at the top. 2.) Expand the folder named “With Enabled Rules” 3.) Select each workflow and for every start rule, disable them. 4.) Do this for every enabled workflow’s start rules. 5.) Then, on the Workflow server itself, launch the Services Control Panel utility and Stop the “Laserfiche Workflow 9/10/11” service (depending on which version is installed). Wait about 10 seconds and then Start the service. Burying the zombie workflows by fixing Start Rules Before those zombie workflows can come back from the dead and eat our brains, we need to prepare. Thankfully, shotguns and shovels are not required! Here’s what to do In the Laserfiche Workflow Designer: 1.) Review the start rules on each workflow in the Rule Manager tab 2.) Select each workflow, one by one, and edit each rule 3.) Click Next on the “Welcome to the Workflow Rule Wizard” page 4.) If not already in the list, add the following condition: “User does not equal “wfaccount”, where the name of the workflow account is found in the “Get metadata from:” box. For example, if your workflow account was “wf”, the condition should read, “User does not equal wf.” 5.) You’ll want to make sure to add this condition on all Conditional start rules. It is not necessary for Scheduled workflows or Business Process only workflows. Digging Deeper (Pun intended) For most, the “zombie” workflow that was causing such terror will manifest itself by doing something in the Laserfiche repository. If this is the case for you, you’ll have heard from staff about a document or folder doing weird things. This should guide you to the suspect “zombie” workflows. There will usually be two workflows that interact unintentionally because one may be moving an entry and the other workflow is being triggered by that action. Having added the “User does not equal wf” condition to all workflow start rules should prevent this nightmare from happening. However, did you know that workflows can be invoked by another workflow? In this case, you may need to open the design of the suspected workflow(s) and look at the action logic to see if an action is leading to the other workflow being invoked. We hope you have a fun Halloween this season and never encounter “zombie” workflows! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

September 2022 Consultants Corner As a Laserfiche Forms Administrator, have you ever wondered if you could give your Laserfiche users a view of the Laserfiche repository from within a Form? Maybe you want to display a document in a form while the user is filling out the form? This month’s article will focus on how to set up Laserfiche forms to display the Laserfiche Web Client or display a document in a form. Displaying the Web Client in Forms To embed the web client on a Form page, you will need to modify the desired Form. Select the form in the designer. What ‘s required: A Custom HTML field. HTML code with a “target” of the Web Client’s URL (Optional) A text field to hold the URL to be placed in the Custom HTML The steps to placing the Web Client on the form are the following. Place a Custom HTML field on the form Switch to the “HTML tab Insert the following custom HTML code using the HTML tab in the Layout page of the form designer: In HTML, the indicates an “inline frame that is used to embed another page within the current HTML page. Please note that height values should be in pixels; width values can be in percentage or pixels. I’ve used a height=”620px” to provide a useful area to display. You can modify the values to see what works on your form. The “src=” value will be the URL that references your Web Client. For example, if you login to your repository using the Laserfiche Web Client, copy the URL that appears once you have logged in. Copy and paste that value inside double quotes. The {servername} should already be in the URL text string, as well as the {repository name} value. In my case, my URL is http://localhost/laserfiche/browse.aspx?repo=LFTraining, so the src= value in the iframe markup would look like: src=”http://localhost/laserfiche/browse.aspx?repo=LFTraining“ Here’s what the embedded field will look like in the form: Optional You can build other dynamic links to documents, directly, or by database lookup. Here’s an example of a scanned brochure being presented by selecting it from a drop-down list in the field above the embedded Web Client. This example uses a hidden field to store the static URL link to the document and uses some custom JavaScript to grab the URL and dynamically insert it into the src= setting of the

By Kyle Knebel Laserfiche Workflow has the tools to help us create good-looking HTML formatted emails. This month’s article will show some of the activities and techniques you can use to build well-formatted emails using HTML. Along the way, you’ll possibly learn some HTML coding tricks, too. Here at CDI, we send our clients, upon request, a Case Summary with billed hours report via email. Here is an example. A very simple email with a table and hyperlinks to Web Client documents might look something like this. To build an email that uses HTML tables, like the one above, you’ll need to create workflow tokens that hold HTML and the data to be formatted. And you’ll format the entire table as “HTML” within the email body. Follow along in this step-by-step. In our example, let’s use the following scenario. We want to send a weekly email that lists the documents created in the past 7 days. And we want to have live hyperlinks to each one of those documents. Step 1: In the workflow, we first need to run a search for the documents created this week using the “Search Repository” activity. We need to get a date 7 days from the day this workflow runs (It should run Sunday evening). The Date Token Calculator activity can do this. Configure it to subtract 7 days from the current date. Create the search and enter the search criteria using the “7 days ago” date token in the search syntax. I used this syntax: {LF:Name="*", Type="D"} & {LF:Created>="%(DateTokenCalculator_7 days ago)"}. Note: When possible, use the Advanced Search in the client and open the Search Syntax window to copy the search syntax and paste it into the workflow. Step 2: We need to build a token that holds the table header columns and allows the documents list to be appended to this token. Our report will have three columns: CreateDate, EntryID, and Doc Name. Add the “Assign Token Values” activity. I renamed this activity as “Set HTML Header and Rows.” Press the “Create…” button. I named this new token, “Report”. (You’ll use this in Step 5) I also checked the box to “Allow token to have multiple values.” In the first row we are going to insert some HTML. This will define the header columns. Insert the following HTML: CreateDateEntryIDDoc Name means start of Table Row; means end of table Row means start of header cell; means end of header cell Step 3: We need to create a token to hold the Web Client URL reference (called an “href”, the href attribute specifies the URL of the page the link goes to). This will create the correct hyperlink to open the document through the Laserfiche Web Client. Add the “Assign Token Values” activity and press the “Create…” button. I named this new token “HREF.” I renamed the activity “Set HREF.” In the first row we are going to enter your Web Client URL and some code to open the document viewer to the correct document. Enter “HTTP://{webserver}/laserfiche/DocView.aspx?db={repositoryName}&docid=” Step 4: Next, we need to iterate through the output entries from the “Search Repository” activity to add each document to the HTML table token we created in step 2. But we only want to do this if there is a search result. Add a “Conditional Sequence” activity and set the condition for the search result count is greater than 0. Within this sequence, drop the “For Each Entry” activity, and connect it to the Search Repository activity. Within the For Each Entry activity, we need to add the “Find Entry” activity in order to gather each document’s creation date (This date is not available from the For Each Entry activity itself). I renamed mine to “FindForEachEntry” to keep myself from getting confused! Set the Entry to Find with ID: value as the “ForEachEntry_CurrentEntry_ID” token. The Workflow should look something like this so far: Step 5: Next, you’ll add a token that modifies the “Header and Rows” token. This activity will add each document’s information to the table. So, if the search returned 5 documents, this activity would append 5 rows below the header row. The table would end up having one header row and 5 lines for each document. Within the For Each Entry activity and just after the “FindForEachEntry”, add another Assign Token Values activity. This time, press the “Modify…” button in the properties box and choose the “Report” token from the “Set HTML Header and Rows” you created in Step 2. Make sure to select the “Append to existing values option. Insert the html beginning of the row markup. Insert a markup to indicate a new cell. Insert the Creation Date token from the “FindForEachEntry” activity. Insert the markup to indicate the end of the cell. On the same line, insert another markup to indicate the start of the cell. Insert the OutputEntry_ID token from the “FindForEachEntry” activity. Insert the markup to indicate the end of the cell. The next steps are where the magic happens. You’ll be creating the hyperlink to the document in the Web Client. Still on the same line, add “” on the end. It should look like this: Following the “>”, insert the %(ForEachEntry_CurrentEntry_Name) token Insert the markup to indicate the end of the Web Client URL reference. Complete the table by inserting at the end of this long string of markup. It should look something like this: %(FindForEachEntry_OutputEntry_CreationDate)%(FindForEachEntry_OutputEntry_ID)%(ForEachEntry_CurrentEntry_Name) The workflow should look like this so far: Step 6: And finally, we need to email the report with its HTML table formatting. Insert the Email activity into the For Each Entry section just after the “Append rows to the Report Token: and edit the properties of the Email activity. Set the To: recipient and the Subject line Edit the body of the text as you see fit Next, we will edit the body and add the table to the email. Press the “Email Editor…” button. Type in the HTML markup shown below in order to add the table formatting. Into the Table markup, you’ll add the “Report” token, as you can see highlighted in the image below. Add: Just before , place your cursor and insert the Report token by clicking the “Tokens” button in the editor: In the pop-up window, scroll down the list of tokens on the bottom-left, and expand “Set HTML Header and Rows” and click on the blue “Report” link. Next, before closing this window, select the word “Report” at the top left of the box. Apply the additional properties as shown below in steps 1-4 in the screenshot below. This will create the correct HTML markup around the table, resulting in a finished, well-formatted HTML table in your email. The workflow should look like this now: After publishing the workflow, make sure to set it to run on a schedule rather than a conditional start rule. We hope you’ve learned some new techniques and knowledge to get you started on making your own custom HTML formatted emails! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

July 2022 Consultants Corner The Laserfiche Email Archiver allows you to automatically store emails to multiple Laserfiche repositories based on rules that you set and can extract and assign metadata to the emails stored. It can also extract and store attachments by setting alternate Attachment handling options. Configuration Steps:­ The configuration of the Laserfiche email Archive system entails the following 4 steps: Network firewall exceptions (if needed) Mail Cache settings / Editing the Laserfiche Email Archive Service’s configuration file Create an Email Archive Profile Configure your email server to route to the Email Archive Exchange Server 2019, 2016 or 2010 Office 365 Network Configuration The Email Archive runs as a Windows service and becomes a “Smarthost” to which your email server can send BCC messages to the Laserfiche Email Archive server. It will be installed on a single computer, typically a Server (if possible). Please ensure that TCP/IP port 25 is open between your email server and the Laserfiche Email Archive server. This may require a Firewall exception. Mail Cache In some instances, if the Email Archive service is stopped, pending emails will be cached until the service restarts. In other instances, if messages fail to import, they will be cached, and then the import will be retried again based on the configured retry interval. With SMTP implementations only, the email server may send a large email as a multi-part file. Once all the parts have arrived, the Email Archive service will import the email. The following three settings impact Mail Cache configuration within the config.xml file: QueueCapabilty PartialMessageRetrieveTimeout RetryInterval Below is a list of settings found in the config.xml file. Changing these settings will impact the performance of the server on which the Email Archive server service is installed. Create an Email Archive Profile From the Start Menu, go to Laserfiche and click on “Laserfiche Email Archive Config” to launch the Email Archive Profile editor. Email Archive Configuration Utility Step 1: Select Profile > New from the menu or click on the “Create a New Profile” icon. Step 2: Set the sign-in information that Email Archive will use to connect to the Laserfiche repository. Optionally, configure the Laserfiche Cloud Account ID and user credentials that will be used by this profile. Step 3: Configure the General settings Step 4: Configure the Archived Messages settings Step 5: Configure the Templates & Fields settings Tokens for email values can be selected for any of the fields. A list of those tokens is shown below. Step 6: Configure the Tags settings For Office 365 or Exchange servers, you will need to configure some “Forwarding” rules, which are sometimes referred to as “Transport Rules.” A. Configuring Exchange Server 2016 or 2019 to Route Emails Creating a Transport Rule 1.) Open the Exchange Management Console. 2.) Navigate to Mail flow -> Rules. 3.) Click the Add button, and select Create a new rule. 4.) Provide a descriptive name for the rule. 5.) Under Apply this rule if, configure the condition that must be met to route an email to the mailbox Email Archive is monitoring. 6.) Under Do the following, select Bcc message to, and select the email address associated with the mailbox Laserfiche Email Archive is monitoring. Click OK. 7.) Click Save. B. Exchange Server 2010 Creating a Transport Rule 1.) Click the Transport Rules tab in the middle Hub Transport pane. 2.) Select New Transport Rule in the right pane. 3.) On the Introduction page, provide a descriptive name for the rule and add any comments needed. Click Next. 4.) On the Condition page, configure conditions. Only emails matching these conditions will be routed to Laserfiche. 5.) On the Actions page, select Blind carbon copy (Bcc) the message to addresses. Then click the addresses hyperlink. 6.) In the Specify recipients dialog box, click the arrow next to Add and select External E-mail Address. 7.) Enter the email address associated with the Laserfiche Email Archive service. The email address preceding the @ symbol in the address should be the email address specified on the general tab in the profile creation wizard. This address must have the same domain as you configured in step 6c of the Creating a Send Connector section above. Click OK. Then click OK again and Next. 8.) On the Exception page, define any exceptions for when you don’t want the rule to run and click Next. 9.) On the Create Rule page, review the configuration summary and click New. 10.) On the Completion page, click Finish. C. Office 365 Routing Emails to the Laserfiche Email Archive Service 1.) For more information about creating rules in Office 365 see Microsoft’s online help. 2.) Sign in to the Office 365 Home Page. 3.) Click the Admin app using the app launcher icon in the top left. 4.) From the left menu, expand Admin centers. 5.) Select Exchange. 6.) From the left menu, click mail flow. 7.) Select rules, and click the plus button +. 8.) Select Create a new rule... 9.) In the new rule dialog box, configure the following: a. Under Name, provide a descriptive name for the rule. b. Under Apply this rule if..., specify when to archive emails to Laserfiche. c. Under Do the following..., select Bcc the message to... and enter the email address associated with the Laserfiche Email Archive service. The email address should match the email address specified in the general tab of the profile creation wizard. d. Click Save. Converting Email Archive Configurations from SMTP to IMAP Previous versions of Email Archive made use of SMTP. The SMTP option is being deprecated and is no longer recommended. To switch a profile from SMTP to IMAP 1.) Update your Exchange server. a.) Create a mailbox dedicated specifically to emails that will be archived to Laserfiche. This mailbox can be a shared mailbox or a single-account mailbox but should not be associated with a particular user. Most organizations prefer to create a shared mailbox for Email Archive to monitor. With a shared mailbox, multiple users can work with emails in the mailbox, and the messages will also be archived to Laserfiche. Microsoft documentation on how to create a shared mailbox. b.) Create Outlook rules to route messages to the mailbox you created. Outlook rules can be configured either server-side or client-side. c.) Update your Transport rules to forward or BCC messages to the new mailbox. You will no longer need the send connectors configured for the Email Archive. Configuring Office 365 to Route Emails to a Mailbox Configuring Exchange Server 2010 to Route Emails to a Mailbox Configuring Exchange Server 2016 or 2019 to Route Emails to a Mailbox 2.) Open the Laserfiche Email Archive Configuration dialog box from the Windows Start Menu. 3.) Double-click a profile. 4.) Navigate to the General tab, and select IMAP. 5.) Configure the mail server settings on the General tab. 6.) Click OK to save the profile. Exchange Server 2010 – SMTP( Deprecated ): *Note: The SMTP method is being deprecated and is no longer recommended. Creating a Send Connector 1.) Open the Exchange Management Console. 2.) Expand the Organization Configuration node in the console tree. 3.) Select the Hub Transport node. 4.) Click the Send Connectors tab in the middle Hub Transport pane. 5.) Select New Send Connector in the right pane. 6.) In the New Send Connector wizard: a.) On the Introduction page, provide a descriptive name for the new connector and select Custom as the intended use for the connector. Click Next. b.) On the Address space page, click Add. c.) In the SMTP Address Space dialog box, enter the domain of the email address the Laserfiche Email Archive service uses. Select Scoped send connector only if you need to limit this send connector to be used only by hub transport servers in the same Activity Directory site. Click OK, and then Next. d.) On the Network settings page, select Route mail through the following smart hosts. Then, click Add. e.) In the Add smart host dialog box, select IP Address and enter the IP address of your Laserfiche Email Archive server. Click OK, and then click Next. f.) On the Configure smart house authentication settings page, select None and click Next Creating a Transport Rule 1.) Click the Transport Rules tab in the middle Hub Transport pane. 2.) Select New Transport Rule in the right pane. 3.) On the Introduction page, provide a descriptive name for the rule and add any comments needed. Click Next. 4.) On the Condition page, configure conditions. Only emails matching these conditions will be routed to Laserfiche. 5.) On the Actions page, select Blind carbon copy (Bcc) the message to addresses. Then click the addresses hyperlink. 6.) In the Specify recipients dialog box, click the arrow next to Add and select External E-mail Address. 7.) Enter the email address associated with the Laserfiche Email Archive service. The email address preceding the @ symbol in the address should be the email address specified on the general tab in the profile creation wizard. This address must have the same domain as you configured in step 6c of the Creating a Send Connector section above. Click OK. Then click OK again and Next. 8.) On the Exception page, define any exceptions for when you don’t want the rule to run, and click Next. 9.) On the Create Rule page, review the configuration summary, and click New. 10.) On the Completion page, click Finish. Creating a Connector to Route the Email to the Laserfiche Email Archive Service 1.) From the Exchange admin center, select mail flow in the left menu 2.) Select connectors, and click the plus button +. 3.) In the New Connector dialog box, configure the following: a.) On the Select your mail flow scenario page, under From, select Office 365. Under To, select Partner organization. Click Next. b.) On the New connector page, specify a name for the connector and select Turn it on. Click Next. c.) When prompted for when you want to use the connector, select Only when I have a transport rule set up that redirects messages to this connector. Click Next. d.) Under How do you want to route email messages, select Route email through these smart hosts. e.) Click the plus button +, specify the fully qualified domain name or IP address of the Laserfiche Email Archive service and click Save. f.) Click Next. g.) Optional: Depending on your security needs, select to use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to secure the connection. Additionally, select Issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA). h.) Click Next. Confirm your settings, and click Next again i.) On the Validate this connector page, click the plus button + to add an email address. Office 365 will send a test email to this address to validate the connector. Click Validate. j.) Click Save. Additional Resources Cities Digital Client Portal https://citiesdigital.peakportals.com/ This is our Cities Digital Client Portal. Here you can access Training Manuals, your Support Cases, your Contracts, and more! *The site does require a login. A login invitation can be requested from your Consultant/Systems Architect, as well as by sending an email request to consulting@cdi.support. Laserfiche Online Product Help File https://www.laserfiche.com/support/webhelp/Laserfiche/10/en-us/administration/Default.htm#../Subsystems/ImportAgent/Content/Overview-of-Laserfiche-Import-Agent.htm%3FTocPath%3DImport%2520Agent%7C_____1 This is a direct link to the Laserfiche Online Help system for Laserfiche Import Agent. Laserfiche Product Information https://support.laserfiche.com/product/importagent/ This Link connects you to the Laserfiche Support Site’s product information page for Laserfiche Import Agent. You will need to have a Laserfiche Support site login to view the information here. To create an account, you will need your email address, company zip code, and Laserfiche Serial Number, which can be obtained from your System Administrator or from Cities Digital Support. Laserfiche Video Gallery https://support.laserfiche.com/gallery/list This Video Library contains short 1-3 minute videos on the Laserfiche suite! It’s available free, but you do need a login to the Laserfiche Support Site. Sign up at www.support.laserfiche.com. The Training Center for Laserfiche http://trainingcenterforlaserfiche.com/blocks/wa_activity_tags/action.php?c=tag&a=index&tag=import%20agent This is a great comprehensive training video resource! This is a subscription service, so if you do not yet have an account, sign up for a free 30-day trial. Send a request to sales@cdi.support for more information on a free trial or setting up a subscription. Cities Digital Tech Support – Instant screen share https://www.cdi.support/support Need tech support? This link will direct you to a Cities Digital tech support representative and get an immediate screen share so they can help right away! Tech support is included with your Laserfiche software purchase. Cities Digital Consulting and Training Requests consulting@cdi.support Need some more training or help with configuring your software? This link will email our Consulting Project Coordinator so you can set up a time to work with a consultant who can help you. Note: This type of service is billed on an hourly basis. CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel As a Laserfiche Administrator, configuring the Weblink Portal is very easy. The application has a built-in Designer that gives you the flexibility to customize logos, background images, fonts, text, search and browse settings, and a host of other functions. Some of the easiest changes to make in Weblink are the best ways to make your website look great to your visitors. Logos and background images Just add the theming and colors of your organization’s other websites to give the WebLink site a cohesive look. The WebLink designer has a section called “Theme” where you can upload your logos and images and set text font color. Welcome Page Modify the Welcome Page title and text to include some handy tips on how to use the site. The City of Anacortes (image above) is a great example of this design. Custom links to folders or documents WebLink Designer gives you the ability to build navigation links to folders, documents, and even other URLs that appear right on the main page What should you never do with a weblink Designer? Never expose internal private documents to the Public. How do you prevent this? There are a couple of easy ways to do this. a.) Create a folder structure that will store copies of your public-only documents. Then give that Weblink “Public” account access only to that folder level and sub-folders. Or b.) Setup the Public account with access to only the folders and documents that you explicitly need. You will set up the Public account as any other Laserfiche trustee, except you will set it with limited access. Log in to the repository as that “Public” account to verify that it can only access the folders and documents that you expected. Then, using the Weblink site, try navigating to a folder that should not be publicly accessible. Try searching for the content you know is not in the public access areas to see if it can be found. CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel As a Laserfiche Administrator, have you ever wondered if you could give your Laserfiche users a pre-built set of saved searches, custom toolbar icons, file download options, or column profiles, just to name a few? You can do this by using “Attributes.” This month’s article will focus on setting up and deploying attributes to your users. Pre-configuring these Laserfiche client settings is a valuable function that a Laserfiche Administrator can use. In addition, attributes can be used if you have deployed either the Laserfiche Windows “thick” Client or the “thin” Web Client. While in the Laserfiche Administration Console or Web Management screen, you may have noticed a tab for Users called “Attributes.” You can save every customization, Option setting, saved Search, Print, or Email setting for the user under this Attribute tab. You can copy these settings from one user to another or the Everyone supergroup. Unfortunately, attributes cannot be copied to Repository groups. If you create a saved search, that information is stored as an Attribute. If you set the Options to download image files as PDF for color and black & white images, that information is stored as an Attribute. If you customize your toolbar, that information is stored as an Attribute. Before we get into some examples, it should be pointed out that the attributes are not cross-platform compatible. If attributes are created in the Windows Client, they should be copied in the Windows Administration Console to those users who use the Windows Client. If you users have the Web Client, you should be using the Web Management Console. Let's take a look at a few examples. Saved Searches Any user can create and save a Search. Once that user saves the search, the Laserfiche Administrator can navigate to the appropriate console and find the user in the User and Groups node. For Windows: Open the user’s properties and select the “Attributes” tab, then View the subset: “SavedSearch.” For Web: In the list, you will see three lines per saved search. It will look different in the Windows Administration Console vs. the Web Management Console. Windows Console: Web Console: Also, you will need to copy the “[WebAccess]SavedSearches” attribute. In both Consoles, you can download the attributes as an XML file, then import that XML file to another user’s attributes. Note: You cannot copy to a group. You can copy it to an individual user or the “Everyone” supergroup. Column Profiles In the Client, a user may have saved a set of custom column profiles. This is available in both the Windows Client and the Web Client, although they look slightly different. In the Windows Client, you can rearrange the already visible columns, but you can also add columns. If you right-click any column, you’ll get a pop-up, as seen below. Users can select, save, and manage any column profiles that might have been created. Once a profile is saved, it is available in the user’s Attributes tab, as we saw previously in the Administration Console. The same process of downloading the selected lines as an XML file can be used to copy the column profile to other users. Also, you can copy all the profiles at once by selecting all the profiles you need. Select the four lines and press the Export button on the right. In the Web Client, you can rearrange the already visible columns, but you can also add columns. If you right-click on the column headers, you’ll get a pop-up, as seen below. Next, select the Column Picker option. Users can also use the “Saved Columns” option to select, save, and manage any column profiles that might have been created. Below is an image of the Web Client’s attributes, filtered by “XmolColumnProfiles.” You’ll want to select the three items labeled DATA, DATA0, and DATA1, then download the XML by pressing the Download option at the top right of the screen. Custom Toolbar Many times, a user will add some additional toolbar icons to their Laserfiche client. Those settings can be copied from one user to multiple users. For the Windows Client, the toolbar configuration is saved under the local computer’s Registry settings under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Laserfiche\Client8. The data can be copied via a windows Group Policy or login script. Laserfiche does not handle this on its own. For the Web Client, go to the web client Management page, and go to the Attributes tab for the desired user. Select [WebAccess]ToolsetFolderBrowser and download the attribute. Laserfiche has many ways to ease the distribution of preferred configurations across the Windows Client and the Web Client to users. We hope you find these examples helpful. CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel April 2022 Consultants Corner What is this mysterious “Everyone” group? Every repository comes with the “Everyone” group, but did you know this group can help every Laserfiche Administrator manage everything from repository access rights to security features? In this month’s Consultants’ Corner, we’ll provide some insight on what you can do with the “Everyone” group and show you some powerful and dynamic settings that can help you form a properly functioning repository. What is the “Everyone” group and what does it do? If you are a Laserfiche Administrator and have glanced at the Administration console, you’ve probably seen this item under Users and Groups (shown in the image below). The “Everyone” group is a permanent feature that cannot be deleted and is built into every Laserfiche repository. However, the “Everyone” group is unique to each repository and can be customized to best suit your company’s needs. How does the “Everyone” group work? As the name would suggest, everyone or every user added to your Laserfiche system will automatically be added to this group. That would be any Laserfiche trustees (users), Windows Active Directory trustees (AD), and LDAP trustees (but not many people use anything other than Windows AD accounts these days). Note: LDAP is the communication protocol used over networks to query for information and user credentials in Active Directory, Lotus Notes, Novell eDirectory, Linux, Unix, and other “directory services.” Laserfiche focuses on Windows AD support, hence the “Windows Account” node, but they also support other non-AD directories via the “LDAP Management” node. The “Everyone” group does not behave like other groups you might have created. One handy feature of this group is the ability to set overall basic security for all users who would be accessing the repository. For example, if you set the authentication setting to Trust: allow access (shown in the image below), any Windows user or LDAP user account would be able to log in. On the other hand, if it is set to Deny: deny access (shown in the image below), then no Windows users can log in to the repository even if they were added under the Windows Accounts node and granted the Trust access. Now, let’s take a look at the Rights tab on the “Everyone Properties” page (seen in the image below). Here you can assign fundamental feature rights or administrative privileges to all users instead of giving rights individually. However, you can still assign more specific rights and privileges to individual users and groups. In those cases, the rights set in the “Everyone” group will combine with the rights assigned at the user or group level to give the effective and specific rights you are looking to provide. Another function the “Everyone” group provides is the Auditing settings (see image below) for those who have the Laserfiche Audit Trail module. When Audit Trail is licensed, the system can immediately begin tracking events happening in the repository. Any selected events in the “Everyone” group will be tracked for any user using the repository. As a side note, individual users or groups can be set with more specific audit settings if needed. The “Everyone” group: security and inheritance to folders. When first installed, the Laserfiche repository is bare-bones and unsecured. This basic setup is by design since you haven’t created a folder structure, metadata, or created users and groups. As a Laserfiche Administrator, your first job is to secure the repository. A folder structure is usually built out using the Windows or Web Client during the initial implementation phase. However, in many organizations, it may be easier to give all users the ability to create and navigate to all folders that are needed in the repository during the design and build phase. The “Everyone” group is assigned with certain limited rights (like Browse and Read) at the root level of the repository and are inherited down to all new folders you create. You may need to grant, modify, or remove some of these starting rights to fit your security model. In many cases, it is more advisable to remove the “Everyone” group from the top level and start using specific groups instead. Note: If you do remove the “Everyone” group from the Access Rights on the root level or any folder, you cannot add it back into your Access Rights list. What is that Bypass Browse privilege and what does it do? Laserfiche includes two privileges in the “Everyone” group that allows users to bypass specific security settings. The most important one is the Bypass Browse privilege. This privilege offers significant performance benefits and is granted to the “Everyone” group by default in a new repository. The Bypass Browse privilege gives a user the ability to see the existence of all entries in the repository, regardless of the user’s Browse rights. This privilege can enhance your repository’s performance since Laserfiche does not need to calculate rights for each entry in each folder. It does not allow users to see the contents of a folder if they do not have the Read right on the folder. Note: The Browse entry access right is not sufficient to open a folder or a document. The Read entry access right is also required. Attempting to open a folder to which a user has been granted the Browse right, but not the Read right, will cause that folder to appear empty. Attempting to open a document to which a user has been granted the Browse right, but not the Read right, will generate an error message. As you can see, the “Everyone” group has quite a few powerful and dynamic settings that can significantly impact your repository access and security. Use the “Everyone” group with some of these concepts in mind and you’ll be rewarded with a smooth functioning repository. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our CDI team or comment below if you have any follow-up questions! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!

By Kyle Knebel March 2022 Consultant’s Corner: For this Month’s Consultant’s Corner, we are going to dive into Laserfiche Workflow and how you can take your workflows from a test environment to production. We will also highlight some best practices to follow when designing and testing your workflow to help minimize errors as safely and securely as possible while hopefully saving you time. To start, Laserfiche Workflow is an automation engine that can integrate with one or more repositories in your Laserfiche Environment. If you have Laserfiche RIO licensing, allowing up to 1000 repositories, you can use these workflows across your entire Laserfiche Environment. With so much space, you can create “test” repositories in which you design your folder structure, metadata, and workflows before putting them into Company use. Over the years, our CDI Consultants have developed highly effective and safe procedures to be used as you build, test, and migrate your workflow from a test environment to production. These best practices are tips that we use daily, so we hope you find the information below helpful. Now let’s dive in, shall we? Workflow Basics Connection Profiles and the Workflow User First, a workflow must always have a “Connection Profile.” This profile connects the workflow that you are building to one or more repositories in which the workflow will interact. Our Best Practice Tip for setting up your “Connection Profile” account is to create a repository or LFDS non-named user. By doing this, you will forgo the need to use a Full Named license to run workflows. In a sense, when you use this account in the “Connection Profile,” it will function as if it were a Full Named User. Then we create an account called “WF” or “WFAgent.” NOTE: Names can vary depending on your preference. Next, you fill in the Name and Password fields in the “Workflow Profile Manager.” You can see this displayed in the image below. When reconfiguring the workflow from your test environment to production, you will want to change the “Connection Profile” to connect to the production repository. If you already have a profile for that repository, navigate to your list of profiles and select the Copy from option. If a production profile does not exist, create a new profile by clicking on the Manage Connections link. Here you will define the Laserfiche server, repository name, and workflow user account (for example, see the image above). Once you have these fields filled out, select Validate. Our Best Practice Tip is to create a “Common Profile,” which can be used by all Windows users on this workstation/server. An example of the “Profile Manager” is shown below. Here you can create, edit, and remove profiles. If provided a workflow from an outside source, such as when you ask us here at CDI to build you a workflow, we will then send you the exported WFI file. This self-contained workflow import file will contain both the start rules and the workflow itself. In these situations, you will definitely want to change the “Connection Profile” and review the start rules to match your repository. Permissions and Access Rights Make sure to set your security or access rights on all the folders in the repository that you want your workflow to interact. For example, using our “WF” profile, you will give the “WF” account all access rights from the root level. If some folders show “Inheritance” as disabled, you will need to apply this account to those folders, if applicable. You can see this done in the image below. Workflow Metadata (fields and templates) Since workflows are most used in conjunction with fields and templates, our Best Practice Tip is to verify that the same metadata is found in both the test and the production repositories. If the metadata does not yet exist in the production repository, you can use a Laserfiche Briefcase to easily import the new template or fields into the production repository. In the test repository, you will just need to assign the template and the individual fields to a document and then export it as a Briefcase. When importing the Briefcase to the production repository, you will be directed to step through the import wizard. The wizard will help you add the new fields and template to your production repository. You can see this displayed in the images below. Now that the same metadata is in the production repository, your production workflow will be able to satisfy any start rules. Now, any activities that rely on metadata for conditions or retrieved values will function correctly within the workflow itself. Workflow Start Rules Tell Laserfiche Workflow to ignore the WF user account A hard-earned Best Practice Tip is to always (Ok, 98% of the time) add a condition in your start rules telling your workflow to ignore any actions made by the “WF” account in the repository (User, does not equal, WF). This will prevent the workflow from being accidentally triggered by another workflow that may be designed in the future. Verify all start rules match the production repository. Always review the start rules that are in place to determine if the paths, metadata, users, and other conditions match the production environment. As a reminder, it is important to exclude the “WF” user from starting workflows. As you can tell, this is a practice to make a habit out of as it will save you from possible endless workflow loops. Workflow: Saving a Backup Once your workflow is in place and running smoothly in your live production environment, our Best Practice Tip is to backup your workflow. Now, if you’re backing up the Workflow server and its SQL databases nightly, then this step is not necessary. We also recommend that you export your workflows in WFI file format. An exported workflow contains both the start rules and the workflow in one file, so exporting is also recommended when you are about to make changes to your existing workflow. Just in case you need to go back to a working copy to start fresh. To start your backup, you can right-click on a single workflow listed in the “Rule Manager” to export. You can even export several workflows at once. However, if you chose to export more than one at a single time there is an added step. You will need to navigate to the bottom of the “Export Workflows” dialog box. Select the empty box located to the left of “Create a separate .wfi file...” This will ensure a new WFI file is created for every workflow. If this step is missed, all the workflows selected will be included in one WFI file. NOTE: Since On-Premises workflows are not compatible with Cloud, if you are moving to a Cloud system, you will need to rebuild the process within your new system. We hope that taking into consideration our Best Practice Tips can save you time, energy, and hopefully unnecessary frustration. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this article, so please comment below on what you found most helpful and let us know if you have any lingering workflow questions. We hope you found this article interesting and will find a way to put some of these ideas into use in the near future! CDI NEWSLETTER Stay up to date with all the latest Laserfiche news, CDI webinars, blogs, and more!