Barcode Documents

DocLink has the capability to read and index scanned or faxed TIFF (*.tif) and PDF (*.pdf) files based on information contained in a barcode. A barcode is printed code containing a series of vertical lines of different widths that translate into numerical values. Used to automatically identify retail products, types of documents, etc., barcode information is created and read using special scanners and software. DocLink Barcode can read barcode information and automatically index documents into your database by the specific document type and/or index properties.

Barcode processing is automatically initiated when the barcode service detects new files in a designated input source. When new files are detected, Barcode attempts to:

  1. Recognize the document type of each image.
  2. Read all barcode zones.
  3. Determine if the document is single or multi-page.
  4. If it is multi-page, determine if the document should be appended to the end of an existing document or inserted as a specific page within a document.
  5. Index the document into DocLink.
  6. Any documents Barcode has failed to recognize are indexed as a 'Rejected Barcode Document' document type. You can later search for these documents to index them manually.
  7. Any documents that Barcode recognizes, but experience errors, are indexed into DocLink but with a 'Barcode Failed' property flag set to true. You can later search for these documents to re-index them manually.
  8. If Barcode is processing a multi-page document where page numbers are contained within a barcode and a pagination error occurs, Barcode indexes the document into DocLink but with a 'Barcode Pagination Failed' property flag set to true. You can later search for these documents to reorder the pages manually.

To successfully process documents, Barcode must be properly configured and the service enabled.

Barcode Document Types

Once a document type has been created (See Document Types), it can be configured for Barcode processing. This is the first step in the configuration of Barcode. You will need some sample documents to help you through the configuration.

Here are some important things to keep in mind when configuring document types for Barcode:

  1. File Types - Barcode can recognize Group 4 TIFFs, multi-page Group 4 TIFFs, and PDF file types.
  2. Rejected Barcode Documents - If for some reason the document type cannot be determined during barcode processing, it will be indexed into DocLink as a rejected barcode document type. This document type must have date and time properties. All other properties, if any, are ignored. You can conduct a document type search within the DocLink Smart Client for rejected barcode documents to locate and manually index all such documents. It is recommended that you create a document type specifically for rejected barcode documents.
  3. Barcode Failed Property - All document types configured for multi-page barcode processing must have a 'Barcode Failed' property associated to it. This property should be configured as a Boolean property type.

    Barcode documents where the document type is correctly determined but other errors occur will be indexed into DocLink with this property set to True. You can later conduct a search based on this property flag and manually re-index the document.

    After re-indexing, this flag should manually be set back to 'False'.

  4. Barcode Pagination Failed Property - All document types configured for multi-page processing and where the page number of the image will be determined in the barcode, must have a 'Barcode Pagination Failed' property associated with it. This property should be configured as a Boolean property type.

 

Supported Barcode Types

Barcode Document Type Configuration

Barcode Service Management and Configuration