MetaServer > Version History

Here you will find all MetaServer release notes, including details of new features, improvements and fixes.

You can always download the latest version of MetaServer including Operator, Admin clients and sample workflows on the MetaServer Product Page. If you are looking for base installers without any sample workflows, please use this download page.

IMPORTANT: If you are updating from a MetaServer version lower than 3.1.3, it is possible that a Computer ID mismatch can occur.

On most systems, the update will not cause any problems. However, occasionally, on some systems this may cause a Computer ID mismatch after upgrading. To fix this issue, please refer to the Computer ID Mismatch troubleshoot page.

Version 3.1(12) | 2021-04-30

NEW #299: RUN PROGRAMS: With the new Run Programs action, you can run one or more windows commands or external programs accepting command line parameters.

We have adjusted our “CB – CHECKS & INVOICES” demo workflow with some examples to demonstrate the Run Programs action. This setup is explained in more detail on the Run Programs online help page.

NEW #759 #831 #832 #833: RESERVE DOCUMENTS FOR AN ACTIVE DIRECTORY USER GROUP: You can now define a specific user group using standard Windows Server Active Directory.

In MetaServer, you can use the Reserve rule to select the user group you want to reserve a document for.

NOTE: This functionality is only available if the Operator Client is inside a domain. It is not available on a standalone PC outside any domain.

Anyone belonging to that user group will be able to validate the document. Using this new capability in combination with the next feature (#796), you can isolate documents perfectly and make it impossible for an operator to access documents that don’t belong to his user group.

NOTE: For performance reasons, we check the groups to which the logged user belongs when the Operator Client is started. If the user groups are changed by the Windows Active Directory Admin, for example, adding a new user to a group, then these changes will be detected after closing and reopening the Operator client.

The user can also can refresh the Groups he belongs to by pressing refresh in the Open Document List.

NEW #796: SERVER SETTINGS – OPTION TO ALLOW OR DISALLOW UNRESERVE: The new client option is called “Unreserve” and is located in the Server tab. By default, it is enabled.

Disabling this option makes it impossible for an operator to change the Reservation status of a document and hides the “Reserve” and “Unreserve” buttons in the Open Document window. The “Hide reserved documents” option also becomes unavailable.

Consequently, reserved documents for other users will also be hidden. This is a good way to hide documents between regions using the same MetaServer.

NEW #755: VALIDATE DATABASE – NEW “CONTAINS” SEARCH METHOD: By default, the validate database lookup searches for fields that start with your lookup value (= “Starts with” search method). You can now change this so a field doesn’t need to start with that value, but can just “contain” that value (= “Contains” search method).

Examle use-case:

Example of records:
Color Square International
Cooperative Associates
International Coach Federation Brussels
M&J Trade
Maxwell International
Ryan International
Treasurer of Antwerp

Sometimes the document shows mistakes in the name. For example, instead of “RYAN International” there will be “BYAN International”.

“Byan” won’t return anything and the operator will want to look at companies containing the word “International”.

With the “Contains” search method, when the operator types “International”, all companies containg the word “International” would be displayed in the lookup list:

Color Square International
International Coach Federation Brussels
Maxwell International
Ryan International

NEW #792: FIND WORD WITH TYPE / VALIDATE – SWISS VAT ID CHECK: The 9th digit in the Swiss VAT ID is actually a check digit which is calculated according to a weighted MOD11 algorithm.

For more details, Swiss VAT ID specs are documented in this document on pages 7-8:
https://www.ech.ch/de/dokument/57be808d-9a03-4e9e-a2c5-65f08ca78e44

This check digit can be used to find the 9 digits in the Swiss VAT ID on an invoice using the Find Word with Type rule.

First, normalize the invoice text to remove any “.” or spaces between the digits of the Swiss VAT ID. Then, run a Find Word with Type rule to find the VAT ID.

The check is also available in the Validate action. When you select it, only valid Swiss VAT IDs will pass in Validation.

NEW#806: FIND WORD WITH TYPE – ADDED BLACK LIST: The Find Word with Type rule is regularly used to locate the supplier’s VAT ID on an invoice. But it often happens that the receiver’s VAT ID is also mentioned.

The Black list feature, like we already had it for our Validate rules, can be used to exclude the receiver’s VAT ID number(s).

NEW #828: CONVERT TO PDF MRC – ADDITIONAL CORES: The Convert to PDF MRC action now supports up to 6 cores. You can find more information about this on the action’s online help page.

ENHANCEMENT #811 #813 #814: EXTRACT BARCODE – UPDATED BARCODE ENGINE: We’ve upgraded to the latest version of the barcode extraction engine version 9.1.1.5 (previous version was 8.1.1.10).

The new version of the engine is more accurate and also features new methods to detect skewed barcodes.

There are now 7 possible settings for the Deskew mode:

Legacy deskew method: This is the old method to detect skewed barcodes. You need to set the maximum skew angle in the “Skew tolerance” setting. Higher skew tolerance is slower performance.

Deskew OFF: Disable skew detection: Fastest performance.

Pre-printed barcodes: The barcodes are pre-printed and not skewed on the page but the whole page can be skewed.

1 barcode label: A barcode label is applied and can be skewed on the page.

3 barcode labels: Multiple barcode labels are applied on a single page and the labels can be skewed at up to 3 different angles.

4 barcode labels: Multiple barcode labels are applied on a single page and the labels can be skewed at up to 4 different angles.

More than 4 barcode labels: Multiple barcode labels are applied on a single page and the labels can be skewed at up to 5 or more different angles.

 NOTE: Settings 3 through 7 are gradually doing more effort to find barcodes and consequently will affect detection speed accordingly.

ENHANCEMENT #829: ADMIN CLIENT – TOOLTIPS: We’ve added Tooltips to all the client options in the Server Tab.

FIX #751: VRS LITE: When using VRS Lite (Deskew and Auto-Rotate) in the Separate Document / Process Page action, the image in the main test viewer was not corrected for rotation and deskew.

FIX #805: EXPORT TO SHAREPOINT: If a (non-required) date column was mapped and the mapped MetaServer field was empty, the export failed.

FIX #149: EXPORT TO FOLDER: The “File Locked” condition did not work correctly. When there was nothing selected as a next action for the”File Locked” condition, and the file was locked, then the document was not sent to the Errors tab.

FIX #816: EXPORT TO ALFRESCO: Edit Media has been moved to an internal call, just like CreateDocument. Switch to TLS 1.2

FIX #817: VRS LITE: If you separated documents and used VRS Lite on them (Deskew and Auto-Rotate in the Extract Barcode action, for example) and you ran separation on more than 1 queue, all queues except 1 eventually showed errors: ” VrsWorker process vanished”.

FIX #821: GERMAN LOCALIZATION: Spelling error in Tooltip “Zusammenenführen”. Should be “Dokument” instead of “Document”. 

FIX #830: TYPE – EMAIL CHECK: The email check only allowed domain extensions up to 6 characters. We increased it to 20.

For example:
john.doe@company.travelersinsurance
john.doe@company.consulting
..are now accepted.

Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

FIX #808: VALIDATE DATABASE: Improved behavior when pressing ENTER on a lookup field.

Behaviour:

* Case 1:
REQUIRED FIELD: Yes
DB MATCH REQUIRED: No
HITTING ENTER TWICE: Opens list, selects 1st record and continues to the next field. 

NOTE: You can select another record by using the arrow keys or mouse, then press ENTER.

OR

Type anything then press ENTER.

NOTE: If you type a partial value of something that exists in the DB, the ambiguity pop-up appears:

“Do you want to use (   ) BRU or ( O ) BRUSSELS?”

* Case 2:
REQUIRED FIELD: Yes
DB MATCH REQUIRED: Yes
HITTING ENTER TWICE: Opens list, selects 1st record and continues to the next field. 

NOTE: You can select another record by using the arrow keys or mouse, then press ENTER.

OR

Type the beginning of a value in the DB then press ENTER.

NOTE: If you type a partial value of something that exists in the DB, the record that starts with that partial value is selected when hitting ENTER.

* Case 3:
REQUIRED FIELD: No
DB MATCH REQUIRED: No
HITTING ENTER TWICE: Opens list, accepts blank values instantly and continues to the next field.

NOTE: You can select another record using the arrow keys or mouse, then press ENTER.

OR

Type anything then press ENTER.

NOTE: If you type a partial value of something that exists in the DB, the ambiguity pop-up appears:

“Do you want to use (   ) BRU or ( O ) BRUSSELS?”

* Case 4:
REQUIRED FIELD: No
DB MATCH REQUIRED: Yes
HITTING ENTER TWICE: Opens list, accepts blank values instantly and continues to the next field. 

NOTE: You can select another record by using the arrow keys or mouse, then press ENTER.

OR

Type the beginning of a value in the DB then press ENTER.

NOTE: If you type a partial value of something that exists in the DB, the record that starts with that partial value is selected when you press ENTER.

Version 3.1(11) | 2021-03-24

NEW #300: CONVERT – SET PDF PROPERTIES: You can use the Set PDF Properties action to password-protect PDFs and set permissions for certain operations.

In the future, we also plan to add the possibility to map MetaServer fields or fixed values with the standard and custom PDF properties and set the way the PDF viewer opens. This new action is always included with the base MetaServer.

For example, an index file defined with the name:
INDEX_{ Export Date, YYYY }-{ Export Date, WW }{ Export File Extension }

..would generate a new index file on a weekly basis with a name like:
INDEX_2021-09.CSV

These are the new variables:
{ Import Date, WW }
{ Import Date, W }
{ Export Date, WW }
{ Export Date, W }
{ Creation Date, WW }
{ Creation Date, W }
{ Current Date, WW }
{ Current Date, W }

WW = Week number (01-53)
W = Week number (1-53)

NEW #696: NEW OPERATOR WORKING TIME VARIABLES: { Operator Working Time } and { Operator Total Working Time }

You can find the new variables in the System -> Operator variables list.

{ Operator Working Time } is the time when an Operator opened a document in an Organize or Validate action. If the operator opens and closes or skips the document in a given Organize or Validate action, only the total open time is counted in that Validate action.

Every new Validate or Organize action in the workflow resets { Operator Working Time } to 00:00:00. This way you can keep very precise statistics how much time each Organize and Validation step takes per document.

{ Operator Total Working Time } is the total time an Operator opened a document in all Organize and Validate actions together.
 
Example 1: In Validation :

A user opens a document in Validation during 5 seconds, then skips it.

1 hour later, the same or another Operator opens this document from the skipped list and spends another 60 seconds and then presses OK.

{ Operator Working Time } = 00:01:05 (always expressed in hh:mm:ss format)

Every new Validate or Organize action in the workflow resets { Operator Working Time } to 00:00:00
 
Example 2: In the Organizer and Validation:

User opens a document in the Organizer and keeps it open for 45 seconds, then OKs it.

{ Operator Working Time } = 00:00:45

Same or other user opens the same document 1 hour later in Validation for 90 seconds and OKs it.

{ Operator Working Time } = 00:01:30

{ Operator Total Working Time } = 00:00:45 + 00:01:30 = 00:02:15

ENHANCEMENT #696: RENAMED VALIDATION VARIABLES: We renamed the System -> Validation variables group to System -> Operator because these variables refer to both the Organizer and Validation in the Operator Client.

For example:
{ Validation User Name } -> { Operator User Name }
{ Validation Computer Name } -> { Operator Computer Name }

NEW #664: EXPORT TO WEB SERVER: This is the introduction of a generic connector to export through web services. The first implementation is for Gouw7, a software often used by local governments in the Netherlands.

We plan to further expand this action in a future release.

NEW #441: METASERVER MANAGER: This is a new tool installed in the MetaServer folder on the desktop.

With this support tool you can Start / Restart MetaServer in paused mode or only load a limited number of documents in the queue.

ENHANCEMENT #742, #761, #766, #768, #769, #776: IMPROVED STABILITY FOR BIG WORKLOADS: Improved stability when many documents (> 1000 documents) are in the MetaServer queue.

– The open document list in Organizer and Validation, now shows a counter and cancel button when loading a very large list of documents. Reduced memory use.

– Reduced memory use if many documents are queued for Organize, Validate or Skipped.

– Reduced memory use if many documents are queued for “Apply Separation” by unloading redundant separation data

– Restarting MetaServer with many documents in the queue does not cause out of memory issues anymore

Version 3.1(10) | 2021-01-29

NEW #657 #680 #677: EXPORT PROCESSED SET TO EMAIL: The main use case for the Export Processed Set to Email action is to send an email after all documents of a set have been processed.

IMPORTANT: A set is a range of documents originating from a single PDF that was split in multiple documents using the Separate Document / Process Page action or by using the Organizer.

As soon as your workflow contains a Separate Document / Process Page action and/or Organize action, the Export Processed Set to Email action is automatically added at the end of your workflow. The Export Processed Set to Email action is disabled by default.

NEW #654: WORKFLOWS – MOVE ACTION UP AND DOWN BUTTONS: With the Move Up and Move Down buttons you can move Actions to better organize your workflows.

NOTE: Links between actions stay the same as actions are moved, so don’t forget to change those links if required.

NEW #690: SERVER – CONFIGURABLE DOCUMENT TIMEOUT: A document opened in Organizer or Validation is locked for other users and was automatically closed and unlocked for other users after 30 minutes to avoid documents being stuck in validation when someone went for lunch, for example, and forgot to close a document.

We now made this parameter configurable between 15 and 360 minutes. The setting is called “Document Timeout” and can be found in the Clients group in the Server Settings.

NEW #646: TASK – IMPORT METASERVER DATABASE: With the Import MetaServer Database action, you can import CSV files from any location in the local MetaServer DB folder:
C:\CaptureBites\MsData\DB

This is useful for creating a MetaServer database based on an external CSV generated by another program which places the CSV in an unchangeable / fixed location.

NEW #646: BACKUP METASERVER DATABASE: With the Backup MetaServer Database action, you can create a backup of a local MetaServer database and store it somewhere outside of the MetaServer DB folder.

NEW #658: NEW DIAGNOSTIC INFO: After loading the documents, MetaServer writes some info in:
C:\CaptureBites\MsData\Log\DocumentManager.CBMSLog

This log file shows the amount of memory used by its internal database, the document count and the average document size. The file is overwritten when it already exists.

ENHANCEMENT #661: EXPORT TO EMAIL: EMAIL THROUGH LOTUS NOTES SMTP – HANDLING OF NON-EXISTING RECIPIENT: If you try to email to an non-existing email address, most SMTP servers will handle this gracefully and not return an error to the sending application. Instead, it sends a warning email to the sender informing him that the recipient’s address does not exist. 

Lotus Notes SMTP works differently and throws an error to the sending application. We now catch this error and send a warning email to the sender informing him that the recipient’s address does not exist.

Version 3.1(9) | 2020-12-14

NEW #324 #634 #635: VRS AUTO-ROTATE & DESKEW INCLUDED WITH TEXT & BARCODE EXTRACTION: The VRS auto-rotate and deskew functionality is now included with the purchase of the Text Extraction or Barcode Extraction module.

The auto-rotate and deskew correction is not only used to optimize Text, Barcode and OMR extraction but the file is also updated with the corrected result resulting in an improved processed file.

NEW #279: VALIDATE – TEXT: We’ve added “Email Address” to the Type list. The regular expression behind this type is:
/^[-a-z0-9~!$%^&_=+}{‘?]+(.[-a-z0-9~!$%^&=+}{‘?]+)*@([a-z0-9][-a-z0-9_](.[-a-z0-9_]+).[a-z]{2,6}|[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3})(:[0-9]{1,5})?$/i

NEW #651: TASKS – NEW RESTART ACTION QUEUE TASK: We added a new task to Restart Action Queues on a scheduled basis. This task is called “Restart Action Queues”.

Action queues are selected by their type. All actions of the same type are restarted.

A restart consists of:
– pausing, stopping and unloading the threads of the selected queues
– instantiating and starting new threads of the same types

Example use-case:
A customer uses a large number of MetaServer databases.

– A MetaServer database is loaded in memory as soon as you access it for speed reasons.
– Imagine the MetaServer database name changes every day through a dynamic DB name based on index field. Every day, the newly named database will be loaded in memory and the old ones will also stay in memory.

These databases are accumulated over time until you run out of memory or until you restart MetaServer (restarting MetaServer unloads all databases).

Instead of doing this manually, you let a task run every day to unload all the databases automatically and only the databases that are used will be loaded in memory.

ENHANCEMENT #240: TEXT EXTRACTION FROM PDF FORMS (ACROFORM TYPE): The fields of a fillable PDF form (AcroForm Type) were not extracted by MetaServer. We can now directly extract AcroForm fields. AcroForm is the most common fillable PDF form format.

NOTE: The less common XFA forms created with Adobe LiveCycle Designer need to be converted to an image first to extract the field values, you do so by enabling the Apply OCR if PDF contains images option.

NEW #291:  EXPORT TO EMAIL – HTML PREVIEW: We’ve added a Preview button to the HTML Tab to show the result of the HTML body in an HTML viewer pop-up.

Previously, you had to test your email body HTML code in an external viewer to check for errors or see the final result. You can now do this directly in the Export to Email setup by using the “Preview” button.

ENHANCEMENT #309: EXPORT TO EMAIL: We added a new HTML preset to insert a grid of 3 x 3 thumbnail pages in the email body to display up to the first 9 pages of the document.

ENHANCEMENT #278: EXPORT TO EMAIL: It is now possible to use an index field in the from and the cc field.

ENHANCEMENT #303: EXPORT TO DOCUWARE: The direct document link generated by the connector that you for example can include in an email message is now shorter. The trailing “&queryInInvariantCulture=False” was not required.

Version 3.1(8) | 2020-11-12

NEW: OPERATOR CLIENT: EXTRA LANGUAGE OPTIONS: you can now toggle between:
1) Czech
2) Dutch
3) English
4) French
5) German
6) Italian
7) Spanish
8) Portuguese

This is also available for the Organizer, Validation and Error tab of the Admin Client.

If you require a translation for an unlisted language, please contact us for a localization kit.

NEW #630: NEW CREATION DOCUMENT DATE AND TIME VARIABLES: The date and time is the when the file was originally created.

Imagine that the MFP created the file on 1-NOV-2020 10:30h. You copy or move the file to the MetaServer’s watched folder 3 days later on 4-NOV-2020 12:00. The Creation Date / Time would, in this case, be 1-NOV-2020 10:30h.

NEW #632: EXPORT TO ALFRESCO: SUPPORT FOR ALFRESCO ASPECTS: The Export to Alfresco action now supports Alfresco Aspects. Aspects are global properties that can be used with any Alfresco document type.

1) Aspects are implemented with CMIS 1.1 and CMIS 1.1 Basic Authentication. The “Aspects” button is disabled with other protocols.

2) Aspects can be selected from a list after clicking the “Aspects” button next to “Content type”.

3) A content type must be selected, multiple aspects may be selected. The index fields list show the fields of the content type and the different aspects.

ENHANCEMENT #436: EXPORT TO EMAIL / EXPORT TO ALFRESCO: Added the possibility to use fields as values to set parameters. These allow you to dynamically change settings to, for example, easily switch between Production system and a Test system. 

The following parameters now accept fields:

1) Export to Email:
– User Name
– Password
– From
– Display Name

2) Export to Alfresco:
– Address
– User Name
– Password

NEW: #633: IMPORT FROM FOLDER: SCHEDULED PROCESSING OPTION:

Setup shows up to 3 Start processing times:

MetaServer will start importing all available documents at the defined time(s). When finished, MetaServer will wait until the next defined time to import more documents.

For example, if you want to process all documents scanned so far at 12:00 at noon and at 18:00 (6 PM), then you set Time 1 to 12:00 and Time 2 to 18:00.

If 20 documents are available at 12:00, all 20 documents will be processed. Then, MetaServer will wait until 18:00 (6 PM) before starting to process additional documents that arrived between 12:00 and 18:00 (6 PM).

This feature can be used in a notification workflow to send email notifications to people who received scanned mail by postal services. This is a short description of the logic:

You have to define two workflows:

Workflow 1) The first workflow saves the scanned mail once in the user folders and a second time in the watched folder of the second workflow. So you have to define two Export to Folder actions  in your main workflow.

The second export is configured in “overwrite if file exists” mode and exports the scanned mail a second time to the watched folder of workflow 2 which will send the notification emails. If a user has received one or more mailings, there will be one PDF in the watched folder of workflow 2 for that user.

If a user has not received any mail, there will be no PDF in the watched folder of workflow 2.

Workflow 2) The second workflow uses the new “Scheduled processing” option and imports PDF files at 12:00 or another moment in time.

The second workflow does nothing with the PDF, it mainly uses it as a trigger to send a notification email to each user who has received an email. User information and other information can be contained in the file name to pass it to the second workflow and to use it in the notification email.

In short, workflow 2 consists of 3 actions.

Action 1) Import is only done once a day, but you have the flexibility to schedule it up to three times a day at fixed times. You have to delete the imported files to get this notification processing daily.

Action 2) The Extract action is purely there to extract data from the name and subfolder of the imported PDFs (recipient name, recipient email,…) for use in the notification email.

Action 3) Export to Email. You select PDF attachment but you uncheck “Attach files”. The idea is to send an email notification without attachments.

NEW #628: EXPORT TO EMAIL: We added “Request a read receipt” option.

​NEW #522: VALIDATE – DATABASE LOOKUP: BLACKLIST VALUES: you are now able to blacklist values in the Validate Database Lookup setup. This list can be made in the Blacklist setup or you can specify a field containing a list (the values need to be separated by a semi-colon).

Version 3.1(7) | 2020-10-20

If you require a translation for an unlisted language, please contact us for a localization kit.

Confirmed languages for next build:
– German
– Italian
– Portuguese
– Spanish

NEW #162: PDF MRC: This new option is now complete and fully implemented. PDF MRC reduces the size of a 300 dpi JPG image with about 90 to 95%.

We also made it possible to compress images using JPEG 2000 (J2K). This results in excellent image quality with a file that is about 70% smaller than a traditional JPG compressed image.

NEW: #522: VALIDATE – TEXT: BLACKLIST VALUES: you are now able to blacklist values in the Validate Text setup.

This list can be made in the Blacklist setup or you can specify a field containing a list (the values need to be separated by a semi-colon).

NEW #530: VALIDATION: STICKY VALUES: When a validation field is specified as “Sticky”, then the last value is saved and presented automatically as the value for the next document.

Common Use-Cases for a Sticky Value:

1) The operator validates all documents of a box. It introduces the box number when he starts validating the first document, then the box number stays the same for all following documents until he changes it when starting the validation for a new box of documents.

2) The operator enters the contract date for a series of a contracts with the same date. He enters the correct date on the first contract and it stays the same on all following contracts until he changes it again.

The sticky value is stored per station, per workflow and per sticky field.

When the operator closes the Operator Client or Admin client, and opens it again, the last-used value is presented again in the sticky fields.

NEW #532: VALIDATE – TEXT: DOUBLE-ENTRY: “Double-entry” or “Double-Keying” is a process used by operators when they need to enter important information twice. The two entries are then compared with each other to ensure that they match.

When the operator presses ENTER or navigates to the next entry, then the first entry is obfuscated. This is a safety measure for the operator so that they are not tempted to just read the value from the first entry but is forced to look at the document again to enter the second value. It is not possible to Copy / Paste the values.

NEW #543: Make it possible to forget a server. Previously, every selected MetaServer was listed in the Select Server drop-down. However, it was not possible to remove a server from that list. Now, you can right-click any of the servers and select “Forget This Server” to remove it from the list.

NEW #562: CHANGE DATA DRIVE: Modern servers have relatively small SSD drive to hold Windows and key software. The data is kept on a large secondary internal hard drive.

It is now possible to move MetaServer’s data that holds all queued documents, MetaServer databases, workflows, logs, etc. to another drive than the C drive. Typically to a larger internal hard drive. In the server tab, you have a new function called “Data Drive“. It lists all available internal drives. For each drive, you can see the total size and its free space. You can also check the space taken by MetaServer’s data folder.

You simply select the drive you want to move the data folder to and press “Move…”

A warning message will pop up:

When pressing Yes, all data will be moved. Depending on the size of your data folder, this can take some time.

At the end of the process you can decide to keep the original data folder intact or delete the files in the original data folder.

NEW #561: BOOKLET SPLITTER: Booklets or saddle stitched books can be easily produced with modern digital copiers. The copier automatically prints pages in the right sequence, folds the paper and staples the book in the middle delivering a nice booklet in the output tray.

This booklet format is often used by attorneys or notaries to produce contracts, deeds, statements or notarial acts. Also surveys, exams, admission forms etc. are often printed in booklet format.

To split the folded booklets in individual pages with MetaServer, the booklets simply need to be unstapled and unfolded. After scanning the unfolded booklets with a wide duplex scanner, you end up with A3 (297 × 420 mm) or Ledger sized images (11″x17″), in case the folded booklet is A4 or letter size, containing 4 pages per sheet (2 on the front and 2 on the back) in an awkward sequence.

MetaServer’s Split Booklets action will split the unfolded pages in two and put them in the correct sequence.

To demonstrate the Booklet Splitter, we added a new workflow called: CB – BOOKLET SPLITTER

• Samples are available in: C:\META-DEMO\MFP\BOOKLET-SPLITTER
• Copy them in: C:\META-IN\MFP\BOOKLET-SPLITTER to split them
• The result will first be displayed in the Organizer to show the result during a demo, and after approval the result will be placed in PDF format in C:\META-OUT\MFP\BOOKLET-SPLITTER

NEW #575: VRS DESKEW AND AUTO-ROTATE IS NOW INCLUDED WITH TEXT EXTRACTION: New and existing MetaServer licenses that have the Text Extraction module enabled also get access to VRS Deskew, Auto-Rotate and fixed Rotate options.

For existing MetaServer licenses, you simply have to refresh your license to enable the VRS Deskew & Rotate option. Auto-Rotating and deskewing your scanned images before extraction helps improve the OCR read rate. It is just a matter of adding a VRS action and only enable the deskew and one of the Rotate options.

Converting to black & white requires the full VRS option, so make sure that VRS is configured in color mode.

Version 3.1(6) | 2020-09-03

NEW #540: WORKFLOWS – HIGHLIGHTER TO ORGANIZE WORKFLOW ACTIONS: The Workflows tab now features a highlighter tool to mark up actions belonging to each other in the same color.

The tool is also available in the context sensitive right-click menu for each of the actions.

The tool is useful when working with complex workflows containing distribute trees and conditional actions.

NEW #544: CONVERT TO JPG: You can now convert any imported file format to JPG. You can also set the JPG quality level.

When importing JPGs, you also need to go through a Convert to JPG action if you want to output the processed documents (separated / rotated / blanks deleted) in JPG format. To output the processed JPGs, select Processed JPG as the File Source in your export action.

NEW #507: NEW VARIABLE { Document File Type }: this new variable can be equal to one of the following values:
– JPG
– PNG
– TIF
– PDF
– PDF AcroForm
– PDF Image
– PDF Image with Text
– PDF Text
– PDF XFA
– Unknown

You would typically use a Set Field Value rule to populate a field with the Document File Type. Next, you can use a Distribute action to handle each File Type individually.

NEW #517: EXPORT TO BOX – USE BOX ID FOR SUBFOLDER: This new option allows you to provide a direct Box subfolder ID to accelerate export to Box with structures containing 10000s of subfolders.

The subfolder ID must be contained in a MetaServer field and should be selected as the Box ID in the setup. If the Box ID does not exist, MetaServer will fall back using the subfolder structure as defined in the Name entry of the setup.

To disable the feature and define all subfolders in the Document name entry of the main setup as before, just leave the Box ID field empty.

NEW #526: EXTRACT – SUPPORT TO USE ADDITIONAL CORES: So far, MetaServer used only 1 Extraction processing queue. It is now possible to purchase additional queues to leverage systems with multiple cores and increase performance.

Tests on a quad core system tripled the Extraction speed when going from 1 Extraction queue to 4 Extraction queues.

Please note that, if you have a workflow that already uses Kofax VRS, Convert to Searchable PDF, etc.  these actions were already using their own queues and consume CPU resources. This means that you won’t get the same performance increase compared to a system mainly used for Extraction of metadata.

ENHANCEMENT #558: SERVER – IMPROVED WARNINGS WHEN THE CLIENT IS NOT CONNECTED TO A METASERVER: If the user prematurely interrupts the MetaServer discovery when they open the Admin or Operator client for the first time, a warning message is displayed:

When the user opens the backstage to activate or check his license without a MetaServer connection, the activation fields are grayed out and a big red warning message indicates: “”No MetaServer connected! Please go back to the main window and select a MetaServer.”

Version 3.1(5) | 2020-07-21

This patch is automatically installed from this version on. Technically VrsSdkPatch.exe is ran automatically in quiet mode at the end of the MetaServer and Admin installation.

ENHANCEMENT: VALIDATION DEFAULTS: We changed “View” and “Zoom” defaults to “Input (manual navigation)” and “Page width” which are the most commonly used settings.

ENHANCEMENT: EXPORT TO BOX CACHE ENHANCEMENTS:
1) We now store all folders in cache during parsing even those that we don’t need for the current document
2) We now adjust the “parse item count” automatically based on what Box reports as the maximum parse count. Previously, it was set to a fixed value of 100 items, but, apparently, Box typically allows a maximum of 1000 items, reducing the number of Box calls with a factor 10.

FIX: EXPORT TO FOLDER: Previously, the Export to Folder action failed when setting the folder to a server path without subfolders.

When the export folder just contained a server name, like “\\\\LOCALHOST”, and when you exported documents in subfolders under this server path, and those subfolders already existed, then multiple copies of the same file got exported indefinitely. This has been fixed.

FIX: EXPORT TO ENADOC: The user name was not saved correctly, causing export failures.

Version 3.1(4) | 2020-07-10

NEW: EXPORT TO ENADOC: Enadoc is a cloud-based or on-premise DMS that provides user-friendly features to manage large document libraries. The key features of the solution includes enterprise search, on screen document viewers, custom metadata, ability to implement multiple security levels at user and document level, document retention policy management, records management, integration with external systems and disaster recovery capabilities.

For more info, please visit www.enadoc.com

The Export to Enadoc action allows you to export documents to a specific Enadoc library using a Tag profile of choice to set the document’s security level. It also includes the possibility to set a document link that can be shared via email (using an Export to Email action) or include as a hyperlink in a CSV, XML file or database table.

NEW: EDIT – ADD EXTERNAL DOCUMENTS: Use the Add External Documents action to append or prepend additional documents that already exist on disk to the document processed by MetaServer.

For example, you can process a check with MetaServer, read the invoice numbers covered by the check with an extract action and store them in a field called Invoice List.

Next, you use an Add External Documents action to append these invoices already stored on disk and named after their invoice number to the check.

ENHANCEMENT: KOFAX VRS: SHOW FILE SIZE BEFORE AND AFTER VRS PROCESSING: We now show the file size of the page above the viewers before (left side) and after (right side) processing.

ENHANCEMENT: EXPORT TO BOX: You can now also see the field type in the field mapping table (string, date, float or enum). If the field is of the enum type, you can also see the allowed values in Box through a drop-down.

Version 3.1(3) | 2020-06-19

You can map MetaServer fields with Box metadata attributes for precise searching. You can also generate searchable PDFs (or PDF/A) to perform a search on any word in your scanned documents stored in Box.

Once your documents reside in Box, they also become mobile. Box apps are available for Android, iOS and Windows smart phones and tablets. And if you want to store documents on your local system or server, install the Box sync software to keep a local replica of your documents as well.

We spend a lot of time optimizing the export to BOX for speed to handle large document volumes, we accomplished this by caching folder IDs and by using multiple export threads.

You can use the Box connector with any of Box’ subscription plans. However, Metadata & custom templates are only available starting from the Business Plus plan.

NEW: CONVERT – KOFAX VRS: with this new Convert action you can improve image quality. Here are some of Kofax VRS’ key functions:

Perfect Images: Get process-ready images enhancing faint text enabling better recognition and OCR extraction rates.

Color Detection: Detect and retain color in mixed batches of color and black-and-white documents without presorting. Black-and-white documents are stored as very compact files.

Automatic Deskew: Automatically crop and deskew each image based on the content of the original documents.

Auto Orientation: Automatically rotate a page that is scanned in a non-standard orientation.

Blank Page Deletion: Intelligently delete blank pages.

Hole Punch Removal: Eliminate hole punch markings with the surrounding page color.

Cloud-Friendly Images: Suppress noisy backgrounds and shaded areas, resulting in ultra-compact image files that are ideal for display and rapid retrieval over the web.

In the below screenshot, you can see Auto Orientation, Automatic Deskew, Faint Text Enhancement and Hole Punch Removal in action.

If you install MetaServer with the full installer, which you can download from the MetaServer product page, a number of demo documents will be placed in:
“C:\\META-DEMO\\MFP\\KOFAX VRS”

These demo documents are perfect to experiment with the different VRS settings.

NEW: CONVERT TO PDF/A: with the Convert to PDF/A action, you can convert standard PDF files to archivable PDF files for long-term preservation (PDF/A).

NEW: IMPORT EMAIL – DISK SOURCE: you now have two import sources in the Import Email action: IMAP and Disk. When you select Disk as a source, you can import .eml and .msg files from a watched folder instead of watching an email inbox through IMAP.

NEW: IMPORT EMAIL: Replace invalid files / password protected files with a warning image.

Before, invalid / corrupt attachments and password protected attachments were moved to the errors tab and valid attachments continued to be processed. With these new options enabled, the files will be replaced with warning images. This makes it visually clear that some attachments were corrupt or password protected.

The final PDF will look like this:

NEW: VALIDATION: HYPERLINK VALIDATION RULE: We added a new View option with the Hyperlink validation rule. This validation rule opens external files in an associated program.

In Validation, Hyperlinks show as “read only” fields with a hyperlink button. Pressing the hyperlink button opens the file in the associated program.

If the value is not a file but just a folder, then the hyperlink button will open the folder in Windows Explorer.

NEW: ORGANIZER / VALIDATE: OPEN DOCUMENT LIST – FILTER: You can now filter the documents in the document list. Just click the filter icon in the column you want to use for filtering and only check the values you want to display in the list. You can combine filters of multiple columns.

Version 3.1(2) | 2020-04-24

NEW: EXPORT TO EMAIL: INSERT IMAGES AND PAGE THUMBNAILS IN HTML EMAIL BODY: It is now possible to insert one or more pages of the document or up to 5 images from disk in the email body.

You can define the dimensions (by default, we fit the images in a 600 x 600 rectangle) of your page thumbnails and images through the Document Thumbnail or Image From disk setup.

You can use different variables in your HTML code to set the image source (page thumbnail or image from disk) and the width and height. You can also select a predefined full HTML code option to insert the correct HTML code to insert a thumbnail or image.

Document Thumbnail

Variables for document thumbnails:
{ Document Thumbnail, 1 }
{ Document Thumbnail Width, 1 }
{ Document Thumbnail Height, 1 }

The number indicates the document’s page number for the thumbnail, so you can specify which page you want to insert as a thumbnail.

For example:
– Enter 1 for the 1st page
– Enter -1 for the last page
– Enter -2 for the page before the last page
– Etc.

You can also use the “Full HTML” option to generate the correct HTML code to insert document thumbnail of page 1. Simply change the page number if you want to display another page number:

<p>
<img src=”{ Document Thumbnail, 1 }” width=”{ Document Thumbnail Width, 1 }” height=”{ Document Thumbnail Height, 1 }” alt=”Document Thumbnail, 1” title=”Document Thumbnail, 1“>
</p>

Images from disk

You can insert JPG, PNG, static and animated GIFs to your email body. These can be selected and mapped to the image variables during setup by first copying them to the following folder:
C:ProgramDataCaptureBitesProgramsMetaServerDataImages

Variables for images from disk:
{ Image From Disk, 1 }
{ Image From Disk Width, 1 }
{ Image From Disk Height, 1 }

The number indicates the image number.

You can also use the Full HTML option to generate the correct HTML code to insert Image From Disk, 1. Simply change the image from disk number in the HTML code if you want to display another image from disk:

<p>
<img src=”{ Image From Disk, 1 }” width=”{ Image From Disk Width, 1 }” height=”{ Image From Disk Height, 1 }” alt=”Image From Disk, 1” title=”paid stamp”>
</p>

You can also select the “Full HTML including Hyperlink” option to insert a clickable image pointing to a hyperlink:

<p>
<a title=”CaptureBites Software Development and Consulting” href=”https://www.capturebites.com/“>
<img src=”{ Image From Disk, 1 }” width=”{ Image From Disk Width, 1 }” height=”{ Image From Disk Height, 1 }” alt=”Image From Disk, 1” title=”cb logo”>
</a>
</p>

If you want to insert another image than image 1, just replace the number with the desired image number.

Version 3.1(1) | 2020-03-27

NEW: ONLINE LICENSE ACTIVATION:

IMPORTANT: After upgrading to MetaServer version 3.1.1, a pop-up window will ask you to request a serial number. If you haven’t received a serial number already, please press the “Request a Serial Number” button and fill out the form. We will send you your serial number as soon as possible.

Please also note that old MetaServer activation codes (e.g. “K-123F0-12345-123B4-CD12B-C0D12-E1EB2”) are not compatible with this version and future releases of MetaServer. You can apply for a replacement serial number through our online request form.

Previously, customers had to install MetaServer first before we could provide the activation code. With this new licensing system, the customer immediately receives a unique serial number when he orders MetaServer that he can use to activate his license.

The new licensing system features following capabilities:

1) Online Activation: Just enter the serial number and press Activate. A serial number can only be used on one machine. To reuse it, it needs to be deactivated first. A detailed guide on how to activate MetaServer can be found here.

2) Online Deactivation: liberates a license serial number so it can be used on another machine.

3) Online Refresh: the customer can order additional MetaServer modules which are linked with their existing serial number. To enable these additional modules, the customer simply needs to open the license tab and press Refresh to activate them.

4) Offline Activation: if your system does not have a network connection, you can activate / deactivate your license manually on another device with an internet connection. A detailed guide on how this works can be found here.

NEW: ORGANIZER: Organize a document before all thumbnails are created. This means that thumbnails are now only created when you need them, making it possible to interact with the document sooner.

ENHANCEMENT: FIND WORD – ACCEPT WORDS FROM DB: If you try to test a document with an empty DB table (= zero records), you get a warning message: “Rule X, Find Word with Mask / Words: Accept words from database: table ABC is empty. Please add records to your table.”

Version 3.1(0) | 2020-03-13

NEW: ONLINE LICENSE ACTIVATION: This is a limited Beta version.