MetaServer > Help > Export to Folder / FTP

030-020 MetaServer Export – Export to Folder / FTP

With the MetaServer Export to Folder action, you can export your processed documents to a folder structure or FTP server. You can use fixed values, fields and metadata to name your files and folders. You can also create index files (CSV, XML, TXT,…) containing field values and metadata of the processed documents.

If you also want to export the metadata and file location of the exported documents to a database, you can combine the Export to Folder action with an Export to Database action.

You can use one or multiple export to folder actions in one workflow. This can be useful if you want to export a document differently depending on the field values and/or your workflow’s conditions. For example, rejected documents in Validation, can be exported differently than valid documents.

For example:
A hospital needs to archive patient files containing different types of documents. First, the complete file goes through a classification workflow to separate and categorize each document. Depending on the document type, each document will be exported to another workflow’s watched folder for further processing. Finally, each processed document and index file is exported to an FTP server in a comprehensive folder structure.

01 Export to Folder / FTP - Adding the Action

To add an Export to Folder action, select the action after which you want to insert the Export to Folder action and press Add -> Export -> to Folder. The Setup window will automatically open.

You can also open the setup window of an existing Export to Folder action by double-clicking the action or by pressing the setup button on the right side of the action or in the ribbon, as shown below.

In our example, we will make use of the “CB – FLOATING DATA” workflow. This workflow is automatically installed with CaptureBites MetaServer.

02 Export to Folder / FTP – Setup

TIP: The thumbnail on the right will follow you, so you can easily refer to the Setup window. Click on the thumbnail to make the image larger.

Don't forget to add a description to your action.

01 - File Source: press the dropdown button to specify the source of your files.

By default, Processed PDF is selected. This means that the output will be a PDF, no matter what the original imported file type was.

- PDF/TIF/JPG/PNG attachment: refers to the original PDF, TIF, JPG or PNG files that were imported with an Import Email action.

- Excel / Word attachment*: refers to Excel or Word files that were imported with an Import Email action.

- Original Body PDF: refers to the email body converted to PDF format.

- Email PDF: refers to the complete imported email, including all its attachments, converted to PDF format.

- Email EML: refers to the complete imported email including all its attachments in EML format.

- Email MSG: refers to the complete imported email including all its attachments in MSG format.

- Imported PDF/TIF/JPG/PNG*: refers to the original PDF, TIF, JPG or PNG files that were imported with an Import from Folder action.

- Imported Excel / Word: refers to the original Excel or Word files that were imported by with an Import from Folder action.

- Processed PDF: refers to the PDF after every prior action. For example, if you've applied a Scale Page(s) action before exporting to a folder, it will export the scaled PDF.

- Processed TIF: refers to the TIF version of an imported document or attachment converted to TIF with a Convert to Multipage TIF action.

- Processed JPG: refers to the JPG version of an imported document or attachment convert to JPG with a Convert to JPG action.

NOTE: Technically any imported file format such as TIF, JPG and PNG are internally converted to PDF first. So, if you want to separate an imported multipage TIF file and export the separated TIF files, you need to add a Convert to Multipage TIF action before exporting. In the export action, select "Processed TIF" as the File Source.

* = To import Excel or Word documents, you'll need to have a license of the “Import Office Documents” module.

1) Labels: you can change the labels of each file source if you want to use them later as metadata values in your settings.

02 – Destination: select the destination of your exported files.

– Disk: export to a folder on one of your system’s disk drives or on a file server on your local network.
– FTP: connect and export to an FTP Server using the FTP, SFTP or FTPS protocol. This will be explained in more detail later on.

03 Export to Folder / FTP - Setup - Files

When opening the setup window, the Files tab is open by default.

Disable the Export files option if you don’t want export your PDF documents. This is useful when you only need the metadata of the documents in a CSV or XML format. In that case, you would only export the File Index.

01 – If file exists: press the drop-down arrow to choose one of the following actions if a document file with the same name already exists:

1) Use sequence number: you keep both files by creating a new document file by adding a sequence number after the file name. For example, the second instance of “INVOICE_06-01-2018.PDF” will be named “INVOICE_06-01-2018 (2).”.

2) Overwrite: overwrites the already existing document file with the new document file.

3) Append: merges the new document with the already existing document by adding the new document pages after the last page of the already existing document.

4) Prepend: merges the new document with the already existing document by adding the new document pages before the first page of the already existing document.

5) Skip: if the file already exists, the current document will simply not be exported (= skipped).

In most cases this is a better option than “Overwrite”, because there will never be a file locking problem if, for example, the file is already open in a PDF viewer.

NOTE: if you’ve added a sequence number to your file name, but don’t use it (you’ve selected update, overwrite, append or prepend), you will be asked to remove it before proceeding.

02 – Folder: here you can browse to or enter the path of your export folder.

03 – File name: you can set up your file name by combining fixed values, fields and metadata. Click on the drop-down arrow to pick from a list of possible values. You can see a preview of your file name below the input field.

You can also use the file name to dynamically make subfolders by simply inserting a “\” (back-slash).

For example, if you want to add a dynamic subfolder based on the import date’s year, you would use a file name like this:
{ Import Date, YYYY }\{ Field, Date }_{ Field, Account Number }{ File Sequence Number }{ File Type Extension }

List of values:

Clear
My text here
{{}}
{ Space }

• Line:

- { Line Separator }
- { Line Number }
- { Line Count }

• System:

- Server:
- Operator:
- Current Date:
- Current Time:

• Workflow:

- { Workflow Name }

• Document:

- { Document Unique Id }
- Reject:
- { Document Number }
- { Document Count }
- Page:
- { Document File Size }
- { Document Dominant Language }
- { Document Source }
- { Document File Type }
- { Document PDF Compliance }

• Email:

- Inbox:
- { Email Unique ID }
- { Email Import Condition }
- Date:
- Time:
- From:
- To:
- Cc:
- { Email Subject }
- Attachment:
- { Email Attachments List }
- { Email Body Text }

• Import:

- Date:
  - { Import Date, System }
  - { Import Date, DDMMYYYY }
  - { Import Date, DD }/{ Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, DD }-{ Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, MMDDYYY }
  - { Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, DD }/{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, DD }-{ Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date,YYYYMMDD }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }/{ Import Date, MM }/{ Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }-{ Import Date, MM }-{ Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, JJJ }
  - { Import Date, YYJJJ }
  - { Import Date, DD }
  - { Import Date, DDD }
  - { Import Date, MM }
  - { Import Date, MMM }
  - { Import Date, YY }
  - { Import Date, YYYY }
  - { Import Date, W }
  - { Import Date, WW }
- Time:
  - { Import Date, System }
  - { Import Date, HHmmss }
  - { Import Time, HH }:{ Import Time, mm }:{ Import Time, ss }
  - { Import Date, HHmmsstt }
  - { Import Time, HH }:{ Import Time, mm }:{ Import Time, ss }:{ Import Time, tt }
  - { Import Time, HH }
  - { Import Time, hh }
  - { Import Time, ss }
  - { Import Time, tt }
- File:
  - { Import File Page Count }
  - { Import File Full Path and Name }
  - { Import File Full Name }
  - { Import File Name }
  - { Import File Extension }
  - { Import File Root }
  - { Import File Full Path }
  - { Import File Subfolder }
  - Subfolder level (1-10):

• Export:

- Date:
- Time:
- File:

• Creation:

Fields
Field labels
Field confidence levels
Field line counts

04 Export to Folder / FTP - Setup - Email Index

Press the Email Index tab to open its settings.

Enable the Create index file option if you import emails and you want to export an index file per email instead of per document. This can be useful if your emails include multiple attachments and you want to create one index file for all the attachments related to that email.

01 Email Index - Format Setup

To set up the format and content of your index file, press the “…” button next to the Custom Format option.

The Custom Format Setup Window opens…

01 – File type extension: press the dropdown arrow and select your file type extension.

02 – Encoding: here you can choose to use ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-8 BOM, or UTF-16/Unicode encoding. We recommend using the default UTF-8 BOM encoding.

03 – Header, Content, Footer: you can freely define the header, body and footer of your index file by combining fixed values, fields and metadata using the drop-down arrows.

List of values:

Clear
My text here
{{}}
{ Space }