Understanding Applications, Inputs, Searches, and Connections

Introduction 1-3 Figure 1–1 Oracle IPM Process Overview

1.4 Understanding Applications, Inputs, Searches, and Connections

Applications, inputs, searches, and connections refer to specific objects within Oracle IPM created using the Oracle IPM interface or services in the application programming interface API. Understanding what they are and how they work together to control access to documents is critical to creating them and working with Oracle IPM. Applications Applications are the core of Oracle Imaging and Process Management. In Oracle IPM, an application is not a separate software package, but a type of management container for documents uploaded to Oracle IPM. In effect, an application is a category into which documents get sorted. Each application has unique security rights that are applied to documents in the application, and unique metadata fields to store the metadata values associated with each document. Changing security rights within an application affects access to all documents within the application. Similarly, adding a metadata field to an application adds the field to all documents within the application, however metadata values for the added field must be supplied individually to each document. Inputs Inputs are the way that documents are uploaded to Oracle IPM and metadata is associated with them. Metadata values for a document are typically supplied when a document is uploaded. Documents can be uploaded individually and metadata values supplied manually by the person uploading the document. Most often documents are uploaded in bulk using a scanning station. When uploaded in bulk, the scanning 1-4 Administrators Guide for Oracle Imaging and Process Management station generates an input file. The input file includes the path to the scanned document and the values for the document metadata. An input agent is used to watch specified locations and process any input files placed there by the scanning station. The documents specified in the input file are uploaded to an application in Oracle IPM. The target application is also specified in the input file. The metadata values in the input file populate the fields of the application based on an input definition created in Oracle IPM. The input definition maps the metadata values in the input file to the correct metadata fields of the selected application. Once documents are uploaded into an application with the correct metadata values, a search is used to retrieve documents relevant to your business process. Searches Searches are used to retrieve a listing of documents from Oracle IPM. A search can be run across one or multiple applications, and the returned results listing can be e-mailed to others or exported to a file. Documents listed in a search result can be viewed, downloaded, copied to other applications, or otherwise manipulated as your business need requires. Searches are created using the Oracle IPM interface in much the same way that applications are created. The person responsible for creating the search determines what fields are to be searched within which applications. Note that searches can span multiple applications. For example, someone in the Accounts Payable department at XYZ Company receives an invoice that references a purchase order number. Before the person pays the invoice, they must first verify that the purchase order is valid and that the goods listed on the invoice have been received. They could execute a single search on the purchase order number that would search both the documents uploaded into the Purchase Orders application and the documents uploaded into the Shipping Receipts application. The search results listing returned could show whether the purchase order existed and note if there is a shipping receipt associated with it, verifying that the goods were received. If the person needed more detailed information from the documents, they could open both the purchase order and the shipping receipt in the Oracle IPM viewer and compare them to ensure that all items on the purchase order matched the items on the invoice and that all items on the invoice were listed as received on the shipping receipt. Connections Connections are created in Oracle IPM and used to access necessary servers. Two types of server connections are defined in Oracle IPM: ■ repository connections are created to connect to an Oracle Content Server or servers where documents are stored ■ workflow connections are created to connect to workflow servers where a workflow process is defined Oracle IPM stores documents in repositories set up using Oracle Universal Content Management. Multiple repositories can be used, with connections created in Oracle IPM to each repository using the Oracle IPM interface. If your business process requires documents in a particular application to move through a workflow, then a connection to the workflow server where the workflow is defined can also be created in Oracle IPM, and the application can be set to initiate the workflow when a document is upload to it. Controlling Access Access to the documents is controlled by a number of factors. First, by controlling access to the Oracle IPM system. Second, by assigning permissions to the Introduction 1-5 applications, searches, and other tools provided by the Oracle IPM system. Lastly, by assigning permissions to the documents within different applications. In the preceding XYZ Company example, only the people authorized to view the purchase order, shipping receipt, and invoice documents would have the rights to do so. The person accessing the documents must have the right to execute the search. If they do not, then they wouldnt even be able to retrieve the documents for viewing. They must also belong to a group that has access to the individual documents in each specific application they work with: Invoices, Purchase Orders, or Shipping Receipts. The type of document security rights granted to the group in the application determines what a person can do with the document. For example, a person in the Accounts Payable group may be able to delete an invoice, but not a shipping receipt, whereas someone in Shipping and Receiving could delete a shipping receipt, but not even view an invoice.

1.5 About System Administration