9-2 Administrators Guide for Oracle Imaging and Process Management
After completing these steps, the Input Agent is active and ready to process work. Once you create an application see
Section 4.2, Creating An Application and input
definitions see Section 5.2, Creating Input Definitions
, the Input Agent will start processing jobs.
9.2 Understanding Input Files
The Input Agent performs work based on input files. These are simple text documents, similar to CSV comma-separated values files, that contain lists of files and associated
metadata to index into the Oracle IPM system. The input file can use different encodings as long as the correct encoding is specified in the input definition. Input
Agent looks for all input files that match the input mask of the input definition and not the sample file that is used to define the input definition. Note that sample files are
not required when creating an input through the API. They are only used when creating an input through the user interface so a user can see the data to help choose
the columns.
A sample input file looks like: C:\IPMData\Input Files\print\NewPrintstreams\doc16.txt|NEW
ORDER|100694|B82L|218482 C:\IPMData\Input Files\print\NewPrintstreams\doc17.txt|NEW
ORDER|100694|N71H|007124 C:\IPMData\Input Files\print\NewPrintstreams\doc18.txt|NEW
ORDER|100694|B83W|24710
The detailed structure of an input file is defined as: [path to document file][delimiter][metadata value 1][delimiter]metadata value 2
... delimiter
■
Items in brackets [] are required and items in angle brackets are optional.
■
path to document file is the location of the tiff, jpeg, doc or other file type that is being saved to Oracle IPM. It must be a path that is accessible to the user
account running the Input Agent.
Note: In order to process input files, the Input Agent must have the
appropriate permissions on the input directory and the input directory must allow file locking. The Input Agent requires that the
user account that is running the WebLogic Server service have read and write privileges to the input directory and all files and
subdirectories in the input directory. These privileges are required so that Input Agent can move the files to the various directories as it
works on them. File locking on the share is needed by Input Agent to coordinate actions between servers in the cluster.
WARNING: Input file masks must be unique to the Oracle IPM
system and cannot overlap. Input Agent only processes an input file for one input and will not restage a file to be processed again for a
different input definition. The order in which inputs are processed is random so it is unknown as to which input will pick up a shared
input file.
Understanding Input Agents 9-3
■
delimiter is the character that separates the values from one another, such as the | character.
■
metadata value x are the index values that the application uses to index the document.
■
The delimiter character must be the same character throughout the entire input file and match what is specified in the input definition. The default is a pipe character
|.
■
Only one metadata value is required per required field in the application. For example, if a Name and Date field are both marked as Required in an application,
then the input file must have values for both the Name and Date field as well. Additional values are optional but they must continue to follow the
[delimiter]metadata value format.
■
There is no length restriction per line, but all metadata pertaining to the file must be on a single line because the newline character specifies the start of a new
document.
■
Each value is separated by a delimiter, with the delimited values treated by the Input Agent as Column 1... Column N. Any commands on the line do not count as
a column. See Section 9.3, Using Input Filing Commands.
