What's New in Laserfiche Rio, Laserfiche Avante, and Laserfiche Forms 10 White Paper Limited Release, November 2015
Table of Contents New Features in the Laserfiche Server, Client, and Web Access... 4 Starred Entries... 4 Import Profiles... 4 Recycle Bin Search... 5 New PDF Compression Options... 5 Template-Specific Required Fields... 5 Audit Trail... 5 Settings Lockdown... 5 Search Improvements... 5 New Features in Laserfiche Web Access... 6 New User Interface... 6 Quick Access Views... 6 Unified Metadata Pane... 7 Discussions... 7 Streaming Media... 7 Cloud Import Services... 7 Record Timeline... 8 Report Generation... 8 Improved Microsoft Outlook Import... 8 Within-Document Search with Context Hits... 8 Integration Options... 8 New Features in Laserfiche Forms... 8 Teams and Enhanced Task Management... 9 Improved Workflow Integration... 9 Operational Dashboard... 9 Canvas Enhancements... 9 Instance Monitoring... 10 Form Fields Enhancements... 10 Automatically Load the Next Task in the Process... 10 New Process Diagram Objects... 10 Lookup Rule Enhancement for Tables and Collections... 11 2
New Features in Laserfiche Workflow... 11 Update Word Document Activity... 11 New Activities for Laserfiche Forms 10... 11 Create Automatic Replies Activity... 11 PDF Metadata Activity... 12 Miscellaneous Improvements... 12 New Features in Laserfiche Directory Server... 12 Global Laserfiche User Accounts... 12 Single Sign-On Support... 12 Password Policy and Password Recovery Options... 13 Failover Cluster Support... 13 Bulk Creation of Laserfiche User Accounts... 13 New Features in Laserfiche Mobile... 13 Forms in Laserfiche Mobile... 13 Quick Capture... 13 Local Documents... 13 Signatures... 14 Image Enhancements and Signatures on Forms Attachments and New Documents... 14 Recently Opened Documents and Starred Documents... 14 New Features in Laserfiche Social BPM... 14 Expanded Discussion Post Type... 14 Web Access Integration... 14 Version History... 15 Badges and Achievements... 15 Notifications... 15 Site Metrics... 15 Search Thesaurus... 15 3
Laserfiche 10 includes many new features and enhancements that allow you to work with your repository more easily and efficiently. Laserfiche 10 features an all-new fast and responsive interface for Web Access, which combines the administrative convenience of a single web interface to the repository with a new design to make using Web Access easy and enjoyable for users. It also includes significant upgrades to Laserfiche Forms and Workflow, including a tighter integration between the two products that makes them both more powerful. In addition, Laserfiche 10 includes new features across the entire suite, from new administrative tools to user experience improvements to performance enhancements and bug fixes. New Features in the Laserfiche Server, Client, and Web Access Laserfiche 10 introduces several new features in the Laserfiche Server, desktop Laserfiche Client, and Web Access to make it easier to work with documents in your repository. Starred Entries Users can now mark documents and folders that they want to easily find again with a star. Starred entries are listed in their own quick access view, allowing users to quickly locate a specific document or folder again. For instance, a user might star a form that they frequently need to refer to, or their own personal folder. Stars are user-specific, allowing users to mark exactly the entries that they need to locate. Once an item has been starred, it will show up in the starred quick access view in the desktop Client, Web Access, and Laserfiche Mobile, making it easy to find regardless of the platform being used. Import Profiles In many cases, users need to frequently import documents of consistent types. For example, a user in the HR department might need to frequently import resumes and applications for prospective employees, as well as tax or insurance information for existing employees. In Laserfiche 10, users can streamline this process by setting up import profiles for commonly-imported document types. An import profile allows you to configure a default name, folder path, template, and/or volume for imported documents of a particular type. Then, when importing a document, you can simply select the import profile from the list, rather than manually selecting the appropriate path, template, and so forth. The HR employee in the example above might set up one import profile for Applications and Resumes and another for Tax Information. You can also extract information from the file name and use it to dynamically create the document name or path. For instance, if application file names always contain the applicant s name, you could extract that section of the file name and use it to automatically store the document in a folder named for the applicant. Import profiles are saved on a per-user basis, and are stored as trustee attributes. This allows administrators to create profiles and make them available to everyone, as well as permitting users to make their own profiles to suit their own needs. 4
Recycle Bin Search You can now perform searches for documents in the recycle bin, allowing you to easily locate deleted documents. You can search on many of the properties of the deleted document, including document name, fields, and tags. All users can search for documents they themselves deleted, and users with the Manage Entry Access privilege can search across all documents in the recycle bin. This is especially useful for administrators, who may need to locate an accidentally-deleted document, or identify which documents contain a particular metadata type. New PDF Compression Options When downloading imaged documents as PDFs, users now have a new option for PDF compression. You can choose to optimize compression for text on color images. This is most useful for images that are in full-color, but that mostly consist of text. Template-Specific Required Fields In previous versions of Laserfiche, required fields existed solely as an attribute of the field: if a field was marked as required, then it would be required in all templates to which it belonged. However, in some cases, users wanted to be able to mark a field as required in one template, but not in another. For example, an Employee Name field might be required on an HR template, where it is a critical piece of information, but optional on a Reports template, where there might or might not be an employee associated with the report. You can now mark fields as required on a template-by-template basis, in addition to the already-present global required field property. Audit Trail Laserfiche Audit Trail has been enhanced with an improved, more modern user interface and more intuitive report creation behavior, as well as fixes and performance enhancements. Settings Lockdown Laserfiche offers many settings for users to customize their experience in the repository, but in some cases administrators may want to restrict some or all users from modifying certain settings. For instance, administrators might want to prevent users from modifying search settings that could impact search performance, or prevent users from changing the way that imported documents will be stored. In Laserfiche 10, administrators can lock down certain sets of options, either for the entire repository or for specific users or groups. They can then establish a global default that will be used instead. Settings lockdown and global defaults are configured using trustee attributes. Search Improvements Laserfiche 10 features a new search processor, resulting in significant improvements to search performance and behavior. In addition to improved performance, the 5
search processor now supports additional advanced search types, including support for searching for the date a record entered final disposition, the date a document was checked out, or the date that the electronic file portion of an electronic document was last modified. In addition, the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service now features improved performance during indexing. New Features in Laserfiche Web Access In addition to supporting the same new features as the Laserfiche Client and Server, above, Laserfiche Web Access includes many new improvements of its own. Foremost among these is an all-new, fast and responsive user interface. New User Interface The look and feel of Laserfiche Web Access has been completely overhauled. It now features a clean, modern look, faster page loading, and an interface that responds immediately to user actions. In addition, Web Access is now responsive to the platform on which it is being used; it adjusts automatically for the best display on phones, tablets, and monitors of various sizes. The new user interface also includes the following improvements: Full screen mode in the document viewer, to maximize screen real estate. Continuous scrolling when viewing a document. Multi-column page and thumbnail display, allowing you to view multiple document pages at once. Documents open in dedicated tabs, allowing you to move them to their own window or display two documents side by side. A preview pane in the folder browser allows you to view the pages or thumbnails of a document before you open it. A streamlined interface for searching. Quick Access Views Web Access now features quick access lists, allowing users to easily locate exactly the documents they need. The following quick access views are available in Web Access 10: Documents in Use. Documents that the user either has checked out or locked for editing will appear in the Documents in Use quick access view. This allows users to locate documents that they re working with, save or discard changes, and check them in. Starred. Users can mark documents and folders as starred so that they can quickly find them again in the Starred quick access view. See Starred Entries, above, for more information. Recently Opened Documents. The documents that you most recently opened whether in Web Access, the Laserfiche Client, or Laserfiche Mobile will be listed in the Recently Opened Documents quick access view. 6
This allows you to find the documents you were working with last without having to search or browse to them again. Records Management. The Records Management quick access list allows records managers to quickly view records management entries that are ready to be processed. You can automatically generate reports of records eligible for cutoff or for disposition, and vital records that are ready for review. You can also choose whether to view records and record folders, or just record folders. Unified Metadata Pane To make it easy to quickly find the information you need, Web Access 10 features a unified metadata pane in both the Folder Browser and Document Viewer. In the Folder Browser, you can view metadata on both documents and folders without needing to open them; in the Document Viewer, the metadata pane puts all the information about the document at your fingertips. This allows you to review and edit the metadata associated with an entry all in one place, rather than needing to open a new dialog box or switch between multiple tabs. In addition, you can choose to display advanced information about the entry, such as its ID, volume, and effective rights for the currently signed-in user, directly in this pane. You can also calculate the size of the entry and its contents. Discussions Web Access 10 features an integration with Laserfiche Social BPM. Users can start a discussion in the Web Access details pane, which will automatically create a matching thread on Social BPM. Users who access the document or folder in Web Access can view and participate in the discussion directly in the Folder Browser or Document Viewer, and users who view the discussion in Social BPM can view the document or folder embedded in the Social BPM thread. You can use this to ask questions about documents or processes, provide feedback, and discuss the information you re working with in your repository. Streaming Media When viewing audio and video files in Web Access, users can now choose to stream the media to their browser rather than downloading the files first. Streaming is supported for MP4, WEBM, OGV, and OGG video files, and MP3, WAV, OPUS, and OGA audio files. Note: Support for streaming media is partially dependent on the browser used to access Web Access, and to the codecs that a user has installed. A media file that is supported for streaming in Web Access may still fail to play if the browser does not support it. Cloud Import Services Users can now import documents from Google Drive, OneDrive, or OneDrive for Business directly into Laserfiche. This allows you to quickly capture and centrally store all your content, without needing to export it first. Administrators can choose 7
to enable import from any or all of these services. Once they have done so, users will be provided with the option to import from the relevant cloud import service or services. Record Timeline For users with Records Management Edition, Web Access 10 now features a record timeline, allowing you to easily see and work with life cycle information for a record. You can view the record s current stage, perform actions such as cutoff and disposition directly from the timeline, and review record information such as cutoff instructions and retention schedules, all directly in the details pane and without having to open additional dialog boxes. Report Generation Web Access 10 makes it easy to generate reports on documents and folders in your repository. Using the Generate Report action, you can create a report based on the contents of a folder, a set of search results, or the contents of a quick access list. You can specify exactly what information to include in the report any information that can be displayed as folder columns can also be included in a report and whether to export the report in comma-separated or tab-separated format. Improved Microsoft Outlook Import Importing emails from Microsoft Outlook is even easier with Web Access 10. You can now drag and drop emails directly from Outlook into Web Access. You can also use the Save to Open Folder button in the Laserfiche ribbon to save emails to the folder you currently have open in Web Access, or the Save to Default Folder button to save them to the default folder you have configured in the Web Administration Console. Within-Document Search with Context Hits Searching within a document is now faster and easier. You can search directly from the quick search bar at the top of the document. Context hits will display in a dropdown, allowing you to navigate through search hits or jump straight to the one you want. Integration Options Web Access 10 now features new integration options. With custom actions, you can add a customized toolbar button to the folder browser toolbar, the document viewer toolbar, or the context menu in the contents pane. In addition, you can now use responsive view mode options to configure the way Web Access will be displayed when embedded as an iframe. New Features in Laserfiche Forms Laserfiche Forms 10 adds a wide-ranging number of features to the product. The following sections highlight some of the biggest additions. 8
Teams and Enhanced Task Management Teams provide a way to organize and route tasks in Laserfiche Forms. Tasks can be assigned to an entire team and be visible to all team members in a central list. From this list, team members can chose to complete tasks that interest them or managers can directly assign the tasks to team members. You can assign, reassign, and release tasks to make sure they are completed by the correct person and to balance the workload. Additionally, you can configure your process to automatically assign tasks to users, a team, or a subset of a team. You can even automatically assign tasks round-robin. In addition, the tasks list now features a new interface that allows you to customize columns and configure sorting and filtering options. You can also save tasks as drafts to complete later. The tasks list can now also update in real time. Newly assigned tasks will display in a user s task list without the need to manually refresh the page. Improved Workflow Integration The Workflow service task in Laserfiche Forms allows you to start a workflow from a Forms process. This task has been enhanced; you can now retrieve values from that workflow and assign those values to forms process variables. This means that any value that can be retrieved or generated using a workflow can now be used in a Forms process. Combined with the enhancements to Forms-related activities in Workflow (see New Activities for Laserfiche Forms 10, below), this allows you to take advantage of Workflow s powerful processing with the user-friendliness of Forms processes. Operational Dashboard The new operational dashboard provides a quick and easy way to view the current status of a process. You can view how many instances are currently running or at a particular stage, and how many tasks are close to reaching their deadline, or are already overdue. If you have organized your processes as distinct stages, you can easily identify exactly where in the process each instance is. Canvas Enhancements The canvas now features a grid system. Objects on the canvas will snap to grid cells. Look for the Auto Space option to compact a process diagram. Forms will run a best fit algorithm to remove excess grid whitespace. Processes can now be organized into stages on the canvas. Managers can use the new operational dashboard to view progress of process based on these stages. 9
Instance Monitoring Administrators now have the option to view the status of all process instances or view all instances of a specific process. For example, if an administrator wants to see if any instances have been terminated, they can quickly do so. Make use of the new filtering and sorting options on these views to quickly see issues with running instances. View error log entries directly from the report. Form Fields Enhancements Geolocation field: Geolocation fields are a specialized field types that accept longitude and latitude coordinates for a location. If you are filling out a form from a device with location services enabled, this field can automatically get and store your current location. Adding this field to forms makes it easy to track where forms are filled out. Number fields now support decimals and the option to display a comma as a thousands delimiter. Number, text, date, and currency fields now support native calculation functionality. If you want to perform a calculation such as calculating an age from a date field, or calculating a price based on several sale variables you can now do so directly in Forms, without needing to use custom Javascript. The Advanced tab includes a Calculation section where you can specify formulas based on the OpenFormula standard, the same as is used by Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Automatically Load the Next Task in the Process If the next user task in the process is assigned to the same person as the previous user task, you can configure the user task's form to appear immediately after the user submits the previous user task's form. New Process Diagram Objects In Forms 10, new processing enhancements can help you manage more involved or complex processes. Terminate End Event: This event will end the entire process and all subprocesses, not just the process flow with this event. Signal Event: The signal intermediate event lets you interrupt a process flow and then jump to another process flow that starts with a corresponding signal intermediate event. This is particularly useful in a scenario with parallel processes. For example, if a particular form must be approved by two teams and one team rejects it, you can use a signal event to cancel the other process, which no longer needs to be done as the form has already been rejected. 10
Lookup Rule Enhancement for Tables and Collections Lookup rules can now insert data as new rows in tables and collections. New Features in Laserfiche Workflow Laserfiche Workflow 10 adds several new powerful activities, allowing you to dynamically generate Microsoft Word documents and work more closely with Laserfiche Forms, along with other miscellaneous improvements. Update Word Document Activity The new Update Word Document activity allows you to dynamically create Microsoft Word documents from a document template using Workflow. This enables you to automatically generate personalized letters, agendas, permits, forms, or any other document type that can be constructed using token substitution. Any token you have available from a Workflow process can be used in the Word document. For instance, you could dynamically create a letter and populate the recipient s name and address from field information. You can also choose to generate a PDF from the Word document at the end of the process. The activity supports two options: Find and replace: Specify a search string and replacement string. Process Microsoft Word Merge Fields: Configure the activity to process merge fields and insert values for the specified merge fields. New Activities for Laserfiche Forms 10 Workflow 10 features significantly enhanced integrations with Laserfiche Forms. You can now launch a new Forms process from within a workflow, and pass information from a workflow to a Forms process. When combined with the ability to launch workflows directly within Forms (see Improved Workflow Integration, above), this gives you a set of powerful tools for taking advantage of both the userfriendliness of Forms and the processing power and flexibility of Workflow. The following activities enable a closer integration with Laserfiche Forms: Invoke Business Process: Start a Laserfiche Forms business process. Set Business Process Variables: Set output parameter values that will be processed by Laserfiche Forms. This allows you to update the variables of a Forms business process using a workflow, and thus take advantage of Workflow s powerful activities and processing abilities. Create Automatic Replies Activity This activity allows Workflow to configure options for Microsoft Exchange automatic replies (Out of Office). 11
PDF Metadata Activity Add the PDF Metadata activity to a workflow to read or write PDF metadata values on a PDF file. Miscellaneous Improvements Token Calculator formula support: The Token Calculator activity now includes formulas when creating custom tokens. Token Calculator uses the OpenFormula standard, the same as is used by Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Email attachment watermarks: You can now configure a watermark for email attachments sent through the Email activity. New Features in Laserfiche Directory Server Directory Server 10 introduces the addition of global Laserfiche users. These users are shared across all Laserfiche products that support authentication through Directory Server. In addition, Laserfiche Directory Server now enables Laserfiche Rio to support single sign-on across all Laserfiche 10 web products without the need to rely on Active Directory accounts or Novell edirectory accounts. Note: Laserfiche Directory Server and associated features are specific to Laserfiche Rio installations. Global Laserfiche User Accounts You can now create global Laserfiche user accounts through the Directory Server administration site. In contrast to Laserfiche repository user accounts, a global Laserfiche user account is not limited to the context of a single Laserfiche repository. Previously, to allow a user access to two repositories, you would either need to add them to the repository as a Windows or Novell edirectory account, or you would need to create two separate repository users and grant each one its own license. Now, you can create a single Laserfiche directory user and grant it a single license, and use it to sign in to both repositories. Single Sign-On Support The Directory Server 10 Security Token Service (STS) supports signing in with directory account credentials and single sign-on across all Laserfiche 10 web products, including Laserfiche Mobile. For example, when a user signs in to Web Access, if that user then visits your Laserfiche Forms site they will automatically be signed in there as well no need to provide credentials again. This also allows users to sign in with their directory user account credentials without needing to manually type a user name and password or configure Kerberos. 12
Password Policy and Password Recovery Options In Laserfiche Directory Server, you can now specify a password policy for user accounts, similar to the password complexity requirements supported in Laserfiche Server. You can also configure the ability for Directory Server to send password reset emails for users that forget their password. Failover Cluster Support Directory Server now includes support for Windows Failover Clustering. Bulk Creation of Laserfiche User Accounts To simplify the quick creation of many Laserfiche user accounts, you can now import a list of users. An administrator can create a CSV file of the Laserfiche user accounts they want to create, and then import that file to perform a bulk creation of those accounts. You can also export a CSV file of user accounts. New Features in Laserfiche Mobile The Laserfiche Mobile 10 release includes the Laserfiche Mobile Server, Android app, and ios app. This release introduces the ability to interact with the Laserfiche Directory Server single sign-on feature as well as new features in Laserfiche Forms. Additionally, you can now work with local documents without a repository connection, sign new documents, apply image enhancements and signatures to Forms attachments, add stars to entries, and more. Forms in Laserfiche Mobile Laserfiche Mobile supports new features introduced in Laserfiche Forms 10. Users who are part of a Forms team can now see tasks assigned to them, assign available tasks, view completed tasks, and view additional information about each task. Tasks that have been started but not completed can be saved as drafts and completed at a later date. This makes working with forms more accessible and mobile. Quick Capture Users who do not currently have access to a Laserfiche repository (generally due to lack of connection) can quickly capture documents, perform image editing on them, sign them, and save them to their local device without signing in to Laserfiche Mobile. This allows existing users without a connection to continue capturing and editing new. Local Documents Documents saved as offline copies and captured using quick capture are now organized in a central location under Local Documents. They can be accessed from the Laserfiche Mobile start page or the main menu in the app. 13
Signatures Newly captured PDFs and images can be opened locally on the device, signed in Laserfiche Mobile, and either shared to any app on the device (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) or sent directly to a repository. For example, Sally receives an email with a PDF attached that needs her signature. She can open the PDF as a local document in Laserfiche Mobile, sign it, and return it to the sender as an email attachment without being connected to a repository. Image Enhancements and Signatures on Forms Attachments and New Documents When attaching a document to a form using Laserfiche Mobile, the attachment can have image enhancements and a signature applied before uploaded to a form. For example, a receipt attached to a form can be converted to black and white and signed by a manager before uploaded and submitted with the form. In addition, the updated New Document Viewer adds the ability to apply image editing to the document and sign it. Recently Opened Documents and Starred Documents Laserfiche Mobile allows you to view the documents most recently opened in the repository. In addition, Laserfiche Mobile supports the ability to star documents and folders for quick future access. See Starred Entries, above, for more information. New Features in Laserfiche Social BPM Laserfiche Social BPM 10 expands on the functionality of discussion post types. In addition, Web Access users can start Social BPM posts from Laserfiche documents. Note: Laserfiche Social BPM and associated features are specific to Laserfiche Rio installations. Expanded Discussion Post Type Discussion post types now support additional types of replies: Create a new sub-discussion Ask a question Create a checklist Users can mark sub-discussions as being resolved. Questions within the discussion can be marked with their own answer. Similarly, checklist items are automatically marked as being resolved when all items in the list are selected. Web Access Integration Social BPM and Web Access now include an integration option. Start a discussion from within the Web Access Metadata Pane and automatically create a thread within your Social BPM site. Use the Details Pane in Web Access to view the discussion 14
and add replies. In Social BPM, the discussion post will include an embedded version of the Web Access Document Viewer that allows you to view the Laserfiche Document image pages, or folder contents, directly within Social BPM. Version History Social BPM now tracks changes to posts. Users can choose to view past versions of a post, and can view in-line changes from version to version. Badges and Achievements Site administrators can now configure badges to add additional visual indicators on a member's profile page. Members can earn these badges by meeting specific requirements associated with participating in the Social BPM site. Notifications Social BPM now features notifications. Use the bell icon to view an activity feed. In addition, Social BPM now supports real-time in-site updates. When someone replies to a post that you are currently viewing, Social BPM will automatically update the page to include the new reply without you needing to manually refresh the page. Site Metrics Site administrators can now view a variety of charts on member participation in the Social BPM site. Filter data by a desired time frame. Search Thesaurus By default, searches performed in Social BPM will return related words. For instance, a search for run will also return posts with the words ran or running. In Social BPM 10, you can also configure synonym groups to improve the search experience for site members. Site administrators can group similar or related words or common misspellings in the search engine. Searching for a word or phrase in a synonym group will return search results that contain any of the other words and phrases in the synonym group. 15
What's New in Laserfiche Rio, Laserfiche Avante, and Laserfiche Forms 10 November 2015 Author: Constance Anderson, Misty Blair, Roger Wu Technical Editor: Justin Pava, Miruna Babatie, Julia Zhu Editor: Misty Blair Description: Laserfiche 10 includes many new features and enhancements that allow you to work with your repository more easily and efficiently. Laserfiche 10 features an all-new fast and responsive interface for Web Access, which combines the administrative convenience of a single web interface to the repository with a new design to make using Web Access easy and enjoyable for users. It also includes significant upgrades to Laserfiche Forms and Workflow, including a tighter integration between the two products that makes them both more powerful. In addition, Laserfiche 10 includes new features across the entire suite, from new administrative tools to user experience improvements to performance enhancements and bug fixes. Laserfiche 3545 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90807 U.S.A Phone: +1.562.988.1688 www.laserfiche.com Laserfiche is a trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc. Various product and service names references herein may be trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc. All other products and service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. Laserfiche makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of these contents at the time of publication. They are for information purposes only and Laserfiche makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the information herein. Copyright 2015 Laserfiche All rights reserved 16