Technical info and insight on using Oracle Documaker for customer communication and document automation
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September 22, 2017
15 Minutes to Documaker and WebCenter Content Success
So, how can you use WCC with Documaker? Documaker integrates with WebCenter Content for two reasons: pushing published documents into a repository, and pulling documents for inclusion in a document transaction. The latter happens only when Documaker Interactive, part of Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition (ODEE), is used. The former happens as part of the Documaker Connector when using Oracle Documaker Standard Edition (ODSE) or part of the Archiver worker process when using ODEE. This guide will focus on the specifics of ODEE integration into WebCenter Content. Some information may be relevant to ODSE integration, but this is covered in detail in the product documentation. In order to publish documents to WebCenter Content (WCC), Documaker needs only a bit of configuration information, however this basic configuration is usually not sufficient for a full-fledged implementation because most companies need to be able to find documents based on more than document title and date. Therefore, it becomes necessary to define additional data elements (“metadata”) that describe the document in WCC, and it is also necessary to source that data in order to push it into WCC. The source of that data is a combination of:
- source systems, which provide initial transactional data to Documaker;
- user-entered data, if Documaker Interactive is used; and
- data that is computed in Documaker processes.
To get started, first you need to plan your WebCenter configuration - review planning documentation and then:
- Determine organizational structure (libraries and folders)
- Determine any document classes or profiles that may be needed
- Identify any global metadata elements that are needed
- Identify any document class-specific metadata elements that are needed
- Identify any special access restrictions
Then, you can configure WebCenter. Wait - you do have a WebCenter installation, right? If not, you can check out this guide which will take you through, step-by-step, to install a fully working system that includes MS SQL Server, WebLogic, WebCenter Content and Documaker Enterprise Edition. If you have an existing Documaker Enterprise installation and you want to test-drive WebCenter, you can download a pre-installed VM. Once you have Documaker and WebCenter up and running, continue on! The two most common activities for getting WebCenter Content to match your business requirements are to organize documents into folders according to metadata values, and to define additional metadata values. To define metadata values first review the documentation, then follow these general steps.
- Open WebCenter Content Server administrator.
- Select Administration > Admin Applets > Configuration Manager. Run the file that downloads.
- Click the Add button on the Information Fields tab to create a new metadata element, give the element a name, and click Ok.
- Define the attributes of the element, such as type, value, requirements, and more, then click Ok.
- Repeat the above two steps as necessary, then click Update Database Design. Review the changes and click Ok.
To organize documents into folders according to metadata values, first review the documentation, then follow these general steps. You will be creating a query folder, also known as a saved search. First, determine where the saved search folder will be located. Ideally you will create an Enterprise Library and/or a subfolder within that library to contain the folder.
- Open WCC User Interface and login.
- Click Browse. To create a Library, click the Create Library button.
- Give the Enterprise Library a unique name, description, and assign a security group, then click Finish. The library will be created.
To create a search folder:
- click the Search button, then click the down arrow in the search bar, and choose “Standard Search”.
- Input the appropriate search criteria that will define your folder - e.g. choose metadata elements and values with appropriate comparison operators such as starts, matches, contains or does not contain. Click Search.
- If the results look correct, click the down arrow under Searching Documents and select Create Saved Search.
- Give the Saved Search a unique name and description, then select the appropriate library(ies) to house the saved search. Click Save. The saved search will now be available under the libraries selected.
In the example screen shots below, I create use the Standard Search form to filter on documents where my metadata value DocumentData1 matches the value pcl.
After verifying that the search contains the documents I want, I'll click Create Saved Search...
...and then choose the enterprise library where the saved search folder will be located.
To test the saved search, upload a document and configure the document criteria to match the saved search. In WCC User Interface, click Browse and then open the library that contains the saved search, then click on the saved search. The document(s) matching the saved search criteria appear. After this point, you'll have a working WebCenter system, read to receive your documents from Documaker. To configure Documaker to publish into WebCenter, follow these steps.
Open Documaker Administrator and login. Select System 1 > Assembly Line 1 > Archiver and click Configure. Select DESTINATION > WebCenterContent > Configuration. Set the following properties:
- destination.name = oracle.documaker.ecmconnector.ucmdestination.UCMDestination
- destination.ucm.connectionstring_0 = idc://<webcenter_cs>:4444
- destination.ucm.importmethod = 0
- destination.ucm.password = <credential password>
- destination.ucm.username = <credential>
- DocumentURL = http://<webcenter_cs>:16200/cs/groups/secure/documents/document/
- UCM.retry.count = 0
Select DESTINATION > WebCenterContent > Defaults. Here you can set any default metadata values for all documents archived into WCC. The property name must be a valid WCC data element. The following are created for you, and you can change these values.
- dDocAccount = docfactory
- dDocAuthor = documentfactory
- dDocType = Document
- default =
- dSecurityGroup = Secure
Select DESTINATION > WebCenterContent > Mappings. Here you can set any metadata elements that will be mapped to transaction or document details using Freemarker notation. When you add metadata elements in WebCenter, you will map them here. You can use columns from any of the ODEE processing tables: JOBS, TRNS, BCHS, RCPS, and PUBS. A listing of some of the fields is in the ODEE 12.6 Administration Guide on page 543. To map new metadata values, click the + and enter the element name and mapping. Save your changes - you will need to restart ODDF for the changes to take effect. You should not delete any of the mappings that come with the system on installation, but you can change them per your requirements. Note: metadata elements created in WCC will not display an “x” in front of the field name, but in ODEE you will need to enter the element with an x as shown below. Also, be aware of any field data type and length limits that you set in WCC and ensure that the values you map into those fields will fit; failure to do so may cause documents to fail to import.
- dDocType = {PUBS.UNIQUE_ID}
- default =
- primaryFile = {PUBS.PUBUNIQUE_ID}.{PUBS.PUBPRTEXT}
- primaryFileExt = {PUBS.PUBPRTEXT}
- xDocumentData1 = {PUBS.PUBPRTEXT}
- xSomeOtherField = {TRNS.TRNCUSSTR001}
That's it! Now when you start pushing documents out of Documaker and into WebCenter, you'll be able to login and see them in your saved search folders. This screenshot shows the Documaker enterprise library, with three saved search folders: NotPCL Documents, PCL Documents, and test. The saved search criteria for NotPCL Documents and PCL Documents are simple "contains" and "does not contain" the value "pcl" in the metadata field DocumentData1, which was mapped in Documaker to the extension of the published document (not very useful, but an easy demonstration of how to push values in).
We can see that the PCL Documents saved search has some files in it...
...and if we look at the metadata for one, we can see that it does have the "pcl" value
I hope this has been useful for you; feel free to drop a comment here or in the Documaker community to discuss!