Applications are the core of Imaging and Process Management. Consider an application as a type of management container for documents. An application defines a metadata set, storage information, and BPEL process configuration for all documents within it. When creating an application, you assign permissions, associate metadata, define indexing options, determine a storage policy, and specify BPEL processes to initiate as part of the document business flow.
You can reuse an existing application definition within Oracle I/PM by exporting the desired definition to a transportable format via XML. You can then import that definition file into other systems and then modify it appropriately. For more information about exporting and importing, see "Exporting and Importing Definitions".
Documents, either in the original electronic file format or as images of physical documents, are stored in an application. A document consists of a file and the following information that describes the file:
ID: Unique identifier
Name: Original file name when added to the system
Properties: File size, MIME type, file name, creator, lock, version, application ID and application name
Field Values: Application metadata
Permissions: Access to documents
Supporting Documents: Associated artifacts such as text or images
Annotations: Online notes within the document such as an approval stamp or text.
Because documents reside in applications, they also have an application ID and application name as properties. An application defines the metadata set for all documents within that application. When a document is added to the system, the application determines the metadata set, and the user or input file supplies the field values. If an application metadata set is modified, it affects all documents in the application.
With the proper permissions, users can make annotations to documents. These annotations are also stored in the system.
Uploading, sometimes called ingesting, is the process for getting documents into the Oracle I/PM system, associating the document with application metadata, and indexing. Document metadata and full-text of a document is indexed at the time of uploading based on the application in which it resides. The indexing process varies depending on the format of a document and the way it is uploaded.
Once a document is uploaded, it can be retrieved by searching and printed or viewed. The viewing process uses Oracle Outside In Technology which supports more than 400 file formats. To learn more about Oracle Outside In Technology, see the Oracle OutsideIn Technology web site at http://www.oracle.com/technologies/embedded/outside-in.html. Once uploaded, the document can be viewed using the Oracle I/PM document viewer. The advanced mode of the document viewer also allows the annotating a document.
Upload a document in one of the following ways:
Upload individual documents using the Upload Document Tools interface.
Upload documents in bulk using the Oracle I/PM input Agent. For more information, see "Managing Inputs".
Use a custom application to upload documents using the Oracle I/PM APIs. For more information about using Oracle I/PM APIs, see the Oracle® Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Imaging and Process Management.
For more information about uploading documents, see Oracle® Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Imaging and Process Management.