Basic .lfe Format

An .lfe shortcut contains XML data telling the Laserfiche Client what to display. You can create an .lfe either by creating an .lfe in the Laserfiche Windows client and making changes to it, or by creating a text file and adding the basic structure manually.

For instructions on creating an .lfe file in the Client, see Shortcuts to Information in Laserfiche. Although opening the resulting file normally will launch the Laserfiche Windows client, you can also open it in a text or XML editor and make changes to that data. You can do this in Windows using the "Open With" command, or by changing the extension from .lfe to .txt. (If you change the extension, be sure to change it back when you are done making changes.)

If you want to create the file manually, you can create a text file, paste the basic structure (below) into it, make any changes you want to the parameters, and then change the extension from .txt to .lfe.

Important: The xml encoding of the .lfe file is specified on the first line of the file. This must match the actual encoding of the file. The Client uses Unicode encoding by default. To change the encoding of the file, you can use the Save As command in your text editor and select the same encoding that is specified on that line.

An .lfe shortcut for the repository "MyRepository" that points to a folder with entry ID "100" would look like the example below:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='Unicode'?>

<laserfiche>

          <repository name='MyRepository'>

                     <entry id='100' />

          </repository>

</laserfiche>

Note: All attribute values (such as MyRepository and 100 in the above example) must be enclosed in single quotes.

The xml and laserfiche elements must be present in the above format for an .lfe to work. If a repository name is not specified or the repository element is not present, the shortcut will simply launch the Laserfiche Windows client. If a repository name is specified in the repository element, but no other elements are specified, the Laserfiche Windows client will launch and prompt you to log in, but will not open a particular entry or search.  The entry and search elements are optional, and are used to specify what entry or set of search results the Laserfiche Windows client should load upon opening. You should not use both the entry and search elements in the same shortcut.

For a complete list of possible parameters and explanations of their use, see Parameters for .lfe Shortcuts. In addition, see Sample Usage for examples.

Parameters in .lfe shortcut files are included in the XML element for which they are relevant. For instance, the repository's name is specified in the name parameter of the repository element. The target entry's ID is specified in the id parameter of the entry element. In the example below, the repository name is "MyRepository" and the entry ID is "99", as specified in the appropriate elements.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='Unicode'?>

<laserfiche>

          <repository name='MyRepository'>

                     <entry id='99' />

          </repository>

</laserfiche>

You can combine multiple parameters in a single element, as applicable. For instance, to specify that the entry with entry ID "99" should be opened in the document viewer (rather than its native application), you could add the mode attribute and specify mode 1 (the document viewer), as below:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='Unicode'?>
<laserfiche>
          <repository name='MyRepository'>
                     <entry id='99' mode='5' />
          </repository>
</laserfiche>