Laserfiche Cloud 2019 Updates
2019.1
The Laserfiche Cloud 2019.1 update, released on January 10, 2019, includes changes to Documents and Process Automation.
Watch an overview of the new features here:
Document Viewer
Many display options in the document viewer have been repositioned to be more intuitive. For example, you can now toggle panes open and closed directly from the toolbar. When viewing an electronic document, you can toggle between the file view and the Laserfiche pages here as well.
When viewing document pages, the size drop-down menu now includes the Page Display option so you can view multiple pages side-by-side. Similarly, the thumbnail pane now has a slider to set the number of columns of thumbnails.
Annotations are now easier to access directly from the toolbar with an annotations button instead of being nested under the More Actions button. This toolbar can be further customized under Options. After applying an annotation, you'll see an Update button to save. In general, save buttons have been moved closer to the action you're completing.
The Metadata tab has been renamed to Details, and this pane now has its own save button for updating the metadata. The tabs shown in this pane, and their order, can be changed from More. Changes to these tabs are carried over between the document viewer and the folder browser. Additionally, this entire pane can be hidden using the collapse button.
Folder Browser
The folder browser has also been updated and streamlined. As in the document viewer, you can show and hide the details pane with the collapse and expand buttons. You can also show and hide the folder tree as well. The folder tree has been reorganized so the quick access items that contain your starred documents, recently opened documents, and more are now easier to find at the top of the list.
Columns are now easier to configure as the column picker is more visible and column filters are shown in the column headers. These filters can be removed by an administrator if desired.
The template color is now applied directly to the folder icons themselves. Documents will show the color strip next to their names.
A new compress folder browser display option and compress field display option makes the folder browser and field displays more compact.
When opening a media file from the folder browser, it now conveniently opens directly in the document viewer, allowing users to view and edit metadata while viewing the media. You can also copy the URL to the media file from the folder browser. If you send the URL to another user, the media will open directly in their document viewer.
When performing a search, the advanced search syntax is hidden by default.
Flexible Records Management
Laserfiche Records Management has been updated to enable greater organizational flexibility in how records are handled, while still enforcing security restrictions to help meet compliance needs. Cutoff and retention policies can now be assigned directly to any entry in the repository, without needing to be located within a record series. In addition, holds (previously called freezes) can be placed on any entry in the repository, regardless of its folder structure or whether it is a record.
Process Automation
Capture Profiles
Capture profiles extract data from documents that can be used in a business process. Using the Capture Profile Designer, you can add samples of documents you want to scan, and draw boxes around the information you want to capture. Once configured, you can test the configuration with other sample documents, then publish the profile. The Run Capture Profile activity extracts text using a specified capture profile, then outputs tokens for the captured data that you can use later in the workflow.
External Data Sources
You can now configure remote agents to obtain data external to Laserfiche, such as Microsoft SQL and PostgreSQL databases on your organization's computers. Workers installed on your database computers can process data queries from Process Automation. Use the Data Query rule type to initiate data queries and process the results into suitable formats. This method of accessing databases on your organization's computers doesn't require you to create entities.
External Connection Profiles
Laserfiche now supports native integration options with Salesforce and Redtail. You can create an external connection profile and then use the new Perform Application Action activity in a workflow to push and pull information from Salesforce and Redtail, all without requiring code.
Set Records Management Properties Activity
You can automate records management actions by setting properties on individual records or records folders with the Set Records Management Properties activity. The activity includes various common records management actions, such as cutting off a record and setting a filing date. In addition, you can apply properties to multiple documents at once, without using a For Each Entry activity.
2019.2
The Laserfiche Cloud 2019.2 update, released on April 18, 2019, includes a variety of new features.
Watch an overview of the new features here:
Documents
Flexible Records Management Enhancements
Records management has been improved to allow organizations more flexibility in how records are handled. Administrators can now allow users to make modifications to document metadata (though not to file content) when a document is under retention. In addition, cutoff criteria is now optional in retention schedules.
Repository Audit Log Retention
You can now customize the length of time that your repository audit logs will be retained. Audit logs can be retained for a specified period of time, or indefinitely. In addition, if there are any active holds in your repository, all audit logs will be retained until the holds have been resolved.
Performance Enhancements
The Within folder advanced search will now return results more quickly in some situations, especially for folder trees with less than 100 subfolders. In addition, load times are shorter when loading the folder browser.
Process Automation
Additional Query Data Sources
You can now query a wider variety of data sources when configuring a data query rule. Where you could previously query only Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL databases, you can now also query Oracle and MySQL databases. You can also query CSV files that are hosted on an external server.
Laserfiche Home Screen
The Laserfiche home screen provides a central access point to your tasks, documents, and reports. From the home screen, you can view a dashboard displaying key metrics. The home screen also allows you to directly access other Laserfiche Cloud services such as managing your business process tasks, submitting forms, and viewing reports on business processes and your repository.
Business Processes
Business Processes in Process Automation brings the design and management functionality of Laserfiche Forms into Process Automation and adds new reporting options. You can view detailed reports and graphics on your business processes, including information like task completion times, potential bottlenecks, and field values from form submissions.
When configuring lookup rules in a form, you can now use Process Automation Rules, integrating information stored in decision tables, formulas, or entities into business processes.
Surveys
Surveys in Process Automation are a method for collecting data using forms, without having to configure a full-fledged business process. You can view reports on data collected from the surveys, similar to viewing reports on business processes.
Unified Query Editor
You can now query entities and external data sources using the same user interface. Entity models are treated like tables in a database in the new query editor, which works for both entity queries and external data queries.
Custom Fields in Salesforce
The Salesforce integration now lets you interact with custom fields that you've created in Salesforce. You can configure access to these custom fields in the connection profile associated with your Salesforce connection. Then, you can use Workflow to create, updated, or delete these fields.
Anchor Text Pattern Matching in Capture Profiles
You can now apply pattern matching to anchors to account for variations in a zone's anchor text and help locate the data you want to capture. For example, business licenses may label the name of the business Name, Business Name, Granted To, Company, etc. By using a pattern to find all the different variants of business name labels, you will be able to capture the business name, regardless of which business name label it follows. Additionally, user interface enhancements have been applied to test results when testing a capture profile, including the ability to see a preview of the sample and test documents and their OCRed text.
Laserfiche App
Sign-in Usability Updates
The Laserfiche app has a new sign-in flow that lets users access their repository and forms more efficiently.
Improved PDF Support
To match Android support, you can now see PDF annotations when viewing a PDF and zooming in on a PDF retains the zoom level when scrolling through pages on iOS. On both iOS and Android, editable fields on a PDF can now be modified within the app. In addition, PDFs should display clearer when zooming in on iOS.
Account Administration
Administrators can now predefine a list of user accounts in a comma separated values (CSV) file for bulk import into Laserfiche Cloud. Previously, this option was only available for federated users.
To prepare for future infrastructure enhancements, email addresses must now be unique for each user within a Laserfiche Cloud account.
2019.3
The Laserfiche Cloud 2019.3 update, released on July 11, 2019, introduces the Laserfiche home screen.
Watch an overview of the new features here:
Laserfiche Home
The Laserfiche home screen provides a centralized dashboard where you can quickly access active and high priority tasks, starred and recent documents, and forms. Additional tabs are available for extended access, depending on your account settings.
The documents tab provides five configurable widgets for quick access to specific folder contents or starred documents, and a Document Search widget for repository searches, including saved search functionality.
The tasks tab extends user access to all available tasks, provides task search capability, review of completed tasks, and access to Team tasks.
The reports tab enables access to reporting information for business process and repository information.
The submit forms tab allows you to select a form to fill out, from either thumbnail or list views.
Process Automation
Business Processes
Laserfiche Forms features are now available as part of the Process Automation suite as Business Processes. This includes the process designer, where you can create form-based review and approval processes. Additionally, the new Tasks, Submit Forms, and Reports tabs on the Laserfiche home screen provide easy user access to the processes.
Surveys
is a new feature that enables you to design custom surveys, polls, or registration forms to automatically collect information and view results without creating processes or designing reports.
Integrations
The component in Process Automation combines CRM connections, external data sources, and remote agents to make them easier to manage and find.
The Salesforce integration has been enhanced, and allows for access to custom objects created in Salesforce. You can now create a CRM Connection to Salesforce that recognizes the custom fields of the object, and then use those in a workflow with the activity to create, delete, update, and modify accounts in Salesforce.
Capture Profiles
Auto-classification with Capture Profiles automatically selects the profile that best matches the document and processes it accordingly. This creates an automated and more streamlined document capture and classification solution without having to manually add or maintain classification conditions.
Laserfiche App
The Laserfiche app now allows signing in to Laserfiche Cloud using Face, Touch, and Fingerprint ID on Android and iOS.
Users no longer need to download an entire PDF before viewing it when using Android.
Laserfiche Web Client
Administrators can now specify an OCR language for the repository, which will increase OCR accuracy for documents in that language. In addition, Audit Trail reporting now has a more modern and easy-to-use interface.
2019.4
The Laserfiche Cloud 2019.4 update, released on October 10, 2019, includes improved collaboration features.
Watch an overview of the new features here:
Documents
Co-authoring with Microsoft Office 365
Co-author Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents with multiple people using your Office 365 Business account. Changes can be made directly in your web browser, and will be automatically integrated and saved in the repository.
Laserfiche Vault
This release introduces Laserfiche Vault, an add-on to Cloud that enables strict compliance mode for records management.
OCR Language Support
Laserfiche Cloud automatically performs OCR on all documents scanned or imported into the repository. You can now set an OCR language for documents on a repository-wide basis or configure it directly on an individual document at the time of import. The OCR language set at the document level will take precedence over repository-wide settings, allowing you to easily support a repository with documents in multiple languages.
Process Automation
Public Facing Forms in Process Automation
Collect information from public users with web forms to kick off internal processes in Process Automation. Public forms can be shared with users whether they are registered or not, allowing organizations to collect and act on responses from anyone. With public portal, you can turn this option on when viewing the .
Integrations
Microsoft Dynamics has been added to the list of built-in CRM platform integrations, and provides access to standard objects in the Dynamics 365 Sales Hub through the Workflow "Perform CRM Action" activity. Data query rules now include options to Insert and Update data in data sources. Define Web Service Connections and Web Request Rules, for use with the Run Web Request Rule activity, to build integrations with external systems.