The general workflow using the Quick Upload is:

• Add the files
• Assign the target locations
• Assign the metadata
• Close the application after it is finished uploading the data

When the Quick Upload is first opened, there are no files specified and it is sitting idle. Once files are added and their target locations are specified, it may begin work. It uploads files and metadata in the background and reports its progress while users continue to work with the user interface.

In most cases it is fastest to specify the target location for all files before beginning to specify the metadata, as uploading the files is significantly slower than uploading the metadata. Doing this allows the Quick Upload to upload the files while the user, at the same time, specifies the metadata to be uploaded. The metadata can then be sent to the server usually quite quickly.

 

Files may be added in four ways: initializing the site (covered in the Initialize Site section), monitoring directories (covered in the Monitoring section), using the Add Files dialog and dragging and dropping.

The Add Files dialog allows users to select a number of files in a given directory (though there is a limit on the number that may be selected at one time), and hit enter or the Open button. The files will then be added to the bottom of the list in the main user interface.

Users may also drag and drop files from applications such as Windows Explorer.

Quick upload will not upload uncompressed CaseWare client files, as these are most likely selected in error. Users should compress CaseWare client files before uploading. Future versions of Quick Upload will provide an option to do this automatically.

Quick Upload does allow users to upload 0-byte files, but users will be prompted to confirm this when adding these files.

 

Users may use Quick Upload to not only upload files, but to create the Areas, Entities and Sections in the DMS in which these files will be kept. This feature is useful for many firms but will not be appropriate for all firms. Quick Upload cannot be used to initialize the KMS.

Initializing the site is done by uploading entire folders on the local computer or network location to the DMS and allowing Quick Upload to extract information from the files or the folder structure in order to create the site structure in the DMS. The accuracy of this will vary and some firms will have to modify the DMS site structure, once created, using a web browser interface. Other firms will be able to simply use this once and their DMS instance will be essentially ready.

There are two methods to initialize the site:

• Use a default site organization
• Copy the local folder structure

Using a default site organization, the Entity and Section names are taken from the client profiles of the CaseWare files. This method does not allow uploading non-CaseWare client files, though these may be simply uploaded after the Initialize Site function is performed. The Entity name will be taken from the client name in the client profile, and the Section name will be taken from either the engagement type or period end. These values may also be viewed in Tracker to ensure the majority of them have been defined. If some do not have values, users may define them, or may upload these files after the Initialize Site operation is complete.

Copying the local folder structure will essentially reproduce the local file system within the DMS. This does not require that any fields be filled in in the client profiles, but does require a consistent folder organization is used within the folder being uploaded. That is, all files within the folder must be located at the same depth within that folder. The DMS does not have folders; it has content types similar to folders: Areas, Entities and Sections. Therefore, when copying an entire folder to the DMS, a series of Areas, Entities and Sections will be created which will correspond to the sub-folders within the local folder specified. Whether the presence of each folder within the local folder results in the creation of an Area, Entity or Section is specified by the user. Using this method, users may upload any file type, and are not limited to compressed CaseWare client files.

In both cases, a single folder is specified by the user to initialize the site. In the case of using a default site organization, it is simplest if this is done at most once, as it is intended to define the complete initial structure of the DMS. It is possible, however, to use the Copy the Local Folder Structure option multiple times, as this option allows users to specify the location in the DMS in which content is to be saved.

Using a Default Site Organization
When using a default site organization, users simply specify which local folder contains (directly or indirectly) the compressed CaseWare client files to be uploaded, and which site organization is to be used. Doing this, it is assumed the DMS is currently empty or near empty, and that that site organization selected will be the basis of all future expansion of the DMS. To help explain each of the four default site organizations possible, a sample of each is available by hitting the See Sample button. The samples use sample names and are not based on the local file system or current contents of the DMS.

Once the local folder and site organization are selected, users should hit the Preview button, described below.

Copying the Local File Structure
When copying the local file structure, users must specify first the local folder and the location in the DMS in which the local folder is to be reproduced. The location in the DMS should preferably be empty or at least not already have the content that this operation will attempt to create there. Users must then specify whether each level of folder within the local folder corresponds to an Area, Entity or Section. Once the local file system is selected, Quick Upload will search the folder and its sub-folders for files. Doing this, it will determine how deep within this folder the files are located, and will find a sample path from the folder specified to a file. Both the depth and the sample path will then be displayed. The folder specified, itself, will not be copied to the DMS, as it is assumed it corresponds to the location in the DMS in which its content will be uploaded. The files will be uploaded as either Engagements, Images or Files, based on their file extensions. The sub-folders within the folder specified will be reproduced as either Areas, Entities, or Sections.

For example, if the user specifies the local folder, c:/accounting/client-files , Quick upload will search this directory for a path to a file. It may, for example, find a file at: c:/accounting/client-files/companyABC/tax/companyABC-2005.ac_. The sample path from the folder specified to a file is then: companyABC/tax/companyABC-2005.ac_. The user must specify then whether the folder companyABC is to be an Area, Entity or Section, and similarly for the folder tax.

The rules, described in the DMS help, related to which content types may appear within which content types apply. The cases relevant to this are: the CMS root may contain Areas; Areas may contain Areas, Entities and Sections; Entities may contain Entities and Sections; and Sections may contain Engagements, Files and Images.

Which content type may be selected for the first level of folder (in this example, the folder companyABC) depends on where in the DMS the target location was set to. For example, if the DMS location is the root, since the root can contain only Areas, there is only one option for first level, Area. Once the content type of the first level is set, the type of the second level may be set, and so for up to six levels. The last level must be Section, as this must contain the documents. As Sections cannot be nested, no other level may be Section.

Preview
When using either method to initialize the site, it is best to view the preview before hitting Okay. The preview will show the complete contents of the CMS (all DMS and KMS Areas) as well as what content would be uploaded based on what was selected. That is, it will list all Areas, Entities, Sections, Engagements, Files and Images that would be created if the user chooses to continue. A Show Errors button is also enabled if any files or folders where not able to be added properly, and an explanation will be provided for each error.

Once the Information is Specified
Once the user selects Okay, the main user interface will have all Areas, Entities, Sections, Engagements, Files, and Images added and Quick Upload will begin immediately uploading them. Some items will show Failed initially, if they cannot be uploaded properly. These will be for the same set of reasons as the Preview dialog indicates.  The main user interface will also list the target location for each object. For many objects, this will initially say '--initializing site--', as the locations of the items in which these items will be placed have not been created yet and so their location cannot be determined yet. The target column will be filled in when possible for each item.

As the items are being processed, it is possible to specify metadata, or to add other files to be uploaded. It is possible to specify the metadata on any content type, including Areas, Entities, and Sections.

As it is likely with large folders that some items will upload properly and some will not, and firms often wish to switch instead to a different organization after uploading, Quick Upload will not delete the local folders and files when the upload is complete. This may be done by the firm once they are satisfied the site initialization has gone as they wish.

 

Monitoring directories may be done for a variety of reasons, but the most common is to send  files created by a scanner to the OpenEngagement CMS. Generally, it is recommended to keep scanned images in CaseWare client files where applicable, but this isn't always appropriate or desirable.

Clicking the Monitor button brings up the Monitor Directory dialog, which lists all directories currently monitored by the Quick Upload.  Users may then remove some directories or add additional directories.

For each directory monitored, each time a new file is added, it will automatically be added to the list of files to be uploaded in the main user interface. Users must then set the target and, if necessary, the metadata.

 

 

The target for each file must be specified before the file or any metadata may be uploaded. This is done in the Set Target dialog, which looks quite similar to the dialogs in the Go-Between. When first opened, this shows the Areas at the root of the site. These may be expanded and the user may navigate down to the location they wish.

The Set Target dialog will display the following content types:

• DMS Area
• KMS Area
• Entity
• Section
• Folder
• Engagement
• File
• Image

Files may be saved to Sections, KMS Areas and Folders.

Users must specify the target object type when specifying the target location, as Quick Upload must create the object when the file is uploaded. Within a DMS the object type may be: Engagement, File or Image. Within a KMS, it may be File or Image. Quick Upload will default to Engagement for CaseWare client files and to Image for .jpg, .gif, .tiff and other such image format files.

Within a DMS, the file may be saved to a Section. Within a KMS, the file may be saved to a KMS Area or Folder.

Users may specify to keep the local copy, in which case the file will not be deleted from the local file system/network once uploaded. This is unchecked by default and is not recommended, as it leads to versioning problems if there are multiple copies of any given file. Normally, once a file is uploaded, Quick Upload will check the file size and hash value on the server to ensure it was uploaded without any bits being altered, and will then delete the local copy.

The target location for a file may be changed at any time. If the file has already been uploaded, this will upload it to the new location as well; it will not delete it on the server from previous target locations. This should only be done where users wish for the file to appear multiple times on the server. Otherwise, users should use a web browser to delete any copies of the file uploaded in error.

As well, users may add the same file twice to the list of files to be uploaded. This is not advised and users will be given a warning when doing this. It is possible, though, to do this where users wish to upload a file to two different locations. Doing this, users should specify to not delete the local copy, or the second upload of the file will fail.

 

The metadata may be set before or after the target is set. The Quick Upload will first upload a file and then, if uploaded it successfully, will then upload the metadata. Whenever the metadata is changed for any given file, the Quick Upload will mark this metadata as needing uploading, and will upload it as soon as it can.

Users may set the following metadata for each file uploaded:

• Title
• Description
• State/Visibility
• Period End
• Keywords
• Local Roles

Users may set the following metadata for Areas, Entities, and Sections created as a result of initializing the site:

• Title
• Description
• Keywords
• Local Roles

 

Title
The title defaults to the name of the file minus the file extension, but may be set to any other value.

Description
The description may be set to any text. This defaults to empty.

State/Visibility
In the case of uploading to a DMS, the state may be set and in the case of a KMS, the visibility may be set. If the target location has not yet been set, it can't be determined whether a state or visibility should be used, and this field is not available.

It is only possible to set the state to review where at least one reviewer is assigned, as the review state does not apply otherwise. It is possible to assign a local reviewer role and to set the state to review in a single upload.

The reviewed state does not apply and can not be set in this dialog, as it is not possible to upload and review the file in a single operation.

With most metadata, users can modify the values once uploaded. For example, a user may upload a file specifying the state as review. They may then modify the state in the File Metadata Dialog to active. In this case, Quick Upload will upload the new state, active. However, if the state is ever set to archived, it is not possible to move an item out of the archived state.

Period End
In the case of CaseWare client files, if a period end can be extracted, this value will be used as the period end, and users are not permitted to over-ride this. For CaseWare client files within Engagements, the period end is required, so the upload will not begin until the period end is set. This is the one exception where metadata must be set before the file upload may begin. In most cases, the period end can be extracted from the compressed client file, and users generally need only enter the period end manually for older client files.

For other file types, and for older CaseWare client files, the period end may be set to any value. The default is for the period end to be unspecified. Clicking the field once will default the period end to December 31 of the current year. Clicking it again will bring up a calendar control where users can set the period end to any other date.

Keywords
Three fields are used to set the keywords. The leftmost lists the Keyword Vocabulary. This lists all keywords currently used on the server. The Additional Keywords field allows users to specify keywords not yet added to the server. The Keywords field lists the keywords currently assigned to the object (Engagement, File or Image).

Local Roles
Three fields are used to set the local roles. This lists only the local roles on this object and not the site-wide or inherited roles, which must be set using a web browser interface. The leftmost field lists all user accounts on the server. The Roles field lists the available roles. In the case of loading to a DMS, this includes: Site Manager, Engagement Manager, Reviewer, Preparer, Reader. In the case of loading to a KMS, this includes: Site Manager, Preparer, Reader. If the target is not set, Quick Upload cannot determine if the upload is to a DMS or KMS, so only the Site Manger, Preparer and Reader roles are available.

Set File Metadata Dialog

As with setting the target location, users can select any number of files to set the metadata simultaneously. For example, if there are 50 files listed in the user interface, a user may select 20 of these and set the description. The user interface will then display 'Set' in the description column for these 20 files. The user may then select another 20 files, perhaps 10 from the previous 20 and 10 others and modify the keywords for these files. In this case, 10 of the files have had their descriptions set and 10 have not. The Set File Metadata dialog will list the description as '--Indeterminate--'. So long as only the keywords and not the descriptions are now modified, the descriptions will not be altered. After doing this, the user interface will list 10 files as having the description set, 10 as having both the description and keywords set and 10 as having the keywords set.

The Set File Metadata dialog also has three informational fields: the source location of the local copy, the target location (if set in the Set Target dialog) and the error description. The error description is set if there is an error uploading the file or metadata.

Users should note, the dialog does not keep polling the server for new keywords or users accounts; this is done only once when starting Quick Upload.

The bottom of the main user interface displays a progress bar and fields showing how many files have been uploaded and how many are not yet uploaded. These are shown because they are the most relevant information with respect to gauging how far through it's total work Quick Upload is, which can be important when hundreds or thousands of files are uploaded. However, it does not show how much metadata is remaining to be uploaded. Metadata is typically much faster to upload than files.

When a user specifies to close Quick Upload, if there are files or metadata remaining to be uploaded, the user will receive a warning. They may still select to close the application, in which case the files and/or metadata will not be uploaded.