Updating data sets

There are two types of data sets in ABBYY FlexiCapture:

  • The first type only contains information about the structure of the data.
  • The second type contains the data from the external database. This is enabled by selecting the Cache data option in the properties of the data set.

Updating a data set synchronizes it with its external database. It only makes sense to update data sets that contain data from an external database. The update will make up-to-date data from the external database available in ABBYY FlexiCapture.

Data sets are updated at various times:

  • An update can be initiated in the Document Definition Editor by the user.
  • An update can occur after a certain time period since the last update when the batch is opened on the Administrator Station or on the Operator Station of ABBYY FlexiCapture Standalone, or on the Project Setup Station of ABBYY FlexiCapture Distributed. This time period can be changed.
  • An update can be explicitly initiated by a user of the Processing Server or of a full-featured station (i.e. a FlexiCapture station with access to all of the program's features that can only be used in the local area network), or according to a schedule set up on the Processing Server or on the Project Setup Station.

Updating data sets in the Document Definition editor

  1. Open the Document Definition menu and click Document Definition Properties....
  2. Go to the Data Sets tab in the dialog box that opens.
  3. Select the data set you want to update and click the Update button.

Updating data sets when batches are opened

To enable automatic updates, open the properties of the data set, select the Update interval and specify the interval between updates.

An update will be initiated when a certain amount of time has elapsed since the last update and the batch is opened on any station of the Standalone version, or on the Project Setup Station in the Distributed version of FlexiCapture.

Some stations will not have access to the external database, making it impossible to update their data sets. The updating of data sets on stations can be disabled by clearing the Update data sets when batch is opened option on the Document Processing in the Options dialog box or by editing the following registry subkey:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ABBYY\FlexiCapture\12.0\Controller]

"DisableCacheUpdate"="1".

Scheduling data set updates

In ABBYY FlexiCapture Distributed, data set updates can be initiated from the command line on the Processing Server or on any full-featured station (with the exception of remote stations and web stations). This is only possible when the Processing Server or station has access to the FlexiBr.exe or FlexiBrSvc.exe file. Use the following command to update data sets:

update dataset <project path> [<Document Definition name>] [<data set name>], where

  • <project path> is the URL of the project on the Application Server of ABBYY FlexiCapture, such as https://<ApplicationServer>/ProjectId where <ApplicationServer> is the name of the computer on which the Application Server is installed. This URL can be copied from the properties dialog of the project on the Project Setup Station.
  • <Document Definition name> is the name of the Document Definition to which the data set belongs.
  • <data set name> is the name of the data set that needs to be updated.

Only Administrators and the user of the Project Setup Station can use this command in ABBYY FlexiCapture.

Example of a command that can be executed on the Processing Server to update the Vendors data set:

FlexiBRSvc.exe please update dataset "https://myAppServer/ProjectId/ProjectName" "Invoice" "Vendors"

This command updates the data set on the Processing Server. However, full-featured stations will keep using their local copy of the data set until they are restarted.

Processing Stations that represent Windows services will update local copies of the data set in the background every time before launching the recognition process.

You may also use Windows Scheduler to configure the data set to be updated on schedule.

Merging data when updating a data set

ABBYY FlexiCapture lets Operators edit data sets during processing. In particular, ABBYY FlexiCapture users can add new vendor and business unit data and modify existing data. These changes are not carried over to the external database.

The external database can be edited independently.

Data sets are updated as follows:

Existing records
  • All changes made by users will be retained
  • All changes made to the external database will be carried over to the data set
New records
  • New records created by Operators will be deleted
  • New records from the external database will be carried over to the data set
Deleted records
  • Data set records that have been flagged as deleted will not be restored
  • Records that have been deleted in the external database will be deleted from the data set

Replacing data in a data set with data from an external database

If the Operators do not make any changes to the data set, all of the data it contains will be replaced by data from the external database upon each update. If the Operators do change the data set, the Administrator has the option to overwrite it with data from the external database, thereby deleting all of the Operator's changes.

To do this, reconnect the data set:

  1. Open the Data Sets tab in the Document Definition Properties dialog box and select the data set you want to reconnect.
  2. Click the Set Up... button.
  3. Specify the connection string, select a schema and a table, and specify matching columns.

For details, See Using vendor and business unit databases.

Using scripts to update data sets

For details see Data set update script.

25.05.2023 7:55:02

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