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Palmares Workflow Server
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The Palmares Workflow server governs the flow of documents throughout the Palmares system.
Each seperate component in the Palmares system (e.g.
Palmares Recognition Servers) connect
individually as modules to the Workflow server, which in turn provides them
with documents.
A flow control script determines how documents are processed through the Palmares system.
The script dictates which module (or cluster of modules) receives a document, and
what to do with it after it has been processed. The diagram below shows a simple
example of this.
The scripting of the document workflow promotes scalability of the Palmares solution: from
a simple configuration as shown above, to a complex data capture system, processing
many different type of documents with various recognition server clusters spread around
the world. The possibilities are infinite!
The Palmares Workflow server is closely integrated into the Microsoft NT4 operating system,
and provides field-proven crash tolerance for the entire Palmares system.
Administration of the Workflow server is made simple through a account
protected HTML interface, allowing administative tasks to be be performed using a standard
web browser from any where in the computer network or, using the
Palmares Secure Internet Gateway, from anywhere on the
internet.
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Palmares Input Interface
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The Palmares Input Interface module provides a mechanism for injecting scanned image files
into the Palmares system for automatic data extraction. The module can be configured as to
what type of files should be injected (e.g. TIFF, JPEG, etc.), where they are located and
the structure of the filesystem containing them (e.g. flatfile, scanned microfiche, etc.).
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Palmares Recognition Server
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The Palmares Recognition Server is the heart of the Palmares system, performing the
automatic extraction of data from documents. Each individual Recognition server in the
system can be programmed to perform the same or different processing tasks,
depending on the loading of the system. Each processing task performed by a
recognition server is defined via a separate script and can be reconfigured
and tested on-the-fly without shutting it down.
Providing cutting edge data location and extraction performance, the Palmares Recognition
Server is employed wherever high raw data accuracy is a neccesary criterium for the success
of the data extraction project.
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Palmares Verifier
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The Palmares Verifier is a software tool for validating the data extracted by a
Palmares Recognition server. The Verifier tool was developed
with input from data entry personel from various Fortune 500 corporations to
ensure that it met the industry'srequirements. As a result, the tool is highly
configurable, allowing the user to specify whether to use a mouse and/or editable
hotkeys, and almost all aspects of the screen layout.
As the Palmares recognition server is capable of re-configuring itself for a new document
type on-the-fly, so too is the Verifier. The location and type of the data fields on the
document is set by the recognition server and read by the Verifier on a per-document basis.
This allows the same version and configuration of the Verifier application to be used
for each document that is processed by the Palmares system.
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Palmares Invoice Trainer
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Although the Palmares Recognition servers are more than capable at
extracting data from untrained free format invoices, it is some
times beneficial to "boost" the recognition speed and accuracy by
training on suppliers producing large volumes of similarly structured
invoices.
The Palmares Invoice Trainer is a utility designed to make the invoice training
process as painless and efficient as possible. Combining an easy to use drag-and-drop
interface with the ability to perform "live" recognition accuracy testing
during the training process ensure that should and invoice need training, it
will be easiest possible way.
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Palmares Database Interface
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The Palmares Database Interface is a collection of modules and application
programming interfaces (APIs) that allow seamless connectivity between the
Palmares System and existing customer database installations (e.g. SQL, DB2,
LDAP, etc.). This connectivity can provide the modules within the
Palmares system with information that can be used for checking the extracted
data or for formulating the results.
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Palmares Email Interface
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The Palmares Email Interface is provides POP3 and SMTP connectivity to
the Palmares system. This allows images to be sent by email
to the Palmares system for data extraction. It also provides a means for
the Palmares system to send results to an email address (see
Palmares AutoPost).
As always, security is of utmost concern. The interface numerous security
features such as logging and email filtering (allowing the the administrator
to configure who can send and receive emails to the Palmares system.
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Palmares Secure Internet Gateway
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The Palmares Secure Internet Gateway allows external Palmares modules to communicate
with the Palmares Workflow server through
an internet firewall. With the added benefit of
remote administration, this in turn opens the door for the document processing
with the Palmares System to be distributed over the internet.
As with the Palmares Email Interface, security
with the Internet Gateway is paramount. All communication between the Gateway and remote
modules is encrypted, and the system administrator has control of numerous options,
limiting access on both sides of the Gateway.
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Palmares Output Interface
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The Palmares Output Interface is the primary connection between the Palmares system
and customers' exisiting data processing systems. The interface is scriptable and
can be configured to output data in a variety of formats, including binary data
streams, ASCII files and data/image combinations. As many corporate customers use
proprietary data processing systems, the Output Interface's scripting
language has been designed to allow for total flexibility of the output format.
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Palmares Client API
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Every data extraction project is different from the next, and the demands on the
Palmares system differ from customer to customer. We have addressed this issue by
offering a Palmares Client Application Programming Interface (API), allowing
customer specific modules to be "bolted" onto the Palmares system.
The Client API provides all the connectivity to the
Palmares Workflow Server available to
the standard Palmares modules and provides the ultimate in flexiblity of the
Palmares system.
The Client API is currently available for Microsoft NT4 as a C and C++ interface,
with support for Linux planned for sometime in the future.
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