1. Lab 301 Populating Template Data from a Third Party Data Source Justin Pava, Software Release Manager Andrew Schoonmaker, Software QA Engineer

2. Agenda The Scenario Direct DTS: The Old Way Toolkit With ADO.NET: The Better Way Examples Exercises

3. The Scenario Laserfiche is used to supplement a primary data management system (customer database, external records, etc…). Manual data re-entry is time-consuming and error-prone. –Therefore, look up the external data automatically.

4. External Data Source

6. DTS (Data Transformation Services) Data Source  MSSQL direct import/export tool Standard Use: Pull 3 rd -party data directly into the backend MSSQL tables, bypassing the Server entirely Lf Server Lf SQL Database Data Source

7. Concerns with DTS Bypasses auditing, Workflow, and security, since the Server is not involved The method will not be compatible with Laserfiche 8 The server caches data, and may need to be restarted to take notice of changes made to tables Support considerations

8. The Solution: Toolkit Using Toolkit ensures that the server takes notice of changes you make Toolkit is the primary interface to the server, so compatibility is not a concern –Maintaining compatibility with previous client versions is a major Server design goal Toolkit Utility Lf Server Lf SQL Database Data Source

9. Three Standard Components Toolkit Utility 1. Determine and Retrieve Identifier 2. Perform the External Lookup 3. Return Info to Laserfiche Server External Data Source Lf Server

10. LFSO Talks to the Server Retrieve identifier from template field –Lf Search Update other fields with external data –Mapping Method Toolkit Utility 1. Determine and Retrieve Identifier 2. Perform the External Lookup 3. Return Info to Laserfiche Server

11. ADO.NET Talks to the Outside Laserfiche Server Objects can only talk to the Laserfiche Server To retrieve our external data, we use ADO.NET Toolkit Utility 1. Determine and Retrieve Identifier 2. Perform the External Lookup 3. Return Info to Laserfiche Server

12. What Is ADO.NET? Definition: “ADO.NET is a generic data access protocol for requesting and obtaining information from an external data source” Translation: a way for your toolkit application to get to your external data, regardless of where that data is

13. Why Use ADO.NET? Universal: will communicate with most OLEDB data source applications Generic: the same code can be used to access multiple data sources, with changes only to connection information Optimized for MSSQL: most scenarios involve an external MSSQL database –ADO.NET has both generic components and a specialized MSSQL component

14. Do I Have To Use ADO.NET? Of course not; ADO.NET was chosen as an example in this presentation for the aforementioned reasons Use any protocol that meets your need for retrieving external data in a form that your toolkit application can use

15. How everything gets run Executable run through Windows Scheduled Tasks –Performs on a regular schedule New for Lf 8: Real-Time Notifications –AA208: Creating Integrations with Real-Time Notifications (Thurs @ 10:45am)

16. Items For Consideration Implementation-specific details –Process all modified documents or only new ones? –What if the users change the data after it is added to Laserfiche? –What if the external data changes after it is added to Laserfiche? Error handling