Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Glenn Williams, Data Systems Administrator, Meade County Rural Electric Co-Op

Meade County Rural Electric Co-Op (RECC) provides electricity to more than 29,000 homes, farms, businesses and industries in five Kentucky counties. Here is how the organization uses Laserfiche Connector to integrate the UtilityPOWERnet (UPN) billing application with Laserfiche to populate Certificate of Deposit forms.

Employees work primarily out of UPN. Laserfiche Connector allows them to perform the most common Laserfiche document searches directly from UPN. The search results are returned to the user in Laserfiche Web Access in approximately five seconds.

The same holds true when it comes to scanning new documents. Using Laserfiche Connector to start the Laserfiche Scanning allows the new document’s metadata and repository folder path to be pre-configured based on information stored in UPN.

Employees can also launch a pre-populated Certificate of Deposit form directly from UPN with Laserfiche Connector. This makes filling out these forms much faster and less prone to error. Once the form is generated, the customer simply signs it using a Topaz Signature Pad on site. Here is a step–by-step explanation of how this process is configured:

Step 1: Design the form

In Laserfiche Forms, drag the necessary fields onto the form. The Certificate of Deposit form has a pretty straightforward design, including single line, custom HTML and signature fields.

Step 2: Customize the form

Once the basic form is created and the fields are set in the preferred order, customize the form by applying a theme and a company as well as adding some custom CSS to format the placement of the fields.

Both the CSS and JavaScript code can be entered in the CSS and JavaScript tab of the Laserfiche Forms form designer.

Here is the CSS code that Meade County RECC used:

p {line-height: 12px;}
#q5 label {width: 110px;}
#q5 .cf-small {width: 120px;}
#q5 .cf-field {width: 120px;}
#q6 label {width: 110px;}
#q6 .cf-small {width: 120px;}
#q6 .cf-field {width: 120px;}
#q12 label {width: 200px;}
#q12 .cf-small {width: 200px;}
#q12 .cf-field {width: 200px;}
#q17 .cf-small {width: 350px;}
#q17 .cf-field {width: 350px;}
#q18 .cf-small {width: 105px;}
#q18 .cf-field {width: 105px;}
#q5, #q6 {display: inline-block;


Step 3: Create the database lookup rule

All of the fields on the form, except for Amount of Deposit, are populated by Laserfiche Connector from UPN. Since the deposit amount is not located on the UPN screen where Laserfiche Connector is placed, a database lookup rule must be inserted into the form to pull that information directly from the UPN database.

Step 4: Configure the Laserfiche Connector profile

Once the form is created, it is time to set up the Laserfiche Connector profile.

The final URL looks like this:

This URL is constructed as follows:

Here are a few additional considerations for constructing the URL:

Here is a visual representation of the variable and token mapping:

Test the profile and the following form should be generated. If the setup was correct, all of the fields should be pre-populated, allowing the customer to simply sign the form and submit it.

Step 5: Modify the XML file

Initially, the deposit amount was not populated in the above form. This is because the membership field, which is used to look up the deposit account in the UPN database, is populated with the entire account number. Laserfiche Connector should populate the membership field with only the digits preceding the dash—not the whole account number. This can be accomplished by manually editing the Laserfiche Connector profile XML file.

Locate the token that is being used to populate the membership number field in the XML file.

Original element

Add the red section.

Edited element

Step 6: Adjust the location of the Laserfiche Connector icon

Another thing that can be accomplished by modifying the XML file is resizing the Laserfiche Connector icon to make it more prominent or moving it from its default top right corner of the UPN application.

To do this, edit the “<AppDef” section of the XML file by adding “woffset.” This will move the Laserfiche Connector icon from its default location in the top right corner of the UPN application and resize the icon to make it more prominent. The four parameters of the “woffset,” in order, will configure the vertical position, horizontal position, horizontal and vertical size of the Connector icon.

This is what the edited section looks like:

<AppDef woffset=”-360,190,80,80″ pname=”Upn” wtitle=”SEDC UtilityPOWERnet.*” wclass=”^WindowsForms10.Window.[0-9a-fA-F]+.app[._0-9a-zA-Z]+$”>

This is what the new Connector icon looks like:

Implementing Laserfiche at Meade County RECC has resulted in the following benefits:

Learn how Laserfiche can integrate with your line of business application. Get a free demo.