Adding a Document Channel

Introduction

In the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) application, a document channel is a grouping of document types that have their own security settings. For example, you might need to process documents for Finance and Legal teams. The Finance team will need to process financial documents such as invoices and purchase orders, while the Legal team will need to process legal documents such as partnership applications and statements of work. They will likely not want users from other teams to see the documents they are processing, as they may contain sensitive information. IDP is flexible enough to allow you to add document channels so that each team can have its own document types and security.

IDP comes with a Standard document channel, but we've made it easy to introduce more document channels. This page provides instructions for adding additional document channels so that you can tailor the security and document types for different teams. This consists of:

1. Completing the Add Document Channel action.
2. Adding the new security groups to the application.
3. Adding document types to the document channel.
4. Configuring the document channel.

If you want to add a new document type to an existing document channel, refer to Adding a Document Type.

Step 1: Complete the Add Document Channel action in the Configure tab

You can access the Add Document Channel action from the Configure tab. This action makes the following changes:

• Adds the new document channel to the dudocchannel reference table.
• Generates security groups for the new document channel.

To complete the Add Document Channel action:

1. From the CONFIGURE tab, click Add Document Channel.
2. Enter a unique name for the new document channel.
3. Click ADD CHANNEL.

After completing this action, the document channel is added to the reference table and the associated groups are generated.

Step 2: Add the new security groups to the application

Each document channel has associated viewers, editors, reconciliation desk members, and managers. These groups have varying levels of access to the document information that flows through the channel. These access levels range from viewers (lowest access) to managers (highest access). See the Groups Reference Page for more information on the access granted to each type of group.

The Add Document Channel action generates new security groups for the document channel. However, these groups are not automatically added to the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) application container in Appian Designer.

To add the security groups to the application:

1. In the OBJECTS view of Appian Designer, find the groups that were created in step 1. The group names will contain the new document channel name.
2. Select the checkbox next to each group and click ADD TO APP.
3. Use the Application picker to choose the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) application and click ADD TO APPLICATION.

Step 3: Add document types for the new document channel

Before you can configure the new document channel, you first need to add document types for the channel. Follow the steps in Adding a Document Type, with the following modifications.

Add an invalid document type

Adding an invalid document type for new channels is necessary to classify documents that are uploaded mistakenly as invalid or to automatically classify common mistakes as invalid. For example, if you want to process signed order forms, and users tend to mistakenly send you unsigned order forms, you may want to train the classification model to automatically classify these documents as invalid.

When you add the new document channel, a channelid is automatically generated in the dudocchannel reference table.

To create the invalid document type, use the following database command, replacing [channelId] with the channel ID that was generated for the new channel. Note that this command uses MySQL syntax.

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INSERT INTO `dudoctype` (`doctypeid`, `doctypename`, `choiceindex`, `doctypestatus`, `isinvalidtype`, `channelid`) VALUES (NULL, NULL, '0', 'Inactive', '1', '[channelId]')

Add the new document types to the reference table using the new channelid value

On the Adding a Document Type page, follow the instructions in Step 1: Add the new document type to the reference table, using the new channelid that was generated for your new document channel.

Example

For example, let's say you added a document channel called Legal and in the dudocchannel reference table, the value of channelid was automatically set to 2. To add a new document type for the Legal channel called Statement of Work, you would use a database command like the following. Note that this example uses MySQL syntax.

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INSERT INTO `dudoctype` (`doctypeid`, `doctypename`, `choiceindex`, `doctypestatus`, `isinvalidtype`, `channelid`) VALUES (NULL, 'Statement of Work', '1', 'Inactive', '0', '2');

Create CDTs, data store entities, database tables, and data store entity constants for the document types

Follow steps 2 - 4 in Adding a Document Type for each document type you are creating for the new document channel.

Update existing expression rules with the new document channel

After you create the new objects for the new document type CDTs and data store entity constants for each document type, you need to update existing expression rules to use the new objects. This allows the new document types to be used in the application.

Update the expression rule for the document type CDT

The DU_returnDataTypeForChoiceIndex expression rule returns the CDT for a document type. Basically, given a channel ID and choice index, it chooses the list of CDTs that matches the channel ID, then returns the document type CDT that matches the choice index for that list of CDTs.

For example, in the following expression rule, if you input 1 for ri!channelID and 3 for ri!choiceIndex, the expression would return the third item in the first list of CDTs, which is DU_Claim.

Example expression rule

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...
choose(
  ri!channelId,
  /*Channel ID 1*/
  choose(
    ri!choiceIndex,
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Invoice'(),
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_PurchaseOrder'(),
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Claim'(),
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Receipt'()
  ),
  /*Channel ID 2*/
  choose(
    ri!choiceIndex,
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_PartnershipApplication'(),
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_StatementOfWork'(),
    'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_RetirementApplication'()
  )
)
...

In order for it to return the CDTs for the new types of documents, you will need to add the new CDTs to the expression rule.

To add the new CDTs to the expression rule:

1. Open the DU_returnDataTypeForChoiceIndex expression rule.
2. Add a new choose() statement at the index that corresponds with the channel ID of the document channel. For example, if you add a new document channel with a channel ID of 2, then the new choose() statement must be at index 2.
3. Update the new choose() function as follows:
   • For the key parameter, use the ri!choiceIndex rule input.
   • Add the new CDTs in an array, using the type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_NewDocumentType'() convention. Make sure to list the CDTs in the order indicated by the choiceindex value of the dudoctype reference table.
4. Click SAVE CHANGES.

EXAMPLE

To update the DU_returnDataTypeForChoiceIndex expression rule to add the document type CDTs for the Legal channel, you would add a new choose() function with the ri!choiceIndex rule input and new CDTs.

Make sure to list the CDTs in the order indicated by the choiceindex value of the dudoctype reference table. For example, if you had the following reference table, you would list the CDTs in the following order: 'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_PartnershipApplication'(), 'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_StatementOfWork'(), and 'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_RetirementApplication'().

In the example below, we added a Legal document channel with partnership application, statement of work, and retirement application document types.

DU_returnDataTypeForChoiceIndex

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if(
  rule!DU_isInvalidDocTypeId(docTypeId: ri!choiceIndex),
  {},
  choose(
    ri!channelId,
    /*Channel ID 1*/
    choose(
      ri!choiceIndex,
      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Invoice'(),
      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_PurchaseOrder'(),
      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Claim'(),
      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_Receipt'()
    ),
!    /*Channel ID 2*/
!    choose(
!      ri!choiceIndex,
!      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_PartnershipApplication'(),
!      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_StatementOfWork'(),
!      'type!{urn:com:appian:types:DU}DU_RetirementApplication'()
!    )
  )
)

Update the expression rule for the document type data store entity

The DU_returnDataStoreEntityForChoiceIndex expression rule returns the data store entity for a document type. It is used to dynamically invoke the correct data store entity when writing or querying the document data. Basically, given a channel ID and choice index, it chooses the list of data store entity constants that matches the channel ID, then returns the constant that matches the choice index for that list of constants.

For example, in the following expression rule, if you input 1 for ri!channelID and 3 for ri!choiceIndex, the expression would return the third item in the first list of constants, which is cons!DU_CLAIM_DSE.

Example expression rule

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choose(
  ri!channelId,
  /*Channel ID 1*/
  choose(
    ri!choiceIndex,
    cons!DU_INVOICE_DSE,
    cons!DU_PURCHASE_ORDER_DSE,
    cons!DU_CLAIM_DSE,
    cons!DU_RECEIPT_DSE
  ),
  choose(
    ri!choiceIndex,
    cons!DU_PARTNERSHIP_APPLICATION_DSE,
    cons!DU_STATEMENT_OF_WORK_DSE,
    cons!DU_RETIREMENT_APPLICATION_DSE
  )
)

In order for it to return the data store entity for the new document types, you will need to add the new data store entity constants to the expression rule.

To add the new data store entity constants to the expression rule:

1. Open the DU_returnDataStoreEntityForChoiceIndex expression rule.
2. Add a new choose() statement at the index that corresponds with the channel ID of the document channel. For example, if you add a new document channel with a channel ID of 2, then the new choose() statement must be at index 2.
3. Update the new choose() function as follows:
   • For the key parameter, use the ri!choiceIndex rule input.
   • Add the new data store entity constants in an array. Make sure to list the constants in the order indicated by the choiceindex value of the dudoctype reference table.
4. Click SAVE CHANGES.

EXAMPLE

To update the DU_returnDataStoreEntityForChoiceIndex expression rule to add the document types for the new channel, you would add a new choose() function with the ri!choiceIndex rule input and new data store entity constants.

Make sure to list the constants in the order indicated by the choiceindex value of the dudoctype reference table. For example, if you had the following reference table, you would list the constants in the following order: cons!DU_PARTNERSHIP_APPLICATION_DSE, cons!DU_STATEMENT_OF_WORK_DSE, and cons!DU_RETIREMENT_APPLICATION_DSE.

In the example below, we added a Legal document channel with partnership application, statement of work, and retirement application document types.

DU_returnDataStoreEntityForChoiceIndex

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choose(
  ri!channelId,
  /*Channel ID 1*/
  choose(
    ri!choiceIndex,
    cons!DU_INVOICE_DSE,
    cons!DU_PURCHASE_ORDER_DSE,
    cons!DU_CLAIM_DSE,
    cons!DU_RECEIPT_DSE
  ),
!  /*Channel ID 2*/
!  choose(
!    ri!choiceIndex,
!    cons!DU_PARTNERSHIP_APPLICATION_DSE,
!    cons!DU_STATEMENT_OF_WORK_DSE,
!    cons!DU_RETIREMENT_APPLICATION_DSE
!  )
)

Step 4: Configure the document channel

Now that the document channel and document types are set up, go to the Configure tab and configure the document channel.

When you are setting the preferences, you will be able to specify different users and groups for the new document channel than the ones used in your existing document channels. Users will only be able to see the documents of the channel that they have access to.

After the document channel is configured and the classification model is trained, you can start uploading documents for processing.

Delete an unused model

Each time you create a document processing channel, it uses a new model that relies on Google's AutoML service. After you configure and train the model, it begins to access Google AutoML and incur charges. Customers with high-volume or varied document processing needs may need to manage their usage so they don't exceed any applicable Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project budget each month. To help you proactively manage your costs, you can deactivate document channels in IDP.

Administrators can also use a process model as a utility to manually clean up any Google AutoML models that aren't being used in their application.

To delete a model:

1. In the Appian Designer, open the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) application.
2. Open the DU Delete Model from GCP process model.
3. In the File menu, click Start Process for Debugging.
4. The Start Form appears and lists all models. Click the radio button in a model row to select it.
5. Click DELETE to start the process. The model is deleted from the Google Cloud Project.

When you delete a model manually, remember to also deactivate the channel that uses it. If you delete model, but it's still linked to a channel listed in the dudocchannel database table, it may cause process errors when you deactivate or reactivate that channel.

To avoid these issues:

1. Navigate to the Cloud Database.
2. Open the dudocchannel database table.
3. Locate the rows that mention the model you deleted.
4. Change the modelid and isactive fields to NULL.
5. Save your changes.

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