Scanning

OptimiDoc Server turns multifunction devices into intelligent document-capture points. Administrators build scan workflows that define how a document is captured, what metadata is collected, how it is processed (image clean-up, document separation and OCR), what file format is produced and where the result is delivered. Users pick a workflow at the device panel — or from the web and mobile clients — and OptimiDoc handles the rest automatically.

How Scanning Works

A scan travels through a fixed pipeline from the moment a user presses start to the moment the finished document lands in its destination. Understanding this journey helps when designing workflows and when diagnosing why a scan did not arrive.

1. Capture at the source

For a device (MFP) workflow, the user authenticates at the panel, taps the workflow button, adjusts any parameters the administrator left editable, and presses start. The device scans using the workflow's settings — resolution, colour mode, duplex and media size — except where a setting is locked, in which case the configured value is enforced. Automated inputs (hot folder, e-mail, web upload and the mobile app) feed the same pipeline without a person at a panel.

2. Arrival and the descriptor

The device or input connector sends the scanned pages to the OptimiDoc server together with a small descriptor file. OptimiDoc identifies the originating vendor from the incoming files, parses the descriptor, and resolves which user, device and workflow the scan belongs to. This is what ties an anonymous set of images to a named person, a billing context and a set of processing rules.

3. Queueing

Each arriving scan is placed on a background worker queue and processed asynchronously, so capture and the web administration never block one another. Multiple scans can be in flight at once.

4. Processing and OCR

The pipeline then applies, in order:

• Image enhancements — punch-hole and black-border removal, deskew, despeckle, page splitting and texture filtering.

• Document separation — the page batch is divided into individual documents by barcode, blank page, fixed page count or an OCR-zone value (or kept as one document).

• OCR — if the output format is an OCR format, the recognition engine produces the searchable or editable result. The engine is chosen automatically from the format: ABBYY for the ABBYY formats, the built-in OptimiDoc engine for the OptimiDoc formats. Recognition runs through a bounded pool, with a 60-minute per-document safety timeout.

Image formats (plain PDF, JPEG, TIFF) skip OCR and are simply assembled into the requested format.

5. Metadata

If the workflow enables metadata, OptimiDoc writes a companion sidecar file (JSON, XML or CSV) next to each document, capturing parameter values plus contextual fields such as the user login, device IP address and processing time. Password parameters are stripped from metadata for security.

6. Delivery

The finished document(s) are delivered to the workflow's primary destination, then to any additional destinations configured to deliver Always. Filenames are built from the workflow's filename pattern, and destination paths and fields can be filled dynamically from parameter and barcode values.

7. Backup delivery

OptimiDoc is designed so a scan is never silently lost:

• If the primary and Always destinations all fail, OptimiDoc attempts any destinations configured to deliver Only on errors.

• If delivery still fails, the scan is stored in OptimiDoc's own store, the user is e-mailed a download link, and an administrator is alerted.

• Separately, when an e-mail destination's attachments exceed the configured size limit, OptimiDoc automatically stores the documents and sends the recipient a download link instead of oversized attachments.

8. Reports

Destinations configured to deliver a report receive a generated report rather than the document — one report per file, or a single overall report for the whole batch — in JSON, XML or a custom template that can reference parameter and zone values. Reports can be sent always or only when a scan fails, which is useful for routing failures to an administrator.

Flow Types

The flow type chosen in a workflow's Input Options determines where documents enter the pipeline.

Licensing

Scanning capabilities are gated by the active licence, and the editor only offers what is licensed:

• MFP input is licensed separately from the automated input types.

• Hot Folder, Email, Web and Mobile workflows are counted together against the licence's other inputs allowance; when it is reached, a further non-MFP workflow cannot be saved until one is freed or switched to MFP.

• ABBYY OCR output formats appear only when the ABBYY OCR feature is licensed; the OptimiDoc OCR engine is always available.

• Handwriting (ICR) zones in the OCR Zones editor require the ABBYY ICR add-on.

In This Section

In Summary

Scanning in OptimiDoc is a single, well-defined pipeline: capture at the source, identify the user and workflow from the descriptor, queue for background processing, clean and separate the pages, run OCR where the format calls for it, attach metadata, and deliver — with automatic fallback to an OptimiDoc download link so a scan is never lost. Everything a user sees is one button; everything an administrator controls lives in the scan workflow behind it.