ECM user interfaces will, typically, offer manual import functions that cater for single or small batches of documents but these are not designed for frequent or bulk import. In addition, manually importing documents is not a good use of users time when there are far more efficient mechanisms designed specifically to address this requirement.

ECM systems feature and therefore require document properties to be set when content is ingested; together with other properties such as location within existing file plans, user/group/ownership, security, retention and sometimes record declaration. Often this information does not exist, or it is only partially complete, as in the case of documents held in a file system. As a result, this information needs to be derived or provided as part of the migration process. In addition, content files may not be in the required format for user consumption or long-term archiving and will need to be rendered to an alternative file format.

In 2006, SynApps harnessed its many years of implementation and migration experience to address these requirements by developing ConXLoader. ConXLoader is a fully-supported product; forming part of the ConXApps product family.

ConXLoader is designed to cater for a wide range of migration scenarios from frequent, unattended, small batch migration processing to multi-million document, bulk migration projects.

The start of the migration process requires provision of the source content. Ideally this will include the content file and associated properties but if the source is held on a file system then this information may not be available, although sometimes it might be possible to derive a sub-set of the required properties from file names and file directory structures. In the case of source extracts from existing ECM and line-of-business systems, more information is typically available and this can often be used to enable some level of automated migration validation checking. ConXLoader is designed to deal with each of these scenarios by providing utilities that are used to automate both the validation and enrichment of properties and the creation of associated, security, location, retention and audit trail data.

S O L U T I O N SA SynApps Case Study

Content Migration – Configurable, robust and performant software tool for all your content migration needs

Nearly every Enterprise Content Management (ECM) implementation requires the migration of existing content. The source content is often held in existing file systems, legacy ECM/EDRM systems or line-of-business applications that provide a rudimentary document/image management facility.

Proven utility used on hundreds of migration projects with many millions of content objects

Flexible/configurable architecture based on an open framework

Source application agnostic – includes file systems and databases

Bulk or day to day migration supported

Business user tools for meta data validation, correction and embellishment

Mapping of meta data between source and target systems

Transformation of meta data between source and target data types

Pre and post processing supported

Content file transformation supported

Batch queue and exception management

Post Load Reporting and Analysis tools

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The ConXLoader migration product provides a rich set of functionality for the extraction of data and content from the source system, configuration of load files and the subsequent loading of documents to the target repository. Content sets are identified by specific criteria in order to create realistic batch sizes for migration. For example, date-created, department number and employee ID range.

Following analysis of the performance of the various components of the source system, the optimum volume size for each migration batch is determined as part of the project initiation and planning process. Extracted data subsets are transformed to ConXLoader load files that contain all of the necessary parameters for uploading to the target repository. The resultant load files are automatically added to the load queue as they are generated and reside there until processed.

The number of ConXLoader agents that are executed at any one time is configurable to ensure optimal throughput and to minimise the time required to complete the overall migration process. Throughout the load process, information relating to success or failure is logged at every stage and the associated reports can be analysed subsequent to a load execution to resolve any issues that may have occurred and to manage the re-load of any failed documents.

The following diagram provides a high level overview of the process.

Contact: www.synapps-solutions.com

Technical Details

Operating System: ConXLoader is a java based application and will run on any operating system that supports java 1.5 and above e.g. Windows, Linux, etc.

Processor: 2 GHz

RAM: 4 GB

Disk: 10 GB - ConXloader operates as a client application to both source and target systems and in addition to the application, only needs sufficient disk to store the file which it is currently processing. Supports remote file systems via standard protocols such as NFS, UNC, HTTP

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A SynApps Case Study

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Application Interface Layer (e.g. API/CMIS)

Content

Content

Data

Data

Target Repository

Extracted DataSubset

TransformEngine

XML Load File

Load QueueWriter

Loader Agent(s)

Loader Engine

Load QueueReader

Source Repository

DB File Store DB File Store

Load Queue

Key Features:

• Supports frequent unattended small batch import to high volume migration requirements

• Source Extraction data manipulation and validation utilities

• Pre- and Post-load process support

• Batch Queue Management

• Audit and Reporting

• Exception Handling

• Multithreaded for high performance

• Fully supported product

Supported Target EDM Systems

• EMC Documentum – all versions

• Alfresco ECM – all versions

Contact: www.synapps-solutions.com

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A SynApps Case Study

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About Synapps Solutions

• Formed in 2003 by Documentum Services management team and senior consultants

• Extensive experience in Enterprise Content Management and planning, delivery and support of large-scale infrastructures and applications

• Partnerships: Alfresco, EMC, Adobe, Jive, Microsoft

• Products – ConXMail, ConXOffice, ConXSys, ConXLoader