Image import profiles

If you regularly import images from the same source, you can automate the process by creating an image import profile. In a distributed installation, create the profile on the Verification Station or the Project Setup Station. In a standalone installation, create it on the Administrator Station. An import profile can also import images at regular intervals and process them in background mode. After you configure the profile, you can scan, import, and process images (for example, despeckle them) with a single click. You can change the import source or its settings at any time. If your import sources change frequently, create several profiles and switch between them instead of reconfiguring the source each time.

Create an import profile

To manage import profiles, click Project → Image Import Profiles… in the main window. In the Image Import Profiles dialog box, you can create, edit, remove, or copy profiles. To create a profile, click New… to start the Import Profile Wizard. Then select an import source, such as a scanner or a Hot Folder. You can also open the wizard from the Select Import Profile dialog box: click File → Import Images….

Create an import profile for a scanner

Select the scanner as the import source

Select Scanner as the import source.

The scanner must be connected. Follow the documentation supplied with the scanner, and install all of the software supplied with it.

Configure the image scanning options

Style of the settings dialog – Choose how the program interacts with the scanner:
- FlexiCapture Scanner Settings – Uses the ABBYY FlexiCapture Scanner settings dialog box. Click Settings… to configure scanning options. If you select Show scanner settings before scanning, the Scanner settings dialog box appears before scanning whenever you select this import profile.
- Scanning Options – Uses the scanner driver’s dialog box. You cannot change the scanning options while creating the import profile, but the Scanner settings dialog box appears each time you start scanning.
Specify whether to scan one image or multiple images at a time.

Configure the image pre-processing options

Configure the image pre-processing options.

Rename the import profile

If required, change the default name of the import profile and add a comment.

Create an import profile for a Hot Folder or mailbox

Select Hot Folder as the import source, and then select the type of your Hot Folder:

Local folder or LAN folder
MAPI (mailbox)
POP3 server
IMAP server
SFTP server
FTP server
Microsoft Graph Mail API

For a local folder or LAN folder, you can use environment variables to specify the path to the import directory. A variable can contain the whole path or part of it, for example <Env:import>/subfolder_name. Click Browse… to specify the path to the Hot Folder, or click Settings… to enter your user name and password.

To add images from a Hot Folder, the user must have read and write privileges for that folder.

After you select the source type, set it up in the matching section, and then complete the remaining wizard steps.

Set up import from a MAPI mailbox

Before you set up import from a MAPI mailbox, make sure that:

An email account is configured on the computer.
The Operator Station or the Processing Station runs under the user account used to access the mailbox.
Microsoft Outlook has been started under this user account at least once.
Microsoft Outlook 2016 is installed. Later versions of Outlook are not supported for import to FlexiCapture 12 through the MAPI protocol.
The bitness of Microsoft Outlook matches the bitness of ABBYY FlexiCapture 12. For example, with the 64-bit version of ABBYY FlexiCapture 12, use the 64-bit version of Microsoft Outlook.

Then click Browse… and select the mailbox.

Set up import from a POP3 server

Specify the server address

Specify the address of your POP3 server (for example, pop.server.com).

Enter your credentials

Click Settings… and, in the dialog box that opens, enter the user name and password required to access the messages on the server.

Select the encryption type

Under Type of encrypted connection, select one of the following:

Option	Description
None	The connection is not encrypted. Use this option for connections over an unsecured port.
SSL	The connection is always encrypted.
Auto	The connection is encrypted if a secured port is specified, and not encrypted if no port is specified.

If ABBYY FlexiCapture cannot retrieve messages from the POP3 email server even though all the settings are correct, check your firewall. Make sure it is not blocking the email server.

Set up import from an IMAP server

Specify the server address

Specify the address of the IMAP server (for example, imap.server.com).

Enter your credentials and authentication method

Click Settings….
In the dialog box that opens, enter a valid user name, and then select one of the following authentication options:
- Use OAuth 2.0 authentication – Opens an OAuth 2.0 authentication dialog in the browser. The first time you connect to the server, enter a login and password. The browser then closes automatically.
- Define authentication parameters – Lets you enter a password for the specified user name.

Select the encryption type

Under Type of encrypted connection, select one of the following:

Option	Description
None	The connection is not encrypted. Use this option for connections over an unsecured port.
SSL	The connection is always encrypted.
TLS	The connection is always encrypted.
Auto	The connection is encrypted if a secured port is specified, and not encrypted if no port is specified.

Select a mailbox subfolder

Click Browse… and select a subfolder inside the mailbox.

If ABBYY FlexiCapture cannot retrieve messages from the IMAP email server even though all the settings are correct, check your firewall. Make sure it is not blocking the connection to the email server.

Set up import from an SFTP or FTP server

Specify the server address

Specify the address of the SFTP or FTP server. If you use a non-standard port, add it after the address in the format sftp://address:port/ or ftp://address:port/.

Enter your credentials

Click Settings… and, in the dialog box that opens, enter the user name and password required to access the messages on the server.

Validate the server key

Click Next. If you set up import from an SFTP server, a public key validation dialog box appears.

If ABBYY FlexiCapture cannot receive a response from the SFTP or FTP server even though all the settings are correct, check your firewall. Make sure it is not blocking the server.

Set up import through the Microsoft Graph Mail API

Start the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Wizard

In the Network Settings dialog box, click Sign in… to launch the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Wizard.

Click the link in the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Wizard to sign in to your Microsoft account. The browser then closes automatically.If authentication is denied after you confirm authorization, with the error Flow failed. Failure info/error: Connect to token endpoint failed, see Microsoft Graph Mail API sign-in and import errors.

Grant permissions to the application

Grant the required permissions to the application. For more information, see Import images using the Microsoft Graph Mail API.

Return to the network settings

Go back to the Network Settings window and click OK.

Select a mailbox subfolder

Click Browse… in the Import Profile Wizard and select an available subfolder inside the mailbox.

The refresh token required to use the Microsoft Graph Mail API expires after 90 days of inactivity. For projects on the Application Server, the Token Management Service refreshes it automatically. For local projects, you must sign in again to obtain a new one.

Microsoft no longer lets administrators change the refresh token lifetime. For more information, see the Microsoft documentation on configurable token lifetimes.

Specify the image loading options

Specify how ABBYY FlexiCapture loads images from the Hot Folder.

Check Hot Folder every

Select this option and enter how often the program checks the Hot Folder for new images. If a mailbox is the Hot Folder, the program checks it for new email after it imports the first message. If there is new email and the Processing Server computer has free CPU cores, the program imports the messages one by one. It continues until the mailbox is empty. It then checks the mailbox again at the end of the interval you set. To import images from Hot Folders, you must also turn on Hot Folder processing:

In a distributed installation, enable Hot Folder processing for your project in the Administration and Monitoring Console (click Settings → Projects).
In a standalone installation, select the Autochecking option for the profile in the Image Import Profiles dialog box.

Batch settings

Select one of the following options to specify which batch new images are added to:

Option	What it does
Add images to current batch	Adds images from the Hot Folder to the current batch.
Add images to specified batch	Adds images to a batch you select from the drop-down list.
Create new batches for imported images automatically	Creates batches for new images automatically. At each check, the program creates one or more batches and adds the Hot Folder images to them according to the rule you specify. You set the check interval in Check Hot Folder every. Set the batch type in the Batch type field. Optionally, click Registration parameters… to set the batch registration parameters, and set the batch priority in the Priority field.

If import tasks run on the Processing Server, select Create new batches for imported images automatically. The Add images to current batch and Add images to specified batch options work only for import on the Project Setup Station or in a standalone installation.

Attach mail to batch

This option is available only for a POP3 server Hot Folder. Select it to attach the email message as an EML file to the new batch. You can download and open attached messages in an email client. For more information, see User attachments.

Number of files to add

In this drop-down list, select how many files are added to each batch:

Option	What it does
According to description file	Adds files according to a description file. Click Settings… to specify the name and type of the description file. To import from a mailbox with a description file, add the XML description file as an email attachment. For more information, see Description file.
All files	Adds all files from the Hot Folder. Files in subfolders are ignored.
From subfolder	Adds files from subfolders whose names match a naming scheme. Click Settings… to specify the scheme, where an asterisk (`*`) matches any string of characters and a question mark (`?`) matches any single character. Rename a subfolder to match your scheme only after you copy all required files to it. Otherwise, file access conflicts can occur.
Several files	Adds several files. Click Settings… and enter a number or a range. Files in subfolders are ignored. If you enter a number, such as 5, and only 4 files remain in the Hot Folder, those files are not imported. If you enter a range, such as `1-5`, the remaining 4 files are imported.
Single file	Adds one file.
Attached to the letter	Adds all files attached to the email message, in ascending order by file name.
Message bodies and attachments	Adds both the attached files and the message bodies.

When you use the Microsoft Graph Mail API, each import task imports only one email message. Parallel import is not supported, so Processing Stations carry out import tasks one by one.

The following sample description file supports the According to description file option. It imports 10 images from a POP3 server, assembled into two documents of five images each:

<Batch>
    <Name>batch 1</Name>
    <SourceID>EXAMPLE</SourceID>
    <Documents>
        <Document Index="0">
            <Name>1</Name>
            <Images>
                <Image Index="0" PageIndex="0" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000001.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="0">1.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="1" PageIndex="1" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000001.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="1">1.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="2" PageIndex="2" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000001.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="2">1.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="3" PageIndex="3" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000001.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="3">1.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="4" PageIndex="4" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000001.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="4">1.pdf</Image>
            </Images>
        </Document>
        <Document Index="1">
            <Name>2</Name>
            <Images>
                <Image Index="0" PageIndex="0" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000011.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="0">2.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="1" PageIndex="1" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000011.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="1">2.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="2" PageIndex="2" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000011.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="2">2.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="3" PageIndex="3" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000011.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="3">2.pdf</Image>
                <Image Index="4" PageIndex="4" SourcePath="pop.server.ru" SourceFile="Image_00000011.tif" SourceFilePageIndex="4">2.pdf</Image>
            </Images>
        </Document>
    </Documents>
</Batch>

In the If no files are found, log the following drop-down list, select Error, Warning, or Information.

Configure the image pre-processing options

Configure the image pre-processing options. To apply the document separation and image processing settings defined for the batch type, select Use image processing options from batch type.

Clean up the Hot Folder after import

The wizard prompts you to specify how to clean up the Hot Folder after import. You can delete successfully imported images or move them to another folder. Some images are processed with errors, for example, when a file is corrupt or a network error occurs. You can leave such images in the Hot Folder or move them to another folder. Avoid keeping images processed with errors in the Hot Folder. Keep such images only if:

You import images manually. During automatic import, a corrupt file can prevent the other files in the Hot Folder from being processed.
Hot Folder processing is often interrupted by an unstable network connection.

Rename the import profile

If required, change the default name of the import profile and add a comment.

Add page images

ABBYY FlexiCapture architecture

Program settings

Document Definitions

Classification and training

Operate a configured project

Using NLP to process unstructured documents

Reference

Create an import profile

Create an import profile for a scanner

Create an import profile for a Hot Folder or mailbox

Set up import from a MAPI mailbox

Set up import from a POP3 server

Set up import from an IMAP server

Set up import from an SFTP or FTP server

Set up import through the Microsoft Graph Mail API

Specify the image loading options

Check Hot Folder every

Batch settings

Attach mail to batch

Number of files to add

Configure the image pre-processing options

Clean up the Hot Folder after import

Rename the import profile

​Create an import profile

​Create an import profile for a scanner

​Create an import profile for a Hot Folder or mailbox

​Set up import from a MAPI mailbox

​Set up import from a POP3 server

​Set up import from an IMAP server

​Set up import from an SFTP or FTP server

​Set up import through the Microsoft Graph Mail API

​Specify the image loading options

​Check Hot Folder every

​Batch settings

​Attach mail to batch

​Number of files to add

​Configure the image pre-processing options

​Clean up the Hot Folder after import

​Rename the import profile

​Related topics

Create an import profile

Create an import profile for a scanner

Create an import profile for a Hot Folder or mailbox

Set up import from a MAPI mailbox

Set up import from a POP3 server

Set up import from an IMAP server

Set up import from an SFTP or FTP server

Set up import through the Microsoft Graph Mail API

Specify the image loading options

Check Hot Folder every

Batch settings

Attach mail to batch

Number of files to add

Configure the image pre-processing options

Clean up the Hot Folder after import

Rename the import profile

Related topics