Adding Ringtail Support

We’ve been asked by a few of our customers lately to add support for the Ringtail load file format. So, we got started on it and it’s almost ready for release.

Supporting the Ringtail load file is a bit trickier than the other formats already supported in ReadySuite, primarily because it relies on an Access database (MDB). But this won’t necessarily make things more complicated for you, as you’ll be able to import and export to this format without having Access installed.

Creating a Ringtail load file with ReadySuite is as easy as any other load file – just specify its output filename and you’re all set. Of course, if you need some more fine tined output options, we made sure to make those easily available as well.

Ringtail Output

Specifically, we added full control for setting the field values for all columns in Ringtail’s main ‘export’ table. Levels can be populated based on a file path of your choosing, or if you prefer – they can be set individually. We added full customization of the ‘parties’ table, allowing you to choose the values for Persons and/or Organisations from the available Correspondence Types.

Ringtail Output Levels

When it comes to reading the Ringtail format, we support it all. And it’s really simple – just drag/drop the load file into ReadySuite, choose your validation options, and you’re ready to import.

We should be wrapping up our testing phase on 4.1 shortly – and then hope to get that release out to you as soon as we can. As always, if you have an idea for ReadySuite, feel free to e-mail Justin Blessing at justin@compiledservices.com.

Enhancements to Delimited Text Import

Kick-starting our development blog again, we’re going to highlight some recent enhancements we made to the wizard for importing delimited text. This wizard is a staple to our product suite – it allows users to import data for filtering, linking, re-packaging and various quality control purposes.

In prior versions, during the import process, you would specify the field from your CSV/DAT file that would “link on” to the document identifier in the grid. We did not provide a method for you to change the field to link on in the data already imported. In the screenshot below, you can see we added an option to specify the “Link Field” – this is populated from all the fields available in the main grid display.

Import Delimited Text Wizard

If you’re familiar with the old wizard interface, you’ll also notice we’ve cleaned up the display quite a bit. At the top, you can determine whether you want the wizard to add “new documents” or error if it is unable to link-to existing documents. You’ll also see the “Queue” – this is populated based on the number of documents already in the grid display. In case there is a filter applied, you can glance at the numbers listed there which indicate the available set of documents being updated.

Appending your import to data already in the grid is also a bit more streamlined – you can specify the separator field now. Further, if the value you’re appending is the same as the current value – that data won’t be added, preventing duplicate information.

Finally, one common request we’ve had is to allow duplicate entries to be processed from the delimited text file. In the past, if a document was listed two or more times in your import CSV/DAT file – only the first instance of that record was updated. This was a conscious decision, allowing the import process to read the data in and update the grid faster. We now allow you to decide if you want the duplicates to be processed. Benefit of doing so, combined with the append feature, allows you to keep multiple entries and different updates from your import file.

Changes in 3.1, added Trial Director support

ReadySuite 3.1 is now available, including minor bug fixes, enhancements and new Trial Director support.

Using ReadySuite, you can now import a Trial Director load file (OLL) and export it to any of the supported formats. As with other supported formats, verification options like checking all referenced files exist can be ran against the OLL file. Adding support for the OLL format lets us provide a neat package for preparing your images and OLE records for trial. As described in an earlier post, ReadySuite supports numbering exhibits for trial and exporting multi-page images to single page (tiff/jpeg).

Trial Director OLL Export

We’ve made some significant enhancements to the Import Delimited Text wizard, adding the ability to automatically detect the qualifier, delimiter and file encoding. If the detection fails, you can still manually specify the correct settings or choose from a list of common combination’s. Additionally, we’ve incorporated support for reading tab-separated files (tsv) with a bit more ease.

Preview Delimited Text

Additional options have been added to the endorse and stamping process. Originally, users were given the option to add white space to the top and bottom of pages only. We’ve now included the ability to add more white space to the left and right side of pages. This is an important option to have as endorsements can run vertically down and up a page.

Endorse Image Options

Along with more control over added white space, you can now specify if you want to maintain the original page size or allow the page size to be extended. For example, if you’re adding 0.5” to a page that is already 8.5” x 11”, you can choose to keep it at the original size or allow it to extend to 8.5” x 11.5”. Other options now allow you to adjust the margins in each of the nine quadrants, allowing endorsements to be closer or further from the edge.

Endorse Image Offset

Lastly, we’ve updated the export process to allow images to be endorsed on the fly. Previously, the endorse process would override an existing image set.

Endorse Images on Export

Head over to the download page to check out these new features and let us know what you’d like to see added or changed in a future release using the comments box below.