This article is a work-in-progress. It was written using a beta version of 2022. This article is subject to change and/or expansion as it is updated to the release version of 2022.
This tag will be removed upon draft completion.
The Grooper Web Client allows users to connect to a Grooper dashboard over the internet via a web server. This allows end-users to process review based steps in a Batch Process in a web browser, without the need to install Grooper on their own machine.
About
THIS SECTION TO BE COMPLETED AT A LATER DATE
Installation
Setting up the Grooper Web Client is done in three simple steps:
Install the IIS components on your server.
Install the Grooper Web Client application.
Open the Web Client URL in a browser and start using it.
As a side note, there are some additional requirements for users scanning paper documents into Grooper with a physical scanner. These requirements will be detailed in the #Scanning with Web Review section of this article.
1. Install IIS
The first step to setting up your server for Grooper Web Review is installing the IIS (Internet Information Services) components.
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It's important to do this step first. Installing and setting up IIS first is required before installing the Grooper Web Client.
Open the Server Manager application.
Select Manage.
Select Add Roles and Features.
On the following screen, select Next.
Next, you will be asked to select the Installation Type.
Select Role-based or feature-based installation.
Select Next to continue.
Next, you will be asked to select a server on which to install the IIS.
Select the server.
FYI: The local server is selected by default.
Select Next to continue.
In the following screen, scroll down to the bottom of the list to select Web Server.
In the following prompt, select Add Features.
Then, select Next.
No additional Features are necessary.
Select Next to continue.
On the Web Server Role (IIS) screen, select Next.
In the Role Services selection panel, select the following components (FYI: If a window appears asking you to add features, select Add Features):
Web Server
Common HTTP Features
Default Document
Static Content
Security
Request Filtering
Basic Authentication
Windows Authentication
Application Development
.NET Extensibility 4.5
ASP.NET 4.5
ISAPI Extensions
ISAPI Filters
WebSocket Protocol
Management Tools
IIS Management Console
IIS 6 Management Compatibility
IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
IIS Management Scripts and Tools
Management Service
Select Next after all components are selected.
The last step is to confirm your IIS installation.
Verify the settings are correct and all required components are present.
Select Install.
Close the install wizard.
FYI: You may close the install wizard while IIS is installing. It will continue to install in the background.
Upon successful installation, we can see IIS in the Server Manager application.
With IIS installed, our next step is to install the Grooper Web Server.
FYI
You may want to add a service user account at this time. The service account must have full access to the Grooper database and file store to function properly.
2. Install Grooper Web Client
Next, we will install the Grooper Web Client application.
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If you have not done so already, install Grooper and add repository connections before continuing.
If you need instructions on installing Grooper, please visit the Install and Setup article.
First, you will need to download the Grooper Web Client Installer from the Downloads and Resources section of Grooper x Change
After unzipping the installer package, run the setup application.
Select Next to start installation.
Accept the terms of the licensing agreement.
Select Next to continue.
In the following screen, you will enter the user name and password of the account that will logon to use the application.
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Before selecting a user, ensure the user has permissions access to the Grooper database and file store location. The user must be able to read and write to the database and file store.
This is where you would want to enter a service account's information, if you are choosing to use one. The account must have access to the database and file store in order to do work in Grooper.
Enter the account's user name and password.
FYI: You may also use the Browse... feature to help find the domain and user, if you need.
Select Next to continue.
Select Next to continue setup.
Select Install to initialize installation.
You will see the following screen upon successfully installing the Grooper Web Client.
Select Finish to finish installation.
You can verify the Grooper Web Client was installed by opening Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Under your server, select Application Pools.
You will see Grooper listed in the Application Pools.
In the Sites folder, you can also select the Grooper site created.
FYI
One of the most common issues with installing the Grooper Web Client are permissions related. The service account must have permissions to the Grooper database and file store for each Grooper Repository. Users will not be able to create a Batch or process review steps using Web Review if it does not.
If you did not choose an account with appropriate credentials during the Grooper Web Client installation, you will need to switch users to an account with appropriate access.
To add a service account with proper credentials do the following:
Select the Grooper Application Pool.
Select Advanced Settings....
The Advanced Settings window will pop up.
Scroll down to the Identity property and configure it with the new user account.
You will need to restart the Application Pool after making changes.
3. Access Web Review
At this point, users are ready and able to access Grooper's Web Review using a URL.
By default, Web Review URL will be the following:
http://<YOUR_SERVER_NAME>:13930
Open up a browser and enter the URL.
You can now start using the Web Review client. In the next section, we will detail the UI navigation.
Welcome to the Grooper Web Client! The Grooper Web Client allows users to process documents using a web browser. As long as the machine you're using has domain access to the server running the Grooper Web Client, you're good to go!
In the following sections, we will give end-users guidance on how to navigate the Web Client user interface and use it to process Batches and review their documents. We will discuss the following topics:
#Web Client UI - How to navigate Grooper using a web browser
#Review Applications - How to use the various review-based activities in Grooper
#Batch Management - How to maintain document Batches in production (pausing work, updating processing instructions, and more)
#Event Log - How to access Grooper's log of processing events and other statistics
Web Client UI
The first thing you're going to want to know is how to get around the Web Client interface.
When you open the Grooper Web Client in a browser for the first time, you'll see four main sections:
Navigation Links
Repository Info
Recent Events
Context Toolbar
Navigation Links
The Navigation Links section is the main way you'll get around in the Web Client. It contains a variety of links for Grooper users, including:
Batches - Used to access a list of all current Batches in production.
From here, users can see and select Batches in process. They can also filter Batches by a variety of search criteria, use a search function to search for Batches by keyword, and process user attended review activities.
Tasks - Used to access a list of review tasks ready for users.
This is another way for end-users to select and start review based work via the Web Client. Only review tasks ready for processing will be presented to the user. Users can also filter review tasks by Batch, Batch Process, Step or Queue.
Learn - Used to access Grooper University courses at learn.grooper.com.
This is an external resource for Grooper designers who have an active training subscription.
Connect - Used to access our Grooper x Change web forums at xchange.grooper.com.
This is an external resource for Grooper users to interact with each other. Users can post questions to the Grooper community, including other users and our own internal team. We also post news, links to installer files, information about about our beta programs and more using Grooper x Change.
If you're reading this you've already found our Grooper wiki! This is an external resource containing articles about a variety of Grooper topics.
FYI
The Designer and Analyze links are currently greyed out and unclickable.
These are placeholders for content coming in future Grooper releases.
Repository Info
The Repository Info window provides some "at a glance" processing statistics and information about your Grooper Repository.
A Grooper Repository is the environment in which processing resources are created and executed. This includes the Batches of documents themselves, the Batch Processes used to process them, and components used in the Batch Process such as Content Models.
This data displayed in the Repository Info window subdivided into three sections:
Totals
This is a running total of various aspects of the Repository, including the total number of published Batch Processes, total tasks in current and previous Batches in production, and total number of "nodes" (the processing objects Grooper architects create in Grooper Design Studio).
Tasks
This displays numbers regarding the review based activities for Batches in the Repository, including those ready for processing, those currently being worked on, and those that were previously completed.
This can give end-users a quick view of tasks awaiting review.
Nodes
This displays the total number of specific types of Grooper objects in the Repository.
This information will be most useful for Grooper architects working in Grooper Design Studio.
Recent Events
The Recent Events window is Grooper's event log.
This panel displays information regarding different processing events. This includes audit trails of processing events, such as Batch creation, task steps in a Batch Process submitted for processing, and Batch completion. This also includes warnings and error messages, giving you information about errors processing steps of a Batch Process.
This panel can be useful to track down information or a sequence of events if you're troubleshooting a problem.
FYI
If you're familiar with the thick client version of Grooper Design Studio, this is essentially the same event log you see when selecting the root node of your Grooper Repository.
Context Toolbar
The Context Toolbar is a navigation bar providing various utility in the Web Client.
Depending on the context (which page you've navigated to), this menu will change slightly. However, please note wherever you are in the Grooper Web Client, clicking the Grooper logo will always take you back to this home screen.
Depending on the size and scope of your operation, you may be working out of multiple Grooper Repositories. If you are, you may need to switch between Grooper Repositories to accesses documents ready for processing in one or the other.
To do this, you'll use the Repository button on the homepage's Context Toolbar.
First, the Grooper Repository you're currently working in is always displayed at the top of the homepage.
To switch Repositories, click the Repositories button.
A dropdown menu will appear listing available Grooper Repositories you're connected to.
Select the Repository you wish to switch to from the list.
Upon making your selection you will switch to the selected Repository, granting you access to all the Batches and processing assets contained therein.
You'll see the Repository listed at the top of the homepage has changed to the selected Repository.
Performing Review Tasks
Documents come into Grooper either by scanning pages or importing files into a Batch. A Batch is the fundamental container of work in Grooper. It holds your documents as they are processed through Grooper. Along with the container comes a list of processing instructions called a Batch Process.
So a Batch is really two things:
A container of documents in various states of processing.
These are represented as Batch Folders and Batch Pages contained in the Batch Root Folder.
A step by step list of instructions of what to do with those documents.
This is the Batch Process.
A Batch Process will consist of automated tasks called Unattended Activities, as well as review-based activities requiring user intervention called Attended Activities. For end-users, most of your work will be centered around document review tasks (or Attended Activates). In these activities, you will review the automated work Grooper has done in previously in the Batch Process. For example, you may be reviewing the classification decisions Grooper made or reviewing Grooper's data extraction to ensure all data was captured accurately.
Different organizations will utilize human review to varying degrees. Depending on the use case, Grooper may be able to automate more work without the need for human intervention. However, as good as Grooper can be at making document processing decisions, no computer software can beat the human brain. Review tasks are well suited for situations where you need to ensure the accuracy of Grooper's results in one way or another. You play a critical role in verifying Batches are processed accurately through the steps of a Batch Process.
So, how do you get started?
There are two ways users can start processing review tasks in a Grooper Repository, either using the Batches or Tasks pages. Either is acceptable. These present two different ways of displaying available work in Grooper. We will start by reviewing the Batches page.
Batches Page
The Batches page will present a user interface to select Batches currently in production within the Repository. Users will be able to see the Batch's progress and process any human attended Review activity.
To get to the Batch page, click the Batches icon on the Grooper Web Client homepage.
In the Navigation Links panel of the homepage, click the Batches link.
This will bring up the Batches interface. The first thing you'll see is a list of Batches currently in process.
FYI
If you're familiar with the Grooper Dashboard application in the Grooper thick client, this should look very familiar to you. The interface is very similar, if not identical, just with a different skin.
You can sort the Batch List by the following properties:
Batch
This column lists the name of the Batch. Often, this name will be related to the Batch Process used with a timestamp tacked onto the end.
Process
This column lists the Batch Process assigned to the Batch. These are the step-by-step processing instructions given to the Batch.
Step
This is the current step in the Batch Process being applied to the Batch.
Activity
This is the current step's Activity type.
FYI: You can name a step whatever you want in a Batch Process. Many steps simply share the Grooper activity's name. However, for Review tasks in particular, you'll often find they are given a more descriptive name, describing the type of review you're going to do for that step.
Status
This describes the state of the Batch's current step. This can be Working if the step is currently processing, Ready if the step is able to be processed and just waiting for a user to start it, or Paused if the whole Batch has been placed in a paused state, preventing any steps from being processed.
Priority
This is the priority assigned to the Batch. Higher priority steps will consume system resources before lower ones, effectively processing first.
Created
This is simply the date and time the Batch was created.
Created By
This is the Grooper user who created the Batch.
If you have a particularly large number of Batches, you can narrow down what you're looking for using the search box or the filter utility.
In the search box you can free search any text in the Batches, Process, Step or Activity columns.
Or, you can select the Filter icon, to filter out Batches by certain criteria.
This will bring up a window to filter out your selection based on Status, Process, Step or Activity.
Click the arrow next to the property heading you want to filter by.
Check the box next to the specific value you want to filter by.
Click "Save" to execute the filter or "Cancel" to cancel.
Now that we've gotten the lay of the land, you're probably asking yourself how do I actually start doing work in Grooper? How do I start reviewing documents?
First, select a Batch from the list.
The "Progress" tab displays the current progress of the selected Batch.
Each rectangle represents a step in the Batch Process.
The step's name is listed under the rectangle.
These numbers indicate how many tasks have been processed for the given step.
In this case there were 8 out of 8 total document folders in the Batch processed by the Classify step.
FYI: If you're wondering why the previous Recognize step lists "9/9" and not "8/8", that's because Recognize ran on the page level and not the folder level. There were 9 total pages and 8 total folders in this Batch. We'll talk more about the difference between pages and folders later on in this article.
What color the step is will indicate something about the steps processing status.
Blue indicates the step's tasks were completed successfully (or without error).
Grey indicates the step is ready for processing.
Black indicates the step is awaiting processing or otherwise has not been processed.
Either it's waiting its turn for steps before it, the Batch has been "paused", or in certain circumstances the step was skipped.
Red will indicate one or more tasks in the step have failed to process for one reason or another.
Green will indicate one or more tasks in the steps are actively being processed.
For end-users doing review work in Grooper, you will be processing steps with the "Review" activity type that are ready for processing.
For these four batches, all are currently at a Review step in their process.
However, only one is listed as "Ready'"
With the Batch selected we can see in the "Progress" tab, the step is grey, also indicating it is ready for processing.
Both a step's Status listed as Ready and its color being grey mean the same thing. It's just two different ways of visualizing/understanding it's ready to go.
To start the Review module, simply double click the Batch.
This will bring up the Review activity module to perform one kind of review or another, be it classification review, data review, image processing review or another. In Grooper, the different kinds of review applications are displayed as "Views". For example, the type of review this step is doing is classification review. The user is presented a "Classification View" in order to verify each document in the Batch is classified correctly.
We will discuss how to use this "Classification View" and the other "Review Views" later in the #Review Applications section of this article.
For now, we're going to simply exit the review module.
To exit without saving your work, press the "Stop" button to return to the Batches page.
Or, click the Grooper icon to return to the homepage.
Tasks Page
The Tasks page is different from the Batches page in that it only presents users with Batches with Review steps currently ready for processing. Users can pick and choose which Batch they want to review, or they can set up a task filter and start processing all Batches it returns in order the Batch's age.
To get to the Tasks page, click the Tasks icon on the Grooper Web Client homepage.
In the Navigation Links panel of the homepage, click the Tasks link.
This will bring up the Tasks interface. The first thing you'll see is a list of Batches with Review steps ready for processing.
FYI
This interface and how you interact with it is very similar to using the Grooper Attended Client thick client application. This program also allows users to filter production Batches with Review steps ready for processing and start processing them.
The list of Batches is always sorted by Age with the oldest Batch listed first the the newest created Batch listed last.
You can select also the Filter icon, to filter out Batches by certain criteria.
This will bring up a window to filter out your selection based on Queue, Process, Step or Batch (the Batch's name).
Click the hamburger icon at the end of the to the property heading you want to filter by.
Select the specific value you want to filter by.
For example, we could select a particular Batch Process which would give us a list of only Batches with that Batch Process
Click "Save" to execute the filter or "Cancel" to cancel.
To start reviewing Batches, you have two options.
You can select a single Batch from the list by double clicking it.
You can press the "Play" icon to start reviewing all Batches in the list that match your filter.
Once one Review task is completed, the next Review task in the list for the next Batch will automatically open.
This is a handy way to start feeding yourself review work, without manually selecting each Batch every time you complete a Review task.
Just as we saw using the Batches page, this will bring up the Review activity module to perform one kind of review or another, be it classification review, data review, image processing review or another. For example, this is the exact same "Classification View" module for the exact same Batch we saw earlier. The document review is identical whether you open the Review step using the Batches page or the Tasks page. The only difference is how you get there.
The individual "Review Views" will be discussed in the #Review Applications section of this article.
For now, we're going to simply exit the review module.
To exit without saving your work, press the "Stop" button to return to the Tasks page.
Or, click the Grooper icon to return to the homepage.
What is a Document?
Before continuing, lets take some time to cement some Grooper terminology we've been using as well as some of the icons you'll be seeing through the rest of this article.
As we've mentioned previously, a Batch is the fundamental collection of work in Grooper's document processing. It is essentially two things:
A container of documents in various states of processing.
A step by step list of instructions of what to do with those documents, or its Batch Process.
We often use the term "document" loosely. It can be an overly generic term for the stuff in the Batch that Grooper is doing stuff to. However, from Grooper's perspective a "document" is a very specific thing represented in a specific way in a Batch. So what is a document really?
Grooper has two objects to represent items in a Batch:
Batch Folders
Batch Pages
So, anything in a Batch is either a folder or a page.
A "document" is just a special kind of folder. In the most basic sense, a "document" is a folder with content. That content can be child Batch Pages or a digital file (like a PDF) attached to the folder.
This is Grooper's normal representation of a Batch as a hierarchy of Batch Folders and Batch Pages.
At the top is the Batch Root.
This is always represented by a folder icon and named after the Batch itself. The Batch Root is truly just a folder. Just like any other folder, it contains items. It's just a special folder in that its at the top of the folder hierarchy, containing all items below it.
Batch Folders will be represented by a folder icon.
So both "Folder (1)" and "Folder (2)" are Batch Folders.
Batch Pages are represented by thumbnails of the page's image.
There's a big difference between "Folder(1)" and "Folder (2)".
"Folder (1)" is a document (or a "document folder").
"Folder (2)" is not (It's just a simple folder).
Why? "Folder (1)" has content. It contains two Batch Pages, "Page 1" and "Page 2". We can expand the folder's contents using the arrow button to the left of the folder icon.
"Folder (2)" has no content, making it a regular old folder.
FYI
You'll often hear Grooper users talk about a parent/child relationship. A parent/child relationship describes how items (called "objects" or "nodes") are related at different levels in a hierarchical structure, such as our Batches. In this case, the pages (which are at Level 2 of the Batch hierarchy) are children of the document folder "Folder (1)" (which is at Level 1 of the Batch hierarchy). "Folder (1)" is the parent of its child pages. Folder (1) is a child of the Batch itself (which is the root or Level 0 of the Batch hierarchy).
Simple enough, right?
Next, let's talk about classification. A classified document is a document folder who has been assigned a Document Type from a Content Model.
Grooper architects design Content Models to determine what makes one kind of document distinct from another and how to get information from them. These "different types of documents" are distinguished as Document Types created in the Content Model. By assigning a document folder a Document Type, Grooper then can use the logic defined in the Content Model to extract data from it.
Proper document classification is often critical to the process downstream. So, it's paramount to make sure Grooper assigned a document the right Document Type. One of the things you may be doing in Grooper is executing a classification review module to do just that.
However, be aware, once a document is classified, the items in your Batch are going to look a little different.
Here, "Folder (1)" has been classified. It's folder name has changed to "Federal W-4 (1)". Why? It was assigned a Document Type named "Federal W-4".
Notice the icon changed as well, from a folder icon to a document icon.
"Folder (2)" is still not a document, just a folder. It has no content.
"Folder (3)" is a document, just an unclassified one. It does have content, but no Document Type assigned to it.
Its name remains the generic "Folder" name, and its icon has not changed.
So, a document is a special kind of folder, and a classified document is a special kind of document.
Documents are folders with content.
Classified documents are documents that have been assigned a Document Type.
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If you're importing files (such as PDFs or TIFF files), rather than hooking Grooper up to a scanner to bring in content, please pay attention to this next part.
To sum up:
All documents are folders. Not all folders are documents.
Documents are folders with content.
Content can be child pages (or documents).
Content can be files attached to the folder.
Classified documents are documents who have been assigned a Document Type.
Review Applications
In this section, we will demonstrate the various document review applications in Grooper and how to use them.
NOTES TO SELF
Explanations for how to navigate each Review view with a specific use case example.
