2.80:Data Type (Node Type)

A sample Data Type extractor in the Node Tree

Data Types are Data Extractors that use regular expression to match text on a document, returning and collating the results.

The matching pattern or patterns will return as a list of values. The returned values can be further manipulated, isolated, and adjusted by configuring the properties of the Data Type.

About

Data Type extractors are the main way information is found and used on a document. Say, you want to use the form number information on the document below to separate a document.

A simple Data Type extractor returning the match from a simple regex pattern on a simple document.

You need a Data Type! The Data Type will find the form number. The Separate activity will use that Data Type to separate this page into a new folder.

Say you want to classify this contract as an "Oil and Gas Lease" document type.

You need a Data Type! The Data Type will find the document heading. You can then set up a Content Model and make a rule where if that Data Type finds that heading, the document gets classified as "Oil and Gas Lease".

Say you want to grab all the highlighted information from this form.

You need a Data Type! You can create a Data Model with fields for the "Production Unit Number", the "Gross Volume", "Taxable Value", and all the other data elements on the page (Technically you need multiple Data Types. One for each data element). You then will point your Data Model to the Data Type extractors that find their corresponding values.

Once you have extracted text for a document via the Recognize activity (either through OCR for image based documents or native text extraction from digital PDFs), Data Type extractors can use regular expression to match text in whatever way you deem necessary. The simplest configuration of a Data Type extractor uses a regular expression pattern (written using the "Pattern" property and the Pattern Editor) to match text on a document and return the matches as individual results.

Data Types are also much more robust than simple regex pattern matching. While regular expression is a huge

Inheritance

Data Types also inherit the values returned by any child extractor created under it, allowing multiple values using multiple patterns and configurations to return to a single extractor.

Collation

How the Data Type uses those results will be configured in its properties (Determined by the "Collation" property).

Use Cases

The total number of uses for Data Types are innumerable. However, they fall into three main categories.