Activity

This article is about the current version of Grooper. Note that some content may still need to be updated.
2025	2023.1	2023	2021

Grooper Activities define specific document processing operations done to a inventory_2 Batch, folder Batch Folder, or contract Batch Page. In a settings Batch Process, each edit_document Batch Process Step executes a single Activity (determined by the step's "Activity" property).

• Batch Process Steps are frequently referred by the name of their configured Activity followed by the word "step". For example: "Classify step".

An Activity in Grooper represents a unit of work performed on items within a Batch as part of a Batch Process. Activities are the building blocks of Grooper's workflow automation, defining what happens to documents and data as they move through a Batch Process. Each Batch Process Step is configured within an Activity, determining the specific task to be executed at that stage of the workflow.

What is an Activity?

An Activity is a discrete operation or task that is executed on objects in a Batch. Activities can be either automated (unattended) or require human interaction (attended). They are responsible for performing essential functions such as image processing, data extraction, classification, export, or manual review.

Activities are not executed in isolation. They are always part of a Batch Process Step, which defines when and how the Activity is applied to items in the Batch. The combination of Activities and steps allows Grooper to automate complex document processing workflows, ensuring that each document is handled according to business requirements.

• Technically you can execute Activities in isolation with right-click commands from the Design page.

Types of Activities

There are two primary types of Activities in Grooper:

Attended Activities

These require direct user interaction. Attended Activities are used for steps that involve human review, validation, data entry, or exception handling. When a Batch reaches an attended step, a Processing Task is created and must be completed by a user through the Attended Client interface. Examples include document review, manual classification, and data correction.

Code Activities

These are performed automatically by the system, without user intervention. Code Activities are executed by the Activity Processing service and are ideal for tasks such as image cleanup, recognition (OCR), data extraction, classification, and export. Each Code Activity defines its processing logic and can be configured for parallel execution to maximize throughput.

How Activities Are Used

Activities are configured within Batch Process Steps, which are the ordered stages of a Batch Process. Each Batch Process Step specifies:

• The Activity to perform (selected in the "Activity" property)
• The scope of items to process (Batch, Batch Folder, or Batch Page)
• Optional expressions to control conditional execution or branching
• Queue assignment for task distribution (Processing Queue or Review Queue)

This configuration allows Grooper to automate both simple and complex workflows. For example, a Batch Process might include the following steps:

1. Image Processing (Code Activity) – cleans up scanned images automatically.
2. Recognize (Code Activity) – performs OCR on each page.
3. Classify (Code Activity) – assigns document types.
4. Review (Attended Activity) – allows a user to review and correct data.
5. Export (Code Activity) – exports data to a business system.

Each step is executed in order, but advanced users can use expressions to implement conditional logic, exception handling, or custom routing.

Attended Activities

Attended Activities are designed for scenarios where automated processing is insufficient or where human review is required.

• Attended Activities are executed manually, by users.
• Review tasks can be routed to different users by setting up Review Queues

When a Batch reaches an attended step, a user must complete the task before the process can continue.

Review

Review is the only Attended Activity in Grooper. Depending on what the user needs to review, one or more "Review Views" will be added to the Review step. These give users a specialized user interfaces allowing them to review the Batch and its content. The following Review Viewers are currently available:

• Scan Viewer - Gives users an interface to scan documents into a Batch using an optical scanner.
• Thumbnail Viewer - Gives users an interface to review individual pages in a Batch. Typically this is used to review the results of an IP Profile applied by an Image Processing step.
• Classification Viewer - Gives users an interface to review and edit classification results made by a Classify step.
• Separation Viewer - Gives users an interface to review and edit separation and classification decisions made by the ESP Auto Separation provider during a Separate step.
• Data Viewer - Gives users an interface to review and edit index data collected during the Extract step.
• Folder Viewer - Gives users a basic interface to navigate through folders and pages in a Batch using a tree viewer.

Code Activities

Code Activities are fully automated and require no human interaction. They are ideal for high-volume, repetitive tasks.

• Code Activities are executed by Activity Processing services.
• Activity Processing services use your system's resources to execute Code Activity tasks in parallel.
  • When executed, Code Activities submit "Processing Jobs" with a list of tasks in scope to Activity Processing services.
  • Activity Processing services may utilize one or more of a machine's available processing threads to execute tasks.
• Tasks can be distributed across multiple Activity Processing services (even across multiple machines) using Processing Queues.

Each Code Activity must define its processing logic (by configuring its properties), ensuring that the required work is performed on each targeted item.

Cleanup and Recognition

These Activities are used to condition documents for further processing.

• The most commonly used Activity in this category is the all-important "Recognize" activity, which obtains machine readable text from image-based and native-text pages.

• Correct
• Detect Language
• Image Processing
• Recognize

Document Processing

These activities process documents in a variety of different ways.

• This includes some of the most commonly used Grooper Activities, such as Separate, Classify, Extract and Export.

• Apply Rules
• Classify
• Convert Data
• Export
• Extract
• Redact
• Separate

Microform Processing

These activities specifically apply to processing microfiche. For more information, visit our Microfiche Processing article.

• Clip Frames
• Detect Frames
• Initialize Card

Transform

These activities transform document content from one form to another.

• The most commonly used Activity in this category is "Split Pages" which creates pages nodes from a PDF file attached to a Batch Folder.

• Burst Book
• Merge
• Render
• Split Pages
• Text Transform
• Translate
• XML Transform

Utilities

These are miscellaneous activities that don't fit in well into the other categories.

• The most commonly used Activity in this category is "Execute" which gives users the capability to automate various object commands normally available by right clicking nodes in Grooper.

• Batch Transfer
• Deduplicate
• Dispose Batch
• Execute
• Launch Process
• Remove Level
• Send Mail
• Spawn Batch
• Train Lexicon

Best Practices

• Choose the appropriate Activity type based on the required user involvement.
• Use scoping to target the correct level of the Batch hierarchy for each Activity.
• Assign queues thoughtfully to balance workload and ensure timely processing or review.
• Leverage expressions for flexible, maintainable workflows.
• Regularly review and test process steps to ensure accuracy and efficiency.

Object Model info

Grooper Type Name

Grooper.Core.BatchProcessingActivity

Inheritance

Grooper Object (Grooper.GrooperObject)

Connected Object (Grooper.ConnectedObject)

Embedded Object (Grooper.EmbeddedObject)

Activity (Grooper.Core.BatchProcessingActivity)

Derived Types

Activity (Grooper.Core.BatchProcessingActivity)

Attended Activity (Grooper.Core.AttendedActivity)

Review (Grooper.Activities.Review)

Code Activity (Grooper.Core.CodeActivity)

Apply Rules (Grooper.Activities.ApplyRules)

Attach (Grooper.GPT.Attach)

Batch Transfer (Grooper.Activities.BatchTransfer)

Burst Book (Grooper.Microform.BurstBook)

Classify (Grooper.Activities.ClassifyFolders)

Clip Frames (Grooper.Microform.ClipFrames)

Convert Data (Grooper.Activities.ConvertData)

Correct (Grooper.Activities.CorrectOCR)

Deduplicate (Grooper.Activities.Deduplicate)

Detect Frames (Grooper.Microform.DetectFrames)

Detect Language (Grooper.GPT.DetectLanguage)

Dispose Batch (Grooper.Activities.DisposeBatch)

Execute (Grooper.Activities.Execute)

Export (Grooper.Activities.Export)

Extract (Grooper.Core.BatchFolder+Extract)

Fill Data (Grooper.Activities.FillData)

Image Processing (Grooper.Activities.ImageProcessing)

Initialize Card (Grooper.Microform.SortTiles)

Launch Process (Grooper.Activities.LaunchProcess)

Mark Attachments (Grooper.GPT.MarkAttachments)

Merge (Grooper.Activities.Merge)

Recognize (Grooper.Activities.Recognize)

Redact (Grooper.Activities.Redaction)

Remove Level (Grooper.Core.BatchFolder+RemoveLevel)

Render (Grooper.Activities.RenderDocument)

Route (Grooper.Activities.Route)

Send Mail (Grooper.Messaging.SendMail)

Separate (Grooper.Activities.Separation)

Spawn Batch (Grooper.Activities.SpawnBatch)

Split Pages (Grooper.Activities.SplitPages)

Split Text (Grooper.Activities.SplitText)

Text Transform (Grooper.Activities.TextTransform)

Translate (Grooper.Cloud.Translate)

XML Transform (Grooper.Activities.XmlTransform)