Frequently Asked Questions - TeleForm Lookups

Why use lookups?

TeleForm's sole purpose is to read data from images and to export it to your chosen database. It can be configured to work without any human intervention, although the usual scenario is that it feeds images and data to the Verifier module to request user assistance whenever fields fail either recognition confidence or validation rules.

When fields are filled in incorrectly, there is a need to set validation rules that force TeleForm to pass the form for user-intervention. These may be simple checks for numeric ranges (for example on an age field), empty field checks (to ensure that a required field doesn't export any blank data) or a database lookup to validate that data conforms to your requirements prior to it being exported.

Database lookups can be used for names, ID numbers, counties, etc. The idea behind database lookups is simple:

1. Read data from a field, asking a user to assist if the recognition engines are unsure about anything
2. Prior to exporting the data, perform a lookup of the data contained in a field with that contained in a database table
   • If the data matches, then allow the data to be exported to an export table
   • If the data doesn't match, then issue a warning to the user so that they may decide how to proceed

How do I configure a field to use a lookup?

Lookups can be used only on constrained print fields, image zones or capture zone fields. The example below uses an example of a Patient ID field (holding the identification code of a hospital patient).

Now, let's suppose that this field is filled in by a hospital patient. It is feasible, therefore, that the value they write in this field is incorrect for any number of possible reasons.

It is necessary for the hospital to process this form and ensure that the data read from it is assigned to a valid patient in the database. Provided they have a table in a database that contains all the valid Patient IDs, it is possible to configure TeleForm to perform a lookup on any data it reads for this field. The process is as follows:

1. Open up the form in TeleForm Designer
2. Bring up the configuration options for the PatientID field (simply by double-clicking on it).
3. On the Validations tab, enable the Database lookup option. From the drop-down, select a database format in which the patient lookup data is stored (e.g. MS Access, or SQL Server via ODBC).
   
4. Step through the configuration wizard to select the table and ultimately the field containing the lookup data. You will be asked at this stage if you want the lookup to be case-sensitive or not.
5. Once configured, and once the form is saved, all future processing of this form will automatically perform a lookup.