Field options for document form definition files

You can change the appearance and layout of the data fields by adding additional fields of various types, define custom validation rules, and field dependencies.

From Admin Panel > Document Form Definitions, if you add or edit a document form definition file, the field that relates to the selected region in the document display as a row in the table.

Configure each field using the following options. Click Preview, as required to test your new document form definition and validation rules immediately.

Title

This is the name of the region on the document that this field relates to. This name is used on the main form that the software automatically completes. It will be also used as a header for CSV and SQL export.

ID

The ID that is used to define connections between different fields in rules and formulas. When you create a new field a new ID is automatically created, but can be amended.

The field ID most not contain spaces.

Format

The data type of the field. Format is important, because the software uses it for data validation and training.

Flags

Use flags to define the look and behavior of fields. You can select one or more flags for each field.

Watch a video about the most commonly used flags.

Format Expression

Here you can enter a regular expression that will be used to validate a data field. Regular expressions are a powerful tool for matching text patterns. So for example you can define an expression that validates only if a data field starts with a capital letter followed by a dash and some numbers.

Options

If a field is defined as Selectable here you define the options that are listed in the drop-down list.

Dependent Items

The software automatically fills this column. If a field is dependable on another one, changing the later will cause the former to be reevaluated.

Default Value

The software will automatically populate this field if you define a default value. This is useful for drop-down lists. For example, maybe you use the same expense account for most of your invoices.

Formula

A field can be calculated or validated based on the values of other fields. Enter an expression here using the IDs of those fields, e.g. in the FT_TOTAL field enter FT_SUBTOTAL + FT_SHIPPING + FT_TAX. For a field to get populated based on the formula mark it as Calculable or AutoCalculable in the Flags column. For details see Formula Language.

Sample Headers

Decipher IDP features an intelligent technology that takes into account the text labels in an invoice. So for example if you define a new field to capture an account number of some sort, and in the document that number is preceded by the words “Account number:”, you write these words here and the software will automatically find the field even if the layout of the document changes. You can define multiple key phrases here separated by a semicolon.

Watch a video about sample headers.

Exclude Headers

Fill in headers that you don’t want the software to use in case of ambiguity (e.g. PO and PO Box, Shipping and Shopping, Tax and Tax ID).

Exclude values

Excludes certain values from a field or a column.

Misc. Parameters

For structured and semi-structured text Misc parameters are used to enable custom or rarely used functionality and can be added in the of the Misc Params column of the document form definition.

For unstructured text, when using the NLP plugin, this parameter must be completed for each field to specify the field’s content using the MLSemanticValue expression. For example, to capture the date a document was signed, you could add MLSemanticValue=Date the document was signed.

Layout parameters

This field is a placeholder for future Decipher IDP functionality and does not offer any functionality in this release.

Lists

Enter the name of the Static list you want mapped to this field or column.

Videos

Flags

This video provides an overview of the six most used DFD flags.

Sample headers.

This video describes how to add and exclude sample headers.

Virtual fields

This video describes how to use and configure virtual fields.