FAQ
What are the MyDMNSion products used for?   The MyDMNSion products allow you to move all the paper files in your office into their electronic version.
 
So what are the benefits I get?   There are various advantages, first you reduce the storage cost.   Second, you gain the ability to access documents from anywhere at anytime, and being able to quickly find that set of files among the hundreds of files now sitting in your office.

This is functionality that is not new, but has been available to large companies due to the cost of imaging and storage systems until now.   MyDMNSion is a cost effective way for small and medium sized companies to gain the advantages now enjoyed by your larger competitors.
 
How do I get started?   You need to decide to which type of usage makes sense for you:

Just move the files out of here - Use the Web Portal to store all of the files that you have!

Move the files out, but make them actionable - Use the MyDMNSion Front End in your stations, giving you the ability to code and annotate each and every page.

Make them all actionable, and give me the ability to add as I need - Based on the work previously mentioned, use the MyDMNSion Front End to add locally scanned documents.

I also deal with other companies that make use of my documents - Use the MyDMNSion Front End to create subscriptions, and publish them to the Web using the Web Portal.
 
Give me an example on how MyDMNSion is actually used   The ideas behind MyDMNSion come from work done for legal firms.  There, each case is matched to a MyDMNSion project, and documents are categorized by type, relevance and whether the page should be included in the trial packet.   The annotation tools are used to highlight areas and create notes.   Comments are kept as part of the keys, so they are kept for in-house use only.
 
Give me some ideas on how I can make use of MyDMNSion...   These are different modes of running your copy of MyDMNSion Web site.

 

For Internal Document Management...

  • Setup one or more projects for each of your clients.
  • Scan or import PDF and other image output to its appropriate project.
  • Use the project selection features to easily find documents for each client.

 

As an Internal Web Site...

  • Setup one global catalog, and optionally other limited catalogs.
  • Add one or more subscription for each of your clients.
  • Copy files directly into each subscription directory, using sub-directories to partition the information.
  • Use the catalog QuickLink to access the catalog, using the find feature to easily find documents for each client.

 

As a Multi-Account Web Site...

  • Setup the system like an Internal Web Site, with an organization entry and global catalog for each of your clients.
  • Add information like the Internal Web Site.
  • Give out the appropriate catalog QuickLink to each of your clients, allowing them to quickly find documents using the find feature.

 

Full Document Management with a Web Portal...

  • Setup an organization entry for each of your client.
  • Allow each user to create projects, catalogs and subscriptions as needed.
  • Add information either into projects or subscriptions.  Projects allow for modification by the client, subscription saves effort the publishing step.
  • Give out copies of MyDMNSion Front End to each appropriate client.  This allows your clients to add other information, and to modify any information in the projects, as well as publishing as required.
 
What third party software do I need to run MyMyDMNSion?   MyMyDMNSion is based on the following software:

Microsoft IIS

  

Included in Microsoft Operating System software.

Microsoft SQL Server

  

The database engine.  You can use the Microsoft SQL Server Express version available for free from Microsoft.   You can also use MySQL or SQLLite as the database.

Apache's Lucene

  

A text search engine available free from Apache under this license.  More information is available here.

Google's Tesseract

 

An OCR engine available free from Google under this license.  More information is available here.
 
How safe is this third-party software?   Apache and Google are large organizations that are fully committed to Open Source Software.  MySQL is widely used and supported by Sun Microsystems. SQLLite is a great database for smaller sites and if in the public domain. We have tested these packages and have found them to be excellent in their reliability.
 
Why do I get the quality that I get in my publishing?   The output quality when you publish is determined in whether you are working in preview mode, or full quality mode.  For the best quality possible make sure that the mode button is highlighted.
 
What is the difference between a project and a subscription?   Understanding the how projects, catalogs and subscriptions relate is the key to creating the best organization of your MyDMNSion documents.

First, understand that MyDMNSion is a dual-function system.

MyDMNSion Front End   The MyDMNSion Front End portion of MyDMNSion deals in terms of projects.   Each project is a virtual folder that can keep any number of pages.  Each page can be given any number of keys, for instance "Importance is high" or "type is e-mail".   Each page can also be annotated using colored overlays.
Web Portal   The Web Portal portion of MyDMNSion deals in terms of subscriptions.  Each subscription is a folder where pages and other folders can be kept.

Subscriptions can be grouped into catalogs, giving you the ability to search for a subscription by the subscription's name.

Pages are added to subscription via the publishing features of the MyDMNSion Front End program, or you can also add in bulk.
 
How does the OCR search work?   The OCR search returns a list the best matches of up to 50 pages.   This is similar to the way that search engines work in the Internet.
 
What happens when I use both the OCR and Key searches?   The system first processes the OCR search, and then removes any pages that do not meet the kry criteria.
 
How come I cannot OCR search as soon as I upload a page?   The process to convert images to text takes a fair amount of processing time.  The system has a process running continuously to do the conversion, however it queues the images uploaded and processes them in a first-in first-out basis.
 
How is the data stored?   It depends on the data type:

Images are stored in a compressed mode for MyDMNSion Front End accessible images, and as JPEG for Web Portal accessible images.   This includes any thumbnails and previews.  They are stored outside the database.

Annotations are stored in a compressed text mode.  They are stored outside the database.

Text is stored as ASCII files. They are stored outside the database.  A separate copy is maintained for query purposes.

All other information is stored in the database.  This allows for the use of either MSDE or Express editions, which are limited to 2GB.
 
Can I disable the OCR features?   Yes.  The OCR features can be defined on a project level.
 
Can I use MyDMNSion to share non-image files?   Yes, when you use the MyMyDMNSion version of the system, or if you publish as Web Pages.
 
How soon are the pages published to a subscription available?   Immediately upon publishing.
 
Is the Web Portal the only way to access my images over the Internet?   No.  MyDMNSion Front End provides secure access to all of your projects over the Internet.  When you use MyMyDMNSion, you can provide the same level of access.
 
How can I access images without any Internet access?   Simply publish the images that you want as Web Pages.   This can be done either to your laptop, or to a CD-ROM which can be accessed by any computer via a Web Browser.