KeyView IDOL & Connectors
Currently connecting to over 400 content repositories and supporting over 1,000 file formats, Autonomy is uniquely able to aggregate and index any form of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data into a single index, regardless of where the file resides.
Click here for a full list of supported content repositories, file formats, character sets and languages.
In today's enterprise environment where most users typically waste time searching in four or five repositories to arrive at an acceptable results list, Autonomy's extensive set of connectors enables a single point of search for all enterprise information (including rich media), saving organizations much time and money. With access to virtually every piece of content, IDOL provides a 360 degree view of an organization's data assets.
Additionally Autonomy allows you to develop connectors to any obsolete or bespoke system no longer supported by other vendors, in addition to allowing you to develop connectors for your own future repositories. This ensures that your past investments are safeguarded whilst enabling you to adopt new systems confident in the knowledge that they will be fully supported by Autonomy. As Autonomy wholly owns all its software, including connectors, you will always be in the position where you can renew the license no matter what other changes occur in the broader software sector.
KeyView IDOL Overview
Typically all enterprises will have a unique blend of databases, content management systems and off-the-shelf as well as custom applications. This leads to a wide variety of file formats and data types. Therefore it is not enough for the search technology to simply connect to the repositories through its connectors. Once connected, it must also have the proper filtering technology to extract content from the assortment of files that reside in the repositories.
Autonomy's IDOL and Verity's KeyView each supported hundreds of file formats prior to Autonomy's acquisition of Verity in 2005. The combination of two products has led to the emergence of Autonomy's KeyView IDOL as the definitive market leader in file filtering technology. Autonomy continues to uniquely invest significant R&D to the challenging problem of improving file filtering and transformation.
KeyView IDOL extracts text, metadata and other relevant properties from over 1000 file formats on numerous platforms, leading to complete indexing of the entire enterprise corpus in a single index. Not only does this include all popular word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation formats, rich media files and files embedded within files, such as email attachments or embedded OLE objects, can also be extracted. Filters automatically recognize the file type being filtered and uses the appropriate filter without depending on unreliable filename extensions.
This ability to filter files is critical for any application leveraging unstructured information—a content form that dominates the enterprise landscape. It not only adds business value by expediting the retrieval process, but it also significantly reduces the business risks associated with excess of information. Search is only as good as the places it looks, and if the search engine is not able to index all file types, it is bound to miss many critically relevant documents. This flaw is vitally unacceptable (and costly) in today's litigious environment. Since Autonomy indexes all enterprise content through its extensive set of connectors and filtering technology, its search is uniquely FRCP-compliant.
KeyView IDOL not only extracts text and metadata, but also preserves and intelligently processes all object rules, business intelligence and complex metadata relationships that reside in business applications. KeyView IDOL analyzes relationships between business objects to intelligently propose related actions alongside the result list. Many of these applications, including CRMs, BIs, ERPs and ECMs, entrust KeyView IDOL to manage each of their complex business logic embedded in their systems.
Document Export
With KeyView IDOL Export, users can make any document widely accessible and usable by converting and delivering it to end-users and applications as Web-ready HTML and/or valid XML.
High-Fidelity Viewing and Printing Capabilities
KeyView IDOL Viewing allows users to instantly view and print files and forgo the tedious installation of propriety software for every respective format.
As Autonomy wholly owns all its software, including connectors, you will always be in the position where you can renew the license no matter what other changes go on in the broader software sector.
KeyView IDOL Filter SDK
The KeyView IDOL Filter SDK equips your application with the fastest filtering technology available, along with the ability to simultaneously filter multiple documents on a wide variety of platforms at the same time. This ability to provide threadsafe filtering is a key component of searching, indexing and document management systems.
Key Capabilities
Filter Multiple Documents at the Same Time
The KeyView IDOL Filter SDK allows your application to filter multiple documents simultaneously instead of queuing them for sequential filtering. This provides the most robust, reliable and fast filtering performance available.
Extract all of Your End-users' Most Valuable Information
The KeyView IDOL Filter SDK supports the hundreds of file formats that matter most to your end-users. These include all popular word processing, spreadsheet and presentation formats, as well as Adobe PDF, HTML, XML, and ZIP. Body text, endnotes, footnotes and additional items such as OLE document summary information are all extracted during the filtering process. These are updated regularly to ensure your applications can interact with the latest versions of supported file formats.
For file formats not directly supported, the KeyView IDOL Filter SDK includes files, a sample filter for reference, and supporting documentation you need to quickly build custom filters.
Configure Filtering to Meet Specific Application Requirements
Memory management is configurable with the KeyView IDOL Filter SDK, allowing developers to provide their own memory allocator. Likewise, redirected I/O is allowed, enabling input streams that are not restricted to file system access. If required, documents can be filtered into specific encodings, such as Unicode or UTF-8.
Detect File Formats Automatically
The KeyView IDOL Filter SDK automatically recognizes file types and applies the correct filter without relying on filename extensions.
Rapidly Integrate Filtering into Your Applications
A flexible Java and C API delivers rapid, straightforward integration of the Filter SDK with your application.
KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK
KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK allows you to build applications with high-fidelity viewing and printing capabilities for the word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphic, multimedia, compression and encoding formats that contain the information your end-users need to access. Integrating KeyView IDOL Viewing into applications gives those end-users a single viewing and file management interface, instead of requiring end-users to license and install multiple applications in order to display the native files with which your application interacts. And because the KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK is regularly updated, it keeps your application current with the latest versions of all file formats.
Key Capabilities
View Any File
All popular word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation formats are supported, including Adobe PDF, image formats like JPEG, XML, HTML and compression files such as ZIP. All document formatting is retained, so users can view them the way they were designed to be seen. The KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK can also be used to display thumbnail images of each document page. Like Verity's other conversion technologies, the KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK determines file type automatically, without relying on file extensions.
Print Any File
Using the KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK, any supported file type can be printed with a user-selected printer without opening the native application that created it. Support for print without viewing is included in this key feature.
Consolidate the Most Formats Possible
Besides displaying most file types, the KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK gives developers a tool to consolidate multiple document types into a single format. By converting any supported word processing or spreadsheet format to RTF, the performance of applications that process source document content can be dramatically improved.
Rapidly Integrate Viewing into Your Applications
The KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK contains a number of tools to ensure rapid, straightforward integration with your application. These include a flexible API and an ActiveX control.
View API
The View API (VAPI) is a Windows message-based API that allows developers to build feature-rich applications with the KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK. VAPI also incorporates features like HTML conversion and text search within files.
ActiveX Control
The KeyView IDOL Viewing SDK's ActiveX control (OCX) provides most of the functionality of the View API. Ideal for Visual Basic programmers, the OCX includes a sample that demonstrates how to insert the ActiveX control into an application to perform viewing or printing functions.
KeyView IDOL Export SDK
It is difficult, expensive, and sometimes even impossible to ensure end-users have the appropriate applications or plug-ins required to handle the multitude of document formats on the market. Similarly, building and maintaining commercial software applications that can interact with hundreds of file formats can be prohibitively complex and costly. Standardizing on Web-ready HTML or valid XML is the obvious solution. With KeyView IDOL Export, you can make any document widely accessible and usable by delivering Web-ready HTML and valid XML to end-users and applications.
Key Capabilities
Convert Multiple Documents Simultaneously
KeyView IDOL Export can be configured to convert files to XML and HTML in the same process as the calling application (in-process) or as a separate process (out-of-process). Out-of-process conversion enables multiple conversion requests to be sent from multiple threads in the calling application simultaneously, while maintaining the same functionality as a single-process conversion and protecting the stability and robustness of the calling application in the event a corrupt document causes an exception.
Configure Memory Management to Meet Specific Application Requirements
Memory management is configurable with KeyView IDOL Export. This allows developers to provide their own memory allocator.
Detect File Formats Automatically
All KeyView IDOL products, including KeyView IDOL Export, automatically recognize file types and apply the correct filter without relying on filename extensions.
Convert the File Formats that Matter Most
All popular word processing, spreadsheet and presentation formats are supported, including Adobe PDF.
Rapidly Integrate XML/HTML Conversion into Your Applications
Rapid, straightforward integration of KeyView IDOL Export with your application is delivered by a flexible API. Sample C, Visual Basic and Java programs are included that demonstrate how the API is called.
Key Capabilities Specific to XML Export
KeyView IDOL Export dynamically converts documents to well-formed, valid XML using a predefined Verity Document Type Definition (DTD). By applying an XML vocabulary to the data structures in documents, KeyView IDOL Export makes it possible to index and search content and metadata in context.
Control Data Structure Conversion
The data structures in source documents that are used to create zones during conversion can include such things as metadata (title, author, subject), document components (headers, footers, footnotes), tagged text (heading levels, bulleted lists, body text), table components (sheet name, row ID, column ID), and presentation components (notes, slide title).
Control XML Formatting
Although viewing is not the main emphasis of KeyView IDOL Export, the XML output can be displayed in standard browsers using cascading style sheets (CSS) or extensible stylesheet language (XSL). Using XSL, background, colors and fonts can be applied to enforce corporate style guidelines. Sample style sheets are provided for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents.
Key Capabilities Specific to HTML Export
KeyView IDOL Export automatically converts documents to fully compliant, Web-ready HTML. This gives your Web-based information delivery application the ability to display almost any content in users' Web browsers.
Control Document Conversion
Documents can be converted to HTML either on the fly or in batches, with graphics converted to any standard format including JPEG and Java. The resulting HTML is fully HTML 3.0 compliant and supported by all browsers. This is especially important for applications that will be used in large or complex enterprises, where requiring users to standardize on a single browser is impossible.
Control HTML Formatting
KeyView IDOL Export lets you control the design and behavior of the generated HTML through custom templates and cascading style sheets (CSS). Source document characteristics such as tables, graphics and font attributes can be preserved, or corporate style guidelines can be enforced. For easier navigation and downloading, documents can be broken down into linked Web pages based on attributes like heading level or document size. Similarly, tables of contents can be generated from existing document structure and/or font characteristics.
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