Exporting documents
How Scanix delivers finished documents — outputs, the three channels, and what "done" means.
Export is the last step of every Scanix run: it turns a recognized, field-captured document into a real file — a Searchable PDF, an index spreadsheet, or both — and delivers it to where it belongs. This page explains the mental model: what an output is, the three ways a run can reach export, and why "done" always means the files arrived at their destination.
This is the concept. The how-tos branch from here.
Read this to understand the moving parts, then follow the links for the details: formats, filename patterns, combined vs separate files, and destinations.
An export is built from outputs
Most of the time you don't configure export per run — you configure it once, on a template, as one or more outputs. An output is a single delivery rule: take the finished document, make this file, and put it there. A template can carry several outputs, so one run can produce a Searchable PDF for your archive and a CSV index for your line-of-business system in the same pass.
You define outputs in the template editor's Output Destinations section. Click Add Output, and each output gives you these controls:
| Control | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Document Format | The shape of the delivered document — Searchable PDF, Original File, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, or None (metadata only). |
| Metadata Format (optional) | An accompanying index file describing the document's captured fields — XML Metadata, Simplified XML, XML Template, CSV, TSV, TXT, JSON, or None (document only). |
| Destination | Where the files go — Local Folder, Email, EDMS Connector, Database, or Web Service — plus its Path / URL. |
| Filename Pattern | The naming convention for the files this output writes, built from tokens (see below). |
| Collision Handling | What to do when a file of that name already exists — Auto-increment, Overwrite, or Error if exists. |
Document, metadata, or both
The two format choices are independent. Set Document Format to None (metadata only) to export just an index file, or Metadata Format to None (document only) to export just the document. They're a pair, and you decide whether a given output delivers one, the other, or both. The full menu and what each format is good for is in Document & metadata formats.
Screenshot
The template editor's Output Destinations section with one output expanded, showing the Document Format, Metadata Format, Destination, and Collision Handling controls. — shot export-overview-01
Filenames are patterns, not fixed names
Because Scanix processes documents in bulk, output files are named by a Filename Pattern rather than a fixed name. A pattern is plain text mixed with tokens that resolve per document at export time — the source file name (${filename}), the date (${date}), a counter (${counter}), and any captured index field by name (${FieldName}). A template carries one pattern that every output inherits, and each output can override it.
This is what makes a hundred-document batch land as a hundred meaningfully-named files instead of export (1), export (2), and so on. The complete token list, examples, and the rules for unknown tokens live in File naming patterns.
One file per document, or one combined file
For a Searchable PDF output, you also choose how a multi-document import is filed: One file per document (the standard) or Combine all into a single file, which merges every document in the run into one PDF in order. Combining a Searchable PDF alongside an aggregatable index format (like CSV) gives you a single bound PDF plus one index with a row per document — a common archive deliverable. The trade-offs are covered in Combined vs separate files.
Three channels reach export
Export is the same machinery wherever it runs, but a run can arrive at it three different ways. The difference is who triggers it and how much is automatic — not what export can do.
You're in the Viewer with a document open, and you click Process. This is the hands-on channel: you choose what happens, watch it run, and confirm the result before moving on.
The Process Document dialog offers a few paths. Quick Export runs OCR (if needed) and writes your chosen format to a folder in one step — no template required. Apply Template runs the document against a saved template and its configured outputs. When the run finishes, the dialog shows an Export complete card with the saved file's path and size, so you can see exactly what landed and where.
This channel is ideal for one-off documents, spot checks, and the first run of a new template. The single-document loop is walked through end to end in the Quickstart.
A hot folder is a folder Scanix watches continuously. Drop files in — or have another system drop them — and they're imported, processed, and exported with no one at the keyboard. This is the lights-out channel for high-volume digitisation.
A hot folder's export is driven entirely by its assigned template's outputs — the hot-folder dialog has no destination field of its own, by design. Whatever Document Format, Destination, and Filename Pattern you set on the template is what every dropped file uses.
Hot folders are a paid feature
Hot-folder automation requires a higher-tier plan; on lower tiers the Hot Folders page shows an upgrade prompt instead of the configuration UI. See Compare plans for what each tier includes. Setup, batching, and the watch rhythm are covered in Hot folders.
A Job Group handles a mixed stack: different document types that each need a different template. The group routes every page to the right member template automatically, then each template exports through its own outputs.
So a single drop of invoices, contracts, and ID cards can land as three differently-formatted, differently-named, differently-routed deliverables — one run, three export rules — without anyone sorting the pile first. Job Groups build on the same per-template outputs described above.
Same outputs, different trigger
Notice the through-line: Hot Folders and Job Groups both export through a template's outputs — they just trigger the run for you. The only channel that can export without a template is Quick Export, which writes a single format to a folder you pick on the spot.
"Done" means the files reached their destination
Throughout Scanix, a run is done only when its files have actually been written to their destination — not when OCR finished, not when fields were captured. Those are steps along the way; export is the finish line.
This is deliberate. A document that's been recognized and indexed but never delivered isn't a result anyone can use. So Scanix treats "exported to the destination" as the definition of complete:
- In manual Process, the Export complete card appears only after files are on disk, and it shows you their paths.
- In Hot Folders, a drop isn't finished until its output is delivered. If the assigned template has no export destination configured, auto-export fails and the file is set aside (quarantined) rather than reported as done — nothing is silently lost.
No destination, no output
An output with no Destination / Path / URL set can't deliver anything. On the unattended channels this surfaces as a quarantined file and a visible failure. Always confirm a template has at least one configured output before relying on a hot folder or job group.
Screenshot
The Process Document dialog's Export complete card after a Quick Export, showing the saved file's path and size. — shot export-overview-02
Next steps
Document & metadata formats
Every format Scanix can deliver, and when to use each.
File naming patterns
The full token list for building dynamic, per-document filenames.
Combined vs separate files
One file per document, or everything merged into one.
Destinations
Local folders, email, EDMS, database, and web service.
Related
- Quickstart — capture, recognize, and export your first document.
- Hot folders — set up the unattended export channel.
- Document & metadata formats — the output format catalog.