Self-Upload a Native Production

General

Administrative and Power Users can upload a native production to the Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP) from the Case>Add Case Documents page using a compressed ZIP file format and the file name ending with the extension ".lexbeupload.zip" (e.g. ProductionOriginal.lexbeupload.zip) including a file mapping OPT load file.

For Windows users: We recommend that WinRAR be installed and used for creating the zip files as part of the LEP upload, production upload, and load file process. Other versions of Zip creation programs may work, but we have not tested them and do not support them. Versions are available for Windows and in application GUI utilities and as command line utilities. Free versions are available and registered versions cost about $35/user.

We favor WinRAR for uploading and producing documents because we have found it to be consistent and includes robust error checking. It may also be possible to create Zip files that can be successfully uploaded and expanded using Windows built-in Zip compression and other utilities, but we Do Not recommend software other than WinRAR to avoid file extraction errors.

For Mac OS X users: Mac has a built-in support utility for zipping and unzipping files, for use in creating zip files as part of the LEP upload, production upload, and load file process. However, the MAC built-in compression extraction application does not always open zip files properly, so we recommend installation of the WinRAR utility for Mac to compress/extract files or try using free zip extractors utilities available for Mac, such as The Unarchiver, which is currently more efficient than the built-in extractor. 

If the user cannot upload productions or metadata using Excel spreadsheets, contact the Account Admin User(s) of the account to assign the correct permissions. Contact Professional Services for options other than self-upload. 

Cautions for Use - Support

This function is only available for Admin and Power Users and requires advanced Excel skills for data cleaning, management, and manipulation. Plan sufficient time to meet any production or document deadlines, including quality control procedures.

Test

Best practice is to upload the sample file native production to a test case, before attempting to create and upload your own.

Step One - Create a Proper Native Folder Structure

Step Two - Upload a Production 

The production must be compressed in a zip file format with a filename ending with the extension ".lexbeupload.zip" (e.g. eDiscoveryPlatformProductionOriginal.lexbeupload.zip) which includes a file mapping Excel.

Once each set of documents is saved to the correspondent folder, create a zip file with the entire directory structure and upload the production file toLEP from the Case>Add Case Documents page.

The following items are attached to this page:

* A sample of a Native Production ready to be uploaded. We recommend using the sample file to get familiar with the production upload process in LEP.

* A sample of a file mapping Excel spreadsheet including metadata for emails and attachments, Bates, and Parent/Child relationship (do not forget to update the DocIds column after the native upload completes)

Other Notes

LEP supports the two most recent versions of Excel for Excel integration (2010 and 2013) and we recommend an upgrade from previous versions of Excel before exporting logs.

Do not add any letters or characters to the file name extension ".lexbeupload.zip" (.lexbeupload02.zip) If these file name extensions are not saved correctly, files may fail to properly combine into the same record or alternatively, generate duplicates. The user may safely delete the original production file (e.g. eDiscovery PlatformProductionOriginal.lexbeupload.zip) from the case after the files have been extracted.

Associating Email Families 

If a production includes MSGs files with attachments, the user may restore the email attachment association by using the Coding in Excel, Upload Metadata feature. 

Coding In Excel & Upload Metadata

Use custom Excel spreadsheets to modify document coded data and tag multiple files in LEP.

Upload Completion

Expect an approximately 10 GB/day processing rate within LEP (combined all cases) for native files (including PDFs) or OCR of image PDFs, if uploading the files yourself. Similarly, expect an approximately 2.5 GBs/day rate within LEP (combined all cases) to create productions (including Bates numbering and TIFF creation if selected) or briefcase downloads. Download time is in addition to this, and will depend on Internet download speed. Allow sufficient time to meet production deadlines, including quality control procedures, reruns, if needed, and possible delays in downloads/slower downloads than expected/need to restart downloads.  

Upload Troubleshooting

If an upload fails, consider the following troubleshooting guidelines:

Confirm processing has completed.  

Confirm that the Excel template was used to create the load file.

Confirm that the column headings are exactly as the template and not changed.

Confirm that the folder names for the files are exactly named as ORIGINALS, IMAGES, and TEXT.

Confirm that all Bates names are unique.  

Confirm that the Bates names in the load file and the ORIGINALS, IMAGES, and TEXT match exactly (this includes spaces and underscores).

Confirm that the Bates names do not include prohibited characters. The only supported characters are letters, numbers, and the following character (_). Examples of prohibited characters are (\ / : * ? " < > |).

Nested Folder-Structure

We do not map to folders during document upload and instead recommend using Saved & Shared Filters to organize and work with sub-folder structures. If there is a nested folder structure in an uploaded container file (e.g., Zip, PST), the paths will be automatically mapped to the Source FilePath field in the application.