Self-Upload a TIFF Production

General

Administrative and Power Users can upload a TIFF 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. Prod001.lexbeupload.zip). 

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

We recommend this feature for Power Upload users with advanced Excel skills, familiar with using complex formulas and data management features for Quality Assurance & Control during self-load of files.  If uploading load files for the first time, allow sufficient time to meet any production or document deadlines, including time for processing and quality control procedures.

If the user fails to create a proper load file for a TIFF production, the upload will not combine the files properly into the same record or could generate duplicates.

The supported self-load is only for a standard conforming load file, per our specs, and non-conforming load files will incur hourly charges. Non-conforming load files could be TIFF load files that are non-standard or corrupt, including corrupt or missing TIFF files, corrupt or missing text files, missing or corrupt data, field inconsistencies, file count mismatches, misaligned or missing metadata, or other non-defined matters. When Professional Services receives a non-standard load file, we may or may not be able to partially load, depending on the degree of problems.

Test

Best practice is to upload the attached sample production to a test case using the instructions below before creating and uploading one in an active case.

Pre-processing and Upload

• Download and expand the EnronProductionSample.zip (found at the bottom of this page).

• After expansion, four folders are created:  DATA, IMAGES, ORIGINALS, TEXT.

  • Create an additional folder named LOADFILES.

  • The ORIGINALS folder is sometimes titled NATIVES; in this instance, rename NATIVES to ORIGINALS.

• Locate the OPT file (usually in the DATA folder), and move the OPT file to the LOADFILES folder. Only the OPT file should be in the LOADFILES folder.

• Create a folder titled XXXXXX.lexbeupload and move the LOADFILES (with the .opt), IMAGES, ORIGINALS and TEXT folders into the .lexbeupload folder. Do not include the DATA folder or any loose load files.

• Zip the .lexbeupload folder into an archive zip file and name the zip XXXXXX.lexbeupload.zip. Do not include the DATA folder or any loose load files. (The zip file must end with .lexbeupload.zip in order for LEP to recognize it as a production upload)

• Create a new upload batch in LEP and drag and drop the .lexbeupload.zip into the upload window.

    Recap:

    1.  Create folder named LOADFILES.

    2.  Ensure folders are titled appropriately (IMAGES, LOADFILES, ORIGINALS, TEXT)*

        *Rename NATIVES folder to ORIGINALS, if needed.  

    3.  Locate and Save the OPT file in the LOADFILES folder

    4.  Create a folder titled XXXXXX.lexbeupload and move the LOADFILES, IMAGES, ORIGINALS and TEXT folders into the .lexbeupload folder.

    5.  Zip the XXXXXX.lexbeupload folder, and name the zip file XXXXXX.lexbeupload.zip.

    5.  Drag and drop .lexbeupload.zip into upload box.

    6.  Upon completion of processing, delete .lexbeupload.zip.

Upload Metadata

• Download the sample EnronProductionSample.multidocupdate.xlsx; this is an example of how the final .multidocupdate.xlsx will look.  Note the column field titles.

• Open the .dat file in a text editor, such as Notepad.

• Highlight and copy the ¶ symbol (acting as the delimiter), then use the Find and Replace function to replace all with a pipe symbol “|”.  Save a copy encoded as UTF-8.  Do not replace the original version.

• Open the copy in Excel, set the file type to Delimited, and File Origin as Unicode (UTF-8) and click Next. Under Delimiters, check Other and in the box and delimit on the pipe symbol “|" and click Finish.

• In the Excel document, use the Find and Replace function to replace all the “þ” symbols with nothing (simply leave the Replace box empty in the Find and Replace function)

• There will now be an Excel sheet of the metadata with defined columns and rows; use the sample .multidocupdate.xlsx to mimic structure and field titles.  

• Please note:

  • Date and corresponding times need to be combined (concatenated) into one column and then the Time columns should be deleted.

  • To maintain parent child relationships, create three new fields and populate as per the sample:

    • Bates Begin – document beginning Bates number (typically found in BegBates column).

    • Parent Bates Begin – parent document beginning Bates number (typically found in BegAttach column; this field should only be populated for Child documents).

    • Master Date -  all children will have the Parent DocDate as their MasterDate.

  • Remove the “.” Before each extension from fileextension field and rename column Extension.

  • Rename BegBates field as Title.

  • Delete any unnecessary fields:

    • EndBates

    • BegRange

    • EndRange

    • originalspath (or original link)

    • textpath (or text link)

    • pdfpath (or pdf link)

    • native file path

    • ocr path

    • md5

    • volume

    • page count

    • file size

  • Insert DocIds into column A, title column A Doc Id.

    • In LEP, filter on upload batch and export DocId and Title fields.

    • Use the VLOOKUP formula (Title being the common denominator) to incorporate the corresponding DocIds.

  • Be sure to replace any existing formulas with the values only (copy column and paste values).

• Save file as XXXXXXX.multidocupdate.xlsx.

• Upload by dragging and dropping into upload screen.

• Once the multidocupdate.xlsx is finished processing, the file itself can be deleted.

Recap:

    1.  Open .dat file in Excel to use as .multidocupdate.xlsx base.

    2.  Format columns, delete columns, and/or re-title columns to match example provided.

    3.  Export Doc Ids from LEP and incorporate into .multidocupdate.xlsx using Title as common denominator.

    4.  Save as .multidocupdate.xlsx.

    5.  Drag and drop .multidocupdate.xlsx into upload box.

    6.  Upon completion of processing, delete .multidocupdate.xlsx.

Upload Completion

Users should expect an approximately 10 GB/day processing rate within LEP (combined all cases) for native files (including PDFs) or OCR of image PDFs, if self-uploading the files. Similarly, users should expect an approximately one GB/day rate within LEP (combined all cases) to create Productions (including Bates numbering and TIFF creation if selected) or Briefcase downloads. Time to download is in addition to this, and will depend on Internet download speed. Users should allow sufficient time to meet any production deadlines, including quality control procedures, the possible need to rerun productions if changes are made, and possible delays in downloads/slower downloads than expected/need to restart downloads.    

Users need to wait for processing to complete (until the Upload Complete message displays) and then close the upload window. 

Production QC

We provide suggestions for how to perform quality control on a production in LEP. Doing Litigation Support quality control requires a high degree of technical skill and expertise.  Professional Services is available if needed.

Quality Control is necessary because a production is an automated process and if there is a failure caused by document corruption or other issues, LEP does not and often cannot capture the error. Expert human review for systematic problems is always advisable.  See Production QC for more information.  

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 (\ / : * ? " < > |).

Help

Contact Professional Services for additional assistance or troubleshooting.