Custom file reference numbers

[AdamS]

We have a request from clients, and for some this is a deal breaker, to be able to manually assign custom reference numbers/ID's to documents, this could apply equally to Intella TEAM and CONNECT.

 

Ideally this would be something configured prior to the indexing process starting and allowing the creation of a new column/field to be named as we need to.

 

For example my clients would like to be able to have naming conventions like PAN.00001.0001.456 as an example. The numbers and configuration mean that from start to finish that number is used by them communicating internally and externally, then when court evidence briefs are prepared the same numbering is used. Essentially a file is married to that ID at the time of indexing and they can customise the name and content. Much the same way we can do now at the export stage, but they need me to be able to do that at the indexing stage.

 

Not to confuse this with just renaming all the files, which I could do easily, this is something that would need to be assigned based on file hash to allow it to survive a re-index if the need arises.

 

Happy to discuss further as I can't stress this is a deal breaker for some clients and I'm very keen to get this functionality in as soon as possible.

 

Edit: I should point out that I figured a work around for the short term which works using the custodian and the Doc ID, I set the Custodian as PAN.001.001 and then the Doc ID already assigned by Intella becomes the last digits to the code. Typically the codes used with have meanings, so PAN might be the client reference, 001 might be the box and 001 the folder number. This method means that provided I maintain good records about where certain files have come from then it will work, however it is a work around and I hope a more permanent solution can be worked out.

[AdamS]

Just a follow up reply as I know Jon will be putting something detailed here after we spend quite a bit of time talking on the phone about this.

 

For anyone else who finds the need for this numbering it can actually be accomplished by creating Relativity Load files and then importing that back into the case as an overlay.

[jon.pearse]

As Adam mentioned, assigning custom reference numbers/ID's to documents can be done in Intella. That said, it requires a bit of work and there are some limitations which I will explain in this post.

 

The objective is to assign custom and unique numbers or IDs to the items in your case. This is useful for referring to items in a dataset when the dataset is being reviewed. Also, a specific document could find its way into a Courtroom, and having a unique reference number or ID for that document from the beginning (ingestion) to the end (production) helps to keep document referencing tidy and reduces the risk of confusion.

 

 

A few things to consider

 

The first thing to consider is whether all of the items in the dataset (including embedded items, as Intella extracts these when indexing) should be assigned unique IDs. This is certainly the easiest approach however, some people may want to assign unique IDs to a smaller subset, e.g. top level items and attachments etc. The choice is yours and the main difference will be that the full dataset would likely take longer to process.

 

Another consideration you may want to think about is whether you want to also keep track of the Parent/Child relationships for these documents. My thinking is that in most cases, this would be desired. This post shows how to include the family references.

 

 

Assigning custom reference numbers/ID's to documents

 

Currently Intella does not have a dedicated way to assign unique IDs to items that are already indexed in Intella. One way to do this is to create an export of the items, and to add these items to an Export set. The unique IDs for the items can be configured in a 'load file' export, such as Relativity. A Relativity load file can be produced without the native documents, extracted text or images. Basically, the load file would contain just the DAT file only. This should be very fast to create compared to a full blown load file. When the items are exported in this way, the unique IDs for these items will be loaded into the Export set, and the Export set will be available in the Details table once it has been turned on.

 

So that gets the unique IDs for our items into the details table, but what about the ParentIDs and ChildIDs to reference the family? Well, this requires a little more work. In fact, when we are creating the export load file, we need to add some additional fields in the 'Load file field chooser' window. This is required because we need to ingest the load file back into the case (as an overlay) to generate the ParentIDs and ChildIDs.

 

Create a load file export with the following fields:

• ParentID - This is the DocID for the parent item. The field type is DIRECT_PARENT_ID. 
• ChildIDs or AttachIDs - These are the DocIDs for the child items or attachments. The field type is DIRECT_CHILDREN_IDS.
• IntellaID - This is the Intella ID for the item and is required for item mapping when we ingest the load file back into the case. Use Intella's Item ID field for this setting.

 

Once the load file is complete, you will need to add the new 'Export set' to the Details table by selecting it in the column chooser.

 

 

Assigning ParentIDs and ChildIDs based on the Export set

 

Now that the items in the case have unique number/IDs assigned to them, we need to ingest the load file to assign the ParentID and ChildID fields. This can be done by importing a load file overlay.

 

1) Click on File > Import Load File in the Intella menu.

 

2) Select Overlay from the 'Import operation' field, and path to the DAT file of the load file just created.

 

3) The 'Configure Delimiters' window should show you a preview of the load file. If you can not see the preview, then click on the 'Detect encoding' button. 

 

 

 

 

4) The Map Fields window allows you to map load file fields to Intella columns. Unfortunately this only applies to ingesting a load file (or new data) and does not apply ingesting an overlay. That said, you can create Tag Columns in this window and you can map the load file fields to the new Tag Columns. Use the 'Add tag column' button to create new Tag Columns and assign them to the load file columns. Note that the IntellaID field is the field used to overlay the data to the correct items in the case. Make sure that the 'IntellaID' field is selected for the 'Identifier field', and also that 'Item ID' is selected for the 'Identifier type'.

 

 

 

 

5) When all of the fields are mapped, click on the 'Check for errors' button. If there are no errors, import the load file.

 

 

 

Once the load file has been ingested, you can turn on the ParentID and AttachID fields in the column chooser.

 

 

 

Limitations

 

The only limitations that I can see with this approach is that it take some time to complete being a manual process, and the Tags facet ends up with a lot of tags under the ParentID and AttachID tags. This may not be a big issue as the top level tag (see AttachIDs below) can be contracted to hide the large number of tags.

 

 

In a future version we will have the ability to create custom columns. This will allow more flexibility in various aspects of Intella.

[AdamS]

Thanks Jon, that breaks it down nicely.

 

For anyone considering doing this process it works well, and although there are quite a few steps once you've done it a couple of times it only takes a few minutes to get this in place.