What to install, and when:
When first implementing XpressDox, it may be confusing to know what to install first and what is needed to move your installation along. High level we have:
- XpressDox Desktop
- XpressDox Cloud (either self-hosted or hosted with us)
- The XpressDox API
Let’s have a quick look at what each of these would be needed for, and in which order they should be installed.
-
XpressDox Desktop (the Add-in tool)
The Desktop Add-in is available for download here . Note that you will be required to create an account, just one account for the firm, and this is where you can manage downloads, subscriptions and license keys. The Desktop Add-in is the Authoring tool; usually only a handful of users in the firm would need to install this. With our licensing model everyone in the firm is entitled to a Desktop license and a Cloud login, but most firms choose to give authoring capabilities to their Precedents team only. Should you choose to do training with one of our consultants (contact us for pricing on this training), this is all you will need to get started. The training would typically cover how to create templates and is aimed at template authors. No cloud account needs to be installed / registered yet.
Database integrations:
-
XpressDox Cloud
Once you have some templates; you are now ready to put them on the Cloud. Will you be making use of one of our hosted Cloud instances, or do you want to install your own hosted Cloud server. Should you want to use one of our hosted Cloud instances, register one in your area to ensure that there will be any downtime when we update. We strive to update outside of that region’s business hours. Should you have security concerns around using one of our Cloud instances, our security white paper is available on request.
However, if you would prefer to host your own Cloud server, here are notes on how to complete that installation. There will need to be some configuration decisions, many of which would have been made during the training / template authoring process. Now that you have a Cloud account in some form, your templates and DocumentAssembly.config.xml file(s) can be uploaded. If you have are using one of the XpressDox Cloud instance, then it is a good idea to keep the structure of the templates on the Cloud account the same on your local development environment.
Consider implementing SSO, DocuSign integration, installing Reporting (if self-hosted).
Templates can be run from many different platforms; XpressDox is not fussy! The templates are saved in the Cloud but can be accessed from anywhere; you decide!
Assembled documents can also be saved in a number of locations; either back onto the Cloud server, into iManage, into NetDocuments, into Sharepoint or OneDrive. It’s your decision. Think of the following flow as an example:
-
API
This may come later, if at all, and involves the integration of specific templates into a 3rd party application or a website.
