How to create and delete Collections

A Collection is a feature unique to Impira. It's a folder that contains a group of files that have similar layouts and share the same schema (fields you want to extract — e.g., Name, Date, Balance, etc). Creating a Collection is the first step before moving on to extract data from your files.

Create an empty Collection

1. Begin from the Impira home screen. On the left sidebar, click the + next to Collections.

2. Give your Collection a name and choose Create Collection.

3. Go to your new empty Collection to upload files by dropping them in the browser window, or via Impira Write API.

You can also create an empty Collection by going to All files and going to the Create Collection drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Choose Empty Collection and follow steps 2 and 3 from above.

Create a Collection from previously uploaded files

Create a Collection with files that have already been uploaded to Impira.

This is a good option if you already know which files you want to add to a Collection and you can select them easily from the All files view.

1. Go to All files (left sidebar) and select the files you want to group into a Collection.
2. Choose Add [X] files to Collection.

3. Choose Create a new Collection from the drop-down menu. Give it a name and choose Add selected files to new Collection.

Create a Collection through browser upload

1. Go Upload in the top right corner and select From computer.

2. Locate your files, select them, and choose Open.
3. Go to the Add files to drop-down menu and choose Create a new Collection.
4. Give your new Collection a name and choose Add uploaded files to Collection.

Create a Smart Collection

This is a good option to choose if you plan to continuously add new files to a Collection over time and want them to be automatically added to a specific Collection based on a query.

For example, you may import new purchase orders every week and want them automatically added to the right Collection without having to manually select the correct folder for each file.

1. Go to All files and type a query into the search bar. In this example, we’re looking for “Purchase order.”

2. Go to the Create Collection drop-down menu and choose Collection matching filters.

3. Give your Smart Collection a name and choose Add selected files to Smart Collection.

Going forward, all files that are imported in Impira that match this “Purchase order” query will be automatically added to this Smart Collection.

Import fields from one Collection to another

You can import existing fields from one Collection to a new one to save time.

1. Go to your new Collection, go to the dropdown menu next to the Collection name, and choose Import fields.

2. Locate the Collection from which you're importing fields, then select Confirm.

3. Begin labeling values for fields in your new Collection to get extracting going.

Example

Let's say you have a Collection and you've already set it up to extract specific fields from a set of vendor invoices.

You want to extract the same exact fields from a different vendor's invoices in a separate Collection, but you don't want recreate the fields all over again.

The image below shows fields successfully extracted from invoices from the vendor, Thompson:

You have a new Collection of invoices from the vendor, Zimmerman, but haven't yet added any extract fields yet.

Simply import them from the Collection, "Invoices - Thompson."

Now you have a head start and can open any file to begin filling in values for your imported fields to get extraction going for your new Collection.

Delete a Collection

1. Select the Collection you want to delete in the left sidebar.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the name and choose Delete Collection.
3. Confirm Delete.