Any system, from the trivial to the most intricate, can be best explained if broken down into its constituents and that might have been the reason for the architect Le Corbusier to remark “God lies in the details”. DocuPhi as a product offering can, similarly, be segregated into the following overlapping feature sets

• Simplicity
• DocuPhi is a true child of the web generation by being a 100% browser-based DMS, effectively eliminating the need to install client-side applications. This enables DocuPhi to deliver on the stated principle of “Anytime Anywhere” access no matter if the end-user is in an office or the airport.
• DocuPhi is also a product of the Open Source Software era and it leverages the power of community driven Open Source Software exceedingly well by using the following
• Development Platform: J2EE
• Operating System: Linux (preference), Windows
• Web Server: Apache (preference), IIS
• Application Server: Tomcat (preference), BEA Weblogic, IBM Websphere, Pramati
• Word Processing: OpenOfficeOrg
• Image Viewer: AlternaTIF

The choice, in the end, lies with the customers but in going the Open Source way they save license costs associated with proprietary software.

• Interface
• DocuPhi would not be a DMS if it does not come equipped with a scanning interface. The scanning interface too, is browser based and uses an ActiveX control to enable end-users to seamlessly scan using any TWAIN-compatible scanners (ADF supported). Even the scanning interface, like most other functionality in DocuPhi, can integrate with a host of third party applications
• Email using POP3
• Fax using web-services/email
• Photo-sharing sites using proprietary third-party APIs.
• Manual Upload of a compressed archive
• Architecture
• DocuPhi is architected on a J2EE platform, capable of running in any industry standard Application Server conforming to J2EE specifications.
• The underlying structure of DocuPhi follows the best practices of a Model-View-Controller pattern based on the guiding principles of the (formerly Apache) Struts framework.
• The data access layer of DocuPhi is a part of the proprietary Common framework architected by PhiStream and can supports multiple databases apart from providing a host of other features usually required by enterprise applications. This framework is constantly subjected to repeated testing cycles under laboratory conditions and has also seen continuous action in a number of production environments.
• DocuPhi can be deployed on a single server or can be spread across multiple locations depending on the customers demand. In the most generic scenario, the application can be hosted separately with the database on a dedicated database server and the file system on a completely different file server.
• Configuration
• No J2EE application is complete without its complementary set of XML files to configure both the application and its internal components. This is true for DocuPhi too and the XML files are responsible for configuring things as varied as database mapping to security restrictions.
• Extensible
• “No man is an island” said poet John Donne. This is being realized by enterprise applications too. Few applications exist that do not interface with other applications in order to extract, transform or load data. DocuPhi makes life easier by providing pre-built hooks and integration points that allows other applications to converse with DocuPhi in order to exchange data.
• Different production environments and deployment conditions require different kinds of security constraints. DocuPhi provides basic security out-of-the-box in order to satisfy the usual demands made of enterprise applications but this is extensible and can be suitably modified as required for deployment