Docbox File Agent Overview

Introduction

Docbox File Agent (DFA) sends files to Docbox automatically, without anyone opening a dashboard, choosing a printer, or clicking send. You point it at a folder, and anything that lands in that folder is picked up and sent on to Docbox for processing.

This makes DFA the right choice in two situations:

  • Programmatic output – an application generates PDFs as part of its normal processing (for example, a billing system producing statements) and those PDFs need to reach Docbox with no human involved at any point.
  • High-volume folder-drop workflows – staff are producing large numbers of PDFs and dropping them into a folder for sending. Where volumes run into the hundreds of files at a time, uploading through the Docbox Print Driver becomes impractical, and DFA handles the volume far more effectively.

For ad hoc printing from an everyday application such as Word, where a person is actively choosing to print one document at a time, the Docbox Print Driver remains the better fit. DFA is built for unattended, high-volume sending rather than one-off desktop printing.

DFA has its own Control Panel, used to configure DFA itself. This is separate from the Docbox Control Panel, which is used to configure Docbox. The two are referenced separately throughout this chapter.

 

How it works

DFA monitors one or more folders, called Sources. Each Source is linked to a Destination, which is a printer in Docbox.

  1. Your application (or a user) places a PDF into a Source folder.
  2. DFA detects the file and sends it to the linked Destination printer.
  3. The file arrives in Docbox as a job, visible in the Docbox dashboard in the same way as any other job.

Because DFA is simply watching a folder, there's no interface for anyone to use day to day. The only ongoing input required is your application (or your users) writing files to the right place.

Docbox only accepts PDFs. If your application produces output in another format, DFA can be used alongside the Docbox Print Driver to convert and forward files to Docbox.

 

DFA Objects

DFA has its own  dashboard‍, separate from the Docbox dashboard, for configuring and monitoring activity:

  • Pipelines - shows each Source-to-Destination pairing and its current status
  • Jobs - shows the files DFA has processed
  • Control Panel‍ - used to configure DFA (Tokens, Destinations, Sources, Users and Backup)

Requirements

The Docbox File Agent can be installed on any server or system (Windows, Linux or macOS) which supports Java Runtime version 17 to 25. The DFA dashboard can be accessed using a supported browser‍.