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Legl & ALB Integration guide
Tess avatar
Written by Tess
Updated over 5 months ago

1. Introduction

This document outlines the installation and configuration requirements for the Legl and ALB integration. The Installation consists of the following components:

  1. IIS setup and configuration

  2. Application configuration

  3. ALB configuration


2. Installation prerequisites

The following items are required to facilitate a successful implementation.

  • An Application/IIS Server for hosting the Website and API Connector.

  • A SQL User to connect Middleware to the ALB database.

  • .Net Runtime 6.01, ASP.Net Core v6.01 Hosting Bundle and ASP.Net Core v6.01 Runtime (see below pre-requisites document).

  • Access to ALB Designer Studio (Enterprise License required).

Prerequisites

  1. Server-side (Application Server)

  2. Client-side

    • ALB V3.5.0 or above*

    • An ALB user

    • A Legl user account per user

    • Supported web browsers: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome

Installation prerequisites

  1. A service user account/administrator user & corresponding password to be used for installation. The user will need relevant access to write files to the firms ALB directory storage share e.g. \\server\ALB\Documents.

  2. A SQL username and password to allow the ALB Middleware to connect to the ALB database. Your consultant can create an account if one is not provided as long as Administrative access is given during installation.

  3. A Legl API key for use with the integration, which will be provided by the Legl team.

Important considerations

  1. End users will not receive a notification that Engage Request documents have been downloaded to a matter or client file.

  2. End users will not receive a notification that a posting has been made available.

  3. End users will need to mark an “Engage request” as “Marked as reviewed” before the data will be made available in ALB or the Middleware.


3. Important considerations

  • A server restart will be required – Only required if pre-requisites are missing.

  • An Advanced ALB Enterprise License is required to access Designer Studio. Please speak to the Legl team if you do not have an enterprise license.


4. Installation assumptions

The target audience of this document will have a basic knowledge of software installation.

The basic skills required to complete this installation are:

  1. Configuring JSON files

  2. An understanding of IIS configuration

  3. Familiarity with the ALB Designer Studio

The target audience of this document will have a basic knowledge of software installation.

The basic skills required to complete this installation are:

  1. Configuring JSON files

  2. An understanding of IIS configuration

  3. Familiarity with the ALB Designer Studio


5. Installation

Installation location and package

Download and locate the Integration installation package provided by Xperate. If the installation package has been provided as a zip file ensure that the files are not ‘blocked’. Right-click on the zip folder and select properties. Ensure to check ‘Unblock’.

Unzip all the files (and any subfolders) ready for installation.


IIS Deployment

  1. Extract the contents of the installation package to the local drive of the IIS server e.g. C:\Websites\Legl

  2. Login to your IIS server and open the IIS Manager

  3. Create a new website by right clicking on “Sites” and “Add Website”.

  4. Provide a name for the website and browse to the extracted location for the physical path. (The authentication details may need to be adjusted to a user with the correct read/write access).

5. Adjust the binding and port/hostname as per the client requirements and untick “Start Website Immediately” and click okay.


6. ALB Setup

  • Login to the “Document Management “ application for ALB

  • Right click on “Server” and select “Add Volume”

  • Provide a name (e.g. Legl), a description and choose the type.

  • Navigate to the folder/share location that you wish for the documents to be stored in

  • Click “OK” to save the settings.

  • Login to the “utilities” application for ALB

  • Open Firm Options

  • Navigate to Anti Money Laundering – Evidence Types

  • Create an Evidence type via right click – add evidence type

  • Populate your reference, description and whether this is ForIndividuals or ForOrganisations or both

  • Click okay and close to save the settings.

ALB Designer – Module Import

To access the designer studio, this will require an Enterprise ALB License. If you don’t have access to Designer Studio, please contact Legl / Advanced team for assistance.

  • Login the ALB Designer

  • Click import modul

  • Browse to the PMS.udm file provided in the installation package

  • This will populate the screen with the module import

  • Click Import Selected Module

  • There are no Time Types to be mapped, click continue

  • There are no document import changes, click continue

  • The next screen will display any affected open matters, apply changes once you are happy with the process.

  • This will now import the module.

  • Navigate to the PMS Module under Modules and “select module” after selecting PM

  • Once the module has loaded, navigate to Workflows on the left hand side.

  • Within each of the Legl workflows found under Matter and Contact the website will need to be updated.

  • Double click on a workflow e.g. Legl Engage

  • Navigate to the (Legl Engage) Item in the workflow

  • Once open, click the pencil icon to edit the Website Address

  • Open the Values tab, within the “text” section, copy the address from the first section in the view and replace localhost:4432 with your website address & port.

  • Highlight the first box and click the red “X” in the top right corner to remove the record.

  • Once removed, click the green “+” to add the new address to the start of the URL

  • Repeat 13 > 18 for each workflow to update the address.

Appsettings.json configuration

  • Navigate to the website location using file explorer.

  • Open the “appsettings.json” file in a text editor

  • Adjust the connection string to your SQL instance and details

  • Navigate to the section header “legldata”

  • Populate the “key” with the key provided by Legl

  • Ensure the “engagevolume” matches the Volume name created during step 3.

  • Specify your AML Type for Legl documents

  • Specify a folder you wish for this to save into within the “folder” option, this can be left as “NULL” for the documents to display at the top level of document history.

  • The “engagelevel” can be set to client, matter or both. If set to Client this will only save the documents at the client level, the same for matter and if both are populated, a copy of the documents will be saved to both the client and matter.

  • Navigate to the next section “engageinsertslip”.

  • Populate the values within the section with the firm's desired settings for the slip.

    • submittingUser = the user reference for submission

    • authorisingUser = the user reference with permission to authorize.

    • disbursementType = the disbursement type (This is set within Utilities > Accounts > Outlays > External)

    • requestDescription – The friendly description to appear within the Software

    • requestPayee – The payee to appear on the slip

    • paymentMethod – The type of payment e.g. BACS

    • value – the default amount to be charged

    • vat – the default amount of VAT to be applied to the posting

    • narrative – a standard narrative to be applied to the posting

  • Repeat steps 9 and 10 for the payinsertslip section directly below.

  • Close and save the file.

  • Re-open IIS and Start the website.

7. SQL Deployment Script

Pay Integration

  1. Depending on the version of ALB this is deployed to, the custom fields required for the Pay integration screen may change. To get the correct name, run the below script:

    /* Check for FQN Table Value */ DECLARE @FQN VARCHAR(4); set @FQN = (select LEFT(Fqn,4) from MetaData.MetaDataCustomField where fqn like '%.Matter.LeglPaymentURL'); IF isnull(@FQN,'') = '' BEGIN PRINT 'Missing FQN Fields - Check Designer Studio custom fields have been added' RETURN END; IF @FQN = '3818' BEGIN PRINT 'No changes required, please run the rest of the script' END ELSE BEGIN PRINT 'Use "Find and Replace" to replace 3818 with: ' + @FQN END GO
  2. Once you have the tale name e.g. 3929 you can use find and replace to update the references for 3818 within the deployment script.

  3. Once all references to 3818 are updated (if required), run the rest of the deployment script below to create the procedures for the integration.

8. Applying an update

To apply an update for the Integration, navigate to your website folder (5.2.1).

  1. Backup the folder contents

  2. Download and extract the latest files to a new folder.

  3. Download and extract the latest files to a new folder.

  4. Copy the files to the website folder (overwriting existing files)

  5. Recycle the IIS Application Pool (IIS > Application Pools > Right Click the Application Pool > Recycle)

  6. Restart the website (IIS > Sites > Right Click the Website > Manage Website > Restart)

  7. Once restarted, browse to the website for the changes to take effect.

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