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Ohio Integrates HotDocs with Pika Case Management

  • 4/5/2007
  • Cynthia Vaughan
  • OLAF

The Ohio HotDocs Project Team is excited to announce that we have successfully integrated the desktop version of HotDocs with Pika Case Management software. Pika CMS is an easy-to-use, web-based case management system built on XML technology.

This means that if your program is using templates designed to run in the desktop version of HotDocs (and is using Pika as your case management system), you can integrate a "button" (in our case, we call it Open Ohio DR Templates, which are domestic relations templates built by Steve Simon of Ohio DR Software), under the Document Assembly tab in Pika to launch and create HotDocs templates using client information created in the case. This is a tremendous time saver and promotes the use of HotDocs in a "real-time" manner.


The Tech Stuff
Because the desktop version of HotDocs is written in a different operating system than Pika, we had to create the "Welcome" template translator piece of code that functions between the desktop and a users' Pika application. This was no easy feat, as it equates to two different languages trying to carry out a transaction.

Many thanks go to Todd Pedwell, Matthew Friedlander (Pika Software), Marc Lauritsen and Alan Soudakoff (Capstone), and Ty Acker and Jeffrey Fortkamp (Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation) who worked diligently to create the magic for the community to use.

Thanks to the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation for providing the funding for this integration work.

The "Welcome" template code is located on a server housed at the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation. Ohio legal services programs that have begun to use the desktop version of HotDocs along with Ohio DR Software templates are beginning to use this feature in their delivery system work.

The instructions for integrating desktop HotDocs with Pika are located on the Pika Wiki at:
http://pikasoftware.com/docs/index.php/Ohio_Hotdocs_Integration.

Next Steps
The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation continues to provide funding and resources in the support of both HotDocs and NPADO, and is partnered with Capstone to explore the integration of the online version of HotDocs with Pika.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us anytime.

With best regards,
Cynthia A. Vaughn, M.B.A., M.S.W., L.S.W.
Project Manager
Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation
cvaughn@olaf.org
Phone: (614) 728-6930

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