FCCS Data Extraction Tool

Extracts and organizes documents from FileCabinet CS (Thomson Reuters) using GUI automation. Designed to work across multiple client engagements without code changes.

Prerequisites

32-bit Python (must match FCCS architecture)
pywinauto (pip install pywinauto)
Pillow (pip install Pillow) — required for failure screenshots
FileCabinet CS installed and restored with client backup data

Project Layout

File	Purpose
`config.ini`	All paths, timeouts, and FCCS control identifiers
`fccs_folders.txt`	FCCS folder templates (manually populated per engagement)
`fccs_config.py`	Shared config loading, logging, folder pattern building
`fccs_scan.py`	Step 1: Scan backup directory for drawer IDs
`fccs_export.py`	Step 2: Automate FCCS GUI to export all drawers
`fccs_reorganize.py`	Step 3: Parse filenames and rebuild folder structure
`fccs_verify.py`	Step 4 (optional): Compare manifests against exported files
`fccs_check.py`	Utility: Interactively check if specific drawers exported completely
`fccs_dump_controls.py`	Utility: Dump control identifiers of an on-screen dialog

Setup Per Engagement

Edit config.ini -- point backup_dir, export_dir, and output_dir at the client's directories.
Populate fccs_folders.txt -- open FCCS > System Configuration > Document Folders and list each folder template exactly as shown, one per line. Keep the YYYY prefix on recurring folders. UltraTax CS folders are detected automatically and do not need to be listed.

Workflow

Step 1: Scan Drawers

python fccs_scan.py

Reads the restored FCCS backup directory and writes all drawer IDs (subfolder names) to drawer_ids.txt. It also:

Flags prefix clashes — if one drawer ID is a prefix of another (e.g. 02218 and 02218A), searching the base ID in FCCS pops up a selection box that breaks plain automated navigation. These clashes are reported, and the base (shorter) IDs are auto-seeded into ignore.txt. The longer, more-specific IDs (02218A) search fine and export normally; the base IDs are handled by the separate clash-export script.
Reports ignored drawers — any IDs listed in ignore.txt that exist in this backup are shown as ones the export will skip.

Ignoring drawers: The scan creates ignore.txt (at ignore_file, default C:\Migration\ignore.txt) if it doesn't exist and pre-fills it with the clash base IDs — searching those in FCCS shows a selection box that stalls the plain export, so they're skipped by the main export. Open the file and:

Delete or comment out any clash base you'd rather handle fully by hand.
Add any other drawers to skip (e.g. password-protected folders), one ID per line.

Re-running the scan never overwrites your edits — it only appends newly-discovered clashes. drawer_ids.txt stays a full inventory; the export skips anything active in the ignore list. Lines starting with # are comments.

Step 2: Export Documents

python fccs_export.py

Requires FCCS to be open with export destination already configured. Automates the GUI to export every drawer via File > Send To > File. Features:

Resumable -- tracks completed drawers in completed.txt; safe to restart
Screenshots -- captures failure states for diagnosis
Defensive -- one bad drawer won't crash the entire run
Crash recovery -- some documents (e.g. UltraTax "Diagnostics" files) crash FCCS's converter (FileConversionEngine::convert() failed), which aborts that drawer's export. The script detects the error dialog, screenshots and logs the crashing document, dismisses it, and records the drawer in crashed.txt so it's skipped on future runs instead of stalling. Handle crashed drawers manually (export them excluding the poison document); delete a line from crashed.txt to retry after fixing.

Step 3: Reorganize Files

python fccs_reorganize.py

Parses the flat exported filenames and copies them into an organized structure:

output/
  ABRAHAM, REBEKAH L./
    Tax Documents/
      2025/
        030126 E-mail re Tax Info.pdf
    Billing & Invoices/
      2026/
        030826 Invoice for 2025 Forms 1040 & IL-1040.pdf
    UltraTax CS/
      12-31-2008/
        2008 Form 1040 Filing Instructions.doc
    Permanent File/
      Driver's License.pdf
  _unparsed/
    (files that couldn't be parsed go here for manual review)

Exported filenames follow the format {drawer_id}_{client_name}_{folder_name}_{creation_date}_{document_name}.ext. The parser uses folder templates from fccs_folders.txt (with YYYY expanded via regex) and the creation date (MM-DD-YYYY) as anchors to reliably split the underscore-delimited fields. Folder names are decomposed into nested paths that match the FCCS UI structure (e.g. 2025 Tax Documents becomes Tax Documents/2025/). UltraTax CS folders are matched by a built-in pattern.

Step 4 (optional): Verify Export Completeness

During export, each drawer's document list is captured from the FCCS dialog and saved as a manifest (in manifest_dir). These tools compare the manifests against the files actually in the export folder to confirm nothing was missed.

Both compare at the document level and share identical matching logic. They account for:

Page-splitting -- a multi-page document exported as Name Page 1, Name Page 2, … counts as that one document being present.
Filename sanitization -- document titles containing characters illegal in Windows filenames (e.g. : / ?) still match the exported files.

Batch-check every drawer that has a manifest:

python fccs_verify.py

Reports each drawer as OK or INCOMPLETE (listing the missing documents), plus a summary and any exported drawers that have no manifest. The full report is written to its own file (verify_report, default C:\Migration\verify_report.txt) as well as the console — separate from the export's run_log.txt.

Spot-check specific drawers interactively (e.g. ones the log marked failed, to see whether they actually finished exporting in the background):

python fccs_check.py
Drawer ID(s): 08097 18430

Note: because page-splitting means the number of files can't be mapped one-to-one to documents, completeness is judged by document presence (is each manifest document represented by at least one exported file), not by exact file counts.

Config Reference

All scripts read from config.ini (or specify --config path\to\config.ini).

[paths] -- backup_dir, export_dir, output_dir, drawer_id_file, completed_file, ignore_file, crashed_file, log_file, verify_report, screenshot_dir, manifest_dir, folder_list
[timeouts] -- nav_timeout, dialog_timeout, progress_appear, progress_finish, settle, confirm_timeout
[controls] -- FCCS window class names and button titles (rarely need changing)

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