Use case: FreeEed Viewer
A lightweight, portable way to hand someone a finished production and let them review it — search it, read it, and add their own notes — without installing or running the full FreeEed processing stack.
The flow
- Process all data in FreeEed as usual.
- Export the production — the produced documents together with their tags and notes — in a self-contained format (format is our choice; see open questions).
- FreeEed Viewer is the same FreeEed, launched in a viewer mode that loads the production instead of processing. It lets the user:
- Search the produced set,
- Read documents,
- Add and edit notes (and tags).
- Distributable on a thumb drive as an option — fully portable and offline, so a reviewer/client/court can plug it in and start reviewing with nothing to install.
Why it matters (for users)
- Share a review, not a toolchain. Clients, opposing counsel, investigators, and courts can review a production directly — no servers, no setup.
- Offline and self-contained. Works from a thumb drive with no network — which also keeps it forensically sound (no outbound calls).
- Notes travel with the data. Reviewers add their own notes/tags right on the production.
- Fits the FreeEed 2027 Vision — especially the disclosure and review directions: low-cost, transparent, human-in-the-loop review.
Scope
- In FreeEed (this repo): the export-with-tags/notes step, the viewer launch mode, and the portable/thumb-drive packaging.
- May reference: FreeEedUI (if the search/notes UI reuses the web review app) and ai_advisor (only if AI features are added later) — as sub-tasks, not the core.
Open questions / design decisions
- Export format. Self-contained and portable — candidates: a load file (DAT/Opticon) + native/text + a notes/tags sidecar, or a small embedded DB (e.g. SQLite) bundling docs + metadata + notes. Should round-trip back into FreeEed.
- Search. Bundle a portable index (embedded Lucene) so search works offline from the drive, rather than requiring a running Solr.
- Note/tag persistence. Where do reviewer edits get written — back onto the production on the drive? How do we handle a read-only drive, and how are edits merged back if the production is returned?
- Read-only vs. editable. Documents/tags from the original production should likely be immutable; reviewer notes are additive. Define what's editable.
- Portability. Bundle a JRE and use relative paths so it runs from any drive letter / mount with no install. Windows/Mac/Linux targets.
- Activation gate. The new free-activation gate should not block an external reviewer who receives a thumb drive. The Viewer likely needs a pre-activated / gate-exempt "viewer mode" — decide how that interacts with registration.
- Forensic soundness. Viewer must make no outbound calls (consistent with our processing guarantee).
Acceptance (first cut)
Use case: FreeEed Viewer
A lightweight, portable way to hand someone a finished production and let them review it — search it, read it, and add their own notes — without installing or running the full FreeEed processing stack.
The flow
Why it matters (for users)
Scope
Open questions / design decisions
Acceptance (first cut)