Data element values are shared between a first software component and a second software component of a document processing framework. The components can capture, process, or route a digital image of a document and access a configuration file that is generated for the image. A data element attribute and value pair is placed in the configuration file. The value of the data element is a tag that includes an identifier identifying the first software component and a tag name. The first software component is executed on the image, produces a tag value corresponding to the tag name, searches the configuration file for the tag by the identifier, replaces the tag with the tag value in the configuration file, and terminates. The second software component is executed on the image after the first software component has terminated and reads the data element attribute and value pair.