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Documents - lifecycle, fields, retention and audit ​

What it is for ​

A file is bytes in a folder. A document is a managed record about a file or a piece of content: it has a type, fields, an owner, an approval path, a retention rule and a history. Use documents for things that must be approved, kept for a set time, or proven later, such as policies, contracts and certificates.

The idea in one minute ​

  • A document type says which fields a document has (text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox, long text), which are required, and which category, retention rule and workflow apply.
  • A category groups documents and can have parents.
  • A document moves through Draft, Submitted, In review, Approved or Rejected, and Archived. Each step is a separate, checked action. An approver can still approve a locked document.
  • A retention policy says how long a document is kept. Expiry is worked out when the document is read, so no scheduler has to run.
  • A legal hold stops retention from expiring a document, whatever the policy says.
  • Relationships link one document to another: related to, supersedes, amendment of, reference. They show on both documents.
  • The audit trail records every action with who and when. It is written from events, so it cannot be skipped by a screen.
  • A lock stops others editing a document's fields while you work.

In Studio ​

  1. Settings > Document types, categories, retention policies: create them. A type's fields are edited in a small editor: name, label, type, required, and options for dropdowns.
  2. Documents tab > New: pick a type, fill the fields (the form is built from the type), and optionally attach files.
  3. Use the buttons on a document to submit, review, approve, reject, archive, set a legal hold, lock or unlock it, and add relationships.
  4. Open the audit trail on a document to see its whole history. It refreshes as actions happen.

When the Workflow engine is available, submitting a document can start an approval workflow, and the owner is notified by e-mail when the owner's id is an e-mail address.

From the command line ​

Document management operations are not all in the CLI yet. Cabinets, folders, files, playback and media status are. See File manager.

What to know ​

  • Retention never deletes a document. A policy sets a retention period in days and an action on expiry (flag, archive or legal_hold_required). Whether a document has expired is worked out when it is read, from its creation date and the policy of its type, and a legal hold overrides it.
  • Document types extend each other, so changing a parent type's fields changes every type under it.
  • AI features on documents (summary, classification, field extraction, chat) need an AI provider configured in AI Studio. Without one they say so rather than guess.

Where next ​