Using Document Management and Collaboration

Overview

Using Document Management and Collaboration

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Using Document Management and Collaboration

Instructor Note

  • This is an optional module for the course. You may decide to cover if time allows.
  • This module focuses on the high level setup only.
  • Inform the students that they should consult Document Management and Collaboration chapter in the Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User’s Guide for more information regarding this feature.

Objectives

DOM – Internal Users

Oracle Document Management and Collaboration (DOM)

•DOM is a document management system that enables organizations to manage and securely share their documents across global teams.

•DOM uses Oracle Content DB (OCD), a module within Oracle database, as the repository for its documents and files.

•DOM enables you to manage documents just as you items, using:

-Simple and advanced search

-User-defined attributes and attribute groups

-Lifecycle phases

-Revisions and versioning

-Change management

Documents and Files

Documents: Attributes

•A document is an Oracle business object (entity).

•A document's metadata includes basic attributes, such as document name and number, and user-defined attributes.

•A document's content can include multiple associated files (unstructured data).

•Classify documents using categories and subcategories.

•Control the modification of documents using a check-in/check-out system with version history.

•Use a lifecycle phase workflow to drive a document review and approval process.

Files: Attributes

•A file contains unstructured content in various formats (PDF, DOC, GIF, HTML, XML, and so on).

•Files reside in a document repository.

•A document can contain one or more files or a file can reside in the document repository on its own, uncontained within a document.

Revisions and Versions

Revisions and Versions

DOM tracks all changes to documents by versioning every document when it is created and each time it is checked in. You can track the history of changes using the document's version history.

DOM treats each document revision as an entity, separate from other revisions of the document.

Although all document revisions are associated to the same document, each revision independently goes through the various phases of the document's lifecycle and each revision can have its own set of users. Revising a document provides an audit trail of all changes to a document by tracking who created each revision, the revision creation date, and any revision comments.

You can store and view a revision list in chronological order. Optionally, specify a revision policy to disable revisions for a document in a specific lifecycle phase.

If you specify a lifecycle for a document category, a new revision is created in the initial lifecycle phase of a document within that category.

Document Revisions and Versions (continued)

Hierarchical Classification of Documents

Hierarchical Classification of Documents

You can classify documents using a hierarchy of primary categories, subcategories and alternate categories. For example, classify documents by subject according to their use, under document categories for specifications, data sheets, marketing collateral, and so on.

You can assign each category its own characteristics, including validation rules, version control with rules, lifecycles, workflows, and approval processes. The subcategories can inherit these characteristics from their parent category. Primary categories behave similarly to item catalog categories.

The Document Primary Category is the main category hierarchy for classifying documents. However, users can also create user-defined hierarchical catalogs for alternate category assignments.

Documents can belong to more than one alternate category.

Document Lifecycles

Document Lifecycles

You can associate a workflow to a phase. As a document enters a phase, the workflow initiates. The document cannot enter the next phase until the workflow completes successfully.

Oracle Workflow provides workflow templates to help you define specific workflows. Workflows are optional for phases, except phases of type Review or Approval must be associated with an appropriate workflow template. Oracle Product Lifecycle Management provides phases that you can modify or extend to meet your business requirements.

You can associate any lifecycle to a document. A lifecycle is associated to a document category and that lifecycle is available for use with all child categories. Child categories can also optionally associate an additional lifecycle not inherited from the parent category.

You can define change policies for documents by lifecycle phase. Change policies enable changes only during the designated lifecycle phases of a document.

Use a lifecycle to control accessibility to a document based on its lifecycle phase. You can give different users different levels of access to a document within different lifecycle phases.

Document Relationships

Document Relationships

You can associate a document to an item or another document.

Associate a document to an item in the Item Workbench.

You can associate an item revision to a specific document revision or, dynamically, to the latest document revision (a floating relationship). You can view the item-document relationships from either the item pages or the document pages.

Associate a document to another document during document creation or when updating the document details. You can see all related documents from any given document and can access them from the list of associated documents.

Associate documents by a certain revision or reference only the most recent revisions of the associated documents.

When viewing a list of the related items or documents, only those associated items and documents for which you have view permission are viewable.

Setting Up Document Management

Document Management Setup Steps

1.Set up the document repository.

2.Create user-defined attribute groups.
Create the user-defined attribute groups and attributes so that you can associate them to document primary categories. Documents assigned to a particular document primary category or alternate catalog automatically inherit the user-defined attribute groups assigned to the category or alternate catalog.

3.Set up workflow templates.
Lifecycle phases such as Review and Approval depend on Oracle Workflow to route documents through the review and approval process. Create the workflows used in the lifecycle phases with workflow templates, similarly to how you create workflows in Change Management.

4.Define lifecycle phases.
A document lifecycle consists of one or more phases. Before you can define a lifecycle, you must define the lifecycle phases.

5.Create lifecycles.
When creating a lifecycle, you can set up lifecycle phase properties, such as alternate workflows and promotion and demotion rules, just as you do in Change Management.

6.Create primary categories and category hierarchies.
You can classify your documents by defining a hierarchy of primary categories. Document primary categories behave similarly to item catalog categories.

7.Add user-defined attribute groups to document primary categories.

8.Assign primary category people and document people roles to users.
To enable users to create documents in a Primary Category, assign users to a primary category people role.

9.Associate lifecycles to document primary categories.
Documents have lifecycles, similarly to items and change objects. Lifecycles associated to a document primary category default to the documents assigned to the primary category.

10.Assign change policies to the lifecycle phases of each lifecycle assigned to a primary category.
Change policies control what changes users can make to the document during various various lifecycle phases.

11.Assign access policies to the lifecycle phases of each lifecycle assigned to a primary category.

12.Access policies enable you to further restrict a user's access to a document by lifecycle phase. Define the default numbering, naming, revision generation, and default folders for each primary category.

13.Assign Oracle XML Publisher templates for each primary category.

14.Create display formats for each primary category.

15.Specify search criteria for each primary category.

For more information, seeDocument Management and Collaboration in Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User’s Guide.

Creating User-Defined Attribute Groups

Setting Up Workflow Templates

For more information, seeDocument Management and Collaboration in Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User’s Guide.

Defining Lifecycle Phases

Document Lifecycles

•Document lifecycles consist of one or more lifecycle phases.

•A lifecycle phase can have one or more workflows associated with it, although phases of type Review or Approval require an associated workflow.

•Associated workflows initiate once a document enters the lifecycle phase.

Document Lifecycle Phases

Document lifecycle phases have these attributes:

•You cannot promote a document to the next lifecycle phase until the workflow associated with the phase completes successfully.

•The phase type determines the order in which the phases appear in the lifecycle.

•Available phase types, in the order in which they appear in a lifecycle, include: Create, Review, Approval, Release, and Archive.

•Depending on your business process, you can define different phases using some or all of the above phase types.

For more information, seeDocument Management and Collaboration in Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User’s Guide

Creating Lifecycles

Creating Lifecycles

Lifecycles can include multiple phases of the same phase type.

You can also include one or more workflows for a phase, defining one of them as the default workflow for the phase.

Define promotion and demotion rules for each phase while updating the workflows within the lifecycle, too.

After creating the lifecycle phases, you can create the lifecycle using those phases.

As you add a phase to a lifecycle, you can associate a workflow to the phase.

Note. You must associate a workflow to the Review or Approval phase type.

Creating Primary Categories and Category Hierarchies

Document Primary Categories

You can classify your files by defining a hierarchy of primary categories. You can also set up alternate categories for documents.

Alternate categories enable you to organize the same documents differently, giving you different views of those

documents for different purposes.

All categories are created as primary categories; when you create a document, you assign one primary category and, optionally, multiple alternate categories.

Alternate Category Example

Your company produces laser jet printers and other computer accessories.

Create a product specification document for a new laser jet printer and assign it to the primary category Functional Specification.

Create another category named Laser Jet Printer and assign your product specification document to this as an alternate category.

Now, a user browsing for your product specification document can locate it in both the Functional Specification and Laser Jet Printer categories.

Associating Attribute Groups to Primary Categories

Associating Attribute Groups to Primary Categories

All child categories also inherit the attribute groups, displaying them as read-only.

Assigning People to a Document Primary Category

Assigning People to a Document Primary Category

The system contains a pre-seeded role named Primary Category User, which you can assign to a person or a group.

Associating Lifecycles with a Document Primary Category

Associating Lifecycles with a Document Primary Category

A document primary category must associate with at least one valid lifecycle, which contains at least one phase, before users can create documents using that document primary category.

Child categories inherit lifecycles associated with their parent primary category.

Assign Change Policies to Lifecycle Phases

Assign Change Policies to Lifecycle Phases

Choose whether or not the following changes are allowed:

•Promote to Next Phase

•Document Revision

•Document Publish

•Demote to Previous Phase

•Attributes and Content

Child categories inherit the change policies defined for their parent category.

You cannot modify change policies at the child category level.

Assigning Access Policies to the Lifecycle Phases

Assigning Access Policies to Lifecycle Phases

Define access policies for each lifecycle phase within each lifecycle associated to a document primary category.

Access policy options include No Access, Access Based On Role, and View Only.

Defining Default Primary Attributes for a Primary Category

Assigning Oracle XML Publisher Templates to a Document Primary Category

For information on defining templates, see: Defining Report Templates Using XML Publisher, Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Implementation Guide.

Creating Display Formats for Primary Categories

Specifying Search Criteria for Primary Categories

Creating Documents

Creating Documents

When creating an original document, you must specify a document primary category.

The document automatically inherits the characteristics of the document primary catalog, but you specify the document metadata and content.

Copying a document copies all attributes, attached files, document associations, and people who have roles assigned to the document.

The newly copied document has the same document category affiliation as the original document.

When copying a document, users can either create new references to the files contained in the original document or create a new copy of the files in a new location within the file management.

Managing Document Lifecycles

Managing Document Lifecycles

You can change the following within the document lifecycle:

• Workflows

• Change policies

• Access policies

Using Document Versions and Revisions

Document Versions and Revisions

Metadata includes the document's primary attributes and user-defined attributes and the content includes associated files. The system tracks all changes to documents by versioning every document whenever a new document is created or when an existing document is checked in. Document revisions provide another level of detail about the changes made to a document. When you choose to revise a document, the system provides an audit trail of all changes to a document by tracking:

•Who created each revision

•The revision creation date and time

•Revision comments

You can view a list of revisions. Revisions are stored in reverse chronological order.

Locking Document Revisions

Reviewing and Approving Documents

Reviewing and Approving Documents

The workflows used in the document review and approval process are based on the change management workflows and leverage Oracle Workflow functionality.

You can define workflows as templates, then use the templates in multiple approvals and review, similarly to change management.

You can define document approval workflow steps sequentially or in parallel. Derive approvers from a user's role on the document or by adding the user directly to the workflow step.

Users cannot update a document while it is going through an approval process.

The status of the document depends on the lifecycle phase of the document and the status of the associated workflow process.

The document's status changes to Approved only after the final approval workflow process completes successfully.

Associating Documents with Items and Other Documents

Associating Documents with Items and Other Documents

When making the association, you can choose from several types of associations:

•References

•Affects

•Is Referenced By

•Is Affected By

•Is Supported By

•Is Described By

Associate an item or document revision to a specific document revision or always to the latest document revision. Always associating to the latest document revision is commonly referred to as a floating relationship because the association always points to the most recent revision of the document.

If you make an association between specific revisions, then the association does not change, even if the associated document is revised. When viewing associated items or documents, only those associated items and documents for which a user has view permission are presented to the user. The exact privileges depend on the user's role for that document or item.

Publishing Documents

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