Enterprise Manager enables you to set up document lifecycles, or states the document goes through during its life. Lifecycles consist of two Content Engine objects:
This topic includes the following sections:
You can define lifecycle actions using JAVA, exposing well-known methods (entry points) for known state changes. State changes occur when the following actions occur:
Content Engine lifecycles are always sequential. For example, a loan application's lifecycle states occur in the following order:
The states reflect the order an actual loan application moves from one process to another. As the document moves from one state to the next, the lifecycle state is updated. For example, upon approval, the document is promoted to its second state (Approval). Once the bank finances the loan, the document is promoted again to its Funding state.
As you configure each state, define whether the document can be demoted from that state.
For example, even after an application is approved, demotion is allowed if the customer is unhappy with the bank's finance rate. You can demote the loan document to the Application state to gain approval under different terms. On the other hand, after the application has reached its final state (Closed), you could prevent it from being demoted by disabling the Demotion allowed option for the Closed state.
Document types in the Content Engine have default lifecycle policies. You can assign a default lifecycle policy to a document class or subclass. When you create a document using a class with an associated lifecycle policy, the document uses it as a default lifecycle policy. Override this selection by choosing another lifecycle policy when you create the document or edit its properties.
Assigning a document class or subclass to a document automatically attaches the lifecycle policy. For example, add a loan application to the Content Engine as a document and assign it to a document class that includes a lifecycle policy for loan applications.
When you assign a lifecycle policy to a new document, the Content Engine adds a Lifecycle Policy tab to the document's property sheet. This tab provides command buttons enabling you to promote, demote, reset, or place the document in an exception state. Use this method to change a document state manually when you design and test your lifecycle policies.
Developers use the Content Engine API calls to develop custom programs that change a document's state automatically when changes are made to the document through another application in the business enterprise.
Users with "Link a document" access rights to the Lifecycle Policy can check out documents with an associated Lifecycle Policy. (For example, if the #AUTHENTICATED-USERS group has this permission.)
If the user does not have the "Link a document" access right, an InsufficientPermissionsException is thrown when checking out the document, even if the user has Full Control permissions to the document and is the Owner.
See Document lifecycle policies and lifecycle actions access rights for more information.
You can assign lifecycle policies to documents with simple processes to track their progress using the Content Engine. For documents requiring more complex lifecycle processes, use the FileNet Process Engine to launch workflows using workflow definitions, rather than applying a lifecycle policy to those documents.
Since the workflow definition class automatically inherits the properties given to all document classes and their subclasses, assign a lifecycle policy to a workflow definition.
For details on designing and implementing workflow definitions, see Process Engine Administration help.