Represents the physical storage location where content will be stored. This base, abstract class has three concrete subclasses: DatabaseStorageArea, FileStorageArea, and FixedStorageArea. A FixedStorageArea object is associated with a FixedContentDevice object when it is created.

The concrete classes are customizable. This means that you can add custom properties to them (and to the base class) and create custom subclasses. By customizing the concrete classes, you can add custom criteria for selecting storage areas via a StoragePolicy.


The following tables list the members exposed by IStorageArea.

Public Properties

 NameDescription
Public propertyAllowsContentToBeCachedSpecifies whether the content data in this storage area can be cached (true) or not (false). The default is true.
Public propertyAllowsDeleteIndicates whether content can be deleted from a storage area. The default is true (deletes are allowed). When false, any attempt to delete (or move) content from the storage area will result in an exception.
Public propertyAuditedEventsAn EventSet collection of the Event objects containing the audited events that have occurred for the object.
Public propertyClosureDateSpecifies the date and time when the storage area will close and no longer accept new content.
Public propertyContentElementCountThe number of content elements stored in this storage area.

For a ContentCacheArea object, this property returns null when the server cannot physically access the cache storage area and the CacheStatus property setting is Closed. Also, this statistic, along with the statistic concerning content element size (the ContentElementKBytes property), can become inaccurate as the result of power failures; properly timed failures will prevent servers from keeping the statistics in perfect sync with content creations and deletions. A cache sweep updates the statistics every 60 days to keep them reasonably accurate.

Public propertyContentElementKBytesThe size of all content elements stored in this storage area (in kilobytes).

For the ContentCacheArea object, this property returns null when the server cannot physically access the cache storage area and the CacheStatus property setting is Closed. Also, this statistic can become inaccurate; for more information, see the ContentElementCount property.

Public propertyContentElementsCreatedTotal content elements created in a Storage Area.
Public propertyContentElementsDeletedThe number of content elements deleted from this storage area.

For the ContentCacheArea object, a cache clearing operation initializes this number to 0 (zero). For information on cache clearing, see the CacheStatus property. For information on the potential inaccuracy of this number, see the IContentCacheArea interface.

Public propertyCreatorIndicates the name of the user assigned as the creator of the object.

Settability of this property is read-only for most users. For users who have been granted privileged write access (AccessRight.PRIVILEGED_WRITE), this property is settable only on create. After initial object creation, this property is read-only for all users.

Public propertyDateCreatedIndicates the date and time the object was created. The Content Engine stores dates and times using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Settability of this property is read-only for most users. For users who have been granted privileged write access (AccessRight.PRIVILEGED_WRITE), this property is settable only on create. After initial object creation, this property is read-only for all users.

Public propertyDateLastModifiedIndicates the date and time the object was last modified. The Content Engine stores dates and times using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Settability of this property is read-only for most users. For users who have been granted privileged write access (AccessRight.PRIVILEGED_WRITE), this property is read/write. (The read/write access for those users can only change if a change is made to the ACL on the object store that controls who has privileged write access to objects in that object store).

Public propertyDescriptiveTextUser-readable text that describes an object.

The text is not locale-specific to the retrieving user except for the following classes:

  • ClassDescription
  • PropertyDescription*
  • ClassDefinition
  • PropertyTemplate*
  • PropertyDefinition*
Public propertyDisplayNameThe user-readable, provider-specific name of an object. This property is usually the designated Name property of the object's class.
Public propertyIdA representation of the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), a unique 128-bit number, that is assigned to this Content Engine object when the object is created. When converted to a string, the Id property is typically depicted as 32 hexadecimal characters enclosed by brackets in the following format: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}. For example, {3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A0C-0305E82C3301}.

For IUser and IGroup classes, the Id property takes the value of the Security Identifier (SID) rather than the 128-bit GUID. The string representation of the SID is in this example format: S-1-5-21-1559522492-2815155736-3711640725-55269. When Active Directory is used as the directory service for IBM FileNet P8, IUser.Id and IGroup.Id always return the current SID for the principal, even if this user or group has only historical SIDs populating the Active Directory server.

For a given property representation, the Id property has the following characteristics:

  • PropertyDescription.Id is equal to PropertyTemplate.Id, which is equal to PropertyDefinition.PrimaryId.
  • PropertyDefinition.Id is not equal to PropertyDefinition.PrimaryId.
  • PropertyDefinition.Id is not equal to PropertyDescription.Id.

For a newly created document object, you can override the Id property of its associated VersionSeries object before you save or check in the document for the first time.

Public propertyLastModifierIndicates the name of the user who last modified the object.

Settability of this property is read-only for most users. For users who have been granted privileged write access (AccessRight.PRIVILEGED_WRITE), this property is read/write. (The read/write access for those users could only change if a change is made to the ACL on the object store that controls who has privileged write access to objects in that object store).

Public propertyMaximumContentElementsThe maximum number of content elements designated for this storage area.

For a content cache area, new content can be added to a cache only if the number-of-content-elements statistic (the ContentElementCount property) is less than this maximum. (This maximum might be slightly exceeded, as statistics are managed on a delayed basis, and multiple servers can be adding content.) The value for this property must be greater than or equal to 1.

Public propertyMaximumSizeKBytesThe maximum size of all content elements designated for this storage area (in kilobytes).

For a content cache area, new content can be added to a cache only if the size-of-content-elements statistic (the ContentElementKBytes property) is less than this maximum. (This maximum might be slightly exceeded, as statistics are managed on a delayed basis, and multiple servers can be adding content.) The value for this property must be greater than or equal to 1.

Public propertyPermissionsManages the discretionary permissions assigned to the object.
Public propertyResourceStatusContains a ResourceStatus object, which specifies the availability status of a storage or index area. The status value can be any one of the following:
  • OPEN
  • CLOSED
  • UNAVAILABLE
  • STANDBY

Note: When the ResourceStatus value is UNAVAILABLE, the indexer creates a new collection and completes any pending index requests using the new collection.

The Content Engine supports the following automatic transitions between status values:

  • Open to Full: Applied when adding a content element will exceed an area's maximum size or count.
  • Open to Closed: Applied when adding a content element to an area whose closure date is in the past.
  • Open to Unavailable: Applied when adding a content element to an area whose unavailable date is in the past.
  • Standby to Open: Applied when adding a content element whose storage policy contains no open areas, but does contain a standby area.

An area's status can also be changed manually as allowed by the following rules:

  • Changes to closed, full, unavailable, or standby are allowed (size, count, or closure date limits do not restrict the change).
  • Changes to open are allowed only when the size and count is below the specified limits, and the closure date is in the future (or null). This includes changes from open to open, which allow you to change limit values for an open area.
Public propertyRetentionPeriodSpecifies when a content element will expire, so that it can be deleted from a storage area object. A positive value represents the number of minutes the content element must be retained. Other possible values, as enumerated in the RetentionPeriod class, are:
  • 0: No minimum retention period (content may be deleted at any time).
  • -1: Infinite retention period (content can never be deleted).
  • -2: Same retention period as the associated fixed content device. (For FixedStorageArea objects only.)
  • -101: Reserved for internal use only.
  • -102: Retention period is not supported. This is the default if no RetentionPeriod value has been defined for the storage area.
Public propertySiteIdentifies the site associated with a given object. A site represents a geographical area in the FileNet P8 domain. If you do not specify a site when creating the associated object, the value of that object's Site property defaults to the value of Domain.DefaultSite.
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Public Methods

 NameDescription
Public methodValidateContentOverloaded. Performs a batch of content validation requests, where the characteristics of the validation process include:
  • Validates documents and annotations.
  • Cannot validate content in a database storage area.
  • Only verifies that federated content exists (doesn't verify its size).
  • Requires VIEW_CONTENT access to the Document or Annotation object.

There isn't a limit on the number of content validation requests that can be performed in a single operation. However, all validations must complete within the time limit of a single request to the server. Therefore, if too many validations are requested, a request timeout exception is likely to occur.

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See Also