Annotations

The Annotation object allows users to link additional information to documents and other objects such as Workflow Definition, Custom, and Folder. Examples of annotation formats are text, audio, video, image, highlight, and sticky note. An annotation's content does not necessarily have to be the same format as its parent document, and can be published separately. Document annotations are uniquely associated with a single document version; they are not versioned or carried forward when their document version is updated and a new version created.

The Annotation class supports the full range of functionality associated with the Content Engine content model. For example, you can subclass the default Annotation class to specify particular storage options and add properties.

You can modify and delete annotations independently of their annotated object. However, you cannot create versions of an annotation separately from the object with which it is associated. By design the annotation is deleted whenever its associated parent object is deleted. Annotations receive their default security from both the annotation's class and the parent object. You can apply security to annotations that is different from the security applied to the parent.

Applications that use annotations typically add properties for the particular kind of annotation being implemented. For example, a property could be added indicating the presence and location of the annotation. A voice annotation would need a BLOb property in order to contain the .wav or other type of sound file.

You can create an annotation on a document, custom object, or folder by running the Create New Annotation wizard, available from the property sheets and pop-up menus of these objects.

You can add and delete annotations from a document version even if that version has been frozen.

CFS-IS Annotations

When annotations are exported from Image Services, they are classified as ISAnnotations and stored in the storage area specified by the storage policy assigned to the ISAnnotation subclass. Within Content Engine you can modify the storage policy for ISAnnotations as follows:

  1. Right click Object store -> Other Classes -> Annotation -> ISAnnotation
  2. Select properties on the General tab.
  3. Select the storage policy.

The annotations from each of the fixed content devices (FCDs) are exported to a single storage area as specified by the storage policy.

If you have multiple IS fixed content devices in an object store and you want to store the annotations in a storage area specific to the FCD, you can create a subclass of ISAnnotation for each fixed content device and have each subclass point to a different storage policy:

  1. Create a subclass of ISAnnotation.
  2. Give it a symbolic name that contains the name of the IS FCD. For example, if your IS fixed content device is called "IMwa_fcd", then name your ISAnnotation subclass "ISAnno_IMwa_fcd".

NOTE  ISAnnotation subclass names should be unique and are case-sensitive.

The following is an example using two IS FCDs:

FCD Names:
IM_fcd1
IM_fcd2

Storage Policies:
IM_fcd1SA_sp—storage policy that points to the storage area that references IM_fcd1
IM_fcd2SA_sp—storage policy that points to the storage area that references IM_fcd2

ISAnnotation—uses default database storage policy
ISAnno_IM_fcd1—subclass of ISAnnotation with storage policy set to IM_fcd1SA_sp
ISAnno_IM_fcd2—subclass of ISAnnotation with storage policy set to IM_fcd2SA_sp

For more information on CFS-IS annotations, see Annotations.

NOTE  Annotate and view graphic files using the Image Viewer applet in Workplace XT or WorkPlace. Although you can annotate graphic files by using Enterprise Manager, the annotations do not appear in the Image Viewer unless they are expressed with the XML schema used by Image Viewer. Annotations that you add with Image Viewer can be viewed in Enterprise Manager, but they are displayed in the Image Viewer XML format. For more information, see Work with Image Viewer.