IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

Document content

The content of a document object is the file that the user checked into the object store.

Document objects contain many properties: the date it was created, who created it, when it was checked out, and how large it is. These properties, and many more, are properties of a document object. One of the properties of the document object is its content element property, a property that either captures the file from its network location into the object store or refers to the file that stays outside the object store.

What happens to content files during check-out and check-in

The following scenario describes using a client application like IBM® Content Navigator to check in and check out documents, including the use of typical desktop applications to edit the documents. Content can be automatically added and changed by using such means as workflow processes and automated scripts that can start check-in and check-out activities in response to specified events.

  1. On check-out, the application prompts you to specify where you want to put the file comprising the content belonging to the document being checked out. This location can be on your own computer or anywhere else on the available network.
  2. The application places copies of the content files in the location indicated by the user. The existing content files are not changed in any way.
  3. If you indicate that you want to edit the file at that time, Content Platform Engine tries to locate the application associated with the MIME type of the file. If it finds an appropriate application, it loads the file and makes it available for edit.
  4. You can save your edits to disk many times during the editing sessions.
  5. After working on the file, you check in the document. During check-in, you indicate where the content files are located and how many there are. These files become the content of the new version.

Specific applications can impose restrictions on what the document content consists of. For example, an application can disallow file name changes or allow only one content element. Depending on the application, you can add any content elements to the check-in, despite what the content elements were when you checked out the document.

After a document version is checked in, however, you can no longer change the content of that version. You can change the content of a document object only when its versioning state is reservation. Content elements can be changed, added to, or removed only while the document is checked out, during which time it is flagged as a reservation. Content Platform Engine provides no versioning or editing actions that would allow you to change the content of versions that are in process, released, or superseded.

Storing content

There are two ways to store content:

Content security

Content element objects persist dependently, meaning that they cannot be directly saved or secured. They are added to either a document or annotation object, and their existence in the object store as well as their security depends on these objects.

No content

Document objects do not have to have content. One reason to create a document object without content might be that the content is not yet available and will be added later.

A document object with no content can also be useful for items that are stored in special locations yet still require version tracking or controlled access. Some examples are various types of physical objects like magnetic tapes, printed technical manuals, printed engineering drawings, and software source code listings. Each time something happens regarding the item that you want to record, you can check out the document object associated with the item, make appropriate changes to the object properties, and check it back in.

Other objects that have content

Content Platform Engine has one other content-bearing object: the non-versionable annotation object. Apart from not being versionable, the content of an annotation object behaves the same as the content of a document.



Last updated: March 2016
df_content_elements.htm

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