IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

Document lifecycles

Document lifecycles are states that the document goes through during its life. Document lifecycles consist of two objects:

Lifecycle action

A lifecycle action is a user-implemented Java™ class. Its methods handle the following state changes:

Lifecycle promote and demote actions are unrelated to document versioning promote and demote actions. The reset state change is available only if the Reset option on the document lifecycle policy is selected.

Document lifecycles are always sequential. For example, the lifecycle status of a loan application occurs in the following order:
  1. Application
  2. Approval
  3. Funding
  4. Servicing
  5. Closed

The states reflect the order that 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). After 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, you can allow the application to be demoted if the customer is unhappy with the finance rate. You can demote the loan document to the Application state to gain approval under different terms. After the application has reached its final state (Closed), you can prevent it from being demoted by disabling the Demotion allowed option for the Closed state.

A lifecycle action implements the Content Engine API DocumentLifecycleActionHandler interface. For more information, see Lifecycle Actions. To view a sample source code implementation of DocumentLifecycleActionHandler, see LCAHandler.java in this Content Engine directory: drive:/Program Files/Filenet/Content Engine/samples. LCAHandler writes the name of the method that is invoked when the lifecycle state of a document changes.

Lifecycle policy assignment

You can assign a lifecycle policy to individual documents or to the Document class or its subclasses. When you create a document that uses a class with an associated lifecycle policy, the document uses it as a default lifecycle policy. You can override the default policy by choosing another lifecycle policy when you create the document or edit its properties.

Assigning the Document class or subclass to a document automatically attaches the lifecycle policy. For example, add a loan application to the object store as a document and assign it to the document class that includes a lifecycle policy for loan applications.

When you assign a lifecycle policy to a new document, a Lifecycle Policy tab is added to the document property sheet. Use the options on this tab 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. When you place the lifecycle policy onto a production server, custom Content Engine API programs make state changes to the documents to which the lifecycle policy is assigned.

Permissions on lifecycle policies

A user must have the Link a document access right on the lifecycle policy to check out documents associated with the lifecycle policy. If the user does not have this access right to the lifecycle policy, an InsufficientPermissionsException occurs 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.

Lifecycle policies or workflow definitions

Lifecycle policies are best suited for defining simple lifecycle processes. For more complex document lifecycle processes, use the workflow applications to launch workflows that use workflow definitions.



Last updated: October 2015
lc_concepts_lifecycles.htm

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