Package psdi.app.doclink

The Doclink package includes Mbos related to linked documents.

See: Description

Package psdi.app.doclink Description

The Doclink package includes Mbos related to linked documents. Linked documents are also sometimes referred to as "visual assets," although there is no requirement that they be visual in nature. Any entity with a one-column unique index can be associated with documents. A particular document can be associated with multiple entities. The document is defined on the Docinfo table, and the entities are cross-referenced to it via the Doclinks table.

Package Specification

The main Mbos included in the Doclink package are:
  • Doctypes -- Document types. Two examples of document types are Part Sheets and Mechanical Design Documents.
  • Docinfo -- Identifies a document. A document can be any kind of image, text, or any other file type. The Docinfo mbo specifies the document type, where the document is stored, a brief description, and so forth.
  • Doclinks -- Associates a document with a particular table and column on the database. For example, a picture of item 217214 can be associated with the table ITEM, column ITEMNUM, itemnum value 217214. A document can be associated with more than one table/column. A table/column can be associated with more than one document.

Typically, entries in the Doctypes table, once initially defined, do not often change. These are the main categories to which documents (Docinfo) belong.

However, documents (Docinfo) are continually being defined on the database. The intent of defining documents is to enable the creation of links (Doclinks) that associate particular entities with documents.

Technically speaking, any database table can have its members associated with documents, as long as:

  • the table contains a one-column unique index, and
  • that column does not have locale-specific formatting (i.e. its datatype is string or integer).
For example, EQNUM is a unique index on the Equipment table, therefore Equipment Mbos can have doclinks. The same is true for MRLines, because MRLINEID is unique on that table.

A user would determine which entity (for example, a piece of Equipment) and which document (Docinfo) should be associated. A Doclinks Mbo would be created for each document to be associated with that Equipment. For each link, the appropriate values would be set, and the link saved. (See Doclinks for a description of attributes.)

There is a special case whereby a Docinfo and Doclink can be created simultaneously. A Doclinks Mbo would be created and the non-persistent attribute "addinfo" set to True. This indicates that when the Doclink is saved, a Docinfo will be automatically created and saved as well. Additional non-persistent attributes on the Doclink would be set to the values that will be saved on the Docinfo Mbo.

The supporting Mbos included in the Doclink package are:

  • AppDoctype -- Associates an application with one or more document types. This is used in the UI to restrict the list of available document types. Also see Doctypes, MaxApps.
  • DmsApiSetting -- Defines a document management system.

Relationship diagram

The following diagram shows the relationships between the classes in this package.

Related Documentation


Last updated: 02/04/03

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