Internal Documents

Storage / archiving sequence

The document definition is used to create an entry in the ECM queue. There are various concepts for this. Internal documents can therefore usually be automatically transferred to the archive without further post-processing. The standard path of an internal document into the archive starts with posting or printing.


Concept 1 (via BC-Event)

EASY for Dynamics 365 BC also provides the option to create a PDF file from a document and enter it into the ECM queue.

By default, archiving of an internal document is initiated directly when the document is posted.

When posting sales and purchasing documents, an event is triggered at the end of the posting to enter the document to be archived into the ECM queue.

Furthermore, in Dynamics Business Central there is the functionality "Archive document" How to archive documents - Business Central | Microsoft Learn. After the functionality "Archive document" has been executed, the document to be archived is entered into the ECM queue with an event.

The Dynamics Business Central "Archive Document" functionality and the storage / archiving of Dynamics Business Central documents are two different processes with the same term "Archive Document".

The automatic archiving of sales orders and purchase orders, quotations, blanket purchase orders and sales complaints must be set up.

Concept 2 (Interception of the print stream)

When printing a document, the Business Central internal print stream is intercepted with an event and the contained document is entered into the ECM queue.

Concept 2 is only supported since Business Central version 20.0 and EASY for Dynamics 365 BC version 20.2.230203.0.

Concept 3

A document is created as a PDF file (e.g. for sending by e-mail). This PDF file is stored in the BLOB field of an ECM queue entry. During the next processing of the ECM queue, the document of the archiving job is not created again, but the PDF file already created and stored in the archiving job is transferred to the ECM storage.
This scenario is mainly used for external files that are stored via drag and drop or when executing the "Save and Send" action.

Furthermore, the "SaveFileRequest" function of the ECM Api can be used for project requests.

Concept 4 (project adjustment)

The document is "printed" twice. The first time the user prints the document on the printer (or sends it as an e-mail), an archiving job is created in the ECM queue. The next time the ECM queue is processed, the archiving job document is created as a PDF file and stored in the repository. This procedure decouples the client from the server so that, for example, the server can archive with a time delay.

This archiving job (Init ECM) must be assigned in the report or to a function.

With the option "Add report to ECM queue" in the ECM document definitions, concepts 1, 2 and 4 can be deactivated.



ECM queue

Regardless of the selected approach, an entry is created in the ECM queue when posting or printing an internal document. From the queue, the document is prepared immediately or asynchronously for storage / archiving. In doing so, the following functions are executed:

  • preparing and writing the document's metadata into a table

  • creating a PDF version of the document if the BLOB field in the queue is not yet filled. (Concept 1)

After preparing archiving, the actual storage / archiving operation is in turn performed immediately or asynchronously. This process includes:

  • Transfer of metadata and the PDF file to the archive (EASY Archive / Microsoft SharePoint)

  • The feedback of the document reference from the archive to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Document Entry

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, a document entry (document link) is generated from the feedback data sent during the archiving process. This permanently documents storage / archiving of the document and is available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for retrieval purposes. The document entry contains all relevant data such as document ID, process number, metadata, and the reference to the document in EASY Archive / Microsoft SharePoint. So, the document is fully searchable/retrievable in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central via its document entry, e.g. via Navigate. Access to the ECM back-end is only required for displaying the archived PDF file. Search/retrieval capabilities for archived documents in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central therefore equal the search/retrieval capabilities of EASY Archive / Microsoft SharePoint including the client applications provided for these systems.

Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central allows generating process or file views based on the metadata of the archived documents stored in the document entries. For example, all documents referring to a process, a customer, a project, etc. can be displayed together.

Time control of storage / archiving

The greater the document volume in an organization, the more sense it makes to use asynchronous storage / archiving. Because creation of a PDF file and storage / archiving affect performance of the system, the capability to detach these processes from day-to-day business as much as possible and run them at night in a batch process is available. EASY for Dynamics 365 BC provides various capabilities for time control of storage / archiving.