Internal Documents

Storage / archiving sequence

For internal documents, all metadata (describing information for a document) relevant to storage / archiving usually exists directly in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. More often than not, internal documents can therefore be automatically passed to the archive without further subsequent processing. The standard route of an internal document into the archive begins with posting or printing. Moreover, EASY for Dynamics 365 BC provides the capability for creating a PDF file from a document and entering it in the ECM queue.

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

Preparing data files for archiving

EASY for Dynamics 365 BC contains two concepts for preparing files/documents for archiving. Which of the concepts is used depends on which function call has been implemented.

Concept 1
The document is "printed" twice. The first time the document is printed by the user on the printer (or sent as e-mail) where an archiving job is created in the ECM queue. In the next processing run of the ECM queue the document is created in PDF file format and saved in the repository. This procedure uncouples the client from the server, so the server, for example, can archive asynchronous.

Concept 2
A document is created in PDF format (e.g. for transmission via e-mail). That PDF file is also immediately saved in the BLOB field of an ECM queue entry. In the next processing run of the ECM queue the document of the archiving job will not be re-created but the already created PDF file, stored in the archiving job, will be transferred tot eh ECM storage. This scenario is most of all used with external files stored via drag and drop, or when archiving volatile documents.

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:

  • Writing the document's metadata in a temporary table

  • Creating a PDF version of the document, and storing the file in a temporary storage location.

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)

  • Feedback of the document ID and additional, archive-side metadata 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.