Access, retention and audit

This page explains who can see which documents in the Archive, when documents are removed automatically, and what the audit log records. The setup is done by an administrator in the Doc Gen administration. Reading documents is done in the Archive, see Search and download documents.

Folders and access groups

Every document is stored in a folder. Folders are not managed on their own screen — they’re created and edited while setting up an archive under Integration then Digital Archive, see Archive integration.

To reach a folder you already have: open an existing archive (its menu, Edit) or start Add archive, and click Browse next to Target. The Choose folder panel opens.

Click a folder to open it and see the folders inside it. The breadcrumb above the list shows where you are. Click a folder name in the breadcrumb to go back to it, or the house icon at its start to go back to the top. A level with no folders yet shows No subfolders here.

To add a folder:

1. Open Integration then Digital Archive, open or start an archive, and click Browse next to Target.
2. Browse to where the folder should live, then click New folder.
3. Type a Name.
4. Check the access groups that may use the folder, or leave all of them unchecked to leave it open to everyone in the company.
5. Choose a retention policy (see Retention below) — required.
6. Click Create.

To change a folder, click the pencil icon next to it while browsing. To delete one, click the trash icon — this also deletes every subfolder inside it, and any archive still pointing at it starts failing.

The Archive lists only documents whose folder still exists, so after a folder is deleted its documents no longer appear in the results. Do not delete a folder that still holds documents you need.

Access groups are made under Team then Access, see Access groups. The rule is:

• A folder with no access groups checked is open to everyone in the company who can use the Archive.
• A folder with access groups checked can only be used by people who are in all of its groups.

The rule applies when you search, when you download and when you delete. A folder you may not use does not show its documents in the results. An API client acts for the whole company and is not limited by access groups, see Archive API.

Columns

The Metadata section of an archive sets what the results table shows — see Metadata columns. Columns are shared across every DocGen Digital Archive archive, not set per folder.

• To change a column, click Edit next to it and click Save when you are done. You can choose Visible, Searchable and Sortable for every column. The Presentation label and Searchable matter for Search 1 to Search 10: the built-in columns such as Filename and Type keep their labels, and Filename is always searched.

The columns Search 1 to Search 10 are free for the systems that store documents, for example a Smartform, to put details in. Give them labels that make sense in your company, and mark the ones you want Search query to look in as searchable. No column is searchable until you mark it.

Retention

A retention policy removes documents automatically after a set time.

1. An administrator makes a retention policy under Settings then Retention Policies, see Retention policies.
2. While creating or editing a folder, choose the policy in Delete records that are older than. A policy is required; a folder can no longer be saved with nothing chosen. The field opens with the company’s own 1-year policy already picked if it has one.

A document gets the policy of its folder at the moment it is stored. A job then runs once an hour, looks at the documents in all four environments, and permanently deletes the ones that are older than the policy’s lifetime. The age counts from the day the document was stored.

• Changing the policy on a folder does not change documents that are already stored. They keep the policy they got when they were stored.
• A folder created before a policy was required may still have none. It can no longer be saved — even for an unrelated change such as renaming it — until a policy is chosen.
• Deleted documents cannot be brought back.

Audit

The Archive writes to the audit log when:

• a document or a new version of it is stored,
• a document or a version is removed. This includes the newer versions that a rollback removes.

Changes to the folders in the administration are logged too, in the Administration category: a folder is added, a folder is changed, a folder is deleted, and the retention policy of a folder is changed.

You read these entries in the Audit application, see The Audit application. Searching, downloading and the retention cleanup do not write audit entries.

Licence

The Archive needs an Archive licence. Without it, the Archive screen shows Missing License, and the API refuses requests.