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Main Title: iDempiere Document Management System (DMS) Automation Plugin
H1 Title: The iDempiere Document Management System
H2 Title: The Plugin for iDempiere DMS Automation
URL: http://logilite.com/idempiere-document-management-system-automation-plugin
Snippet SEO Title: iDempiere Document Management System (DMS) Automation Plugin
Slug (for URL): idempiere-document-management-system-automation-plugin
Meta Description: This blog is related to DMS, Document Management System, iDempiere Document Management System, iDempiere DMS, DMS Features, DMS Advantages and DMS Function.
Focus Keyword: iDempiere Document Management System
Meta Keyword: DMS, Document Management System, iDempiere Document Management System, iDempiere DMS, DMS Features, Document Management System Features, DMS Advantages, Document Management System Advantages
Sub-Title: The Plugin for iDempiere Document Management System Automation
The iDempiere Document Management System
An Overview: The Plugin for iDempiere 'DMS Automation'
Generally speaking, Document Management System (abbreviated as DMS) is a self-explanatory term. In simple words, it's a system that helps in managing the documents. The primary question is why DMS; though the documents can be managed manually; as used to happen traditionally in the past? Though there are multiple reasons responsible behind the purpose of DMS, the primary reason is convenience. When the tasks are simplified or automated, the process of the organization becomes smooth and convenient. The amount of complexity during the work process and the overall cost; both gets reduced, compared to manual implementation of same tasks. This is all generic information related to Document Management System (DMS).
Now let's get into further depth on understanding the importance of using the DMS module within iDempiere (an Open-Source ERP). The current situation for document management in iDempiere is limited to uploading documents - That's it! What if your organization wants to filter a decade old document for some important business reasons; out of numerous documents available in various departments; throughout the organization? Similarly, what if all the documents stored on all your systems; had no naming or identification feature to identify a particular document; out of those numerous documents? These are just two examples related to advantages of iDempiere DMS. There are many more sound and genuine reasons responsible for necessity of iDempiere Document Management System. That's where Logilite DMS module comes into existence for all the organizations, which uses iDempiere ERP for their company operations.
The 'Most Essential Components' of Logilite iDempiere DMS
1. Metadata: The details pertaining to a particular document is known as 'Administrative Metadata'. Metadata are categorized into several types such as administrative metadata, descriptive metadata, structural metadata, reference metadata, etc. However, we will NOT go off-topic; thus, limiting the information related to metadata of documents uploaded on iDempiere. Not to be confused, when we talk of the term 'administrative metadata', means it's about the metadata of document. Examples: file name of document, file type of the document, date and time when document was created/uploaded on iDempiere, privileges related to the document and similar other technical information related to the document. Logilite iDempiere Document Management System is capable of storing sufficient metadata related to your documents.
2. Storage: Obviously like every other data stored on some or the other media (such as local HDD, cloud storage systems, local or remote database servers); similarly, the document and all its metadata are also stored somewhere on iDempiere. The role of storage cannot be ignored in the document management system, because the storage of documents consumes large amount of space compared to text data. When we talk of storing the document and its metadata; both are stored in different manner. The metadata of a document gets converted to a record on iDempiere and is stored in the form of records on iDempiere. Whereas the document can be stored either on the same machine where iDempiere is installed or can be stored on third party storage service provider (such as Google Drive, FTP, Amazon WorkDocs, etc). Logilite iDempiere DMS can be extended for third party storage.
3. Indexing and Retrieval: In seconds, Google web search retrieves the required information according to your requirement. Now, imagine the size of global data stored by Google, how that data is indexed, and the accurate retrieval methodology used. According to a user's perception, it all looks easy when you search over Google; but according to a developer's perception, indexing and retrieval on 'Big Data' is a challenging task. Example: Organizations like Microsoft or Oracle may have developed millions of pages of documents throughout their journey since company formation. Indexing so many documents needs a unique identifier (UID) for identifying each document. Retrieving document from storage needs appropriate algorithms, because UID cannot be memorized easily by humans. That's where iDempiere Document Management System plays a vital role.
4. Versioning: When any document requires 'on-the-go' changes and/or updates frequently, the versioning feature is what helps in referring a previous copy of the same document. If you want to continue a task from its previous point or from a particular point, or if you want to refer a previous copy of a particular document; then you cannot do it without the versioning feature. In simple words, it's the history of documents which gets logged automatically with date and time. One of the fundamental aspects of versioning is to compare, two or more versions of same document for analysis purpose. It's also important when two or more users have access privileges to a single document, as it helps to monitor the changes. To avoid the confusion, please note: 'version control' or 'revision control' are the alternative technical terms used interchangeably instead of versioning.
5. Collaboration: Let's understand the role of collaboration in iDempiere Document Management System (DMS). Suppose, 10 different employees have worked on a particular document in a period of 2 years. Each employee who worked on the document belonged to a different department, and each employee had different types of document access privileges. This is known as collaboration of multiple users on a single document, each having a different responsibility and separate task. Collaboration in DMS is helpful, when your organization wants only authorized personnel to work on a particular document; due to confidentiality or privacy reasons. The collaboration feature is beneficial in comprehensive tasks; where multiple user addition is mandatory. The contribution of every individual user is marked and recorded for future reference.
6. Searching: Though technically skilled users are mostly aware about the difference between retrieval and searching; many users often get confused or use both the terms interchangeably. When we use the term 'search data' means indirectly you are 'retrieving data'. However, the major difference is about narrowing down the retrieval; in order to filter the data, which is useful and related to your requirements. The point is that, iDempiere Document Management System developed by Logilite does both the tasks efficiently. Logilite iDempiere DMS provides two types of search functionalities. First one is the basic search text box with no filtering options, whereas the other one is the advanced search functionality with multiple filtering options. With the help of these searching functionalities, the processing time for data retrieval gets reduced.
Unique iDempiere Document Management System Features
1. MIME Type: Earlier known as MIME Type, now the name has been changed to 'Media Type'. It's a two-part identifier for file contents and file formats, which are transmitted over the internet. The format is 'Type' followed by 'Slash (/)' again followed by 'Subtype' (i.e. Type/Subtype). This DMS feature is meant for specifying the types of document files and its related application, so that system can identify the type of file and its related document viewer on iDempiere. The DMS decides based on the extension of mime type, as to which viewer needs to be loaded. If the viewer for a particular mime type extension is NOT available on iDempiere, then you will be prompted with an option to download and save the file. Another purpose of mime type is to manage the icons of documents uploaded on iDempiere. Generally, iDempiere Document Management System displays thumbnails alongside the document. However, if the thumbnails are not available; then the icons will be used to display the documents.
2. Content Type: The details related to a particular document is technically known as metadata (see 'Metadata' in 'Most Essential Components' section above). 'Attribute' is a technical name provided in iDempiere for 'Metadata'. While creating a new record using 'DMS Content Type' window on iDempiere, the 'Attribute Set' field is used to attach the metadata with that record. Mandatory: Before attaching the metadata (i.e. attribute set) with the 'DMS Content Type' record on iDempiere, you should have some 'Attribute' and 'Attribute set' records already created; using the 'Attribute' and 'Attribute Set' windows respectively, on iDempiere. These attributes are then attached to a 'DMS Content Type' record. This means, the 'DMS Content Type' record contains the metadata attached to it. When you upload a document to iDempiere, the records of 'DMS Content Type' will be displayed in the form of an option. When you upload a document to iDempiere, you will see that option under the 'DMS Content Type' drop down list.
3. Association: iDempiere Document Management System supports associating a document to another document. Logilite iDempiere DMS also supports associating a document with a record on iDempiere. Now these are two different things. For Example: 'Document to Document Association' is useful when an old/expired contract document has to be associated with a new/renewal contract document. 'Document to Record Association' is useful when a document of some other department (sales or marketing) in a company, needs to be associated with an iDempiere record of some other department (accounts or finance).
4. Association Type: Association type is a feature that helps your organization to filter out of different types of already created associations. It helps in filtering out the concerned association, regardless of whether they are 'document to document associations' or 'document to record associations'. The benefit of this feature is that, it's helpful when the number of your 'document to document associations' or 'document to record associations' increases at large. It's convenient to search, which documents are associated to what other documents, and what documents are associated to which iDempiere records. The basic and advanced search helps in finding the documents, but NOT the 'associations of documents' with other documents or records. This feature makes the iDempiere Document Management System different; as far as it concerns to complex searching functionality.
5. Storage Provider: Currently, the Logilite iDempiere Document Management System contains a default storage provider (see 'Storage' in 'Most Essential Components' section above). This is the media where your DMS documents will be stored. However, it's extendable/customizable to integrate third party storage services provider or your own storage facilities. Once integrated with your own storage provider, you may have benefit of further security for your documents. Depending on where and how secure storage your company opts for, accordingly your documents remain safe and secure. iDempiere provides its own default storage provider to upload and archive documents, but it's NOT scalable. On the other hand, the methodology used to save documents using 'Logilite iDempiere DMS Storage Provider' is completely different. It has convenient document storage options, providing you with an option to extend your storage on a further wider platform; such as Google Drive or Amazon WorkDocs.
6. Content Manager: Almost everyone is aware about the answer to 'Where to Store Documents'. But there's one more factor which cannot be ignored, and that's 'How to Store Documents'. It's the content manager, which is responsible for the way, a document needs to be stored over the DMS storage media. The content manager saves the document on DMS storage media in a manner, which is convenient for you to search. For Example: Suppose your organization has 10000 business related documents saved in a single folder, and you need one important document urgently for a business meeting. In such circumstances, how would you find out of 10000 documents, the one which you need urgently. That's where the content manager is highly beneficial. The content manager provides an option to save the documents in a systematic structure, which is easy for you to identify. It can save your business documents record-wise and folder-wise. Also, it can be customized further, to create a 'Systematic Document Saving Structure' as per your requirements.
7. Thumbnail Provider: The thumbnail provider within the iDempiere Document Management System is similar to storage provider (see the 'storage provider section' above). The only difference is that, the storage provider saves/stores documents, whereas the thumbnail provider saves/stores thumbnails. This feature was created with an intention to facilitate convenience, so that the important document files do NOT get mixed up with thumbnail files. It separates the storage folders/drives, so that the business documents can remain safe.
8. Thumbnail Generator: The primary function of a thumbnail generator is to generate thumbnails (i.e. reduced-size image of a large file) from the concerned file. Each file has a different extension (see the 'MIME Type section' above), and the thumbnail generator is responsible for auto-generating the thumbnails from various files. The thumbnail generator decides about creating the thumbnails, depending on the extension of the appropriate file. The benefit of this feature is that, you don't require to upload thumbnails manually for each file type. This saves time, as the thumbnail generator does this task automatically for each file type. Though, currently this feature of iDempiere Document Management System supports only few file types; yet there is an alternative to extend/customize this feature to support more file types.
9. Content Viewer: Content viewer (also known as document or file viewer) is an internal application that opens within the iDempiere Platform, when a particular file is opened on iDempiere. The primary function of the content viewer is to display the related document file, in a workspace within iDempiere itself. If there is no content viewer on iDempiere, then the only remaining option is to download and save the document file. It's the 'content viewer' implementation within iDempiere; which reduces the hassles related to downloading and saving each time. After downloading and saving the document file to your local machine, you may then view/open the concerned file, using the related application on your local machine. Currently this feature supports only few file types in Logilite's iDempiere Document Management System. However, there is an alternative to extend/customize this feature; in order to support more file types, depending on your requirements.
The Future Possibilities: 'DMS' Customization & Extension
1. Security and Encryption: The confidential or private documents will be provided with extra level of secure access. You will also be able to encrypt the documents, so that it's readable by only authorized personnel of your company. Once the content of any document is encrypted, even if anyone gains access to a confidential or private document, it would remain unreadable to them.
2. Document Amendment: Currently, the iDempiere Document Management System does not allow document editing; rather, it only permits uploading of documents. However, this can be customized/extended on client request; so that the company's authorized personnel can amend the contents within a document. This is important when some crucial documents (such as contract agreement) requires changes.
3. Geolocation Tracing: Assume a company (Example: Microsoft), which has multiple offices throughout the world. The iDempiere Document Management System can be customized to trace the geolocation of a particular user, at a particular office; in order to trace the user; who uploaded a particular document. This feature will help to identify; which user uploaded a particular document, and from which geolocation.
4. Document Stamping: Who created the document, date and time when a document was created, which authorized user signed the document, which authorized user approved it, who verified the document, etc. are certain metadata; which can help businesses to identify specific documents. This feature of iDempiere Document Management System can be implemented post-customization on client's request.
5. Centralized Capturing: This feature will facilitate in capturing data from multiple types of scanning devices (such as scanners, multifunction printers, optical character recognition (OCR), Optical mark recognition (OMR), etc) to the existing iDempiere Document Management System. Depending on your organizational requirements, Logilite DMS can be extended further in future, to support this particular feature.
6. Complex Searching: Searching the 'Text Content' within the 'Document Content' can be also be customized in the existing iDempiere Document Management System. Currently the DMS does search only the documents and related metadata, but NOT the content within a particular document. It's a complex search feature; helpful for company's personnel to further filter the 'already filtered' advanced search results.
7. Compatible Device Access: There are several types of devices used by different organizations, apart from scanning and printing devices. We can extend/customize to provide multiple compatible devices access to the existing DMS. For Example: inclusion of access to electronic documents on compatible remote desktops/servers/tablets, optical storage devices (Blu-ray/DVD), external storage devices, etc.
8. Partial Content Access: Unique and exclusive feature for allowing access to ONLY specific/partial content; which exists within a single document. For Example: Suppose a single document contains confidential information along with common information. This feature will be able to 'restrict access to confidential information' in SINGLE document; and will simultaneously 'allow access to common information'.