Index Fields

Purpose

Index Fields are user-defined fields that appear on the Document ID Card of each document within a folder. These fields can be used to store data specific to the document and are fully searchable using the Advanced Search feature. Index Fields can also be used to drive business rules in workflows. 

Index fields have a broad range of applications as far as what kind of data to store in them. For example, if a business has a folder for resumes from job applicants, a few index fields that could be attached to this folder include the applicant's name, e-mail address, and application status (under consideration, approved, denied, etc). Each of these fields would be a text field that users could fill in with the appropriate data when the document is added. Later on, the document could be found by performing a search on the email address or the applicant's name, rather than trying to remember the filename or Document ID or browsing through the folder manually. 

Any associated document-level metadata will be lost upon deletion of an index field. The index fields can be modified or deleted by VaultAccess users only within Index Field Management. Deleting an index field deletes any data associated with the index field on the Document ID Card. 

Index fields can be copied to subfolders. You can also configure an index field to be required or placed in a certain order. When an index field is required, a document cannot be released until the index field value is entered. When a user fills in an index field, for text box type fields, they can use any character symbol or number. Users can data enter index field values during document upload, from the Document ID Card or through Batch Management.

Index fields can be affected by a folder or document being moved or copied in the Document Library.

Index fields will be available for data collection for all documents currently uploaded in the folder and for all future documents uploaded into the folder. Index fields are also searchable through advanced search. 

Required Index Fields: 

Required index fields prevent a document from being released unless an index field has data entered into it. If the index field does not have data, the document will remain unreleased. You can set this feature when creating a new index field by checking the Required check box. A required index field is typically used when the index field data is critical for a successful workflow completion or when data is key to reporting. 

If an index field is not a required field, users can opt to not input any data for the field and still release the document as normal.

Setup Index Fields

Administrators can set up new index fields by completing the following steps:

1. As an Administrator, highlight your name.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. On the Administration Tools tab, select Index Fields.
4. Select New Index Field button.
5. Enter the relevant information for the label and description. 
6. Select the Required checkbox if the index field is required data or if the index field will drive any of your business processes.
7. Select the Index Field Type.
   1. The index field type which you select will determine how the data is stored in the database and how data is available for reporting. You cannot change this setting after it is created.
8. If you want a value to pre-populate the field, then input or select a default value.
9. Select Save.
10.  Repeat the above steps to create any number of index fields that will be used in your document library.

Assigning Index Fields to a Folder

Owners can associate index fields with a folder. To assign an index field with a folder, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to a folder and go to Folder Properties using the context menu or top-level tab.
2. Select the Index Fields tab.
3. Click on Create/Edit Fields.
4. Select the Index Field from the Available panel.
5. Use the arrow buttons to assign the Index Fields.
6. Select Save.

The assigned Index fields will be available for data collection for all documents currently uploaded in the folder and for all future documents uploaded into the folder.

Copying Index Fields to Subfolders

This action will copy a parent folder's index fields to all the subfolders of a parent folder. Owners or VaultAccess users can copy these index fields to all the subfolders of a parent folder as long as the user has access to the subfolders. To copy the index fields to all subfolders:

1. Right-click on the parent folder that you want to copy index fields from to the subfolders.
2. Select Index Fields
3. Select Copy Index Fields to all Subfolders.

The results of this action will add index fields to the subfolders. Existing index fields will not be removed from subfolders. The user will be notified that the action was completed successfully. 

If the index fields could not be copied to subfolders where the user did not have rights, this information will also be contained in the message.

Index Field Types

Date Time

Date and time will restrict users so that they can select or input a valid date format. When an owner configures the Date Time index field type, the standard screen will be presented to the user.

When the date and time index field is presented to the user on the Document ID Card, it looks like the following:

Database Driven Drop Down

Dynamic drop-down index fields are provided to the user so that they can only select from a certain list of items in the list. The user cannot do any data entry or add their own entries unless they have access to the data source. The drop-down list for this index field is populated from a database-type data source. This data source may be data pulled from within VisualVault (User List, Form Data, Project List, etc.) or from outside of VisualVault (Vendor list from an ERP or CRM system, list of products, list of customers, etc.). The following is an example of the configuration screen for the Dynamic Drop Down index field type.

The following items discuss each of the Advanced Option fields from the Dynamic Drop Down List Index field type:

1. Connection: Connection that has been configured in the Database Connection Admin.
2. Query: Query that is part of a database connection in the Database Connection Admin.
3. Value Field: Available columns in the selected query.

The drop-down list is presented to the user as follows:

Drop Down List

The Drop-Down List is a fixed list of choices that can be configured through the Drop Down Lists administration tool. When this control is selected the user will have a list of possible lists they can use. The user can preview the results of the list as well in the Preview field to insure the list has what the user wants to see. The following is the configuration screen for this index field:

The user is presented with a drop-down list that represents this control when looking at the Document ID Card.

Multi-Line Text Box

The Multi-Line Text Box allows users to input multi lines of characters when metadata is placed in this index field. 

A user is presented with a Multi-Line Text Box on the Document ID Card in the following manner:

Numeric

The numeric index field type will only allow users to input a series of numbers. If a user tries to input any other type of character the screen will not enter the information or display it.

 When the Numeric index field is displayed to the user it is shown in the following manner:

Text Box

The Text Box allows users to input a line of characters when metadata is placed in this index field. 

The user will be presented with a Text Box Index field in the following way:

Note: The difference between a Numeric and Text Box index field is that a numeric index field already contains a numeric zero.

User Drop Down List

The User Drop Down list is an index field that lists all the users or groups of users. The following is the configuration screen:

User drop-down lists appear like other drop-down index fields when displayed.

Indexing a Batch

Index Fields are user-defined fields that are associated with documents in a folder. These fields can be used to store data that specific to the document and are fully searchable using the Advanced Search feature.

To index uploaded documents in the Document Library:

1. Edit the metadata or index fields of the files to be uploaded and save the changes. (Required Index Fields must be filled out to upload the document as released).
2. Click on Save to Vault.

After finishing the document upload, the document(s) will display in the document list of the folder. If the folder has required index fields and these index fields were not filled out for the document during the upload, the document will be uploaded as "unreleased".

Batch Management

Certain upload conditions will cause documents uploaded simultaneously to be grouped into what is called a batch. These batches are essentially a grouping of these documents so that users can easily and quickly edit the metadata and index fields of recently-uploaded documents. Batches are managed through the Batch Management page.  Batch Management is a specific location where you can update document index fields, file names and descriptions immediately after documents have been uploaded. It is only accessible by users with Editor rights or higher. You can configure batch management to have the following functionality:

• Batches will be created based upon a configurable number of documents uploaded.
• Batches created when a certain number of documents are copied or moved.
• Create Batch when required index field exists on any document uploaded.
• It can be disabled completely.

See Configuration Settings for more information on how Batch Management can be configured.

Navigate to the Batch Management tab

When a set of documents is uploaded and VisualVault is configured to create a batch, the user can access the batch management in one of two ways:

1. User is automatically put on the Batch Management screen if VisualVault is configured to do this.
2. User navigates to a folder and selects the Batch Management tab.

Once on the Batch Management tab, the user will be presented with the following screen:

A) Displays the Document List.

B) Displays the file metadata, Document Details.

C) Displays the Document Index Field data.

Modifying Documents in the Batch

Navigate to the Document Library and select the Folder where you uploaded the Documents. Select the Batch Management tab.

1. In the Batch Filters drop-down list, select one of the Incomplete or In Progress options then select the Batch Number in the second drop-down list.
2. To index one document in the batch, select the Doc ID link from the Document List. To view a document, select the document icon.
3. Edit the Document Details and Document Index Fields for the document(s).
4. If you are finished indexing the document, change the Completion drop-down list to Completed.
5. Select Save & Next to go to the next document in the Batch.
6. When you have indexed all the documents in the batch and all the icons are green, update the Batch Name, Ref ID, and change the Status drop-down to Complete.
7. Select save.