Document Integration Overview
This article discusses possible document management scenarios within the Assetic environment.
Please also refer to the general information about document management in Assetic described in the article Documents
There may also be documents external to the Assetic environment such as in a Document Management System that are relevant to records in Assetic.
Documents External to Assetic
The Assetic System Connector may be configured by the Assetic application administrator to reference external files. This configuration is context sensitive, such that it allows a URL string to be built based on the current record being viewed in Assetic. This allows the external application to be launched and display the relevant file or set of files.
To best utilise this feature, the documents in the external application should be referenced in a manner that allows them to be retrieved based on key fields in Assetic such as Asset ID or Asset Name, Project Name, Work Order number.
As an example creating a folder for all documents relating to a subdivision project allows Assetic to initiate a search in the external application based on the 'Subdivision' attribute of the currently viewed asset in Assetic. Depending on the capabilities of the external application, it would be launched showing the results of the 'subdivision search'.
Documents Internal to Assetic
Documents may be stored within Assetic in the following scenarios:
- An Assetic user links a document to a record in Assetic. The document is uploaded from their local environment to Assetic
- An Assetic Mobile app user links a document to a record in Assetic. As an example the user takes a photo of a defect as part of a work order. The photo is uploaded to Assetic and linked to the work order
- The Assetic API is used to load a document. As an example the REST API's would allow photos of Assets to be uploaded in bulk.
Documents may also be downloaded from Assetic via the REST API's. This could be used as a way to extract and upload to an external document management system to make the photos available outside of the Assetic environment. Alternatively the URL to launch Assetic and navigate to the document can be readily achieved.
Link to External Document
Instead of uploading a document to Assetic it is also possible to create a document record in Assetic with a URL link to the document rather than uploading the document. This is an alternate approach to using the System Connector. The difference is that the URL hardcoded. This allows linking to documents that do not conform to a generic URL structure, which therefore can't be contextually derived based on attributes.
Document types and record linking
There is no restriction on document type, any type of document may be loaded in Assetic. Each time a document is accessed via Assetic it is downloaded and viewed/used locally.
A document may be loaded and linked to records in Assetic. These records may for example be assets, or work requests, or assessments. The API supports all modules that allow a document to be linked via the Assetic application itself, plus additional modules such as documents uploaded when using "Data Exchange" and documents generated via the Advanced Search "Export All" functionality.
