Link to a document

[jozef_sovcik]

I was testing Alfresco 2.0 and my intention was to have a single instance of a document in the system (e.g. agreement) and having links in multiple folders pointing to it (e.g. finance and project folder). Both of them should have the same functionality, i.e.  possibility to check-out/edit etc. but still working with the same document.  User rights for the link should be derived from the original folder.

I have found your system is capable of creating links, but link only allows to open the document and nothing else.

Do you plan to have at least possibility to add "Go to original location" button    directly to the link? (as link details do contain such action)
Actually from there is only a small step to have buttons 'check-out original' and 'edit original' next to it too.

Ideally, do you plan to implement links as they are implemented in Documentum (or a soft-file-link in linux if you wish)?

[andries]

A different approach: create categories, "tag" your content/documents with appropriate categorie(s), create a "search", save this "search", saved searches can be both private and public (i.e. you can share your searches with others). I believe this is a powerfull solution. Hope it works for you.

[jozef_sovcik]

Thanks, it might work, but that would mean creating categories for all projects and document types, e.g. ProjectA, ProjectB, .. ProjectN, Agreement, Timesheet, FuncSpec, .. etc. That way we will end up having 100s of categories, which will be quite hard to manage afterwards.

Right now are our users (well, file system based) used to find all project related document in project subfolder (different roles having access to different subfolders of it). It was also easy to manage project closing - just to backup & delete project folder. Of course we have faced some issues with versioning etc., that's why looking for DMS.

[andries]

In Alfresco you can still have a structure equivalent with the file system based setup, including fine grained and groups based permissions. People or groups of people only see documents that they are authorized to see. Authorization is applied to spaces (directories) and to individual documents. So different roles having access to different subfolders.

Create a structure of ProjectA, ProjectB, … ProjectN. Put agreements, contracts etc. in the projects-folders in the usual places (sub-folders) and "tag" them with e.g. category "finance". Put other project management information in the appropriate places as well. Now, if someone needs all contracts of all projects, a simple search will get them. Put documents just once somewhere in a Project-space, decide about access rights for users and groups (a template may help in creating standard project spaces with access rights), make documents available through directory structure, or through saved searches and categorization.

Sorry if I don't get the point what you need links for. What would be the structure you are trying to create with links? We're designing a structure for our company as described above and we're willing to learn.

[jozef_sovcik]

Maybe it is more related to how we work with agreements:

1) draft of an agreement is being prepared by salesguy in the last
    phase of opportunity
2) then it's being discussed with a customer & approved by legal dept.
3) ones it's signed, final copy is saved
     a) with the proposal (for sales dpt.)
     b) in the folder for finance (containing all agreements)
     c) new project folder is created and agreement is also saved there
         so project manager can access it
4) after the project is delivered, project folder is archived (incl. contract)
    and then deleted
5) we keep history of 2 years in sales folders, so opportunity folders
    older then 2 years are being archived and deleted once per year
6) legal dept. keeps only active contracts in place, non- active are
    archived and deleted once per year

So the document remains on our server until the last occurence is deleted (like the functionality of links).

[andries]

Now i see what you mean. Same thing here, but after contract is signed we don't have the need to change it. So we store contracts and agreements in the legal folders, copy/paste-link to the project folder for the project manager to access. If a contract gets an addendum, this addendum also goes into the legal folder.

However, I would also like to see the link feature as you requested.

[jozef_sovcik]

Well, actually it can be somehow achieved what is currently available, but it is not so nice.

Reading your last comment I have realised, that what is in Alfresco actually does the work as PM and Salesman do not need to change it once it is signed. Well, wrong business case 

The issue which can actually support my business case is the last fact: document remains in the system till at least one link is referring to it. In case of Alfresco if I leave it with legal docs, then it will be removed and so not accessible for salesrep after completing delivery of the project. Eg. if he needs to compose new agreement half a year later based on older agreement.

I wonder how these ideas can be pushed to development of Alfresco. (we are just considering using it, so not real customer yet)

[jcox]

The issue which can actually support my business case is the last fact:
document remains in the system till at least one link is referring to it.
In case of Alfresco if I leave it with legal docs, then it will be removed
and so not accessible for salesrep after completing delivery of the project.

I not certain that I understand what you mean here.
Are you saying you do or do not want the item deleted
when the last reference goes away?

Incidentally, you might want to think about using workflow
to handle fancy custom stuff.

  - Jon