Multiple copies of document in Alfresco

[gdowrey]

I am currently running Alfresco Community Edition 3.4.c on an Ubuntu server.  I am currently planning to move my network shared folders content to the Alfresco repository and map it to my windows machines via CIFS.  I am also setting up Alfresco Share collaboration sites for project management for individual projects.  A major part of this will be to use workflows in the document library which will be given access to team members.  How do I populate the sites with documents that reside in the repository without creating multiple copies of the documents?  Is there a way to put links in the document library to the files in the repository?

[jpotts]

It sounds like you have some documents in the "Company Home" part of the repository that need to be shared by one or more Share sites. You'd like Share site users to be able to see those docs in the Share site document library without physically copying the document across the Share sites.

There are a couple of ways to do this. First, if you log in to the Explorer client, you can do a copy on a document, then navigate to the document library folder for the Share site you want to have the link, switch from the "Navigator" view to the "Shelf" view, and do a paste link. Now, when you log in to Share and navigate to that Share site's document library, you'll see the link. Clicking on the link will take you to the details page for that document.

Obviously, if you want to do this for many Share sites you may need to explore writing some JavaScript to create the link in the appropriate document library folders.

The second approach requires heavier coding. The general idea is that a document can be in more than one folder at a time. So, you could add the document as a child to each of the Share site document library folders. The difference between this approach and the link approach outlined above is that from the UI, the document will appear to be like any other document. The fact that its primary parent is somewhere else won't be obvious. Something to watch out for is that permissions are inherited from the *primary* parent, not the secondary parent. So, even if the Share site user has full rights to the documents in their site, they be restricted in what they can do to the document based on how the permissions are set in its parent folder. This could lead to confusion.

The first approach is probably the one you should take if it meets your needs.

Maybe at some point the Share client will have "paste link" functionality and you won't have to use Explorer. Or, you could write this yourself and contribute it.

Jeff

[mikeh]

Maybe at some point the Share client will have "paste link" functionality and you won't have to use Explorer. Or, you could write this yourself and contribute it.

Yes, sorry about that - it's on my list but keeps getting bumped down it.

Mike

[alexandra]

I would really like to see this feature in Alfresco. It was a major flaw in Sharepoint that objects got copied instead of linked but that has finally been fixed in the latest version. Documentum have had this for years and it is a very powerful feature that makes it easier to maintain a consistent version tree and make search results look much better without loads of identical documents when searching through the repository.