Uploading a new revision with a different file format

[neilecker]

This is a non-technical question about the nature of what a record is.  Some of our users have a habit of uploading a PDF document as a new version of an existing Microsoft Word document.  I'll give an example wherein an Agreement is prepared for signature:

1.  A Microsoft Word form for an Agreement is created and filled out.  This may result in many revisions of the Word document as users collaborate on it.

2.  When ready, the Word document is printed out to be signed by all parties that are involved in the Agreement.

3.  Once signed, the document is scanned as a PDF.

4.  User uses the "Upload New Version" action to upload the PDF on top of the Word form.

5.  User then declares the signed Agreement as a record.

At this point, both the file extension and mimetype are incorrect (.docx and Microsoft Word respectively).  Now when a preview of the document is requested or someone attempts to download the document they receive errors because the extension and mimetype don't match the actual document contents which we then walk the user through correcting.

What do people think of this?  My own personal opinion is that the signed PDF version of the document should be separate from the prepared Word form and only the signed PDF should be declared a record.  On the other hand, I can see why some users would think to do this as it's kind of the same document, with the PDF being the completed version of the Word form.

Neil

[mehe]

You can change the filename and the mime type of a version. Alfresco only assumes the most plausible way to add a new version. See for example alfresco - convert docx to pdf and create a new version

But you could also close the Word Document, set it to "readonly" or lock it and save the "finishing" pdf parallel to the word document with the the same name (extension probably .docx.pdf) and connect the documents with an association.

[neilecker]

Yes, when it's come up we're just telling them to change the filename and mimetype, however that does mean that if they revert or try to access an older revision then they'll have the opposite problem as it will then have the wrong extension and mimetype.

I like your idea of creating an association between the finished PDF and the Word form.  We'd just have to decide whether we want to add a generic "Related Documents" to the base type in our content model or add a specific relationship on this Agreement type.

Thanks for your input!

Neil

[mehe]

We used a "finishing" PDF version as last document version (controlled by a script), which had some implications with other addons and the possibility to revert to a previous version - because we forgot to set the whole document to readonly this gave quite a mess

[douglascrp]

I had a similar case here, and I ended up raising this issue Issue Navigator - Alfresco JIRA 

I still have to try it and see if it is really fixed. I confess I forgot about it.

[douglascrp]

Ok, just to add to my latest post, yes, that is the normal behavior on 201702-GA.