Content Management and Capture

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  • 1.  Get Content Path of Document in Filenet

    Posted Mon September 25, 2023 12:26 PM

    Hi,

    in Filenet, is there a way to find out where the content of a document is located within a storage area of type filesystem?

    It is my understanding that the document's path is somehow obfuscated but it's not yet clear to me if this is unachievable by design or there are ways around it.

    Many thanks in advance.

    Kind regards.



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    Jesus Calderin
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  • 2.  RE: Get Content Path of Document in Filenet

    Posted Tue September 26, 2023 09:24 AM

    Hi Jesus, you cannot get the path via the database other than identify the storage area root directory.  If you wanted to work real hard you could scan the file system and gather all the file names which include the object_id (guid) in the name and load to your own database, then parse that for each document ID you have. FileNet document objects have a list (collection) property for content so you could have zero, one or many content elements. You could also have multiple storage locations - mediums for each version of a document worm, cloud blob, db blob. Using the API is exceptionally easy you do not have to go direct to the file system. 



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    Jay Bowen
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  • 3.  RE: Get Content Path of Document in Filenet

    Posted Tue September 26, 2023 10:12 AM

    Hi Jay, thanks for your response,

    yes, we have used the API for other purposes and found it easy but (although I didn't specify it for the sake of brevity) our goal is actually to study how to recover a document deleted by mistake, or at least its contents.

    Our first approach has been to enable audit for the deletion event and use the ID to search for the file in a filesystem backup, but this will only work for low-volume scenarios, it would be unfeasible in our current production env. without the complete path.

    Knowing that this limitation is inherent to Filenet will help us in our study, though, so thanks a lot again.

    Regards.

    Jesus Garcia.



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    Jesus Calderin
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  • 4.  RE: Get Content Path of Document in Filenet
    Best Answer

    Posted Tue September 26, 2023 10:49 AM

    I see....  If you haven't looked into it check out ICN recycle bin or other options (1) use a event preprocess to output content before deleting or (2) Remove delete from menus and use a workflow for the deletion process and use a custom component to record metadata + content, include approvals and maybe change security for 30 days so admin only sees the document then a timer to delete.

     

     






  • 5.  RE: Get Content Path of Document in Filenet

    Posted Wed September 27, 2023 04:52 AM

    Thanks a lot for your help, Jay.

    Regards,

    Jesus Garcia.



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    Jesus Calderin
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  • 6.  RE: Get Content Path of Document in Filenet

    Posted Wed September 27, 2023 11:03 AM

    Hi Jesus,

    I previously used a recovery bin to implement a logical delete with items then physically being deleted after 30 days. Within  ACCE it was a little clunky to view items marked for deletion as you have to go through the RecoveryItem to get to the deleted document but the Recycle Bin feature in Content Navigator should improve this.

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/filenet-p8-platform/5.5.11?topic=settings-recovery-bins

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/content-navigator/3.0.14?topic=components-configuring-recycle-bin-feature

    If you still want the security of backing up the content I guess you could use the api to go through the RecoveryItem to the document and access the content elements.



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    Douglas McNair
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