Question

How to keep Metadata consistent between different templates

Laserfiche Administration Workflow

Updated April 12, 2015

asked on March 29, 2015

Question:

I am trying to figure out a way to keep the metadata for a document consistent throughout the documents whole process even when changing templates. Primarily where the other template does not have the same fields.

Simple Example:

Let's say I have a document that has the following characteristics...

Template Name:

Template "A"

Fields:

First Name: value = John
Last Name: value = Smith

Let's say I send the document to another department and the template then changes to Template "B" and Template "B" only has the following fields:

Address: value = 100 Main Street

After a user types in that address they send the document back to the original location and the template changes back to template "A".

Issue:

The issue I am experiencing is the document now only shows empty fields for First Name and Last Name when the template is template "A".

Consideration:

Take into consideration this is a basic example...simplified from my current layout or else I would just add the fields to both templates.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Addison

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on April 6, 2015

Thanks for getting back to me! Based on your answers, here is what I recommend:

In workflow, you could use the ‘retrieve field values’ activity to grab the template field values as tokens, then reassign those tokens to the appropriate fields in the new template that’s being assigned. This would help your information be accurate and consistent with information that is already being used

Thanks,

Ashley

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replied on April 12, 2015

Great idea! Thank you very much.

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Replies

replied on March 31, 2015

Hi Addison,

Before I make any recommendations, I have a few follow-up questions for you:

Are separate templates required for each department? Would it be possible to have one template for each document type and then hide the field values relevant to each department, rather than having separate templates for the same document type based on department?
How are the templates changing on the document when the document switches departments? Are the templates being changed manually or automatically with Workflow when they change departments?
Is the field information from these templates stored in an accessible database?

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replied on April 2, 2015

Hi Ashley,

1.) Yes, each department has a separate template, this was setup due to several other processes we have running, not to mention our dashboard we have monitoring Laserfiche relies on this at times.

2.) The templates are being changed automatically with Workflow. A user selects the department to send the document. Then Workflow handles the rest.

3.) Yes, all the field information is stored in a accessible database.

Thank you.

Addison

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