The Document object type is more than a simple file stored on the web server. It is a "logical container" that holds the "components" of your document. And it enables the document to be described, published and gernerally "controlled".
Your web service may have a need to present or manage Documents, which may be in different formats, such as PDF, Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. In fact some documents may even have multiple components! The Document Object type has been built to enable this, complete all of the regular / common functions that a Document can be expected to provide.
The Document object type inherits the "Product" object, making it available for e-commerce and stock control.
In the event that the application you are working on requires further properties or functionality, you can build your own custom Document object type - inheriting this core Document object properties and associations.
This simple property allows the user to give the Document a Reference. Often used for internal purposes, this field has no checking built into it.
This simple property allows the user to give the Document an ISBN Reference.
ISBN is the acronym for International Standard Book Number. This 13-digit number identifies a specific book, an edition of a book, or a book-like product (such as an audiobook). note, if the same book is delivered in two formats - Hard Copy and Soft Copy, this requires that each Docuemnt is uniquely identified by an ISBN. This field has no checking built into it.
Abstracts are short summaries to explain the document to a User before they read the entire document. Often this is provided at the beginning of a Technical Report. In the case of the Document Object, we provide it as a Property, so that it can added to the document independanlty of the Document Component/s and searched etc. without needing to open the document.
Keywords are discrete words used as tags for the document, They are a further method of classifying the document for rapid searching / cross referencing.
Documents stored and accessed via a website will comprise one or more components. In some cases you may want the Document to be made available to the User in their My Profile atom (see separate Help Resource), depending on whether they have purchased the Document. If this property is set to true, the document will be available in the correctly configured "My Profile" atom.
This is a sub table property. Documents can comprise several individual Files - such as a series of PDFs, a Word document and a Spreadsheet. These are all referred to as Document Components, individual files held under the Document umbrella. This list (if there is one) presents the Document object type with a dilemma - which of those in the list is the principal component - the one that double clicking might activate? The Components sub table property contains the following Fields;
This records the date that the Component was added to the Document
This records the account name that added the Component to the Document - this is taken from the actual Contact object that did the upload.
This field refers to the Independent Table "FileType", to record the Type ID of the file that has been added as a Component.
This is the actual file type, as recorded in the "FileType" table.
The unique ID for the particular Component
The Document that this Component has been connected to.
The name given to the File when it is uploaded to the Document, including the extension.
This records whether this component has been set as the default component for this document - the component that will be opened when the document is accessed.
If versioning is enabled for the document this will record any version change.
This is not enabled on the core document type
The Document Object is configured as a core component of XPOR. The Association Types are therefore set by default. Below we have detailed some of the Association Types used with Document Objects and provide an explanation as to why they are provided.
The Author / of the Document. Note that the components also have UploadeBy recorded. This Association Type allows the listing of documents that the Contact has Authored.
Any Co-Authors of the Document. This Association Type allows the listing of of documents that the Contact has Co-Authored.
The Document may specifically reference other documents. This association type will allow the document to either be referenced and or be connected to other documents as reference.
Documents can have a CD object type as a child association. This is used for documents that have supporting software, for example, that would be provided on a CD.
Similar to the CD child association, Documents may also have child Documents
Document can be located inside folders. There are several other Parent types that can contain Documents.
A key Parent container is the Category folder. This folder type is discussed in a separate Help Resource.
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