Developer Webinar – Records Management

Jean BarmashDirector of Technical Services

jbarmash@alfresco.com

www.alfresco.com

● Functional Overview of Records Management & Demo

● Brief Review of Content Modelling Concepts & Overall Process

● Advanced Content Modelling - Design of RM Module

●Content Model

● Core Concepts

●Record

●File Plan

●Aspects

●UI Customizations

● Behaviors

● Default Bootstrapped Data

● Q & A

Agenda

According to Wikipedia:

● ISO 15489: 2001 - "The field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records."

● Simple Definition - “Records management, or RM, is the practice of identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and destroying records.”

● It’s all about defining a more rigorous lifecycle and disposition process for your records in order to meet internal needs and governmental requirements.

What is Records Management

● RM is an extension packaged as an AMP file, that can be integrated into the Alfresco WAR file.

● Built on top of proven Alfresco Content Repository: accessible through web client, virtual file system.

● Provides same services: security and authentication, audit, permissions, etc.

Records Management and Alfresco

ContentRepository

DocumentManagement

Web ContentManagement

Image Management

Records Management

AMP

Records Manage

ment

Alfresco's Records Management● Designed to DOD 5015.2

Requirements

● Starter Kit for RM Applications

● Automated metadata extraction and classification

● Easy records scheduling and file plan maintenance

● Drag and drop capture with easy Outlook integration

● Complete auditing and workflow integration

● Automated conversion to PDF and ODF

● Easy export for archival

Alfresco's RecordsManagement Features

• Disposition – Controlled and scheduled handling of archiving, holds, transfers, accessions and destruction using rules and automated processing

• Pre-population of Meta-Data – Impact management and automatic updates

• Dashboards – Pre-defined reports and metadata type definitions to search and screen records due for handling and handling exceptional cases

•DOD 5015.2 Administrator Templates – To support US Department of Defence records and filing requirement for metadata definitions, file plans and functionality

RM Features

● Marked through UI or instructions in fileplan.

● When marked & saved, fileplan determines cutoff or deletion

Obsolete

● A record can supersede another record

● Mark the record and select the superseding record.

● When saved, fileplan determines cutoff or deletion.

Superseding

RM Features, cont.

● Fileplan dictates records as vital

● Record gets vital record aspect which manages review period and auto updates next review date for record

● Report in fileplan shows due for review

Vital Records

● Determined by flag in fileplan

● Cutoff when expired (cutoff date), obsolete, superseded

● Discretionary - Cutoff now & save

Cutoff

RM Features, cont.

● After hold, if Transfer set in fileplan, RM automatically moves to holding area

● From holding area, transfer is manual process: export then physical transfer export archive.

Transfer

● Transfer for permanent storage

● Date executed

Accession

Destruction

● Computes date for destruction

● Timed process removes all traces

DOD 5015.2*● Specifications for Records Management defined by the

Department of Defence.

● Endorsed by NARA (National Archives and Records Administration)

● DOD standards used to evaluate the capabilities of Records Management Systems as well as define requirements for managing records within the department.

● Designed to DOD 5015.2 Requirements

● AMP includes:

• Functional components for RM

• DOD 5015 Test Suite with test data and test plan

• DOD 5015 Specification PDF

DOD 5015.2

*Designed to support, but not yet certified to meet DOD 5015.2

Demo

Brief Review of Content Modeling

● Content Types

● Aspects

● Exposing Model to the UI● Details● Search

● Policies

● Scheduled Tasks

Overall Content Modeling Process

1. Create Content Model

2. Modify UI to support the content model

3. Create content behaviors

4. Modify UI to support content behavior, i.e. user actions.

5. Bootstrap data and package up the application as an AMP module.

Key Questions

● How do we implement the key concepts such as File Plan and Record?

● How do we implement the record management functionality in a modular way?

● How do we make sure our development is as fast as possible?

File Plan

● File Plan is a space that is of content type “rma:filePlan”

● Includes metadata definitions for lifecycle.

● File Plans are a description of the plans for record services

• Numbering

• Classification

• Disposition

• Other metadata population of records

● Group records according to File Plan

Alfresco – File Plans

File Plan – Core Data● Record Category Identifier

● Disposition Authority - a reference number to the regulations that govern the disposition

● Permanent Record Indicator - should never be deleted

● Disposition Instructions - a human readable description of how the records associated with the file plan will be handled

● Contains Records Folders

● Default Media Format - made available to simplify data entry for the record and is usually electronic or paper

● Default Marking List - handling and classification information that are printed at the bottom of the record, such as UNCLASSIFIED or NOCONTRACT category

● Default Originating Org - made available to simplify data entry for the record and assumes that originating organizations are the same for the information in the file plan

Alfresco – File Planscont.

File Plan – Other Metadata

● Vital Record

● Cutoff Information

● Hold/Retention Information

● Transfer Information

● Accession Information

● Destruction Information

● Default Marking List - handling and classification information that are printed at the bottom of the record, such as UNCLASSIFIED or NOCONTRACT

● Default Originating Org - made available to simplify data entry for the record and assumes that originating organizations are the same for the information in the file plan

Alfresco – File Planscont.

Alfresco – Record Folder

● Allows grouping content items into one folder and adding to fileplan as one unit.

● Spaces in fileplans considered Record Folders.

● Lifecycle data applied to folder and calculated based on the Record Folder

● Lifecycle data applied to record items in Record Folder but, not used for lifecycle

• Record ID derived from Record Folder, not fileplan

Record Folders

File Plan

Records Folder

What's a record?

Alfresco – Record

● Any digital asset can become a record.

● Any mimetype, any content type.

● Documents, PDFs, Images, other binary files.

● Add directly to a file plan from file system: instant record.

● Move content items into a fileplan becomes a record.

● Defined through “rma:Record” aspect.

● RM rules for fileplan automatically attach aspect and populate defaults based on fileplan.

● Lifecycle for record is managed through fileplan properties and record metadata since records are grouped together according to fileplan.

File Plan

Alfresco – Record cont.

● Defined through “rma:Record” aspect.

● RM rules for fileplan automatically attach aspect and populate defaults based on fileplan.

● Lifecycle for record is managed through fileplan properties and record metadata since records are grouped together according to fileplan.

•i.e. Disposition instructions in Fileplan dictate retain/destroy.

● Metadata classifies the record.

•Cutoff record, hold, transfer.

Alfresco – Record cont.

● Utilizes pre-existing aspects as well to leverage existing actions and services part of Alfresco.

● cm:auditable Auditing for changes to the record

● cm:author Tracking the author and auto-capture of metadata

● cm:referencing Tracking when a record references another

Record – Alfresco Aspects

● rma:superseded Tracking when a record is superseded by another

● rma:userSpecifiedData Mixin for user defined information

Record – More Aspects

Search

Search● Traditional search by keyword

● Advanced search extended to include metadata from the rm:Aspects attached

Improving Usability

Reports

● Part of fileplan template

● Viewable when entering fileplan space

● Six main areas of report:

•Recent Records – recently added

•Vital Records for Review – due in next week

•Records Due for Cutoff – due

•Records Retention Due for Expiry – hold expiring

•Records Due for Transfer – due for transfer

•Records Due for Destruction – due in next week, or past due and not deleted.

Exposing Behavior in the UI

● User Actions

Examining The Code Base

● SVN: modules\records-mgmt

● Java● Package org.alfresco.module.recordsManagement● RecordsManagementModel – mirrors content model● RecordsManagementScript – main script exposed to JavaScript● UI Evaluators

● Config● Bootstrap● Context● Model● Script● Template● UI

Examining Config Code Base

● Bootstrap● File Plan Space Template● JavaScripts● Freemarker Templates● Categories

● Context● Separate files for different types of configuration● Action-context -

● Model

Examining Config Code Base, cont.

● Script● Action● Scheduled● JavaScript Policies Implementation

● Template● File Plan● Record Template

● UI ● Expose content model onto UI● Add User Actions to the UI

Records Management Implementation

How is it implemented?

● Utilizes existing Alfresco extension concepts

● Content Model and Aspects defining records, records folders, and file plans

● Java-backed functionality exposed as JavaScript to enable easy scripting to perform various actions on records

● Presentation Templates to improve user experience

● Time-based procedures like cutoff, hold and disposition.

● Categories used to model some enumeration-type lifecycle data

Content Modeling Best Practices

● #1 – Don’t change Alfresco’s Out of the Box Content Model

● #4 – Avoid unnecessary content model depth

● #5 – Take Advantage of Aspects● Allows to modularize functionality

● #6 – It may make sense to define “marker” types

● #7- Folders are Types, too

● #9 – Implement Java class that corresponds to your content model

● Encapsulating code in Java and exposing it to JavaScript API to enable scripting

● Source: Jeff Potts – Working with Custom Content Types http://ecmarchitect.com/images/articles/alfresco-content/content-article.pdf

References

● User guide - http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Records_Management_User_Guide

● Functional Overview

● http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Records_Management

● Brief Demo (6 Minutes)

● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQsPiRvHjHQ

● Design of Records Management Module Whitepaper (Forthcoming)

● Alfresco RM Module AMP file is one of the files available with most Alfresco distributions.

● Content Modeling Documentation● http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Category:Content_Modeling

QQuestions?