Integration points
There are two main data flows that must be implemented in the integration with DMS:
- Selection of documents in DMS
- At the time of satisfying one requirement, users can opt for attaching new documents or selecting existing ones. In an integrated configuration, users should be able to select documents available in DMS.
- Document metadata propagation
- The document metadata collected and generated by the Requirements module should be propagated into the DMS system for its use by other applications of the enterprise.
Selection of documents in DMS
The Requirements module cannot automatically discover documents directly uploaded into DMS. However, it provides an option to manually select documents from DMS and register them into the document metadata table so that they become available for the functionality.
When a user opens a requirement case and select Attach, the system shows by default three different tabs: New file (attach a new file), Case attachments (select a case attachment) and existing documents (select a document already available in the document metadata table). A fourth tab can be made available for organizations using integration with DMS.
The DMS selection tab (labelled as Other document stores) shows a list of documents available for the customer in DMS. Upon user selection, the document is registered in Pega in two different ways:
- A new entry in the platform attachments table (Data-WorkAttach-File) is created. The new record has the basic information maintained for attachments, including the unique identifier of the document in the DMS system.
- A new entry in the document metadata table is created. In that entry, a pointer to the new attachment record is maintained, as well as all the document metadata collected during the process (for example. document type, document name, and so on).
To enable this configuration, the following rules should be used:
| Rule name | Rule type | Usage |
|---|---|---|
D_FetchDocument MetaDataFromDMS | Data page | Data-page to retrieve the list of documents available for a given customer in DMS. It should return a list of Data-WorkAttach-File representing the files in the external system. You should implement this data-page to integrate with your DMS system. |
| DisplayDocumentsFromDMS | Section | Section that displays the list of documents available for the customer in DMS. It is sourced from the data-page D_FetchDocumentMetaDataFromDMS. Organizations can use this section to add new columns or update existing ones. |
| SelectFileAttach_Ext | Data transform | This data-transform is invoked every time a document from DMS is selected. It can be used to access DMS and retrieve additional information that might be required. Use the temporary page tempMetadataDocWrapper to store the information. |
| IsDMSDocLibraryEnabled | When | When rule to conditionally display the DMS tab. Overwrite LoadConfiguration_Ext and set the property IsDMSDocLibraryEnabled in the configuration page D_ReqConfiguration to true (no need to change the when rule). |
Document metadata propagation
Every time the metadata associated to a given document change, it is persisted into the document metadata table. The system can be configured to synchronize the data in that table with an external DMS system.
There are the following synchronization modes:
- Synchronous
- The propagation of the data happens at the very same moment of writing the entry in the document metadata table. It ensures immediate synchronization between Pega and DMS, but comes with a certain performance overhead.
- Asynchronous
- The propagation is scheduled using a queue processor, which takes care of its execution in an asynchronous manner. This is the recommended configuration in most of the situations.
To enable this configuration, the following rules should be used:
| Rule name | Rule type | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| IsDMSOutboundEnabled | When | General switch for the functionality. It should return true to trigger the metadata propagation. Overwrite LoadConfiguration_Ext and set the property IsDMSOutboundEnabled in the configuration page D_ReqConfiguration to true (no need to change the when rule). |
| IsDMSOutboundAsyncModeEnabled | When | Activates the asynchronous mode of the propagation mechanism. Set the property IsDMSOutboundAsyncModeEnabled in the configuration page D_ReqConfiguration (no need to change the when rule). |
D_CreateOrUpdate DMSDocumentMetadata | Data pages | Placeholder for the data propagation process. Change this data page to implement the actual integration with the DMS system. Use the standard configuration to make it use a connector or overwrite the available extension point CreateUpdateDMSDocumentMetadata. |
| SetDMSDocumentMetaData | Data transform | Data-transform that can be used to enrich the document metadata table that will be pass to the integration data-page D_CreateOrUpdate DMSDocumentMetadata. |
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