Documents | signotec Knowledge Base

The application only supports PDF documents. Other file formats must be converted to PDF format before use in order to be processed in the application. The PDF standard serves as a guideline for all implementations for the Viewer. Accordingly, error-free operation is only guaranteed if the PDF files used comply with the standard. Deviations or faulty PDF structures may lead to display or processing problems.

Metadata for documents

In addition to the binary data of the document, metadata relating to a document is also stored. The types of metadata stored are listed in the table below.

Name	Description
ID	Numerical identification number of the document in the system.
Owner of the document	The owner of the document. The owner of a document can only be changed through administrative intervention.
Document type (`parentId`)	More information is available in the section Types of documents and their parent IDs.
File name	The name of a document. Usually corresponds to the name of the file during upload to the database.
File size	An integer value that specifies the size of the binary data in bytes.
Time of creation	The time at which the document was created in the system.
Time of last change	The time at which the document was last modified. If a document has only just been created, this value will be empty.
File hash	The most recent hash value of the document’s binary data. This hash is also used for signature processes.
Placeholder flag (`placeholder`: `true`/`false`)	This document is an example of the documents to be used. So far, this information only plays a functional role for workflow plans (`BLUEPRINT` documents). If `true`, a specific document must be transferred to the system in order to start the workflow plan.

Types of documents and their parent ID

The type of a document describes certain behaviours, use cases or restrictions relating to a document. The following types of documents are available.

Name	Description
`DOCUMENT`	The standard type. Saving this type of document overwrites its original state in the database.
`TEMPLATE`	Serves as a template for documents. When a template is saved, a copy of the document is created with the changed status. The new document has the type `DOCUMENT`. Once a template has been saved in the Viewer, the loaded document changes to `DOCUMENT`. Therefore, saving multiple times will not result in more than one new document.
`BLUEPRINT`	The document is part of a workflow plan. When this plan is started, a copy is created as a `PROCESS`document for the resulting workflow process. These documents are not displayed by the pool application.
`PROCESS`	These documents are only processed in the context of a workflow process. These documents are not displayed by the pool application.

The type of a document is derived directly from the parentId value. The value indicates which document a new document was derived from. Negative values can express further information.

Values	Description
`>0`	The document was derived from the document with this ID.
`-1`	The document is a `TEMPLATE` document.
`-2`	A `DOCUMENT` that was loaded into the database via the REST API.
`-3`	A `DOCUMENT` that was loaded directly into the Viewer via the REST API and saved to the database from there.
`-4`	A `TEMPLATE` that was subsequently changed to a `DOCUMENT`.
`-5`	A `BLUEPRINT` document that was created for the purpose of establishing a workflow plan.
`-6`	A `PROCESS` document that was created when a workflow process was started.

Limit the availability of documents in the system

The availability of documents can be restricted system-wide by activating a deletion routine. This allows you to define how long a document may remain in the system after it has been created or modified. After this deletion routine has been set up, the pool application displays how long the corresponding documents, shared accesses or workflows will remain available in the system before they are automatically deleted. You can find more information on setting up the deletion routine here.