We had an Epicor ECM expert create a workflow for us that imports part drawings, OCRs them and attaches them to the part record, if it exists. I am working out a couple of changes with him but would like some feedback to make sure we are doing it the best way. The parts are being imported through a batch import CSV file.
We only want the latest version of the part drawing so that nobody is building off of old data. He is working on the process to find and remove any existing but I see there is a Version setting. Just wondering if that is a better way of handling it or if removing prior version would be best.
Most of the time the part drawing is completed before the parts are created by CadLink. Can the attach part of the workflow be run later, once the part is created. I am thinking possibly a BPM that fires when a part is created that would create a csv file containing the information needed that would then be processed by ECM batch import.
Unless they just added it and I missed it, version controls are NOT available in the workflow steps, BUT the standard upload (or “Add Document” import from Kinetic) will create a new version IF the filename is exactly the same. ECM will then store previous versions, and keep the latest version available to folks when they request the document.
I also think the previous versions can be removed using the retention/purge process, but I’d have to get back to our server and test a few things.
You could use a Sleep or Wait For task to confirm that the part record exists in Epicor before attempting to attach the document to that record. You’ll need something to evaluate, such as the SysRowID value, to then be used as acknowledgement that the part record exists. When the Sleep or Wait For task output becomes True, it would continue with the rest of the workflow.
That is an interesting way to handle it Victor. I will run it by the guy helping me with it. I wish I had the time right now to really learn how to create this all on my own but for now need to lean on support. Thanks for the idea.
You are correct workflow tasks do not allow for Check out and Check in of documents. I have used a Delete attachment datalink and then the typical Create attachment if the user wants to only see the newest copy attached. Checkout versioning should be added and I asked for this in a Epicor Idea Change version - Published ECM. I found a way to update multiple documents using SQL but most implementations are cloud.