Managing documents in a MICHAEL database

1) Introduction

You can store XML document in a MICHAEL database, and these documents are organized in folders. Once these documents are created and stored, you can operate on them with many functionalities, like deleting, moving, copying, etc. Many of these operations are also available on folders. In this case, they act on both the folder and its contents, whether they are documents or sub-folders, in a recursive fashion.

Some operations act on more than one folder or document. In this case, the procedure is always the same: you first select the the documents or folders by clicking on the corresponding checkbox, and then you click on the icon corresponding to the operation to perform. The next figure shows an operation consisting of deleting two documents:

For those operations on many documents or folders, the icon is always located to the right of the phrase With the selected items .

The other operations act on a single folder or document. In this case, you need to click on the corresponding icon on the left of the relevant folder or icon.

Please note that you cannot perform an operation on both a folder and a document at the same time.

2) Deleting contents and using the trash can

The deletion operations are always performed on folders or documents selected. The trash can is used for documents selected.

Deletion is definitive, you cannot get your content back, there is no undo mechanism, so please be careful. Also, if you delete a folder, you delete all its contents, documents or sub-folders. To delete documents or folders, you first select them and you then click on the deletion icon:

To put a document in the trash can is less drastic, since you will be able to restore the documents to their original location, unless you empty your trash can. To put documents in the trash can, you first select them and the click on the trash can icon:

Once you have done that, the documents won't be visible in their original folder any more. To empty the trash can or to restore documents, you must browse to the trash can system folder; to do so, click on the Root link in the context part of the viewer and then go into the Trash folder.

The Trash folder is similar to other folders. The only exception is a new operation available for the selected documents: restore documents as the next figure shows:

You select the documents you wish to restore and then click on the restore icon:

Once restored, the document will be in the same folder as it was before being put in the trash can.

3) Viewing documents

Along with creating, moving, deleting, etc. documents, you can also view them, either by downloading the XML version or by viewing an HTML version in your browser.

To view the XML source of a document, you just need to click on the download icon on the left of the document:

This operation opens a new browser window and you will see the XML source of the document. Depending on the browser you use, the exact display of XML files may vary. If XML is not supported by your browser, you will probably be asked to save the document or use another software.

To view the document in HTML within your browser, you just need to click on the hypertext link on the title of the document, as in the following example:

The stylesheet used to display a MICHAEL record is close to the one used in the standard interface of the publishing module. The exact appearance may be different one instance from the other.

4) Modifying a document

A document in the MICHAEL database may also be modified to update it, add information, etc. To do this, you just need to click on the Edit icon on the left of the document:

After you click on it, the appropriate form will be opened with the data already filled in. You can modify the fields you want, as if you were creating it.

5) Modifying system information on documents and folders

You can also rename a document or modify its identifier. To do this, you need to click on the following icon on the left of the document:

After the click, the following form will be available:

You can modify three informations:

1. The name of the item, which is the virtual file name used in the database. You can change this name, but you must keep the same extension, such as .xml for normal records.
2. The document identifier, which must be unique among all items in the database. So please use this feature with care. This is a system identifier, if you change it it won't change the record identifier from the MICHAEL data model.
3. The form associated to the document. This form will be opened when you click on the Edit icon of the document.

Once the data is changed, you need to click on the Send button to submit them.

6) Moving or copying documents or folders

Items in the database can be moved or copied. Moving deletes the document from its original location, but copying keeps it in its original location. In both cases, you can act on many documents all together, by first selecting them. You can only move folders, not copy them.

To move documents or folders, you need to use the following icon:

Here is an example where we selected one document and are about to move it:

Once you click on the Move icon, you will then get a form where you can select the destination folder. This folder must exist and you must have write access in it. The form uses a drop-down list for the folders, and each folder is represented by its code (and not its name). Here is an example:

Here, the /mpf/records/institution/cornucopia/I/ folder is about to be selected as the destination folder. Once you select the destination folder, you click on the Move or copy this document or folder button and the operation will be performed.

Copying works the same way as moving. You must first select documents or folders you wish to copy, and then click on the Copy icon:

You will then get the same form as the for moving documents, where you can select the destination folder. Please note that copying documents will create new system identifiers, since they must beunique in the database. MICHAEL identifiers won't be change though.

7) Checking links

MICHAEL records contain relations or links with other records. These links form an improtant part of the data and play a central role in the overall architecture. The production module has some functionalities helping you to understand links between records.

The platform distinguishes the links from a document and the links to a document. In the first case, the document is the source of the link, and in the second case it will be the target .

In order to find all targets of links from a specific document, you need to click on the Outgoing links icon on the left of this document:

Once you click on it, you will get a standard search results window, with all target documents shown, as in this example:

You can also find easily all documents with links to a specific documents, by clicking on the Incoming links icon on the left of this specific document:

You will then get search results, as in the previous example.

8) Changing owners and permissions

There is a sophisticated mechanism in the database to manage permissions on folders and documents. The fundamental concepts underlying permission management are:

• Each document and each folder in a MICHAEL database is owned by a user and a group. These are called owning user and owning group for this particular resource.
• Each document and each folder in a MICHAEL database has specific permissions along three axis: read, write and update.
• For each document and each folder in a MICHAEL database, and for each axis, you can set permissions to the owning user, to the owning group and to others.

There are thus 11 informations on permissions on each document and each folder: three permissions for the three axis, which makes nine, along with an owning user and an owning group. This approach is close to the UNIX or Linux permission management system.

All these permissions can be changed with a single form. To display this form, you need to click on the Permissions icon on the left of the document or folder you wish to act on:

Once you click on this icon, you will get the form to modify permissions:

There are two main sections in this form, one for the nine permissions and the other to choose the owning user and group. The details of the form follow.

Information about the resource to change

This first part displays the code of the resource to change, which is the code of the parent folders, of the current folder and, if applicable, the current document.

Permissions given

So from this single form, you can do three operations:

1. Change only the permissions , by checking the corresponding boxes in the second part of the form and by clicking on the Change permissions button.
2. Change only the owners by selecting an owning user and an an owning group and then by clicking on the Change ownerships button.
3. Change both permissions and owners , by checking the appropriate permissions, selecting the owning user and group and then by clicking on the Change permissions and ownerships button.

In all cases, when you are acting on a folder, you may choose to apply the changes recursively by clicking on the Apply modifications to sub-folders and resources checkbox.