Manage In Place (IDOL Connector) document store

You may have some documents in a repository that you wish Content Manager to destroy according to Content Manager's retention management rules. The Manage In Place (IDOL Connector) document store, when set up correctly, enables you to use Content Manager to manage the documents in your electronic document repository "in-place", without the inconvenience of moving them into a Content Manager document store.

To implement this functionality, Content Manager works in conjunction with ControlPoint and IDOL Connectors: The IDOL Content Manager Connector provides ControlPoint access to Content Manager via the SDK, and the relevant IDOL Connector providing ControlPoint and Content Manager access to the external repository.

ControlPoint creates a record in Content Manager for every item to be managed in the external repository, and Content Manager uses the external repository’s IDOL connector to place a hold in the items. You can even view the items from the external repository through Content Manager.

When you choose to destroy one of these records in Content Manager, requests are sent via the external repository’s IDOL connector to release the hold and destroy the item.

It is important to note that, as the electronic documents are stored in a different system, Content Manager can merely reach out to that other system’s IDOL connector with requests to manage those documents.

As part of your ControlPoint IDOL solution there are connectors available for a wide variety of document storage systems; however, some are more suited to provide a Manage in Place solution than others. Ideally, your connector and storage systems can respond to the following challenges:

• The storage system maintains the integrity of the document, which means that the document should not be modified in any way during the time Content Manager is managing it. Whether it is possible to enforce such a requirement really depends on the capabilities of the connector and the underlying storage system. While an IDOL connector allows Content Manager to issue a “Hold” request on a document, in some cases the connector may not support the Hold method, and therefore it may not be reliable.

• The Manage in Place concept enables Content Manager to take control of the disposal of the document. Content Manager currently provides no other management concept, apart from placing a hold on the item and issuing a timely request for destruction. This concept depends on the underlying connector and storage systems responding to this destruction request appropriately.

• IDOL connectors are not tested prior to a Content Manager release. It is important that you obtain advice from ControlPoint/IDOL Product Support as to the suitability of a particular IDOL connector for Content Manager’s Manage in Place solution, and that you undertake your own testing prior to implementation.