# Universal Viewing

Universal Viewing is an IDOL View component configuration that allows it to determine the appropriate method to use to view a file.

In this case, View checks each document for a set of fields, and uses the values of these fields to retrieve the original document by using a distributed connector, the Web, or the file system. If it cannot retrieve the document by any of these methods, it retrieves the document title and content from the document store (your IDOL Content component index).

Micro Focus recommends that you use this method for viewing documents with View in a distributed environment, because it simplifies the process of making document viewing work in your applications.

Advantages

- You can use a combination of viewing options, and View automatically determines where to retrieve the document from. This means it has the advantages of the other viewing methods, and mitigates many of the disadvantages.

Disadvantages

- Configuration is relatively complicated, with several different options and reference fields.
- View must have access to your primary data index (either the IDOL Content component or DAH).

## Configuration

This method has the following setup requirements for indexing:

- Documents must have at least one of three reference fields, which you must configure as reference fields in IDOL:

  - `DistributedConnectorReferenceField`. A reference field to use to access documents through the Distributed Connector. This field is generally `AUTN_IDENTIFIER`. You must configure the `AUTN_IDENTIIER` in the same way as for the distributed connector (see View with Distributed Connector).
  - `FileSystemReferenceField`. A reference field to use to access documents from the file system.
  - `WebURLField`. A reference field to use to access documents from the Web.

  TIP: Documents can have more than one reference field. In this case, View tries each option in the precedence order distributed connector, file system, Web.

This method has the following setup requirements for viewing:

- Any connectors you intend to use must support the `View` action.
- In the View Server configuration, you must configure the location of your distributed connector, and your primary IDOL data index (IDOL Content component or DAH).
- Configure the Distributed Connector as described in View with Distributed Connector.
- Configure any View Server parameters that you want to use to restrict file system or Web viewing.

For more information about how to configure Universal Viewing, refer to the IDOL Server Administration Guide.

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