A document class is a set of configuration parameters controlling the security settings, the behavior and the available custom properties associated with the documents in an AODocs library.
For example, let’s imagine that a group of business users want to use an AODocs library to collaborate, and that they need to manipulate three different kinds of document: invoices, purchase orders and expense reports. Each type of document will have its own list of specific properties:
- invoices will have an amount (a decimal number), a due date (a date/time property), and an accounting class (a list of predefined values)
- expense reports will have an amount (a decimal number), a reporter (a person), and a fiscal month (a list of predefined values)
- purchase orders will have a product code (a list of predefined values), a customer name (a text property), a quantity (an integer)
In this scenario, you need to create three different document classes: one for invoices, one for expense reports and one for purchase orders. This is because each one of these document types has a different list of properties.
Configuring document classes lets you:
- define a list of custom document properties with specific data types and configuration options
- set up security options, such as who can delete documents and who can share documents
- define multiple list views to display the documents of your class
- use advanced search features to search documents with their custom properties
- associate workflows to your document classes
AODocs provides a predefined custom property types. In addition, you can create your own "categories" and use them to define the information inside a document.
Using categories in the document classes lets you:
- choose items from a drop-down list
- enable end users to add new values to the list
Learn more: Create and configure document classes.