How does DocStar work? We are wanting a template of empty folders we have currently stored in File Explorer to be generated whenever a new Project is created. Any suggestions how to go about it?
ECM (Docstar) is a content management platform where folders are no longer necessary. You can use them, but you REALLY do not need them. Everything is indexed with metadata and related back to a transaction in ERP if you want. But you can store anything and not relate it to ERP as well everything is searchable.
Are you talking about an Epicor Project (Project Entry)? It looks like you can add a Doc Type to the Project Table in ERP, so you could just add docs to the project and have them stored in ECM.
That’s the simplest path, but there is so much more to consider. Rephrase your question and maybe there’s something else we can explain.
I would suggest you talk to the ECM guys at Epicor with your specific scenario in mind.
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So whenever a new Project is created in Project Entry, a new folder should get created with a template of empty folders. For example: Sales Order, Quotes, POs, Shipping, etc. Whenever a quote for example that is linked to the Project gets created, the quote attachment should get placed in that Project template folder. Same thing with any other attachment that is a part of that Project
Like @MikeGross says, that’s the “old Windows File Explorer way” of doing this. In an ECM, you get a Document Type to do this kind of work. That’s important because now you can do automation with the Document Type, including making sure your project has all the required documents, get approvals, etc. Each file entry has metadata that you add to it, like the Project ID. Finally, having separate Document Types allows you to scope security more finely than you can in a simple folder structure.
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Like I mentioned, folders really are not necessary in ECM. Everything is specifically indexed and can be listed inside Epicor on the Project Entry screen as attachments to the Project. No one would access the documents directly because they are not in a file system any longer - they are inside ECM.
Also, the tree view of attachments in Project Entry should show the different document types (SO, PO, Quote, etc.) as branches on the tree - so it will look like folders in that view.
Additionally, ECM has a module called “Packages”, and it allows you to create a package for a project (I think it’ll do it but you’ll have to play with the workflow) and the workflow ‘waits’ for each type of document SO, PO, Quote, etc. to get created and attached, then allows you to use the package as a ‘package’ of documents - to continue in the workflow. This might be useful depending on what happens when a set of projects documents as been completely collected into ECM.
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