Document lifecycles are the sequences of states (Draft, In Review, etc.) a document goes through during its life. A lifecycle can be simple (two states requiring users to manually move between states) or complex (multiple states with different security and workflows that automatically move the document to another state).

Document Lifecycles

Every document has a lifecycle. Since lifecycles control a document’s behavior, it is important to associate the right lifecycle to a document. In SiteVault, lifecycles are linked to one or more document types. Documents inherit all business rules associated with the lifecycle, ensuring a repeatable process that requires minimal effort.

Lifecycle States

The ordered states within a lifecycle represent the stages a document transitions through as users create, review, approve and eventually archive or replace it. A set of business rules applies to each state and defines what happens to the document in that state. SiteVault automatically applies them to every document that enters the state.

Moving Between States

Documents move between states in various ways:

• A user explicitly changes the document’s state using a configured user action. This can occur on an individual document or as part of a bulk action.
• A document enters a workflow where the workflow configuration includes one or more state changes.
• A document moves automatically as the result of a state change to a related document.

In all cases, SiteVault automatically executes the business logic associated with the new state. Note that the names of state change and start workflow options may vary. After changing a document’s state, you may need to refresh the page to view the new status.

Lifecycle Stages & Stage Groups

Lifecycle Stages allow organizations to group document and object lifecycle states into ordered collections of stages. Vault then visually represents a document or object record’s current stage in the Doc Info page through the Lifecycle Stages Chevron panel. Clicking on the active stage displays workflow information for the current document, including any open tasks.