Doculink

About Document Link Module

This module allows linking of documents to a master file or transaction. The PRONTO database currently cannot store documents. Whilst a file cannot be stored we can ‘link’ a document and open it with an external program – e.g. Word, Excel, Adobe Acrobat etc.

The data will be kept on a Windows Server in standard directories or in SharePoint Portal Server. This module will rely heavily on Proscreen to allow the user to add a mod to a screen to ‘trigger’ the link. Whilst part of the module will work without Proscreen to maximise the use of this module the site should also have Proscreen.

This module is table driven for maximum flexibility, which enables the user to link virtually any master file or transaction to a file or directory.

How does it work

There will be a table which hold all the master information of the types of links the user can add to screens with Proscreen. There is a document execution program. This will be the program to be ‘triggered’ via Proscreen. The Program will be passed a number of parameters to indicate which link type is to be used. First parameter would be the Link Master code from Document Link Master Maintenance.

The next set of parameters will be the number of parameters specified in directory parameters and file parameters in the master table. First pass the number of directory parameters specified and then the number of file parameters specified. For example if you setup a link code of PO and then wanted to store the document in a sub-directory of the supplier code – this would be setup as 1 parameter and would be the next parameter passed. If you then want to access a purchase order document this would be setup as 2 parameters and would be the next 2 parameters passed. The trigger would be something like this: Doclink/dl3link PO [Supplier Code] [Purchase Order] [PO Suffix]

Linking Options

The link program would then execute and get the appropriate master code record. This will determine what to do next, based on link type for that master record.

There will be a number of linking options: Directory, File, List, Menu and Web.