Document Strip and Attachments Feature

Document Strip and Attachments Feature


Document Strips and Attachments Feature




The Document Strip in Realtrac is a drag and drop feature that allows you to attach any document or file you wish to an Estimate, Job, Router, PO’s and other modules within the system.  For instance, when a job is created in the system and it has specific documents and files that pertain to the part being made or the job itself, Realtrac allows you to drop the files into the various job document-strips available.  Important documents can be managed and kept with the part or job for easy reference and document management.



//Document Management for Estimates and Jobs


When a file is dropped onto the document-strip, the ‘Document Management’ dialog box appears (Fig 1) below. It allows you to specify what part of the job the document will be associated with.  

  • Attach to Part - The document will be associated to the job’s part so that any future job created with that part will have it in its document-strip.
  • Attach to Job/Estimate – The document will be associated to that specific job only.  For example, it only makes sense for a customer provided Purchase Order to be associated with a specific job.
  • Other – Used when working in Quality module or creating templates.  When using the Quality module, the document will be associated to the specific quality job. 

                
Fig 1                   
                                                                          




After the file is committed to the Realtrac Document Library, a thumbnail of it is visible in the document-strip as shown in (Fig 2) below



 Fig 2







Editing Files

Once a file is attached, a copy of the original file is created and sent to the Realtrac Document Library located on the server computer.  The original file and its location are no longer relevant to Realtrac.  In other words, updates are applied to the Realtrac copy only.  The original copy stored in different file locations will not be reflected or updated.   

The ‘Get File’ function is used to open an existing file from Realtrac document library for editing. When a file is opened, the File Checkout List dialog box (Fig 3) will appear to 'checkout' the file and open it in local PC that is requesting it.  With proper login permissions, the file will open in its native application (IE: PDF, MS Word, 3D editing programs for drawings, etc….) for viewing and editing (see permissions below).  The file will show 'In Use' to other clients while it is checked out.



Fig 3                   





Realtrac monitors this file for any changes made.  If changes to the file are saved, the item will turn Red (Fig 4)


Fig 4



After making changes and you are finished updating the file, click the ‘Check In and Exit’ button (Fig 5) and confirm.



Fig 5





Selecting ‘Yes’ will upload the new changes back onto the Realtrac server’s file system. Selecting ‘No’ or ‘Cancel’ will do nothing and will not save the file to the Realtrac server. Using this system in the proper way allows all users who view these files a way to maintain and update files across the whole Realtrac system. This document management design does not require a shared folder on a network for anti-virus proliferation safety and ease of setup.

Some companies may choose to keep their own file system in a shared folder on the network. If this is the scenario you can still use the file attachment system but there are caveats…  If you do not want Realtrac maintaining separate copies of the documents from your network’s file system copy, then users must create shortcuts to the files they wish to attach and use that shortcut as the attachment.  If the file is moved or removed from that network file path it then becomes unusable.



Delete File

To delete a document from the file strip, right click on the document and select ‘Delete File’.




Set as Primary 

To set a document or image as the primary image, right click on the document and select ‘Set as Primary Image’.  The document or image then becomes the primary image for the job or estimate interfaces, reports, and Shop Floor image.


Add Notes

To add notes to a document or image, right click on the document and select ‘Add Notes’ (Fig 6).

Fig 6
                   



The note will now be visible when hovering over the thumbnail. (Figure 7)


Fig  7



File is Obsolete 

To mark a file or document on the file strip as obsolete, right click the document icon and select ‘File is Obsolete’ checkbox (Figure 8).   The file will remain on the document-strip for reference purposes but will be marked as ‘OBSOLETE’ as shown below.  The obsolete tag can be removed by selecting the document again, right click and uncheck the ‘File is Obsolete’ checkbox.  


Fig 8



//Creating Folders

Folders can be added for easy maintenance and organization of documents.  After documents have been attached to the document-strip, right click on a document to be added to a folder, then select ‘Create New Folder’ (Figure 9).    


Fig 9




A ‘New Folder’ will be placed in the document-strip with the selected document added to the folder.  To rename the folder, simply right click and select ‘Rename Folder’. (Figure 10)


Fig 10





Adding documents to a folder

As folders are created, they will be added to the list of folder templates available for selection.  To add a document to an existing folder, right click the document and select the folder from the list (Figure 11). 



Fig 11



Deleting vs Removing  Folders

It is important to note the difference between deleting a folder and removing a folder from the document strip.  When a folder is created, it will be available in the list of folders and can be used by all subsequent jobs.  Therefore, when a folder is marked deleted, all jobs utilizing it will be affected. 



If you would like to simply remove a folder from an estimate or job’s document-strip, we suggest removing the documents from that folder first, which will then remove the folder automatically.  Please review each function carefully before deleting Folders.  



Remove a Folder

To remove a folder from the file strip, select the folder to open the ‘Folder File Strip’.  Right click each of the documents and select ‘Remove from this Folder’ (Figure 12). When all documents have been removed, the folder will be removed automatically from the ‘document-strip’.


Fig 12

Delete a Folder

To delete a folder, right click the folder and select ‘Delete Folder’.  Realtrac will ask you to confirm and mark the folder as ‘Folder Deleted’. (Figure 13)

The folder will be visible on the document-strip and the documents in the folder can be viewed also.
Caution: This also applies to all other Estimates and Jobs using that folder.


Fig 13




//Using Templates


Realtrac templates feature is a great way to store and access reusable, pre-formatted outlines that reduce redundant details and serve as a starting point for new work. When adding a template to Realtrac,  The templates are saved to the Realtrac Template Library located on the server computer and cannot be overwritten unless it is removed and replaced with an updated version.  The templates must be saved to a document strip before it can be edited with new data.


To add a template, right click on the document strip (anywhere in the white space) and select 'Open Templates Form'






Next, drag and drop the desired template to the document strip.  A confirmation widow will open with options to rename the template and select whether to attach the template to a part or to the job.  




When attaching to a part, the template will follow the part each time the part is used.  When attached to a the job, the template will be applied to the job only.




//Permissions


In the Employee Group, Employee Entry tab, we have permissions settings to ‘Allow user to add files’ and “Allow user to make changes to attached files.  These permissions settings allow you to choose who can add and check out files for editing.  Additionally, when 'Allow user to make changes' removes the ability to delete files from the system so you may designate one administrator to delete files that are no longer needed. Having this permission removed allows for greater integrity of file attachments within the system.












Realtrac does not recommend adding Windows Shortcuts in to the Realtrac Document library.  In our experience, customers have had complications due to the additional steps needed to maintain a separate file structure. The ‘Realtrac File Checkout List’ dialog will NOT work in this scenario so proper care to maintain those shortcuts need to be taken when changes to the network files takes place.  Additionally, Microsoft attempts to intelligently manage shortcuts, trying to make sure the shortcut remains the same, even if the file it points to is moved, altered, replaced, etc. This can lead to unexpected results if the user is not vigilant about the actual file they are editing. 

If you choose to have add Windows Shortcuts to the Realtrac Document library, all Realtrac client users must have the same drive mapped to the file structure;  for example, if you have a computer on the network named ‘FILESERVER’ with a shared folder then users on their own computers should have the same mapped drive ‘S’ to that share for the shortcuts to work and properly open the file when opened from the Realtrac ‘document-strip’.


Further reading on how Microsoft handles shortcuts, and various scenarios, please read: 

Distributed Link Tracking Wikipedia on Windows Shortcuts Wikipedia on Shortcuts
 Microsoft Technet “Tracking Shortcuts”   Tracking Shortcuts