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Working with Troubleshooting

Document Central is a powerful extension for Business Central, designed to streamline document management and enhance productivity. However, like any software, users may encounter issues that require troubleshooting. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of troubleshooting techniques specific to Document Central, covering various scenarios and offering practical solutions.

Checking and Correcting Retention Labels

Use Retention Label Correction to review Document Entries and correct their retention labels or SharePoint label properties. Open it from the Compliance group in the Document Central Administrator Role Center. The page works with the active repository.

Configure and Pull Document Entries

  1. Open Retention Label Correction and select a Correction Mode:
  2. Correct Label Properties updates the SharePoint retention properties when a document's label properties were not set correctly.
  3. Recalculate and Change Label checks whether each entry has the label expected from the current configuration and changes it when needed.
  4. Both performs both operations.
  5. To narrow the entries included in the pull, enable Use Additional Filters and optionally set Document Library Code, Subsite / Year, Content Type, or Retention Label.
  6. If required, enable Include Overwritten by User Upload to include documents whose retention label was overwritten by a user upload.
  7. Choose Pull Document Entries. The page loads matching entries from the active repository in the background. Choose Refresh to update the list and status. While a pull is running, use Stop Pulling to request that it stop.

The Document Entries list shows the correction mode identified for each entry, its current and (when applicable) calculated retention label, and its repository, library, subsite, document number, filename, and content type. The Correction Status area shows the pull or processing status, total entries, progress, completed entries, error entries, and the last error.

Process and Review Corrections

  1. When the pull has finished, choose Process Corrections to process the listed entries in a background session.
  2. Use Refresh to update the progress and status. Choose Stop Processing to request cancellation after the current entry finishes.
  3. Review entries with an error. Select Show Processing Error to view an entry's last error. Select Open Document Entry to open the corresponding entry if it still exists.
  4. Failed entries can be retried by choosing Process Corrections again. To remove an entry from the correction list, select it and choose Delete Entry; confirm the prompt. Entries cannot be deleted while a pull or processing session is active.

The page records the correction status for each pulled entry. Processing can correct the label, update its SharePoint properties, or do both, depending on the selected mode and the correction identified during the pull. The page also displays the last error from a failed background session. The active repository must be configured before the page can be opened.

Performing Metadata Recreation

If it ever happened that metadata of stored documents was not saved in Business Central or SharePoint, it can be corrected/recreated using the Correct Metadata feature. This function only recreates metadata for documents that do not have a value in a metadata field.

To perform a metadata recreation, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate through the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Click on Setup in the ribbon bar and execute the action Module Setup.
  3. Execute the Correct Metadata action in the ribbon bar.
  4. Confirm the execution with Yes.
  5. Specify the start date to define the beginning of the date range for which document entries will have their metadata recreated in the Start Date field.
  6. Specify the end date to define the end of the date range for which document entries will have their metadata recreated in the End Date field.
  7. Specify the type of recreation in the Metadata Correction Type field.
  8. Click on OK to start the recreation process.

Note

The following types of metadata recreation are available: - Document Entry Only: Only the documents in Business Central will be corrected. - Include SharePoint Metadata Values: Both Business Central and SharePoint documents will be corrected.

Note that the recreation process can take some time, depending on the number of entries that need to be processed.

Performing Document Entry SharePoint URL Recreation

In some cases, the URL in the SP_ServerRelativeUrl field (301) of the SIM_DMS Document Entries table (5492900) contains a double slash. This causes the direct link to the document to be unusable. However, this can be corrected.

To perform a document entry SharePoint url recreation, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate through the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Click on Setup in the ribbon bar and execute the action Module Setup.
  3. Execute the Correct Documents Urls action in the ribbon bar.
  4. Confirm with Yes to start the recreation process.

Note

Note that the recreation process can take some time, depending on the number of entries that need to be processed.

Manual Actions for BLOB Management

Document Central is a robust extension for Business Central, enabling seamless document management integrated with external storage repositories such as Azure Blob Storage (ABS) and SharePoint. Occasionally, manual intervention may be required to manage BLOB fields in the database, especially for clearing unnecessary data after documents are stored in external repositories.

Clearing Document Entries BLOB Fields

This action clears the Document (BLOB) fields of all document entries stored in the database while ensuring the corresponding documents remain accessible in the external repository.

Steps to Perform the Action:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Click on Setup in the ribbon bar and execute the Module Setup action.
  3. Execute the Clear Document Entries BLOB Fields action from the ribbon bar.
  4. Confirm the execution when prompted.

Note

Ensure that the repository is properly configured before running this action. The process modifies all relevant entries and may take some time depending on the volume of data.

Clearing Archive Queue Entries BLOB Fields

The Archive Queue process stores document data in external repositories. This action clears the Document (BLOB) fields for entries in the Archive Queue once the archiving process is complete.

Steps to Perform the Action:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Click on Setup in the ribbon bar and execute the Module Setup action.
  3. Execute the Clear Archive Queue Entries BLOB Fields action from the ribbon bar.
  4. Confirm the execution when prompted.

Note

Use this action to maintain database efficiency by removing redundant BLOB data while ensuring the documents are accessible in the external repository.

Clearing Versioned Document Entries BLOB Fields

For versioned document entries, this action removes the Document (BLOB) fields after the versioning process stores the document data in the external repository.

Steps to Perform the Action:

  1. Navigate to the Document Central - Administrator role center.
  2. Click on Setup in the ribbon bar and execute the Module Setup action.
  3. Execute the Clear Document Entries Versions BLOB fields action from the ribbon bar.
  4. Confirm the execution when prompted.

Note

This action is essential for maintaining optimal database performance by eliminating unnecessary BLOB data while retaining document access.

Info

  • Preconditions: Ensure the repository is configured correctly in the Document Central-Module Setup. Actions will only process entries where the external repository is used (SharePoint or ABS).
  • Data Safety: These actions only affect the database BLOB fields. The original document data remains intact in the external repository.
  • Performance Consideration: The time required for these actions depends on the number of affected entries.

By using these troubleshooting actions, administrators can efficiently manage database storage, maintain optimal performance, and ensure seamless integration with external repositories.