ArchiveLink is a service provided by SAP. ArchiveLink documents can be connected with an SAP object (document, material) and then be stored in an archive system.

For these archived documents,  SEAL Systems has developed a dynamic "Stamp-before-View" procss and a an automatic "PDF/A file check."

Archived documents can be stored in SAP at the time of several different processes. Here are two examples of automatic archivng within SAP:

• Storage at the generation of records with SAPScript and SmartForms
• Storage with object services, which are accessible in many transactions an available icon.

ArchiveLink View Server

Documents archived with a linked connection to an SAP object can be viewed within the services for the objects tab or with a transaction-specific function (according to the SAP applicaition). At viewing, an ArchiveLink Userexit with integrated SEAL stamping function is created. This function auomatically checks the archived document to determine if it should be dynamically stamped. If so, the stamping data is retrieved from ArchiveLink and the actual user context. Because ArchiveLink is not a document management system, there is fewer document data available in comparison to SAP DMS. These are:

• <AL-BO>: Business Object
• <AL-COMPONENT>: Component
• <AL-CREDATE\conv=_DATE>: Creation date
• <AL-CRETIME\conv=_TIME>: Creation time
• <AL-STATUS>: Status
• <AL-ARCHIV_ID>: Content Repository Identification
• <AL-OBJTYP>: Object type
• <AL-AR_OBJECT>: Document type
• <AL-OBJKEY>: Object key
• <AL-DOC_TYP>: Document type

As long as an Archive-Link document is connected with a document information set (DIR), all available information can be stamped from the appropriate DIR. Data of other business objects can not be retrieved.

Display of an archived document linked to an order (program call above, result on the right)

With this application, a simple document management function is available for documents stored in ArchiveLink. Some data, like the date, user data and data of the attached SAP object can be added to the displayed copy of the archived object. This data is also available for later evaluation of this copy.

ArchiveLink File Checker

Storage of documents with ArchiveLink is done through Userexits during the view process. These Userexits can also be used for a PDF/A check of the documents to be stored. The check determinines if the document is in PDF/A form with the evaluation methods used in the connected DMS solution. This check is currently supported for scenarios that include archive PDF data with SapScript, SmartForms or object services.

View of an archived and evaluated order document

If a document is in accordance to the PDF/A rules, then it is displayed in Adobe Reader 9 with the comment "This document is viewed in PDF/A mode."

If the check is successful, the evaluated or corrected document is stored in the archive. If the check was not successful, the original file is checked in. There is no possibility to exchange this archived file with the corrected one.

The start of the evaluation and the results are logged in a file. In addition, an entry for each call of the ArchiveLink File Checker is created in a table. This enables a quick overview about all activities, like ...

• ...what has not been checked yet,
• ...were there problems at checking,
• ...is the evaluated file in accordance with the PDF/A rules.

With these new functions there are standardized applications from SEAL Systems for documents in three SAP ECM contexts available

1. SAP DMS
2. SAP Records Management
3. SAP ArchiveLink

A standardized environment for the supply of controlled document viewing and quality assurance provides a reliable, comprehensible document distribution and simpler IT administration.