Attachment Overview

Attachment Types

The system supports several different attachment content types, for example:

• PDF Document

• Excel Spreadsheet

• Jpeg Image

• Text Document

The attachment data itself may be text or binary. When storing the data in the application however, it is stored as text information only. As a result, the upload of an attachment that is a binary type requires a conversion prior to storing the data. When viewing the attachment, the data is converted again for display.

Each type of attachment is defined using an attachment business object. The business object includes configuration defining the supported file extensions, whether the data is binary or not and the content type that represents the type of data for the attachment.

Owned Attachments

Attachments can be either ‘owned’ or ‘common’. An owned attachment is one that is related to a specific record. For example, the specific test results for a given device can be uploaded and linked to that device or to its test records. These types of attachments are typically uploaded and maintained via the object that owns it.

Common Attachments

Common attachments are ones that are uploaded independent of any transaction in the system. They can be used for general system or company information. Or they can be linked to more than one transaction. For example, instructions for performing a certain type of task can be uploaded as an attachment and linked to a task type where those instructions are relevant. These types of attachments are uploaded and maintained in the central Attachment portal. Objects that may refer to the attachments may link the attachments via characteristics or some other appropriate mechanism.

Content Location

By default, an attachment is uploaded and stored in the database along with its entire content. The process of uploading very large content like videos etc. is often limited by memory and other resource constraints. You may configure a threshold above which content is stored in object storage and a link to the file is kept on the attachment record.

To enable this feature refer to the attachment location and related options in the General System Configuration feature configuration for more information. In a cloud installation, this configuration is required to upload large attachments due to stricter resource limits.

The following are known limitations with storing content in object storage:

• The responsibility for data recovery of attachment content shifts to the customer as part of their object storage files management.
• Custom logic if any that relies on attachment content to exist in the database will not work for attachments stored in object storage.

Emailing Attachments

The system supports a business service that may be used by system processing to send an email. The business service F1-EmailService supports receiving the IDs of one or more attachments as input parameters.

Refer to Sending Email for more information.

External Reference

Attachment records may be added from an external system in which case, the external system could have a reference ID to capture. The attachment allows for including an external reference ID when adding an attachment internally.

Malware Scan

The system provides a plug-in spot where you can configure a step to scan attachment for malware. If an algorithm is provided, it is called every time attachment content is added.