Managed Documents plugin

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Managed Documents plugin

    The Managed Documents plugin in ServiceNow, version Yokohama, enables organizations to manage documents with structured details, revisions, audiences, classifications, and approval workflows. It provides comprehensive document lifecycle management, including creation, revision control, audience targeting, and approval sequencing, ensuring documents are handled securely and efficiently.

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    Database Table Structure

    The plugin introduces several new tables to organize document data and workflows:

    • Document [dmsdocument]: Stores document details.
    • Revision [dmsrevision]: Tracks revisions of each document.
    • Audience [dmsaudience]: Defines intended readers of documents.
    • Classifications [classification]: Specifies document restriction levels (e.g., public, confidential), though access is controlled separately via permissions.
    • Type [dmstype]: Indicates document purpose.
    • Component [dmscomponent] and Name format [dmsnameformat]: Define naming conventions for document revisions using evaluated expressions.
    • Approval sequence [approvalsequence] and Approval Rule [dmsapprovalrule]: Manage approval workflows and criteria for automatic approver assignment.
    • Collection [dmscollection]: Allows users to group documents.

    Scripts and Business Logic

    The plugin includes several business rules, script includes, and client scripts to automate document management processes:

    • Business Rules: Automate state changes of documents based on revisions and auto-populate approvers.
    • Script Includes: Provide core logic for document CRUD operations, security management, approval workflow support, attachment handling, and utility methods.
    • Client Scripts: Automatically update revision naming formats based on the selected document type.

    Roles and Permissions

    Two distinct roles govern access and administration:

    • documentmanagementuser: Allows users to access the plugin, create and search documents, and participate as reviewers or approvers. Note that access to individual documents is still controlled by specific permissions.
    • documentmanagementadmin: Grants administrative privileges to configure plugin settings.

    Even users with the user role must have explicit permissions to view or interact with specific documents, ensuring secure and controlled access.

    Installation

    The Managed Documents plugin can be activated by users with the admin role, enabling these document management capabilities within the ServiceNow platform.

    This page describes the applications and modules, database table structure, scripts, and roles.

    Database table structure

    The following tables are added:

    Table 1. Tables
    Display Name (Table Name) Description
    Document [dms_document] The document details.
    Revision [dms_revision] The document revisions.
    Audience [dms_audience] The intended document readers.
    Classifications [classification] The document restriction level, such as public or confidential. (Does not define access to the document. Document security is set in user and group permissions.)
    Type [dms_type] The document purpose.
    Component [dms_component] The components of name formats. The value field is a dot-walking expression that is evaluated. An exception is made for the revision because it does not exist when the revision name is generated.
    Name format [dms_name_format] The composition of components to generate revision names.
    Approval sequence [approval_sequence] The approval sequences that users must follow.
    Approval Rule [dms_approval_rule] The criteria that records of the dms_document table must match. Used to automatically add approvers to a document.
    Collection [dms_collection] The document groups created by the user.

    Scripts

    Table 2. Business rules that are added to sys_script
    Rule Description
    Update Document Changes the state of a document depending on its revisions.
    Add Approvers Populates the list of approvers in the document.
    Table 3. Script includes that will be added to sys_script_include
    Script include Description
    DocumentManagement Contains the main logics for the Managed Documents plugin.
    DocumentManagementDB Contains methods to perform CRUD operations on the database.
    DocumentManagementSecurity Helps manage the security of the Managed Documents system.
    DocumentManagementAjax Updates the details of the temporary revision that is created when opening the upload/check in revision form.
    DocumentAttachmentAjax Renames an attachment file.
    DocumentRevisionWorkflowHelper Helps perform basic workflow operations on a revision.
    DocumentManagementApprovalMatcher Helps obtain the user and group approvers for a document that matches approval rules.
    DocumentApproverHelper Contains logics to handle document approvers.
    DocumentManagementUtils Useful methods.
    DocumentReferenceQualifiers Static methods that return reference qualifiers.
    Table 4. Client script that is added to sys_script_client
    Rule Description
    Document type change Updates the name format field in the revision settings section of the document. Each type has a default name format.

    Roles

    This plugin introduces two new roles:

    Table 5. Roles
    Role Description
    document_management_user This role enables a user to access the Managed Documents plugin, create documents, and search for documents. Document reviewers and approvers need the document_management_user role to access the Managed Document plugin. (Please note that reviewers and approvers can also access a document revision from an approval record.)
    document_management_admin This role enables a user to change administrative settings for the Managed Documents plugin.
    Note:
    Each document has individual permissions, so even if a user is given the document_management_user role and has permissions to the application, the user can only view documents to which they have been given access.