Contents
	What is Profile Validation
	Important Considerations for Administrators
	Examples of Custom Profile Fields with Validation Tables
	Inactive Records in Lookup Tables
	Incremental Lookup Table Updates
	Creating Data Files Without Parent/Child Links
	Creating Data Files With Parent/Child Links
	Uploading a Data File
	Rules for Validation Table Files
	Upload Time Benchmarks for Large Lookup Tables

What is Profile Validation  

By using validation tables for profile fields, Cabinet members are able to select only the values predetermined by a firm, such as a list of clients for the Client field, firm authors for the Author field, etc.  This makes it impossible for a user to profile a client document with ABC as the client name and another user to profile a document with ABC Corp as the client name.  By using Profile values, tagging and locating documents with searching and categories becomes a simple yet powerful option.
 

Important Considerations for Administrators  

• Administrators can create custom profile attributes that use lookup tables for validation. In addition, profile attributes can be linked, a parent/child relationship. For example, suppose the administrator created two custom fields - Client Name and Matter with Matter being linked as a the child to Client Name. The administrator has also created a lookup table that defines matters related to each client name. Hence, if a user selects ABC Corporation from the Client Name lookup table, because the user selected ABC Corporation, the Matter field lookup table will show only matters related to ABC Corporation.

• Each profile attribute that has been defined to use a lookup table requires a unique, uploaded file.  One exception is where an attribute is linked to another. For example, if you have two profile attributes, Client Name and Matter, you will need to upload a data file for Client Name and another file for Matter. However, if you defined Matter to be linked to Client Name, you will use a single data file with two lookup tables in different columns. This Help text describes how to configure a data file using lookup tables for both instances.

• Data files often will have more than 100 records. If the file contains fewer than 100, the profile field uses a dropdown box listing all these entries. If the table contains more than 100 values, the lookup button will display as a "..." button and will require the user to enter a lookup criteria. For example, no entries will appear. So the user will need to enter a number or letter for a list of entries to be displayed. Entering an "L" will display all table entries, up to 100, that begin with "L" but no others. All entries will appear without a search only if there are 20 or fewer entries. This is done for performance reasons where some firms have tens of thousands of entries to select from.

• Lookup tables can have descriptions. Description column values are NOT indexed for searching. However, NetDocuments will include the description following the actual field entry. So if an entry is ABC Corporation and the description for this entry is XYZ Parent Company, the field will display ABC Corporation - XYZ Parent Company for the Client Name field. This may mislead one to think that entire string is searchable, but only the ABC Corporation portion is indexed and can be searched.

• Lookup tables are loaded from data files in a comma-delimited ASCII format. Tab-delimited files are not accepted. Commas may be used in row values. If you use a text file and you have commas in your values, you will need to use quotes. For example, if your lookup value will be Doe, John, your text file will need quotes around it, otherwise, John will be considered part of a second column. Use "Doe, John" to include a comma in the value.
  
  Tips for using leading zeros for client/matter numbers when using CSV tables.
  - Don't ever open a CSV that you plan on later uploading to NetDocuments.
  - Don't download a current table and upload it back to NetDocuments.
  
  To place leading zeros on a column, right click on the column heading and select Format cells.  Then select Custom under the number tab.  Then on the Type field enter the number of zeros that you want to fill with and click OK at the bottom of the dialog. 
  
  Remember if your numbers have leading zeros, do not open the CSV table again before you upload it.  Otherwise you will lose the leading zeros.

• In the Help pages under Sample Tables and Utilities menu item are several sample files to help you prepare the Profile tables for NetDocuments.  These files are already defined as CSV files.  Just use them to add your own data.  FYI, for smaller tables, you could use NotePad, but for consistency, we recommend that they all be CSV files created using Excel. 

• Lookup tables do not support the use of Date as the custom attribute type. Attempts to do so will result in an error message.

• A profile attribute can be designated such that only internal users can see all of the values in its lookup table. When editing the attribute select the "hide lookup table from external users" checkbox.
   

Administration of Custom Profile Fields with Validation Tables 

NetDocuments provides Repository Administrators a simple process to upload data files used for profile validation. The process to create custom profile fields with validation lists is as follows:

1. Define custom field names and select the lookup table option for those that require validation

2. Create a comma-delimited data file containing lookup values

3. Upload the document through the custom attributes definition page.  After starting this process, the user will be sent an email when the upload has completed.

Creating  Upload files 

A data file for a profile attribute can have 1-3 columns of information, the first column is required, each used for different purposes.  Values in the first column are what Cabinet users lookup for editing a document's profile when looking up a Client.  This is also the only column that is indexed for searching.  Values in the second column, if used, provides a description for the indexed values in the first column.  This is optional and the values are not indexed for searching.  A third column option is to flag inactive records. 

Note the description column header must use the Custom Attribute name followed by either "2",  " Desc", as shown above, or “Description”.

Creating Upload file with linked Profile Attributes

Here is the upload file format for uploading “linked" Profile Attributes. Prior to uploading this file you will need to go into Repository Administration| Custom Profile Fields and link the child to the parent, like Matter to Client.  Your upload file will have between 2 – 5 columns, see examples below.  The “Closed” column is optional.

  If descriptions are included and the file is created in Excel, it would look like this.
 

  If there are no descriptions and the file is created in Notepad, it would look like this.
  Remember there has to be a comma after the first heading and also after each value
  in the first column as shown and also the column headings have to be spelled
  exactly the same as you spelled your Profile attributes. Your Notepad file can be
  named anything.

Example Data File for Linked Attributes without  descriptions named "Client" and "Matter".
Column Header		Client,	Matter	Matter CLOSED (Optional column - Explained in a section below)
Data Record		ABC Corp,	1009
		ABC Corp,	1010
		XYZ Corp,	2009
		XYZ Corp,	2020

 

Creating Upload file with Profile Attribute based security

The syntax for the security column is as follows: [<groupname>|<ACL permission>*U:user email address |<ACL permission].  The ACL always needs to be in all upper-case. Make sure the profile attribute has been configured for profile-based security on the specific profile field. 

The more common Profile fields which security is based on is Matter or Author.  Prior to implementing Profile Based Security you will need to map out your scenario to make sure what you want to implement will work in your environment. Here are some examples of using the access column:

Things to remember when using Profile-based security:

Rights inheritance from folders - If you use Profile-based security, we do not recommend that you check the Cabinet Administration box for "documents to inherit rights from folders".  If you do this, whenever a document is moved to a folder, the rights will change to that folder, even after the Profile-based security rights have been applied.
 

Cabinet No Default Access - We suggest that when using Profile-based security, that you make the cabinet default for the groups who have access to the cabinet, have either "No default access" or perhaps "View" access.  When a Profile-based value is entered for a document, the cabinet default is not removed.  If you have set all of the default groups to have "no default access" then any rights they are given using a Profile-based security value will take precedence.

No individual rights - Be careful using individuals in the Profile-based security definitions because if you manually add someone to an access list for a document or folder, then apply a Profile value that is rights based, the individual who has been explicitly entered, will not be changed or removed.  Also, any individual who is added using a Profile based security value, will not be changed or removed, if that Profile value is subsequently changed.  NOTE: If you are initially importing documents into NetDocuments from another document management system, you will need to assign individuals as owners of documents.

"No Access" Rights - When you give a user or group "No Access" rights for a document or a folder, using the Profile-based security, the No Access will trump any other rights they may have been given.

Absolute Rights - When using Profile-based security as described above, it is "additive" to the cabinet default or what the security is currently set to.  You can also use an absolute security model, which will change what is there and replace it with the absolute security.  For each row in your table where you want to use absolute security, precede it with an exclamation mark as follows:  !Finance|VES*Legal|V*U:john.smith@aircraft.com|VES

Inactive Records in Lookup Tables 

Values in lookup tables often may need to change as administrators upload the firm's most current table values, especially for fields such as Client Name or Matter.  Suppose your firm closed a matter for a client.  The client's documents related to that matter will still exist in NetDocuments, and are profiled with that matter name.  To keep document's profiled for inactive matter names and to search on those matters again for future reference, administrators should leave all closed matters in the lookup table for each upload.  Do this by flagging the matter line as inactive using the syntax shown in the table below.  Inactive values remain available for searching but are no longer listed in lookup tables when editing a document's profile or creating a new document. 

To flag inactive records:

1. In your data file, add another column heading using the configurable attribute name with [ Closed] appended to it. For example [Matter, Matter Closed].
   NetDocuments stores the closed column as a date.  If the column data begins with a date in either M/D/Y or Y-M-D format, that specific date is used.  If the column data does not begin with a recognized date, the current date is recorded (at the time of import) if the column contains “true”, “y”, or “yes” and record an empty value otherwise. (This supports source data systems that only record a Boolean open/closed value rather than a closing date.)
    

   Example Data File
   Column Header		Client,	Matter,	Matter CLOSED
   Data Record		ABC Corp,	Pension Fund,	Yes
   		ABC Corp,	Employee Retirement,
   		ABC Corp,	401k Plan,	Yes
   		XYZ Corp,	Patents & Trademarks,
   		XYZ Corp,	Legislation,	Yes

To upload your data file: 

1. From the Repository Administration page, click on Customize profile fields

2. Click on Upload lookup tables

3. Select whether the data file is an Update, Delete, or Replace type file

4. Locate the data file by clicking on Browse...

5. Choose OK.  When the upload has completed, the user will be sent an email confirming that the upload completed.
    

Tip for using CSV tables with leading zeros for client/matter numbers.
- Don't ever open a CSV that you plan on later uploading to NetDocuments.
- Don't download a current table that you plan on uploading back to NetDocuments.
- When creating a new file in Excel, save it as a .txt file to upload to NetDocuments.

Important: For larger data files, please do not upload these during peak office hours so that it does not adversely affect users.  Preferably upload large tables at the end of the day, or break the file up into smaller pieces. 
 

Incremental Lookup Table Updates 

 Once the original table has been loaded only the changes are required.  In that case, use the Update option to incrementally update the table information. The process is the same "To Upload your data file" except you would select "Update". Selecting Update will only add new Profile data and modify any existing profile data.

Delete Lookup Table Data

The process is the same “To upload your data file” except you would select “Delete.”  Selecting delete will delete all the profile data for the profile fields in the list.

Rules for Validation Table Files 

Data files must begin with a header row containing the column names. The column name for the primary column is the name of the custom attribute. A secondary column name is the same as primary column names with either “2”, or “ Desc” appended to it. These are mandatory options. No other heading is acceptable.

Note: Description text is NOT indexed, therefore not searchable.
 

Upload Time Benchmarks 

Upload time will always vary based on your connection speed and the reliability of the bandwidth provided by your service provider. Our tests over a T1 line consistently show that a 50,000 line text file will take between 10-15 minutes from start to finish.