Documents are, and always have been, very important in the operation of organizations and companies of all sizes. From annual reports to white papers, from employee and customer records to invoices and sales documents, it is often essential that organizations manage their documents efficiently.

EPiServer helps you manage your documents efficiently due to two major factors:

• integration with Microsoft Office applications
• built-in support for document version control.

Key Features

Some of the main features that EPiServer has to aid the management of documents are:

• Integration with Microsoft Office enabling files to be opened in Office programs from EPiServer's File Manager.
• Check out and check in files easily from the File Manager.
• Files can be checked in directly from Microsoft Office via a menu option in the EPiServer menu.
• View a file's version history, enabling you to see who has changed the file and when.

The Microsoft Office integration requires that the user downloads and installs a client application on the local machine, which makes it possible to publish from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint to EPiServer. When the client application has been installed, an EPiServer toolbar will appear.

Different users work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint in different ways, which is why it is also possible to publish to EPiServer in several different ways.

Publish and Forget

It is common to start writing a document in Word and later realize that you want to move the content to your Web site. Without the Office integration, you would have to copy the content and paste it into the EPiServer Editor, perhaps resulting in lost images, links and/or other formatting, depending on how you copied and pasted.

The Office integration allows you to create a new page inside EPiServer, keeping image links, hyperlinks and formatting intact. The level of HTML cleaning is set by the system administrator.

Publish and Republish Master Documents

Companies and organizations that publish a large amount of Office-based material on the Web, e.g. reports, white papers or financial reports, can use the Office integration to publish the information. The originals are stored in either a common folder or in Windows SharePoint, letting all users share and work with the same documents. Each published document will store its publishing location on the Web site, so that when the material is updated and republished, the information will be republished in the correct place.

Publish New Material Based on Old Documents

A lot of people use an old document as a template when they want to create and publish a new document. If the user wants to repeatedly add information to the Web site using the same original, this can also be done using EPiServer's Office integration. However, each time a document is published, the user can decide whether the document should update the old EPiServer page or if it should add a new page.

Work Remote and Publish When Connected

Some people often work outside the office. With the Office integration, it is possible to create pages in Word, Excel or PowerPoint when you are offline and publish, or update, them later on when you are connected again.

The Microsoft Office integration supports different publishing formats. As standard, the publishing method will create:

• a rich HTML version, like the one created by Office
• a clean HTML version

The integration will also add the original document to the page file folder. The format you use depends on your requirements and the Office program that you publish from.

Using Microsoft Word to publish a standard Web page, you can typically use the clean HTML version. An exception could be if you want to show detailed documents in a way that does not differ much from how they are displayed in Word. In this case, publishing and using the Document page type will allow you to display the rich HTML version and also make the original .doc file available for download.

Using Microsoft Excel you can use either the clean HTML version, for an integrated Web look, or the Document page type to display the rich HTML version and make the original .xls file available in the case of more extensive or detailed documents.

Using Microsoft PowerPoint you would probably prefer the rich HTML version, publishing it by selecting the Document page type, and show it in a new window (or use the original .ppt file). This is because the rich HTML version of PowerPoint also makes it possible to include slide shows. In the clean HTML version the PowerPoint slides will only be shown as pictures.

An example of how the Document page type can be used is displayed below. A document list can be created in EPiServer, listing the documents that have been published corresponding to this list. From this list, the visitor can download a copy of the original document in Office format.

Clicking a document title link in the list will display the rich HTML version of the document in a document-like context. The document can also be opened in a new window from here.

EPiServer's open application programming interface (API), Unified File System, allows you to connect appropriate file management systems to manage files in EPiServer. This open API means that there are several .NET interfaces that can be implemented and registered in EPiServer to manage, for example "/myfiles", on a Web site that can be used for linking and file management in EPiServer. This API includes support for file versioning operations such as check in and check out.

EPiServer's version control helps you keep track of your files and allows them to be held in a central place with monitored access. All changes that are made are tracked, along with information about any changes that have been made.

EPiServer's version control is accessed via EPiServer's File Manager. Files are added to the File Manager by either right-clicking from within the File Manager or by dragging-and dropping files from Windows Explorer. EPiServer's File Manager can be easily opened from the toolbar.

Check Out and Check In

When you check out a file, it is locked so that nobody else can edit the file while you are working with it. It is, however, possible for others to view the most recently checked-in version of a file (that may be currently checked out by someone else) by simply double-clicking the file from the File Manager. When you have finished editing the file, check it into EPiServer's version control, and, if you like, add a comment about the changes that you have made. It's as simple as that!

It is also possible to cancel the checkout of any files that you have checked out and then not made any changes to. This means that you are not forced to create a new version of the file when you haven't changed it.

Integration with Microsoft Office

EPiServer's version control functionality is integrated with Microsoft Office so that it is possible to edit files in any Microsoft Office program directly from the File Manager. When you have checked out a file, right-click and select Edit in Office to automatically open the appropriate Office program. Check in the changed file again directly from the Office program using the Check in toolbar button.

Version History

All the updated versions of a file that have been checked in are saved in the version control system and it is easy to view the history of a file by right-clicking from the File Manager and selecting Version History. It is also possible to restore a previous version of a file so that it is the main version displayed in the File Manager.

Metadata

The metadata for a file can be edited and shown directly from the File Manager by using the right-click menu options. Metadata cannot be edited if the file is checked out by another user.

This chapter contains two usage scenarios outlining how EPiServer's version control can be used.

Project Manager Responsible for Many Documents

Imagine that you are a project manager with 50 project members and over 30 project documents. Most of the documents are updated by all project members, although you are responsible for the documents concerning the project plan. Some documents are the responsibility of sub-project managers, but you must be able to track all the project documents. It is important that you know which documents have been updated, when they were last updated and the changes that were made. The majority of the documents are Microsoft Office documents.

You want to edit the project plan, for which you are responsible. The project plan is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can easily lock the project plan so that it cannot be edited by other project members by checking out the document from EPiServer's File Manager. The document is then only available for other project members to view until you have made your changes and checked in the document.

You can then quickly and easily open the Excel file from the File Manager by right-clicking and selecting Edit in Office. When you have finished editing the file in Microsoft Excel, you can check in the file directly from Excel by clicking Check in in the EPiServer toolbar. When you check in the document, you are given the opportunity to enter a comment explaining the changes that you made to the document. This makes it easier for other project members to understand the changes that have been made to a document and perhaps determine whether they need to print a new version of the document. The comments can be viewed by all project members from the File Manager by selecting Version History.

1. 2.  3.

1. Check out a document from the File Manager.
2. Open the document that has been checked out by selecting Edit in Office from the File Manager.
3. View the version history for a file from the File Manager.

Project Members Creating New Document Versions

Imagine that you are a project member working in several sub-projects and that you will be updating several project documents. You want to be able to create a working version of some of the project documents so that you can work with them on your numerous business trips on the train. This is easily done by downloading some of the project documents to your computer, editing them and then saving them as new versions.

All you have to do is follow the easy steps below:

1. Download the file to your computer by double-clicking the file from the File Manager. This will open the file in a viewer. Edit the document and save the changed file on your computer by using the Save As function under the File menu. You can also save the file when prompted when you close the window.
2. Open the File Manager and right-click the document that you have changed. Select Create New Version from the right-click menu and browse to the changed file that you have saved on your computer. Enter the comment that you want to be available in the version history and click OK. The version history for the file is updated with the new comment. View the version history by right-clicking the file in question and selecting Version History.

Open Architecture

The Microsoft Office integration is built on the fact that different companies and users may have slightly different needs. It is, therefore, possible to modify some of the behavior of the standard solution. It is also possible to add functionality both on the client side and on the server side. This makes it possible for developers to create a customized solution for almost every need.

Security Issues

The version control system differs slightly from other EPiServer pages in that file versions can be read as long as the user has Read access. (EPiServer requires Edit access.) However, versions that have been checked out can only be edited by the person that has checked the file.

Standards

XForms, which is the standard followed by EPiServer's forms management, is used when working with metadata in files handled with EPiServer's version control system.

System Requirements

The Microsoft Office integration has the following system requirements:

• EPiServer 4.40 or later
• Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP as operating system
• Microsoft Office XP / 2002 or Microsoft Office 2003

Installation of Service Pack 2 or later is also required.