There are two primary ways to manually file records into Records Center Libraries. One way is a manual upload. To do this you navigate to the Records Center Library where your want to declare the record and select ‘Upload’. This process will allow you to copy a document from anywhere it resides into the SharePoint Records Library you are in. You can apply a Content Type to the uploaded document and add whatever metadata is required.
The other option for manually filing a record is to use the ‘Send to Records Center’ feature. (It’s important to note that this feature is limited to documents maintained in SharePoint Libraries and not available for documents stored in other locations.)
To use the ‘Send To…’ option, you have to configure the Records Routing Table to recognize the Content Type of the document you are sending to the Records Center and direct it to the proper Records Center Library. Here’s how you do that.
In the Records Center, click on ‘Record Routing’ in the Lists column.
In the Record Routing list page, click on ‘New’ and select ‘New Item’.
Give the List entry a title and description. Under ‘Location’ enter the exact name of the destination Library in the Records Center for these records. Next, enter the name of the Content Type. (If there are more than one Content Types going to this Library, enter them all and separate them with a forward slash (/).)
Click ‘OK’ and the new Record Routing Table entry has been created.
Now, using the example above, anytime you want to declare a Budget Content Type document a record, you can use the ‘Send To…’ option and it will automatically be classified in the ‘Financial Statements’ Records Center Library.
January 13, 2009 at 8:28 pm
[...] I should note that this process assumes you configured the Records Routing process properly. If you get the confirmation above, but can’t find the new record in its intended Records Center Library, check the ‘Unclassified Records’ Library. You probably didn’t configure the routing process correctly. Review Records Routing here. [...]
January 16, 2009 at 12:34 am
Also worth noting that if you manually upload, you bypass some of the routing facilities such as appending a unique identifier on the end of record names (for uniqueness, in case the same filename was declared as a record in that library/folder) and the audit info/metadata parsing to extract the sidecar xml documents doesn’t happen either. Not much way around this unless you write code to route uploaded documents to the router to verify consistent filing, but worth knowing what you lose from a manual upload.
January 16, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Sean,
Thanks, it’s always nice to hear from someone on the ‘inside’ at Microsoft.
You make a very good point and bring up what is arguably the major distinction between using the Records Router and a manual upload. While the unique identifier and the audit information and metadata documents may not necessarily be a requirement for some organizations, they can still provide tremendous value and are worth preserving when possible.
I plan to write a post in the near future describing the contents of the audit information and metadata documents. Keep an eye open for it. I’d certainly appreciate your comments.