DMS & ECM Interface#

Understanding the DMS & ECM Interface#

The DMS & ECM interface creates a generic interface between the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central¹ and various DMS and ECM systems.

In the first step, the systems Microsoft¹ SharePoint Online and Hyland Saperion ECM² will be connected. This is followed by the integration of ELO Digital Office³. By providing an interface structure, the interface is generally able to connect other systems and thus provide the integration generically.

The interface can be used to display structured document displays in the master and transaction data of Business Central, as well as to store data-related documents in a structured way in a simple and convenient way. Furthermore, any documents and reports from the ERP system can be automatically stored in the document management system.

Supported DMS & ECM Systems#

Currently, the following systems are supported:

• Microsoft¹ SharePoint Online (using the MS Graph API)

• Hyland Saperion ECM²

The connection of ELO Digital Office³ is currently being planned.

Structure & Basic Principles of the Interface#

Since the interface was created generically and therefore no manufacturer-dependent features of the DMS & ECM systems had to be taken into account, the basic structuring of the setup parameters as well as the use of the interface is always identical regardless of the DMS/ECM system.

In order to better understand the processes and structures, the basic principle of the different definitions to be set up is explained below. The setup of the connection itself will follow in the chapter Installation & Setup.

Storage Definitions#

Storage definition, as the name suggests, describes the type and properties of how documents for each Business Central record are to be stored.

On the one hand, this refers to document storage via "Drag & Drop" and on the other hand to the automatic archiving of documents from Business Central (e.g. via report archiving).

The storage definitions are always based on an underlying table from Business Central (for example, table number 18 for customer records). For further limitations, filters can be set to the respective table, so that different definitions can be created for overarching tables (e.g. table number 36 - sales header) in which different data is stored. If required, several storage definitions can also be created for each table in order to be able to cover certain sub-areas.

In the storage definitions, the directory or directory path for storing the data is also stored. In addition, a folder structure for the manual selection of subdirectories can be stored during storage.

Finally, the storage definition includes the assignment of the index terms from the DMS / ECM system to the fields or functions from Business Central. This is where you can specify which index terms are to be assigned automatically or manually by the user for each document.

Search Definitions#

The search definitions are used to store a dynamic assignment of the search criteria and the settings for the document search.

The search definitions are also always based on an underlying table from Business Central (for example, table number 18 for customer records).

In addition to the basic settings, the index fields for filtering and the directories to be searched are set up here.

Display Definitions#

In addition to the general display settings, the display definitions determine which index terms are to be displayed in the document list in Business Central. Furthermore, groupings for the hierarchical classification of documents can be defined here.