For many organizations, there are various updates that need to occur consistently on documents when they enter a new lifecycle state. For example, an organization may want to remove annotations when a document goes into Approved state so that annotations are not exposed to auditors. Vault provides a set of configurable system actions called “entry actions” to fulfill this need. You can set up entry actions for each individual lifecycle state.
Accessing Entry Action Administration
You can configure entry actions for a specific lifecycle state from Admin > Configuration > Document Lifecycles > [Lifecycle] > States > [State] > Entry Actions. You must have a security profile with the Admin: Lifecycles and Workflows permissions.
Action Types
A variety of entry actions are available. Depending on the action selected, there may be additional options to set.
Delete annotation comments
Deletes note and line annotations, and document-level comments from the current version of the document and all other minor versions within the same major version. This action does not delete link annotations or anchors. For example, if the document has versions 0.1, 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2, this would delete annotations from 1.1 and 1.2, but not 0.1 or 1.0. If this action is configured with the Set new major version action, this would delete annotations from the prior major version. For example, when a document moves from 0.3 to 1.0 with the state change, Vault deletes annotations from 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3.
Delete minor versions
Deletes all minor versions of the document between the current version and the last major version, including old source files. For example, in a document with versions 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, 0.3 would become 1.0 and then Vault would delete 0.1 and 0.2.
Delete minor versions except Planned
Deletes all minor versions of the document between the current version and the last major version (like Delete minor versions), with the exception of document versions in Planned state.
Obsolete existing Read & Understood tasks (QualityDocs & eTMF)
Cancels all open (not completed or canceled) Read & Understood user tasks for the document and marks them as Obsolete.
Send a notification
Sends an email and Vault notification to the selected users using the selected message. You must define the message before creating the entry action. When setting up the entry action, select groups, individual users, or document lifecycle roles as the Recipients for a notification.
Set CrossLink binding to explicit version
Sets the CrossLink version binding to explicitly bound upon entry to the state. If the CrossLink binding was set to the Latest Steady State version, it will set the binding to the actual version number that is the latest Steady state.
Set field using formula
Sets a document field to a value that Vault calculates, based on the defined entry action formula, at the time of the state change.
Set new major version
Updates the current document version number to a new major version. If the current version number is 3.5, the new version number after this action would be 4.0, and minor version 3.5 would no longer appear.
Set previous steady state to superseded
Locates the version of this document that is in the lifecycle’s Steady state (see Special States) and moves that version of the document to the Superseded state.
Set to blank if field has a value
Clears the selected document field.
Set to today if field has a no value
Sets the selected date field to the current date according to the Vault’s time zone, only if the selected field is currently blank.
Start Workflow
Automatically starts a document workflow. Select from an alphabetically ordered list of document workflows to start when they enter the lifecycle state. Only document workflows with Allow auto-start from entry action enabled are available for selection.
Note: If the workflow moves into the configured state due to a cancelation, the Start Workflow action will not execute.
Change related object lifecycle state
Moves the selected related object record to the state in its lifecycle that corresponds to the selected state type. This is available for object records related to the document by an object reference field that has Document Version Reference set to Latest Version. This entry action cannot be configured if Document Version Reference is set to Specific Version. Note that if the object record does not meet lifecycle state entry criteria, the object record’s lifecycle state does not change and Vault stops the workflow. See Configuring Object Lifecycles.
Supersede existing Read & Understood tasks (QualityDocs & eTMF)
Cancels all open (not completed or canceled) Read & Understood workflow tasks for the document and marks them as Superseded.
Check out to Microsoft Office
Checks a document out of a workflow and into Microsoft 365 for collaborative authoring.
Check in from Microsoft Office
Checks a document back into a workflow from a collaborative authoring session in Microsoft 365.
Cancel editing in Microsoft Office
Cancels a collaborative authoring session in Microsoft 365. Only applies after a document has been checked out from a workflow.
Custom Action
Your Vault may have additional custom actions which are not listed here. These actions are created by your organization with the Vault Java SDK to meet your specific business needs. Talk to your Vault Administrator to learn more about these actions.
Your Vault may have existing configurations that use one of the following entry actions. As of V12, these entry actions are not available for new configurations. You can use the Set field using formula option to accomplish the same effect.
- Increment value
- Increments the selected number type field by one (1).
- Set field to today
- Sets the selected date field to the current date according to the Vault’s time zone.
Note: Vault does not perform entry actions on the initial lifecycle state (Draft state in most cases) when users create a new document. However, if the document moves to another state, Vault will perform the entry action when the document moves back into the initial state. Vault does not perform entry actions when a user changes the state by selecting Create Draft from the Actions menu. For information on configuring event actions, which can occur when creating a new document, copying a document, or creating a draft of an existing document, see Defining Event Actions.
Details for Delete Minor Versions
When using the Delete minor versions entry action, keep the following in mind:
- If you are moving the document to a new major version and deleting minor versions, you must set up these two entry actions on the same lifecycle state.
- Use this entry action in conjunction with the Set new major version entry action. When these are configured on the same lifecycle state, Vault deletes minor versions first and then sets the major version. For example, in a document with versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, this configuration would delete 1.1 and 1.2, and then version 1.3 would become 2.0.
- If this entry action executes on a minor version that is not the latest version, it can delete more recent minor versions. For example, in a document with versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, executing the action on version 1.2 would delete 1.1 and 1.3.
- This entry action cannot delete documents with legal holds in document workflows.
Create Related Document or Binder Options
There are several fields available for configuring this action:
- Action Label
- Indicates how the user action appears to the user.
- Create a Document or a Binder
- Specify whether or not users will create a related document or binder.
- Document Type
- Specify the document type for the newly related document.
- Lifecycle
- Specify the lifecycle of the newly created document. Although document types are typically associated with a single lifecycle, this action allows you to associate multiple lifecycles. Vault only lists lifecycles that are valid for the specified document type.
- Choose Template
- This is an optional field that specifies a template to use when creating the document.
- Relationship Type
- Specify the relationship type used to relate the new document to the source document. Vault only lists valid relationship types based on the specified document type.
Using the Create Related Document or Binder user action does the following:
- Adds a prefix of Related Binder, Related Placeholder, or Related Template to the newly created document name (inherited from the source document). For example, Related Binder - My Presentation.
- Automatically sets matching field values from the source document to the related document. This is based on the action’s configuration. Note that non-populated required fields or mismatched data types will cause the action to fail.
- Executes asynchronously and sends a notification once the action is complete.
- Creates an outbound relationship from the created document to the source document. Vault bases this on the relationship type configured on the entry action.
How to Create Entry Actions
To add a new entry action rule for a lifecycle state:
- From the Entry Actions tab, click Edit.
- Click Create Entry Action.
- Optional: Add conditions to the entry action rule by selecting Perform with conditions.
- Under perform actions, select a criteria type.
- Select the action to perform and any other needed values. For example, with the Send a notification action, you need to select recipients and a message.
- Optional: Create more actions within the same rule by clicking Add action. If the rule is conditional, these actions share the same conditions.
- Click Save. The configured entry actions become active immediately, but do not affect documents that are already in the lifecycle state.
How to Define Conditions
Certain entry actions are only needed when the document meets a set of conditions. For example, you may need to set the MLR Start Date to the current date for US documents, but you would not need that entry action for UK documents, so the entry action would be conditional based on the document’s Country field.
To define conditions, select a document field, operator, and value. Some system fields and most fields associated with document types that use the lifecycle are available. If needed, you can define multiple conditions by clicking Add condition.
A document must meet all of the conditions defined within a rule for Vault to perform the entry actions. If a condition uses a field that does not apply to the document, Vault evaluates that condition as “false.”
How to Edit or Delete Entry Actions
To make changes to entry action rules, click Edit. If you need to delete an entire rule, a condition within a rule, or an action within a rule, click the X icon. When your changes are complete, click Save.
Entry Action Limits
For each lifecycle state, you can define up to 25 entry action rules. Within a rule, you can specify up to ten (10) entry actions. If a rule is conditional, it can have up to five (5) conditions.
Document Lifecycle entry actions are not executed sequentially, meaning traditional dependencies can’t exist between lifecycle entry actions within the same state. If a document lifecycle requires dependencies, we recommend using the Update Document Field step.