For each document lifecycle, there are “state type” definitions which must be linked to a configured lifecycle state. The linked states then have some specialized behaviors. For example, Vault doesn’t allow users to delete a document in its lifecycle’s Steady state. Learn about state type rules below.
State Types
The following standard state types are available in all vaults:
- Starting State: Depending on your configuration, either all documents or some documents start in this state. This state is typically called Draft or In Process, but could be Approved if the lifecycle includes only approved documents. With some configurations, documents will start in Planned state. Learn about Planned and Starting states below.
- Steady State: Documents that are in production and available for use have this state. This state is typically Approved or Effective.
- Superseded State: Documents that have been archived or replaced by a new version. This state is typically Archived or Superseded.
- Obsolete State: Documents that have reached the end of their lifecycle or have retired document numbers. This state is typically called Obsolete or Retired.
- Deleted State: Documents that are not available for use but should not yet be fully deleted.
Document Workflow State Types
Document workflows use an additional set of system state types. These are specifically designed for multi-document workflows to move documents to new lifecycle states based on the Content Action document workflow step.
- Multi-Doc Workflow: Pre-Approval: Documents are currently in a pre-approval state.
- Multi-Doc Workflow: Approved: Documents in the workflow that are approved.
- Multi-Doc Workflow: Rejected: Documents have failed the review process and are rejected.
Batch Approval State Types
An additional set of state types is available on Vaults that use Batch Approval. These are needed for the Batch Approval feature to move documents to new lifecycle states based on actions on related Batch object records.
- In Review: Documents that are currently in review. This state type has no special behaviors.
- Rejected: Documents that have failed their review process. This state type has no special behaviors.
How to Define State Types
State type definitions can be set up and edited from the lifecycle details page. To see or edit these definitions, navigate to Admin > Configuration > Document Lifecycles > [Lifecycle]. To modify these settings, you must have a security profile with the Admin: Lifecycles and Workflows permissions.
Rules for State Types
There are rules and specialized behaviors built into Vault for specific state types.
Starting State:
- All new documents and binders (except Planned documents) have this state automatically.
- The new document version created by the Create Draft action has this state automatically.
Steady State:
- Users cannot delete documents in this state. (Users with the Power Delete permission may override this rule.)
- If using the entry action option Set previous steady state to superseded, when a document changes status, all versions of the document currently in this state automatically move to the superseded state.
Superseded State:
- If using the entry action option Set previous steady state to superseded, when a document changes status, all versions of the document currently in the steady state automatically move to this state.
Obsolete State:
- When a document moves to this state (via the Make Obsolete action or another custom action), all versions of the document also move to the obsolete state. Vault only applies entry criteria and entry actions to the latest version of the document.
Deleted State:
- The Deleted state type is not tied to any special behavior in the current release, but will be used in future features.
About Starting State & Planned State
For the Vault as a whole and for each lifecycle, Admins can decide whether certain documents start in Planned state or in the lifecycle’s Starting state. For documents to begin in Planned state, the following must be true:
- In Admin > Settings > General Settings, the Create new documents as Planned feature must be enabled.
- For the document’s or binder’s lifecycle, the standard Planned state must be active.
When the above are true, Vault follows the rules below when creating documents or binders:
- Placeholders: Begin in Planned state
- Binders: Begin in Planned state
- Documents created from document templates: Begin in Planned state
- Documents created from binder templates: Begin in Planned state
- Documents created from uploaded file: Begin in Starting state
- Documents created as CrossLinks: Begin in Starting state
If your Vault does not have the Create new documents as Planned setting enabled, only documents created through binder templates will use Planned state. Even with the setting enabled, any document or binder with a lifecycle that does not include Planned state will use the Starting state instead.