Object lifecycles are the sequences of states (In Review, Approved, etc.) that an object record can go through during its life. An object lifecycle must have at least two states but can have up to 100 if needed.
Not all objects use lifecycles. Objects without lifecycles simply have a status of Active or Inactive. For objects that do use lifecycles, each state is tied to Active or Inactive status.
For information on entry actions and user actions, see Configuring Entry Criteria, Entry Actions, and User Actions for Object Lifecycle States.
Accessing Lifecycles
Lifecycles are visible and editable from Admin > Configuration > Object Lifecycles. You must have the correct Admin permissions through your security profile to create and modify object lifecycles.
The Object Lifecycles page lists all lifecycles currently in the system. You can create new lifecycles by clicking Create or edit an existing lifecycle by clicking the lifecycle’s name. Once you’ve clicked into a lifecycle, you can also click into a specific lifecycle state. From here, you can set up entry and user actions for a specific state.
About Inactive & Active Lifecycle Status
Lifecycle states and lifecycles themselves have a status flag to indicate Active or Inactive. This flag allows you to build all the artifacts for the lifecycle before making it visible to users. Any change to an active lifecycle is immediately visible to all users.
How to Create Object Lifecycles
To create a new object lifecycle:
- Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Object Lifecycles.
- Click Create.
- Enter a Label and Name. The label appears to users throughout the Vault. The name identifies the lifecycle through the API.
- Optional: Enter a Description. This value only appears in the lifecycle configuration pages.
- Click Save.
- Define states, including any entry actions or user actions, for the lifecycle. See details below.
- Click Edit and select an Initial state. This determines which state Vault will assign to a new object record.
- Optional: Select a Complete state. This determines which state Vault will assign to an object record that has reached the end of its lifecycle.
How to Enable Lifecycles for Objects
To enable an object lifecycle:
- Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Objects.
- Click into details for the object that should use the new lifecycle.
- Click Edit, select the new Lifecycle, and click Save.
Note: Once you’ve selected a lifecycle for an object and saved the object configuration, you cannot remove the lifecycle if object records exist for that object.
How to Define States
When you create a new object lifecycle, Vault automatically creates two states (Active and Inactive) and associates them with the Active and Inactive statuses. You can reuse these default states by renaming them or creating new states. You won’t be able to delete the default states until you’ve set up at least one other state that corresponds to Active status and one that corresponds to Inactive status.
To define lifecycle states:
- Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Object Lifecycles and click into a specific lifecycle.
- From the States section, click Create.
- Enter a State Label and State Name. The label appears to users throughout the Vault. The name identifies the state through the API.
- If the new state corresponds with Inactive status, select the Records in this state become inactive checkbox.
- Select an option from the Workflow Cancel State picklist. You can select any state configured on the lifecycle, No State Change, or State in which workflow started (default). See additional details below.
- Optional: Select Do not execute entry actions for workflow cancel state to skip all entry actions when a record enters the configured workflow cancel state.
- Optional: Enter a Description. This value only appears in the lifecycle configuration pages.
- Click Save.
- Optional: Click into the new state to define any entry actions or user actions. Records will not be able to change states unless you configure user actions.
Note: When an object uses a lifecycle, users can no longer switch object records between Active and Inactive by editing the records. You must configure user actions or workflows that allow users to change the record’s lifecycle state.
About Object State Types
For each object lifecycle, there are two state types associated with the object by default: Initial and Complete. These state types appear in the State Types section of the object lifecycle details page. You can also create custom object state types. You must create a state type association in the State Types section to link the state types to a configured lifecycle state.
Object state types may be required or optional. The Initial state is required, while the Complete state type is optional and does not have to be linked to a lifecycle state.
How to Associate an Object State Type with a State
To associate an object lifecycle state with an object state type:
- Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Object Lifecycles > [Lifecycle].
- In the State Types section, click Create.
- Select a State Type from the drop-down.
- Select a State to associate with the state type.
- Click Save.
Lifecycle Stages & Stage Groups
Lifecycle Stages allow organizations to group document and object lifecycle states into ordered collections of stages. Vault then visually represents a document or object record’s current stage in the Doc Info page and object record detail page through the Lifecycle Stages Chevron panel. Learn more about configuring lifecycle stages.
About Atomic Security
Atomic Security allows you to secure object fields, actions, and relationships by individual lifecycle state or assigned roles on an object record. Learn more about configuring atomic security.
System-Managed Objects
Vault does not allow you to assign lifecycles on system-managed objects (Performance Statistics, etc.). If an object is system-managed, its Details tab shows System-managed: Records managed by the System.