Records Center in SharePoint

The first time I got a requirement to work on a Records Center I should say to people who have not done that, you should go through it because it has hidden awesome features that we normally do in a different way in Document Libraries.

So after completing my requirements I thought, why not share it with my readers, so here it is.

Records Center in Share Point 2010

People who have read my articles have come to understand that I am a detailed writer with plenty of screen shots so in the same way here it is.

First let's create a Records Center with a site template named Records Center.

 

Once it is created as mentioned “Welcome to Records Center”.



If you go to the site features then you will see the following features activated:

• Content Organizer
• E-mail Integration with Content Organizer
• Hold and e Discovery
• Metadata Navigation and Filtering
• Offline Synchronization for External Lists
• SharePoint Server Enterprise Site features
• SharePoint Server Standard Site features
• Team Collaboration Lists

Now click on the site actions; you will see a new link as in the following Manage Records Center:

 

It will open up this page:

 

 

This contains links to create a content types directly on the page itself.

Then we have a link called Create Record libraries.



Then Create Content Organizer Rules

Then we have a Design the Site welcome page that opens up the page to be designed using a Designer or by editing the page.

The initials View All Site Contents looks like this when you create a Records Center site:

 

The major features of a Records Center site is activated by activating the In place Records Management feature in the Site Collections features.

Then we have the following in the Manage Records Center page:

Now the main question is, why is it different from a Document Library of a team site where even that recoreds the documents?

So I have your answer in questions.

Can it move a record directly to another section without a Workflow?

Can it move a record directly to the recycle bin without a Workflow?

Can it delete the item without a Workflow?

Can it delete all previous versions without a Workflow?

Can it move it to a new step without a Workflow?

The answer is no, they cannot but the best part is a Records Center can. How? Let's see.

You have a direct link to submit a record.

 

Once you click on the button, upload your file. It can be anything like an image, document or text.

 

So once I save it, it shows me the following notification.

 

 

 

 

Now the main trick starts, since once when you upload a document, on the top of the library you will see a button for Declare Record .

 

 

 

 

 

Once you click that button the specific item is seen like a lock attached to it.

 

After clicking this button it processes various functions like the ones below.

Now your question is how?

Go to the Site Collection features, then click on the Record Declaration settings.

 

You will get the following page.

Make the default declaration as available depending on your requirements in the site collection level or only on that specific site.

No go to that Records library:

• List Settings
• Content Type
• Click on Document
• Click on the Information Management policy settings

 

You will find the following views:



The first is Retention and Schedule of how the content is managed and disposed of by specifying a sequence of retention stages. If you specify multiple stages, each stage will occur one after the other in the order they appear on this page.

Note: If the Library and Folder Based Retention feature is active, list administrators can override content type policies with their own retention schedules. To prevent this, deactivate the feature on the site collection.

This is where you can assign a function to the item you want to do when declaring that as a record.

Like the following ones:

• Move to Recycle Bin
• Permanently Delete
• Transfer to another location like to some other lists or Document Library.
• Start a workflow
• Skip to next stage
• Delete previous draft versions
• Delete all previous versions

 

These can be also done with a time frame.

Next what we have is Auditing where you can specify the events that should be audited for documents and items subject to this policy.

You can specify the events to audit while opening or downloading documents, viewing items in lists, or viewing item properties.

Editing items

Checking out or checking in items

Moving or copying items to another location in the site

Deleting or restoring items

Next we have Barcodes

Assigns a barcode to each document or item. Optionally, Microsoft Office applications can require users to insert these barcodes into documents.

Lastly we have Labels.

You can add a label to a document to ensure that important information about the document is included when it is printed. To specify the label, type the text you want to use in the "Label format" box. You can use any combination of fixed text or document properties, except calculated or built-in properties such as GUID or CreatedBy. To start a new line, use the \n character sequence.






So if we see, we actually waste a lot of time doing these activities in normal Team sites but if we switch ourselves to Records Center we can save a lot of time and provide a better new approach to our clients.

So keep learning.

Cheers !!