Professional SharePoint® 2007 Development

11.1. Understanding the Document Lifecycle

Effective document management requires an understanding of the document lifecycle and the transformations that can occur as a document moves from one phase to the next. The basic document lifecycle consists of three phases: creation, revision, and publication. Each phase can be broken down into sub-phases that describe the different stages through which a typical document progresses over time (see Figure 11-1).

When a document is created, some information is needed to determine its initial content. You can call this initiating metadata for lack of a better term. At the very least, the initiating metadata for a SharePoint document consists of the location of the document template that should be used. Typically, the document template itself takes care of collecting any additional information that might be required to render the document in its initial state. For example, when creating a new proposal in Word, you might popup a dialog to interrogate the user prior to rendering the default document content.

After the document is created, its content is edited through one or more revision cycles. Throughout these iterations, various contributors may check out the document for editing and then check it back in until certain milestones have been achieved. The determination of whether a given milestone has been reached is often subjective, as there can be many different types of milestones, depending on the type of document and the kind of solution ...