Article last updated on 6th of November 2019.
Contents
1. Introduction
Public companies and organizations who are obliged to deliver content to Government Archives or similar institutions, often face a complex and costly project. Getting the correct data retrieved as well as exported from the system and converted to the correct format is a serious undertaking. By using WorkPoint’s software and extensive know-how for this purpose, the organization will reduce the effort needed and remove the risk of missing the deadline.
WorkPoint Archiving ensures safe and timely delivery of your data.
The process of delivering data to the National Archives can be summarized as follows:
- The content of data and documentation is determined with National Archives.
- Provisioning of database including description of data boxes.
- Retrieving and extracting data and files.
- Neutralization of data format.
- Conversion of data and files to required country formats.
- Examination of archive version including checking of error lists.
- Final archive version delivered to state archive.
In some countries data is not allowed to leave the country. Our conversion tool is used on-prem with one of our partners, and data and documents never leave the country.
By using WorkPoint Archiving software and our extensive know-how, your obligation to deliver data is in safe hands. Together with our partners we offer:
- Professional consulting about delivering content to National Archives.
- Management of the entire process from retrieval over conversion to final delivery.
- Guaranteed approval of delivery.
- A fixed budget.
- A standard converter to the Danish and Icelandic government requirements. More standards to other countries will follow.
A diagram of the WorkPoint Archiving processes is shown below:
An elaborate explanation of file types and guidelines for delivery of data from it-systems to Government Archives can be found here.
2. Requirements
Please refer to the following table to see the license requirements for Archiving:
| V3 - Standard | V3 - Business | V3 - Enterprise | WorkPoint 365 Core | V4 Package |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium Extension | National Archiving |
Additionally, the following are required for using the WorkPoint Archiving functionality:
- A WorkPoint/WorkPoint 365 archive platform
- Support from WorkPoint for certain steps of the process
For more information about the requirements of the Government Archives feature of WorkPoint, please contact WorkPoint support at support@workpoint.dk.
3. Process of delivery
Delivery of data to the Government Archives can be split into several sub-processes;
- Localizing of files in WorkPoint.
- Extraction of data from WorkPoint.
- Converting files for archiving.
- Delivery of the package to the Government Archives.
Some of these processes are executed by the customer/partner, and some are executed by WorkPoint.
Each of the processes, and guides for the steps performed by the customer/partner are detailed in this section.
3.1. Localizing files in WorkPoint
This step refers to the process of determining which data to prepare for extraction from WorkPoint. These steps must be performed by the customer.
In collaboration with the Government Archives, the customer/partner has defined which business modules and which data should be archived. This information is used in this step to set up the generation of an .xml-document which is used later in the extraction process.
To generate the .xml-document, follow these steps:
- On the solution, click the "Home" button.
- Click the cog icon to access the WorkPoint Administration.
- In the left side panel of the WorkPoint Administration, click "Government Archives".
- Entity lists can be selected from the "Content" section of the user interface. A complete list of business modules is available for selection under the "BusinessModules" tree node. In this example, the "Companies" business module is selected. Clicking the arrow next to each business module expands interface to make fields and lists selectable, as shown in the image below:
- A description can, and indeed must, be typed in the "Description" section of the selected item in the "Content" section. In this example, "List of companies" is the description for the selected business module.
- The master site URL should be displayed in the "MasterSite" section. By default, the current master site URL is inserted by the system. If using a specific site as master site for the business module, this can be set here.
- In the "General settings" section, a "Document Start date" and "Document End date" must be set. This defines the period from which data should be extracted from the system.
- You can use the "Validate!" button to validate that your settings are set correctly. The following text is displayed in the bottom of the interface if the configuration is valid:
- To start generating the .xml-document used for extracting with the current configuration, click the "Export" button. Clicking the "Export" button produces the following window. The .xml-file is downloaded automatically to the browser's defined download location.
3.2. Extraction of data from WorkPoint
The .xml-file generated in section 3.1. can be used in collaboration with a WorkPoint developed program to extract data from WorkPoint solutions called WorkPoint Archive Extractor. The program is delivered to the customer by e-mail.
The WorkPoint Archive Extractor must be installed on a secure computer at the client in the country of the archives (if local policies require that data it kept within current country). The computer must have network access to the WorkPoint solution from where the extraction of data should take place.
It is recommended that the computer running this program meets the following requirements:
- The operating system must be Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher
- The computer must have 4GB RAM available for the program to operate properly.
- A minimum of 4 CPU cores
- Microsoft .net 4.5 must be installed
- There should enough available storage to obtain all data that should be extracted to the archive.
As this computer will contain all data extracted from the system it is recommended that this computer is highly protected as it will contain confidential data depending on the system being archived. WorkPoint does not encrypt the archived data in any way.
The WorkPoint Archive Extractor must have a Microsoft SQL Server available. This should be SQL Server 2008R2 or higher. It is possible to use the express version of SQL Server. On this SQL Server a database must be created that contains the name “WorkPointArchiverInput”. We require this name to prevent the tool from accidently deleting data in other databases that could be available. The user account running the extraction tool must be owner of this database (“db_owner”).
WorkPoint Archive Extractor is delivered as a setup file, which installs the program on the customer's computer. Upon running for the first time, the program asks for a license file (of type .xml). This license file is provided by WorkPoint, and is unique for each installation of the program. Simply browse the license file and click "OK".
3.2.1. Installing WorkPoint Extract to Archive
As mentioned, WorkPoint Extract to Archive is delivered as a setup wizard. Running the wizard takes you through the installation steps:
- Click the "Next" button.
- Click the "Install" button.
- After a couple of seconds, the program is installed. The "Launch WorkPoint Extract to Archive" checker can be used to run the program once the installation wizard is closed.
- To close the installation wizard, click the "Finish" button. If the checker in pt. 12 is checked, WorkPoint Extract to Archive will now run.
3.2.2. Using WorkPoint Extract to Archive
To extract data from WorkPoint using WorkPoint Extract to Archive, follow these steps:
- Provide the URL of the solution from which data should be extracted.
- Check the "Is WorkPoint 365" checker if the solution is a WorkPoint 365 solution.
- Provide ADFS server (required for login).
- Provide the user name for the WorkPoint solution (Please note that this user must be site collection administrator).
- Provide the password for the user in pt. 13.
- Provide the connection string to the SQL Server. Connection string example: Connect Timeout=10;server=mysqlserver;database=WorkPointArchiverInput_Custom er1;Integrated Security=True; The customer is responsible for providing an SQL database for this purpose.
- Browse to the XML file created from WorkPoint in section 3.1.
- Set the path to the drive and folder where extracted documents from WorkPoint should be stored.
- Set the language. This must be the language used by the national archives, most likely the language of the country. During the extraction and conversion some explanatory text labels are automatically generated. The language setting here determines the language of these texts
- Each step (button) in the process MUST be carried out in sequence. E.g. step 1 --> step 2 --> step 3 --> step 3b --> etc.
- Clicking the "Actions" and choosing "Remember settings" saves the current settings for later use:
Simply click the button of the step you wish to perform. The steps of the extraction is described here:
- This step validates the data structure. This might have been done when extracting from WorkPoint, but it is important as the export might otherwise fail.
- When validation is done, click this button to create the database schema.
- This button starts the preparation of the database and deletes old check point files.
- This starts the process of populating the database. If the process fails e.g. due to lack of connection, you can restart it at the same spot using this button. If you start over by clicking 3a, the system will start the process from scratch. This would usually only be necessary when changes have been made to the configuration.
- Prepares the document download.
- Starts the document download. If the process fails e.g. due to lack of connection, you can restart it at the same spot using this button. If you start over by clicking 4a, the system will start the process from scratch. This would usually only be necessary when changes have been made to the configuration.
Once a step is completed with success, it is marked with a green check mark:
The resulting output of using this tool with success should be a data structure in the designated output folder. The next step in the delivery process is for WorkPoint to convert the files into acceptable file types for the Government Archives.
3.3. Converting files for archiving
WorkPoint converts the received files to data ready for delivery to the Government Archives. This process can either be done at WorkPoint's office or at the customer's office - this is, however, a process performed by WorkPoint and a guide to these steps is therefore not provided in this article.
WorkPoint can convert the following file types:
BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPEG, PPTX, PPTM, PPT, XLSX, XLSM, XLS, DOCX, DOCM, DOC, MSG, TXT, XML, PDF, and CSV.
Other file types are treated as special documents and handled manually.
The Danish Government Archives accepts the following file types:
- Documents:
- JPEG2000
- TIFF
- Audio and video:
- MP3
- WAVE
- MPEG2
- MPEG4
- Geodata:
- GML
An elaborate explanation of file types and guidelines for delivery of data from it-systems to Government Archives can be found here.
3.4. Delivery of package to Government Archives
Depending on the agreement made between the customer, Government Archives, and WorkPoint, the converted documents and elements are either returned to the customer who then delivers the completed package to Government Archives, or the customer in collaboration with WorkPoint delivers the package.
If the customer chooses to deliver the package themselves, delivery as well as the method of delivery of the package back to the costumer from WorkPoint is agreed upon by the two parties. Examples of delivery methods could be by hard drive or by disc.
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