As of version 7.1.2, TransForm E-Forms Manager provides features that allow you to configure automatic archival of submitted and signed forms, and to delete them from the system on a bulk basis. These features may be configured and used from the Aging Content section of TransForm E-Forms Manager's administration area, and are logically separated into two distinct subsections labeled Archive Routines and Aging Content Cleanup.
Archive Routines consist of pre-configured tasks that can run manually or be scheduled to run automatically, which export and zip up copies of submitted and signed forms to designated file system locations. Multiple archive routines may be defined in this area, allowing you to specify different archival rules for different forms, such as:
How long submitted and signed copies of the form should reside in the system prior to archival.
When and how frequently the archive routine should run.
The file system location to which the archive files for the form(s) associated with the routine should be written.
Whether or not to automatically delete content from the TransForm E-Forms Manager database when it is archived.
When archive routines are executed, they mark each archived submission or signature record as having been archived, so that the next execution of the routine can ignore them. Furthermore, this piece of information allows cleanup processes (for deletion of aging content) to know which forms have already been archived, so that you may be sure that content is archived before you permanently delete it from the system.
The ZIP files created by these routines are named according to the name assigned to the archive routine, along with a timestamp indicating the date and time of the routine's execution, and contain the following contents:
A copy of each submitted or signed form that matches the criteria for the routine (including form name and age of submission or signature record), in PFF format.
A CSV (comma-separated format) file with information about each exported submission or signature, including:
A Form ID representing the type of form archived
The Unique Submission/Signature ID associated with each archived submission or signature
The name of the submitter or signer (if available)
The user ID of the signer
Date and time of the submission or signature
The name of the exported form file
Exported archive files may be used to save off submitted and signed content, along with related metadata, for posterity. In addition, the contents of the exported archive files may be used to move the content into content or document management systems.
Each submission of a form to TransForm E-Forms Manager and every digital signature operation performed by TransForm E-Forms Manager results in a copy of the form being saved to its internally managed database along with information about the submission or signature. Over time, this can cause TransForm E-Forms Manager's data files to grow large, affecting performance and backup times.
In addition, most TransForm E-Forms Manager systems are used primarily to automate processing of forms, which are then passed off to external systems, such as document management applications or databases. In these environments, submitted and signed content is only useful for a short period of time within the TransForm E-Forms Manager system itself.
For these reasons, the Aging Content Cleanup feature is available. It is used to permanently remove forms that were submitted into or signed by the TransForm E-Forms Manager system within a specified date range. Once removed, space that was occupied by these records within the system's data files is freed. As new submissions and signatures come into the system, the growth of the data files does not occur again until all previously freed space becomes full again. So by regularly making use of the Aging Content Cleanup interface, a consistent and predictable size for your TransForm E-Forms Manager data files may be maintained.
Select Aging Content from the Administration tab. This will open a screen containing the two subsections for configuring Archive Routines and performing Aging Content Cleanup.
The first screen you will see under Aging Content is the list of archive routines that have been configured in the system.
Each item in the list represents an archive routine that has been configured, and contains summary information about the routine including the routine's name, whether or not it is enabled for the task scheduler, when it last ran, and its last run completion status.
Additionally, this screen allows you to:
Create new archive routines by clicking the New Archive Routine link above the list;
View information on and/or execute a routine by clicking on a routine in the list;
Edit an existing routine by clicking the Edit link next to a routine in the list;
Delete an archive routine by clicking the Delete link next to a routine in the list.
See instructions below for details on these operations.
When you click a row in the Archive Routines list, a window will pop up that shows information about the routine and which allows you to manually run the routine. This screen is divided into three sections, described below.
The first section of the screen provides information on the routine's schedule and export destination directories.
Specific fields in this area include:
Routine Name: The name given to the routine. This name is used to name the archive (ZIP) files created when the routine runs.
Schedule Type: Identifies whether the routine is configured to run daily, weekly, or monthly.
Run On: If the schedule type is weekly, this shows the days of the week on which the routine is set to run. If it is a monthly routine, this shows the day of the month on which the routine will run.
Start Time: The time of day at which the routine is set to start.
Status: Shows whether or not the routine is actively enabled in the task scheduler. (Note: Even if a routine is disabled, it may be run manually).
Content Older Than: Shows the setting that designates the age of the submitted/signed forms in the system that will be archived by the routine.
Submissions: The file system location in which the ZIP files containing submitted forms will be created by the routine.
Signatures: The file system location in which the ZIP files containing signed forms will be created by the routine. (Note: this may be the same location as that specified for submitted forms).
Delete on Archive: Shows whether or not the archive process will also delete submitted and signed forms that it archives when it runs.
Run Now: Clicking this button allows you to execute the archive routine immediately instead of waiting for it to be run by the task scheduler.
If the routine has ever been run, information on its last run status will be shown in this area.
The following information is available in this area:
Last Run: Date and time at which the routine was last started.
Last Run Status: Shows the status of the last execution. For example, this might show that the routine completed successfully, failed, or is still in the process of running.
Last Run Message: If the routine's last execution completed successfully, this will contain a message showing the number of submissions and signatures that were archived. If the routine failed, this will contain a detailed error message.
Log: Clicking this link will provide a view containing status information and messages related to the last 25 events related to the routine.
This area of the screen provides a detailed listing of all of the forms in the TransForm E-Forms Manager catalog that are assigned to the routine.
Along with the list of assigned forms, this area provides the following information about what you should expect the next time the routine is run:
The date that represents the age of submissions and signatures greater than which submissions and signatures of these forms will be archived.
For each form, the number of submissions that have not already been archived, and which match the designated age criteria.
For each form, the number of signatures that have not already been archived, and which match the designated age criteria.
If you want to run the routine immediately instead of waiting for the task scheduler to run it, you may click the Execute button in section 2 of this screen. After prompting you to confirm, the system will begin the archival process. After several seconds, the screen will refresh to show the current status of the routine. If it still shows as being "In Progress," you may close the window and come back to check its status later. If there are many submissions and signatures to archive, the routine may take several minutes to complete.
When you click the New Archive Routine link or one of the Edit links on the Archive Routine list screen, a wizard opens that walks you through a multiple-screen process for configuring the routine.
The first screen of the wizard allows you to define basic information about the routine.
This screen contains fields for gathering the following information:
Routine Name: A unique name you assign to the routine. This name is used as the basis for all archive (ZIP) files created by the routine. It should be brief yet descriptive.
Enable: Check this box to allow the routine to be automatically executed by the system's task scheduler. If you leave it disabled, you will still be able to run the routine manually from the Archive Routine Details screen.
Available Forms: A form may only be assigned to a single archive routine. This list contains the titles of forms in the TransForm E-Forms Manager catalog that are not already assigned to any archive routines. You may highlight one or more form names in this list and use the controls to the right in order to assign them to the routine. If no forms are shown in this list, that means that all of the catalog's forms have already been assigned to a routine.
Assigned Forms: Shows the list of forms that are currently assigned to the routine. You may remove one or more forms from the routine by selecting them and using the controls to the left, which will move the selected form names to the Available Forms list. You must have at least one form assigned to the routine in order to save it.
Once you have entered the information needed, click the Next button to move on to the next configuration step.
The final step in Archive Routine configuration lets you specify the age criteria for the content to be archived, along with the archive file destination locations and the schedule on which the routine will run.
Specifically, this screen gathers the following information related to content age and archive file creation:
Forms Older Than: These two fields let you specify a number of days, months, or years old a submission or signature record must be before it is picked up by the archive routine.
Submitted Forms Path: Enter an absolute path to a folder (in local file system, mapped drive, or UNC path format) that will serve as the location in which a ZIP file for archived form submissions will be created each time the routine runs.
Signed Forms Path: Enter an absolute path to a folder (in local file system, mapped drive, or UNC path format) that will serve as the location in which a ZIP file for archived signed forms will be created each time the routine runs.
Delete Archived Forms: Check this box if you want forms that are exported by the archive routine to also be deleted from the TransForm E-Forms Manager system.
NOTE: If you don't want to have content automatically deleted from the system as part of the archival process, you can still delete them using the Aging Content Cleanup interface, described below.
This screen also requires you to designate the schedule according to which the archive routine will run. Here you may choose:
Schedule Type: Whether you want the routine to run on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Days Of Week: If you chose the Weekly schedule type, you may choose the days of the week on which you want the routine to run.
Day of Month: If you chose the Monthly schedule type, you may enter the specific day of the month on which you want the routine to run.
Start Time: The time of day at which you want the routine to run.
If you have multiple archive routines defined, try to stagger their execution times, as running of multiple scheduled tasks concurrently can have a negative effect on system performance.
If your archive routine is set to run for the first time, and there is a large number of forms eligible for archival (e.g., 10,000 or more), there is the possibility of performance degradation or error in creating the archive if the forms themselves are of a large size. This is due to the fact that the zip file created may require a significant amount of memory. In order to get such a large group of forms archived initially, create your archive routine initially with an Form Age (Forms Older Than) parameter that limits the number of forms eligible to a smaller number, then run the routine. Change the form age parameter to include more recent submissions, checking the eligibility count, and run the routine again. Continue this process until your routine contains the desired form age parameter but doesn't involve an unwieldy number of submissions or signatures.
Finally, be sure to schedule your archive routines so that they run frequently enough that they won't need to handle more than 10,000 submitted or signed forms at a time.
The area under the Aging Content Cleanup tab provides an interface for performing bulk removal of submitted and signed forms from the TransForm E-Forms Manager database. Making use of this feature periodically will help you to manage the growth of your TransForm E-Forms Manager data files, and will allow you to remove submitted and signed forms from the system that no longer provide any value within TransForm E-Forms Manager itself.
In addition to assisting you with the removal of content, you can also use this area to reset the archived status of submissions and signatures that have already been archived using one of the Archive Routines described above. Since archive routines only process submissions and signatures have not already been archived, this can be useful in situations where you may need to export such content more than one time. By using this area's Reset Archive Status option, you can make previously archived content for forms and date ranges that you choose available for export again.
The top area of this screen provides a search interface that allows you to specify criteria for the groups of submitted and signed forms that you want to act upon. Search criteria inputs here include:
From Date: The start of the date range of the submissions and signatures you want to find and act upon. (By default, this appears as a year prior to the current date).
To Date: The end of the date range of the submissions and signatures you want to find and act upon. (By default, this appears as a year prior to the current date).
Form Category: Choosing a form category from this list filters the list of forms below to contain only those belonging to the selected category.
Form(s): From this list, you may choose one or more forms that you want to act upon.
Once you have entered your criteria and clicked the Search button, a list will appear below with summary information about the forms and dates you chose.
This list will contain a row for each form you chose. In each row is a set of four totals relating to the submissions and signatures that were found matching your criteria, including:
Archived Submissions: The number of submissions of the form between the dates you specified that have already been archived.
Non-Archived Submissions: The number of submissions of the form between the dates you specified that have not yet been archived.
Archived Signatures: The number of signatures of the form between the dates you specified that have already been archived.
Non-Archived Signatures: The number of signatures of the form between the dates you specified that have not yet been archived.
At the bottom of the list, totals for all of the selected forms are displayed, along with two buttons that you can click to begin processes of resetting archival status for, or deleting the submissions and signatures of the forms whose totals are shown.
If you want to make any of the submissions and signatures of forms summarized in the search results available again for archival export, you can selected all or some of the forms using the checkboxes in the left hand column of the search results list, then click the Reset Archive Status button. After confirming, the archival status of all of the forms you selected, which have already been archived and whose submission and signature dates match those in your search criteria, will be reset. You will then see their totals move from the Archived Submissions and Archived Signatures columns over to the Non-Archived submissions and signatures columns. At this point, they will then be eligible for export by any archive routines to which these forms are assigned.
If you are ready to remove submissions and signatures of the forms shown whose submission and signature dates correspond to the dates you chose, you can start the removal process by checking one or more of the checkboxes in the left hand column of the search results list and clicking the Delete Selected button. This will launch a wizard that will step through the deletion process, described below:
On the first screen:
Check the list of forms shown to make sure that these are the forms whose submissions and signatures you want to remove.
Check the Content Age to make sure that it displays the proper date range.
Specify whether you want to delete only Archived submissions and signatures, or if you want to also include submissions and signatures that have not been archived. Remember that once removed, these submissions and signatures cannot be restored to the system. So it is generally a good idea to ensure that you have exported archived copies of them before you remove them.
Click the Next button when you are ready to continue.
Based on your selection in the previous screen, this screen will show you how many submissions and signatures will be removed if you choose to continue, and asks you for confirmation. To finish the deletion process, click the Next button.
At this point, the deletion process starts. You should keep this window open until it completes. Depending on the number of submissions and signatures being deleted, this process may take several seconds to several minutes.
Once the deletion process is completed, you will see a summary of the number of submissions and signatures that were deleted. Click the Finish button to close the window.
NOTE: Even though you may delete large amounts of content from your TransForm E-Forms Manager database using this process, the TransForm E-Forms Manager data files may not shrink to reflect the reduction of content. This is due to the fact that the main data file (fsbs.db) maintains a "high water mark" that allows new information to be added to the system more efficiently. So removal of content, while not reducing data file size, will still help to keep the database from expanding as new content is added.