A repository is a virtual storehouse for the content you work on and share with other employees. Each repository provides security, tools, and processes for sharing content among many users. Processes control the automated routing of content and assign document lifecycles to content. Processes allow you to create, edit, and forward content regardless of your technical expertise.
A repository stores two kinds of information for a content file:
The content, which is the text, graphics, sound, video, binary content, or other content that makes up the file.
The properties, which are descriptive characteristics about the file, such as creation date, author, version number, and other information. Property values can only be edited by the file’s creator or a user with high enough security settings.
The highest level of organization in a repository is the repository’s nodes. The nodes provide access to different repository functions and to different ways to organize a repository’s content. All content in a repository can be accessed through the repository’s Cabinets node, which organizes the content into cabinets and cabinet folders. Other nodes provide other organizational schemes for giving you access to content, such as according to the files you use most often, the files you have used recently, or other schemes configured by your organization.
In each repository, you have your own home cabinet, with your name on it. Only you can see or access your home cabinet. Your home cabinet is where you store personal documents.
In each repository, you have your own Inbox. Your Inbox displays tasks that have been assigned to you and displays any notifications you have requested when specific actions occur.
When you want to modify a file, you check it out from the repository. This locks the file so only you can modify it. Other users can view it but cannot make changes to it. When you complete your changes to the file, you can check it back into the repository, which replaces the previous version of the file in the repository with the updated one. Checking in also unlocks the file so that other users can modify it.
When you create a file in the repository, Webtop gives it a version number. A new file is assigned the version number 1.0. Webtop automatically increments the version number by a decimal point every time you check out the file and then check it back in. You can select not to increment, keeping the same version number and overwriting the existing version.
In addition to content, a repository also stores other items, such as workflows (the automated sequences for routing files), permission sets, and user profiles. Every item in a repository whether content or not is stored as a repository object with a defined object type. Content files typically have an object type of dm_document. The object type determines the types of properties associated with the object.
The content in a repository is managed by the Documentum Content Server.