Synchronization of Objects and Their Values Between Vaults

This section provides further information on synchronization of objects and their values. We recommend going through this information before defining the actual synchronization. The actual synchronization is implemented by means of functions for replication of content. For more information, refer to Content Replication and Archiving.

Objects

When the metadata structures of vaults have been defined according to your needs and the required metadata definitions can be associated with them, the actual synchronization of objects and values can be performed between vaults. Synchronization of data between vaults is performed with replication of content. For more information, refer to Content Replication and Archiving.

Note: Only the values for which there is a built-in object type are synchronized automatically. For other object types, either the alias or the combination of ID and name must match, so that objects of this object type are imported to the target vault during import. You should check that these definitions are in proper order. For more information, see Associating the Metadata Definitions.

Publishing the selected objects of one document vault in another vault

If you want to publish only certain objects from a vault by using another vault, you can do this by using a search filter when defining the content export. You should also check that the object types of the published objects can be associated either automatically or based on aliases.

Conflicts and their resolution

If objects are edited at the same time in multiple vaults, conflicts may result during synchronization of data, for example, from source vault A to target vault B. When detecting a conflict, M-Files creates a so-called conflict object, from which the conflict can be resolved in favor of either the source or the target vault.

You can find these conflict objects through relations: if the object has conflicts, you can find them under the Conflicts grouping title. You can also find all conflict objects by means of the Conflicts view (hidden by default).

Resolve conflicts by keeping the changes in the target vault (Keep These Changes) or discarding them (Discard These Changes), as appropriate. The latter chooses the version in the source vault. When resolving the conflict, you must have editing rights to the actual object and the conflict object in the same vault.

If two-way synchronization (replication of contents) is performed, you must resolve the conflict in both vaults in order to rectify the conflict situation.

Metadata values

Value-list values

When the metadata structures of vaults have been defined according to your needs and the required metadata definitions can be associated, the actual synchronization of objects and their values can be performed between vaults. Data synchronization between different vaults is performed with replication of contents.

However, you should note that if the value does not exist in the target vault or you cannot create it as a normal value-list value during import (for example, in the case of built-in values, such as classes, workflows, and users), the value name is displayed in metadata in the form "Value name XYZ (deleted)". In other words, if the value does not exist in the metadata structure of the target vault after import, it is shown as a "Value name XYZ (deleted)" value.

Note: The default permissions for the imported values are the target vault's default permissions for new values set from value lists. This means that the name of the value may be shown regardless of its permissions in the source vault. For example, the name of the document creator is shown in the metadata of the published document via the "Created by: User XYZ (deleted)" value. If necessary, check the permissions and association of the metadata definitions if you do not want to display this information in the other vault.

Related objects

The object metadata contains information on other, related objects. For example, a document might be related to a project or a customer.

When objects are exported to another vault, you may not want to export their related objects to the target vault. For example, you export documents to the target vault but not projects or customers (for instance, in publishing operations, you publish price lists and brochures but not customer information). Then the related object is shown as a shortcut in the object's metadata (or, less frequently, with the "Value name XYZ (deleted)" value). The object refers to the source vault and has not been imported as a genuine object to the target vault. For further information, refer to Relationships between objects in separate vaults under Relationships.

Note: The default permissions for the related object are the target vault's default permissions for new objects set in the import by object type. This means that the name of the related object is shown in the metadata of the imported/published object regardless of its permissions in the source vault. For example, the name of the customer or project may be shown in metadata of the published document as a shortcut or as a "Value name XYZ (deleted)" value. If necessary, check the permissions and association of the metadata definitions if you do not want to display this information in the other vault.