Attaching a Document to the Asset

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R2 (On-Premises)
There are several ways you can attach a document, all available from the Documents tab. Documents can be:
  • Uploaded as files and stored in the operations databases
    Tip: Uploaded documents may be automatically virus-scanned to protect against malicious content (see details below).
  • Referenced as external files or URLs (recorded as separate types for checking the format of your data entry)
  • Described in terms of a physical location.
Note: You cannot attach a document (by any method) during the process of creating your record. First click Create to save your work-in-progress, and then you may attach a document in any of the ways mentioned above. Until you have created your record (that is, saved for the first time), the Attach button is disabled.

To attach a document:

  1. If you are creating a new record, click Create to save the details in the database.
  2. On the Documents tab of these properties, click Attach.
    The Attach a document area appears above the list.
  3. Enter a meaningful Description (or title) for the document that you will recognize in later listings.
    This description will appear on the card that summarizes the document.
    Tip: You may prefer to use the title of the document, such as the purchase order number or other identifier, in this field. (There is a column called Name, but is used to display the link to the file itself or the location of a physical document.)
  4. Choose an option from Method of attachment.
    The remaining controls may update to suit your chosen method. Skip to the appropriate step matching your choice.
  5. For Document upload:
    1. Click Browse... to identify the document on your local file system.
      If you have Microsoft Silverlight installed, the file list is restricted to the file types supported for upload, and you can select multiple documents from the same folder. If you do not have Silverlight installed, be sure to select only supported file types (.bmp, .csv, .doc, .docsx, .gif, .jpg, .pdf, .png, .rtf, .tar/.gz, .tif, .tiff, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, .xml, .zip).
      Tip: You cannot upload files larger than 50MB.
    2. Click Upload.
      Other controls are disabled. A new Cancel button appears, in case you wish to interrupt the upload (it will disappear when the upload is completed). For large files, a percentage uploaded counter tracks progress for you.
      If anti-virus checking of uploaded documents has been configured, you may see one of the following messages as you attempt the upload:
      Display Notes
      The following file(s) have been uploaded: filename

      All is well, and you may proceed.

      Antivirus scanning has quarantined this file as malicious. If you think this is a mistake, please contact your IT department for analysis, or contact Flexera Support.

      Depending on the configuration of your AV tool, the suspect file may be discarded, or may be saved in a special folder on your web application server (or, in smaller implementations, the server hosting this functionality). Best practice is to have the original source file checked by your security team.

      File upload is blocked. Security file scanning is turned on, but the antivirus software is not found. Please contact your IT department.

      This is a configuration error on your web application server, and can only be resolved by a system administrator. No file uploads are possible until the configuration is corrected. For more information, see Scanning Uploaded Documents in the 2020 R2 (or later) on-premises edition of the FlexNet Manager Suite System Reference, which is available through the title page of online help.

      Security scanning of this file timed out. Please try to upload the file again later or contact your IT department.

      The time-out prevents the web interface becoming unresponsive while scanning an overly large file, or while there are other issues (like scanning being queued waiting for previous scans to finish). Coming back to upload this file later, when the system is less busy, may help.

      File upload failed due to an external error
      This message may mean:
      • Your anti-virus software could not access the uploaded file
      • A second anti-virus tool removed the uploaded file so that it could not be found by the AV tool configured in FlexNet Manager Suite.
      When the file upload is completed successfully, a message appears under the Document path:
      The following file(s) have been uploaded:
      Tip: If necessary, and provided that all uploads so far are successful, you can repeat the browse and upload for other documents, and then the following step will attach them all at once.
    3. Click Attach to save the document(s) within your operations database.
      The Attach a document area closes.
    4. Click Save to record the changed properties.
      The uploaded file is permanently stored in the operations database (stored as datatype image, and saved unencoded), and is displayed in the list of related documents.
      Tip: You can update the file (say, with a new version of the document) at any time. Simply select the document record from the list, and click Edit (or, in card view, click the edit icon on the relevant card). Browse to and upload the revised version of the file as described above. When you save, the record is updated and now points to your new version.
  6. For File location:
    1. Enter the UNC path and file name in Document path. The format of your entry is validated before the page can be saved.
      The (Windows) format for the Universal Naming Convention is
       \\servername\sharename\path\filename
      This format is designed so that you do not need to know the server's entire file path from root to the file.
      • servername may be the server name (alone) in an environment with reliable domain name servers (DNS); or the fully qualified domain name for the server (such as myFileServer.companyName.com); or an IP address.
      • sharename is defined by the system administrator of the server, and hides/provides the main part of the file path.
      • path is optional, and only required when the file is in sub-folders below the specified sharename.
      • filename includes both the name and the file extension.
      Example:
      \\10.120.44.20\docStore\purchases\PO123-9876.pdf
      Tip: When your entry is complete, click outside this field (or Tab) to enable the Attach button.
    2. Click Attach.
      The Attach a document area closes.
    3. Click Save.
      The path to the document is saved in the list of related documents (by default, in alphabetical order of the document Name, which in this case is the file path).
  7. For Physical location:
    1. Use the Document reference field to describe how to access the document.
      Keep in mind that the description may need to be meaningful in a distant future audit, so something like "In Tommy's filing cabinet" will likely not be adequate. Since this field provides the document name in lists, it is good practice to start with some kind of document identifier, after this fashion: DN14-18826 in archive 9982 under March 2020.
    2. Click Attach.
      The Attach a document area closes.
    3. Click Save.
      The path to the document is saved in the list of related documents (by default, in alphabetical order of the document Name, which in this case is your description of the location).
  8. For URL:
    1. In the Document URL field, enter the URL to access the document (or, to prevent errors, copy from a browser window and paste the web address). Include the web protocol (such as HTTP://, HTTPS://, or FTP://) as part of the URL.
    2. Click Attach.
      The Attach a document area closes.
    3. Click Save.
      The path to the document is saved in the list of related documents (by default, in alphabetical order of the document Name, which in this case is the URL).