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Asia/Pacific Computer Services is pleased to
provide at no charge, on an "as is" basis, this Simple Document Management
System. SDMS is a Lotus Notes database application that may be freely used and redistributed, subject to the Terms
and Conditions below. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions, you
must not use this database or any derivative of it.
Please read the SDMS Terms and Conditions of usage, at the bottom of this page.
In order to open SDMS databases,
you must be using IBM Lotus Notes Release 5 (or a later version).
Document
publishing (creation and editing) is best performed using a Lotus Notes client,
but editing (with limited formatting) can be done via a Web browser. Document viewing
is performed via a Notes Client or Web browser. SDMS incorporates
full NotesTracker TM usage logging capabilities, for tracking of Notes
Client document accesses (Reads, Creates, Updates and Deletes).
THE ORIGINS OF SDMS:
In the 1990s, a client asked us to put together a simple Notes database
to hold his Annual IT Plan, at that time stored in a set of word processor
documents stored in a hierarchical Windows folder structure. He wanted to
mimic this hierarchical document structure in a Lotus Notes database that
was extremely simple to use, and that (unlike the existing localised
LAN-based documents) could be readily shared via Notes replication with
his IT managers around the Asia/Pacific region.
In 2002, we decided to take this easy-to-use document
management application, empower it by incorporating our NotesTracker
document usage tracking capability, and release it to the Lotus Notes
community as freeware.
HOW TO USE SDMS:
Since SDMS was deliberately designed to have a small "footprint"
compared with other document management products, this makes it quite
feasible to set up a separate copy of the SDMS database for each of
your discrete document management situations or requirements. You don't
have to store all of your documents in the one large and unwieldy central
repository typical of the "heavyweight" document management products.
SDMS DESIGN PHILOSOPHY:
Often, a simple solution is quite good enough! SDMS was designed to be
extremely easy to deploy and use and so should require minimal or
no training, as it only assumes regular Lotus Notes usage skills. SDMS is
designed around a simple five-level hierarchy of documents that
should be functional enough to meet many of your basic document storage,
retrieval and management needs. We aimed to keep SDMS simple at all costs
and to avoid falling into the trap of
creeping featurism.
(See, for example,
Occams' Razor.) So, with the major new "publishing life cycle" feature added in SDMS
Version 4, we have tried to keep to this philosophy by adding "just
enough" new functionality to be useful without going overboard!
You can use SDMS as a user-friendly personal or corporate document
management system. You might use a separate copy of the SDMS database for
each user, department, or application requirement. Thus, you might have one copy of SDMS to keep your own
personal documents in order, one for HR Policies and Procedures, one for
storing the minutes of Board meetings, one for storing useful tips and
techniques, another for storing word processor documents for the Sales
Department, yet another for the Social Club -- you get the idea!
The number of documents stored in an SDMS database is subject to the
usual Lotus Notes database size limitations (refer to the Lotus knowledge
base for these limits), and follows the performance/capacity
considerations -- disk space, memory, processor speed of your workstation
or server.
SDMS Features and Releases:
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Store documents in a familiar, simple hierarchy, a very natural document storage
arrangement in wide everyday use. You can arrange your SDMS documents into a hierarchy
having five levels, which we have found to be quite adequate for most typical document storage, categorization
and retrieval needs.
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Version 4.0 of SDMS
was released
for beta testing on 05 September 2006 and in final form on 06 November
2006.
You can download it from a link below, and there's an accompanying Flash video
that demonstrates the significant enhancements that,
in effect, change SDMS from a simple document management system
to a simple content management system.
People (or people groups) can be assigned the role of Submitter,
Approver and Publisher roles. As a submitter you can create and edit
documents, as an approver you can validate them (or reject them), and as
a publisher you can falg them as being suitable to be publicly visible.
People who don't have one of these three roles cannot see documents that
are not flagged as publicly visible. Also, if a higher-level document is
not flagged as suitable for publication, then none of its children are
publicly visible (even if they were individually flagged as suitable);
but when the higher-level document is eventually set as publicly
visible, then automatically all of those children become visible too. As
with any Lotus Notes database, any individual person (or group) can be
given a single one of these new roles role or combination of the of
roles.
A nice new feature is the capability -- with a few button clicks -- to
merge any of your mail memos (from your personal Notes Mail inbox)
directly into the SDMS document hierarchy, without the need to resort to
resort to cumbersome "copy and paste" operations. Naturally enough, once
your mail memos are added to the SDMS database they must go through the
approval and publish stages before becoming publicly visible.
The "look and feel" of the SDMS browser interface was improved to make it appear very close to
that of the Notes Client for usability reasons. More importantly, instead of
the earlier restriction of only
being able to view documents via a Web browser, in V4.0 you can
also (given the
necessary publishing roles in the database's Access Control List) use a browser to create, edit, approve and publish documents.
Here's what the new publishing view looks like:
(Click the image to view a larger, clearer
version)
There's even an option in the SDMS Profile to specify that you want
users to use the Domino editing Java Applet for managing document Rich
Text content
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Version 4.1 of SDMS
was released on 27 February 2007, with security
enhanced: you can now designate Reader Names for a thread of documents
(a top-level or "Level1" document plus all of its descendants). Only
people whose names are listed in the Reader Names field can view any
document in the thread.
Other enhancements include a "Submissions by
Status" view (so that you can better understand and manage your documents in
their various stages of preparation and publication). Also, you can now
specify for a given top-level document a date range so that it will only be
publicly visible during those dates (and, naturally, none of its
descendents will be visible when the document top-level itself isn't).
This gives you the capability to prepare a thread of documents in
advance of their automatic publication on a predefined release date. Another new
view shows when documents are visible -- categorized by starting date,
in a day-within-month arrangement -- making it
easy to control visibility of published documents.
SDMS remains simple to learn and use, but it's now more powerful than ever -- and still FREE!
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Version 4.2 of SDMS
was released on Tuesday 10 April 2007. Refer to the Help
Using This Database built-in documentation, but in essence this new version of SDMS
has the very latest NotesTracker Version 5.0 incorporated! Therefore you
can start using NotesTracker 5's great new capabilities, such as
"special" documents, e-mail alerting, tracking of document pastes and
mail-ins, and much more. (Also refer to the new NotesTracker Guide Version 5.0)
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Version 4.3 of SDMS
was released on 16 December 2007. Again, refer to the Help
Using This Database built-in documentation. The most significant
change in V4.3 is the capability to specify that a given replica of SDMS
should operate in "Simple" mode or "Publishing" mode. The simple mode
returns SDMS to its "grass roots" of being simple to understand and use,
without the additional power of Publishing mode but also without the
additional learning curve and usage complications. For somebody else's
view on this, see A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
which discusses why so many mainstream software development tools are not as powerful as they theoretically could be.
You san have some of your copies (replicas) of SDMS running in Simple mode, while other
copies run in Publishing mode, giving you the best of both worlds! Other
enhancements include the convenience of being able to create lower-level
documents at the view level (which some people will prefer, rather than
being forced to open an existing document and click a button).
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Version 4.4 of SDMS
was released on 30 July 2008. It is largely a maintenance
release, with a few documentation changes/additions. The only functional
change is the ability to display extra columns in the main hierarchical
view (requested by a user of SDMS).
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View the SDMS documents in various useful sequences --
by document number, by document title, by category, by sub-category.
Additionally, if the database is Full Text indexed, then you will be able to locate information
in your documents using the powerful search capabilities built into Lotus Notes.
(Refer to the Lotus Notes on-line help, or ask your Notes Administrator
about Full Text indexing and searching.)
- A "Breaking News" or "What's New" view enables you
(in a separate window) be presented with a dynamic list of new documents as they are created/updated via a Lotus Notes
Client or a Web browser. The documents are presented in descending time
sequence, with the most recent additions/updates at the top of the view.
For the Lotus Notes Client view only, the view is
automatically refreshed and the "selected document" pointer is moved
back to the top of the view so that it now points to the most
recently added/updated document. SDMS Version 4.1 brings you the
ability to specify the value of the Breaking News view refresh interval,
anything from 5 seconds to 2 hours (rather than a fixed 60 period of
seconds for Version 4.0 and earlier). And what's more, the selected
refresh interval now also is used for Web page refreshes when you access
the Breaking News view via a browser.
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Easily manage the
document numbers and document titles: every time that you
change the content of a document's Section Number or of its
Section Title, the changed number and title is immediately and
automatically applied to all of that document's descendants in the
document hierarchy. This greatly simplifies the maintenance of your
document numbering and titling scheme. This is particularly useful
when you move a group of documents from one place to another in the
document hierarchy. It relieves you of the burden of having to manually
synchronise all of the section numbers and document titles between
levels in the hierarchy. While it may sound a little complicated, it all
happens without your having to worry about it. It reduces both your
workload and the likelihood of errors inherent in manual synchronisation
of multiple documents.
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Gather and
analyze comprehensive document usage metrics. SDMS
has a built-in implementation of our unique NotesTrackerTM
technology for the tracking and reporting of document usage. When you
activate usage tracking for an SDMS database, you'll be able to see who
Creates documents, Deletes documents, Reads documents and Updates which
fields in them (you'll see the field contents before and after each
change). More information about NotesTracker may be found by clicking
the following button:
Currently SDMS incorporates NotesTracker Version 4.4 capabilities. Soon
after NotesTracker Version 5.0 is released (expected late March or early
April 2007), its greatly enhanced features will be built into SDMS.
NotesTracker
voice-annotated animations
WHAT IS PROVIDED IN THE DOWNLOAD:
The SDMS database is provided, fully functional and with no
restrictions as to how you use it, but with its design hidden to protect
our intellectual property (particularly in the NotesTracker technology).
REQUESTING ENHANCEMENTS TO SDMS:
SDMS has been released for some time, and is in a stable form.
We may make some enhancements to the SDMS freeware,
and will consider adding small features that you might suggest. An example
of such an enhancement is the document workflow control added in Version
4.0 of SDMS following a suggestion by a user. The key determinant is that any such requests
must be of a generally-applicable nature and must comply with our overall concept that
SDMS must always remain a simple and
easy-to-use application.
Remember that SDMS is freeware! Our main consideration is that any
enhancement requests must not put a burden on our limited development
resources. and we'll need to be very selective about which of your
requests to implement! The enhancements in Version 4.0 took a few weeks
of serious work, but we considered the new features both generic and
important enough that we "bit the bullet" and carried out the work.
CUSTOM-TAILORED VERSIONS OF SDMS:
If you are interested in using SDMS but need
significant modifications to meet your requirements, we will certainly consider
performing the modifications for you -- at reasonable rates for our professional
services. We will license the resulting product to you
for your exclusive use. Note that there is also the consideration that SDMS
incorporates our
NotesTracker code, so one proviso is that we'll also expect you to purchase the appropriate NotesTracker
license (pricing for NotesTracker elsewhere on this website).
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The download is a
self-extracting zipped file that when executed yields the SDMS database, which you place
in your Lotus Notes data directory.
There's no
complicated installation procedure. Just open the extracted SDMS database and,
in a matter of seconds, you have your simple document management system up and running!
SDMS BUILT-IN DOCUMENTATION:
SDMS was carefully designed to be straightforward and easy to use, so
there is no separate printed User Guide. To learn how to operate and
administer SDMS (including security management), please refer to the
built-in "About This Database" and "Using This Database"
documents. These are accessible from the Notes menu bar (and also via the
navigator on the left of the SDMS window, under the headings "Help About
SDMS" and "Help Using SDMS" respectively).
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In the Help Using This
Database document you will
find a section about securing your database. The SDMS database is
distributed with certain assumptions in its Access Control List (ACL)
about who will use the database and how (who will be managers, editors,
readers, and so on). If you wish to change the database's ACL, but find
that you don not have Manager access rights needed to make such changes, all you need
do is to make a new copy of the database without copying its ACL,
which gives you the necessary Manager access so you will be able to
adjust the ACL (of the new copy) to meet your needs. Also, it is
important to get the roles correct, as detailed in the
Help text, since roles play a very important part in the way
that menus and views are displayed (or hidden) in SDMS. |
You might have to carry out some basic administrative activities,
such as amending the database's ACL (Access Control List) to suit your
individual security requirements. Read the "Using This
Database" help document for some considerations about the
ACL.
NOTE: Please be advised
that it is your responsibility to take precautions to ensure that whatever
files you select for your use from this web site is free of such agents as
viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other such agents of a destructive
nature. APCS makes every attempt to ensure that its own systems are free
of any such infected files for its own protection and for yours, but
viruses but can make no guarantees as to the absolute safety of any file
and will not be responsible for any damage caused to your system or data
by use of downloaded files.
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SDMS SOFTWARE USAGE TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Copyright: 1999-2006 Asia/Pacific Computer Services Pty Ltd
This Software, the "Simple Document Management System (SDMS)" for IBM
Lotus Notes/Domino, contains proprietary information of Asia/Pacific
Computer Services Pty Ltd ("APCS") and is copyrighted and
licensed, not
sold.
The term "Software" means the original program and all whole or partial
copies of it. A Program consists of machine-readable instructions, its
components, data, audio-visual content (such as images, text, recordings,
or pictures), and related licensed materials.
By installing the Software you agree to these Terms and Conditions and
APCS grants you an unlimited free license to use the SDMS software for
personal use or in your organization and to distribute it on a
not-for-profit basis.
The free form of the Software is provided with hidden design and
you shall not modify, translate, disassemble, decompile, or reverse
engineer the Software. If you purchase the tailored (licensed) form
of the Software it will be provided with unhidden design so that its
design elements may be modified and adapted by you to meet your specific requirements.
For both forms you may not remove, alter or deface any proprietary
notices on the Software.
SDMS contains a full implementation of NotesTrackerTM software,
and it is important to APCS that you must agree not to violate the Terms
and Conditions of use for NotesTracker which may be viewed at the APCS web
site, on either of the following Web pages:
http://asiapac.com.au/Pricing/Usage_Tracker_pricing.htm
or
http://notestracker.com/Pricing/Usage_Tracker_pricing.htm
Note: you must not transpose the NotesTracker code from SDMS to
any of your other databases without purchasing the appropriate full
NotesTracker licence.
If you do not agree to these terms and conditions you must not use SDMS
and must destroy all copies that you have taken of it.
Because SDMS is free ("freeware") the guarantee of free support is not
included in the license for the Software. APCS may decide to make
reasonable effort to fix problems reported, and enhance functionality
where requested or suggested but APCS reserves the right to charge for
such enhancements and future upgrades or maintenance of this product. If
you wish to modify SDMS to better suit your individual requirements, then
APCS is willing to sell SDMS to you and provide it without hidden design,
in conjunction with the appropriate NotesTracker license fee, so that your Notes developer can adapt it to meet your needs. (APCS is
also willing to carry out design changes on your behalf, for a reasonable
fee.)
The Software and associated documentation are copyrighted under
international intellectual property laws and are proprietary to APCS. By
installing and using the Software, you agree to comply with these terms
and acknowledge that the Software and documentation contain valuable trade
secrets and other proprietary information belonging to APCS. You agree not
to remove any copyright statement from the Software. |
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