Using Attachments

CGI Advantage allows you to upload and attach files created in other applications (for example, Excel spreadsheets and Word documents), to transactions. These files are known as attachments. These attachments are associated with transactions they were 'attached to' and are then treated as an extension of the transaction. If the transaction were to be archived, the attachments would be archived as well. Since attachments are treated like an extension of a transaction, CGI Advantage security applies to these attachments. Thus you will be able to access attachments for only transactions which you are authorized to work with. Also, the Attachments links are only enabled if your security has been setup to allow updates or review.

Once an attachment has been added to any level of a transaction, the Attachments Summary page can be accessed via the Smart Drawer by selecting the View Attachments icon. If an attachment has been added to a transaction, then a count of the total number of attachments will appear on that View Attachments icon. The Attachments tab of the Attachments Summary page lists all attachments (by tab). You can view/download the attachments from the Attachments tab. You can view a history of all attachments on the History tab.

You may add, delete, and restore attachments to a transaction, as long as a transaction is in Draft phase. Once an attachment has been added to a transaction, CGI Advantage keeps track of the attachment information, in the Attachments Log. You can add, view or delete an attachment to a transaction's tab by selecting the Attachments link (button or icon depending on the type of tab). If a tab includes an attachment, then the total number of attachments for the tab will be included on the Attachments button.

If a tab allows more than one line, then the attachments are added via the attachments icon in the Attachments column of the grid. You can also see all attachments for the selected line by selecting the attachments icon in the grid for the record. If a line in the grid includes attachments, then the total count of attachments for that line is added next to the Attachments icon in the grid for the selected record.

As attachments are considered extensions of a transaction, the deletion of an attachment from a prior version will not be permanently deleted until the transaction has been successfully processed. A deleted attachment will be marked as pending delete until the transaction moves to Final.

In the Financial application, you can configure the system to send a separate email containing the attachments associated with the version of the transaction being printed to Email output. The attachments email functionality applies only to Final or Historical versions when you use the Print action on the transaction or by Print via the row-level action menu on the Transaction Catalog, and then select Email output. The configuration involves the following:

When the system generates the attachments email, attachments are compressed into a zipped file and sent in a separate email. If the transaction has no attachments, the attachment email is not generated. Note that only those attachments stored within the CGI Advantage system are included. If an attachment is stored in an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system outside of CGI Advantage, it is not included.

A site can configure certain permissions and restrictions on attachments across Advantage using the initialization file - ADV30Params.ini. Additional attachment options can be applied to specific pages, apart from these global parameters using the Attachment Options page. Refer to the “Initialization File Settings for Attachments” and “Attachment Options” topics in the CGI Advantage System Administration Guide for details.