Link Group Conversion Utility

The Link Group Conversion Utility is a Laserfiche Client utility that allows you to convert a link group (a collection of separate but related documents) into a version history. The version history is collected within a single document, the latest member of the link group. Converting a link group to a version history will merge all of the documents in the link group into a single documents.  The separate documents will no longer exist in the repository, but the contents and metadata of those documents will be retained as versions in the version history of the last member of the link group.

Example: A link group contains Report 2009, Report 2010 and Report 2011. Report 2011 is the latest version of the link group.  When the Link Group Conversion Utility is run on Report 2011, Report 2009 and Report 2010 will be removed from the repository. They will be stored within Report 2011. Report 2011 will contain three versions: the oldest will have the same contents as Report 2009, the second will have the same contents as Report 2010, and the latest will have the same contents as Report 2011.

Document properties that can only apply to an entire document (tags, document relationships, any existing version history, and security information) cannot be retained for versions in the version history. These properties will be retained on the latest member of the link group, which becomes the latest version of the new document.

Example: Report 2009 is tagged with the informational tag "Draft," and is within the folder "2009," which has certain security settings applied to it. Report 2011 is tagged with the informational tag "Approved," and is within the folder "2011," which has different security settings applied to it. When the Link Group Conversion Utility is run on Report 2011, the final document will be tagged with the informational tag "Approved" but not the informational tag "Draft."  The final document will also be stored within the folder "2011," and will inherit security from that folder only.

The Link Group Conversion Utility must be run on the latest member of a link group, or on a folder containing the latest member of at least one link group. If you select a folder, and the selected folder contains one or more members of a link group but not the latest member of that link group, the conversion process will not be run on that link group. The utility will only have an effect on link groups where the latest member is within the target folder.

To run the Link Group Conversion Utility, you must have sufficient rights to access, modify, and delete the members of the link group you are converting.

The Link Group Conversion Utility is part of the Laserfiche Windows client installation and must be installed alongside the Laserfiche Windows client to be run. It cannot be run from the Laserfiche web client.

To use the Link Group Conversion Utility

  1. Open the Laserfiche Windows client and log in to the repository as a user with sufficient rights to access, modify, and delete the members of the link group you are converting.
  2. Select a document that is the latest member of a link group, or select a folder that contains one or more documents that are the latest members of their link groups.
  3. Open the Tools menu and select Convert Link Group. This will open the Link Group Conversion Utility.
  4. In the Options section, decide what will happen to the link group members after they are converted to versions. Select Sent to the recycle bin to delete those documents to the recycle bin, or Purged permanently from the repository to immediately delete them permanently from the repository.
  5. If the members of the link group have been disambiguated using an auto-rename counter (for instance, "Document", "Document (2)", "Document (3)"), you can choose to remove that auto-rename token where possible when converting the link group. Select Remove auto-rename counter from the name of the final document to remove the parenthetical counter.
  6. The link group conversion process creates a temporary document to store information during the conversion process. If you do not have rights to create new documents in the currently-specified folder, you can specify another folder for this temporary document. To do so, click the Browse button and browse to the desired temporary folder.
  7. Click OK to start the link group conversion process.

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