What Documents does
The ideas in one page: spaces, folders, documents, versions, roles and classification.
Documents keeps the files and texts of a company in one governed place. Everything that matters is decided by a few ideas.
The parts#
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Space | A top-level container: a product, a platform or a department's documents. It has an owner, a classification and the languages it is written in. |
| Folder | Organises a space. Folders can be nested. |
| Document | The thing people look for. It has a code such as MAN-HR-0001, a type, an owner, a language and a state. |
| Version | One saved state of a document's content: text (Markdown), a file or a link. A version never changes. |
| Role | What a person may do on a space, folder or document. |
| Audit trail | A record of who did what, which nobody, not even an administrator, can edit. |
Versions, not edits#
Saving new content adds a new version (1.0, 1.1, 1.2). Tick Major change to start the next major number (2.0). Restoring an old version adds another new version with the old content, so history is never rewritten.
Who can do what#
Roles are given on a space, a folder or a document, and they flow downward: a role on a space reaches everything in it, unless a folder or document stops inheriting.
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
| Reader | Read published documents. |
| Contributor | Read, create documents, and edit or trash their own. |
| Editor | Read everything including drafts, create, edit, trash and restore. |
| Approver | Read everything, and publish. |
| Manager | Everything an editor can, plus publish, change who has access, set classification, see the space's audit trail. |
The owner of a space always manages it, even if a folder below it has stopped inheriting, so a space can never be locked out.
Classification#
A space, folder or document is Public, Internal, Confidential or Restricted. The most restrictive level in the chain applies. Published documents in a public space are open to everyone, signed in or not.
Important
Restricted documents can only be read by people with a role on them. Administrators do not read restricted content by default: they manage the system without seeing what is inside.
States#
A document is a Draft (only people who may see drafts can read it), Published, or In the trash. States change only through the buttons on the document, and each change is written to the audit trail.