Q&A: iManage FileSite, WorkSite, IDOL, EMM.

Question: what’s this and where else can I find FileSite tips?

Answer: These are tips I want to share without the time to craft a free-standing blog post. To find blog posts, click the word FileSite on this blog’s tag cluster… or whichever tag strikes your fancy. Our Cersys public wiki in Clarify  is also open to all, and contains older tips. Try the title index there.

Or, just use this other form to ask me directly.

The Quick Tips

Lock icon on content with WorkSite/FileSite 8.5

What causes a lock image to be added to icons shown for WorkSite content, such as email or documents?Answer: The lock icon is used to show that something has been Declared as Record. Being a record means that it can no longer be modified – it will open as read-only. The icon specifically is a yellow lock with a rectangular body – not like my illustration.

Generally the Record status is used as part of a wider-scale Records Management initiative within an iManage implementation. Either iRM (or ARM Autonomy Records Manager) is integrated, and drives the multi-year state changes from active to archive to declared to destroyed.

If you’re not deliberately using RM, then perhaps the records status has been activated by mistake. In a Cersys-led FileSite deployment, we remove the RM-related actions from the FileSite user-interface, but they are present by default. Similarly, there are server configurations to declare emails as records automatically, with or without a window of opportunity to ‘undeclare’ them.

Contact us for further troubleshooting if this tip seems not to assist with your particular issue.  If I have already helped you with enough info to fix it alone – ping me with a comment! I love hearing about good results.

Desktop’s iManExt.log

Where can I find iManExt.log on a desktop machine?  Answer: Ah-ha, that’s a trick question. There no longer is such a log file. In December 2010 I found iManage desktop documentation that described the following settings:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareInterwovenWorkSite8.0DeskSite
Set the following DWORD values:
Name: LogMessage
Value: 1
Name: ToFile
Value: 1
When these registry values are set, DeskSite and FileSite record debug messages in the iManExt.log and manage32.log files.

However, I wasn’t able to find these log files after turning on logging and letting it run for a day. Upon conferring with support, I was told:

Problem:

The LogMessage and ToFile settings documented in “ITN # 21999-32 – Advanced Logging: Debugging the iManage Network Client” do not appear to work.

Solution:

These logging settings are no longer supported and the documentation for them is being removed.  I believe there is some debug logging in the 8.5 client specific to certain functions that can be enabled. It is not something we recommend leaving on. If it applies to the cases you have open, you may be instructed to enable it. We are also looking at additional client logs for future releases.

What are you searching for?

Answer: Someone out there has been searching a few days for “registry or dll save attachment FileSite 8.5″… Are you having trouble with auto-detection of the file type? E.g. it is a PDF but you have to fill it out manually on the profile form? Contact us – I am curious now what the error is & I would like to help.

Emails contributed with FileSite 8.5 not opening with FileSite 8.2

What might cause an email not to open, or be blank, with FileSite 8.2 when it was filed successfully with FileSite 8.5 within the same firm?

Answer: possibly the 8.2 client is running Microsoft Outlook XP which does not support Unicode.  By default, FileSite 8.5 will save emails in Unicode.

To disable the use of Unicode, create or update the following registry ‘CreateUnicodeMessageFile‘. Documentation of this setting is provided in the FileSite 8.2 SP1 P5 release notes.

Modifying the registry can cause serious system instability. Do not make changes lightly.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREInterwovenWorkSite8.0FileSite]
DWORD CreateUnicodeMessageFile
Default value 1
Set to 0 to stop using Unicode.

Contact us for assistance in deploying this fix at your firm, or for further troubleshooting if it seems not to assist with your particular issue.  If I have already helped you with enough info to fix it alone – ping me with a comment! I love hearing about good results.

SQL 2008, Collation, and Legacy iManage Databases

Our firm’s WorkSite databases don’t use the same collations for historical reasons! Now what?

Answer: it used to be that changing a collation required complete rebuilds of your data.  For example in some law firms, separate offices had their own IT administration with independent iManage WorkSite databases. Often these had different collations. A collation mismatch is an IT hassle for comparing text across sources; and it can make it difficult for users in accented languages to search in that other content.  Heard on twitter that SQL Server 2008 R2 may offer hope for this! Stay tuned.  “RT @nooption: RT @LittleMissTech Getting 2 grips with SQL2008R2 changing collation without reinstalling genius! -> nice 4 non-unicode apps eg Worksite 8.x “

Document Worklist

Question: Tell me about the Document Worklist in FileSite.

Answer: There are many interesting matter centric and usability topics having to do with the document worklist. These worklists can be shown consolidated (the mcc way), or you can look at the worklist specific to only one database (legacy way). You can include emails, or block emails (mcc+), from the worklist. iManage does not provide a way to tailor the number, or age, of items in the worklist. You can tweak the columns appearing in the worklist with a vdm file, and distribute those changes: NRTWorklistView.vdm to be specific.

It is also possible to prune out documents from a given database based on the recentness of the edit. This is direct SQL, so it’s not for faint-hearted or sloppy typers.

On and on, anon – contact us to discuss details, I have plenty.

Message IDs

Question: are message IDs indexed in WorkSite?

Answer: Strictly speaking, yes: there is an index on message IDs. But… it’s important to agree on what we each mean by indexed.  Specifically, the iManage server set-up creates an index (one of thirty-plus) on the mhgroup.docmaster table – this index provides faster retrieval based on message ID.  This does not mean, however, that a user can type in the message ID in a FileSite search. I can’t recall off the top of my head whether IDOL or Verity index the message ID for full-text searching. I strongly doubt it, because as I said, this is not a parameter that a human could provide via FileSite.  A human IT person with access to a SQL query tool could do it though.  And, finally, just because the WorkSite database has a field to store a message ID for an email, it doesn’t mean that the ID’s what you’d expect.  It’s not the same for items dragged from the Outlook Sent Items, for example.

These Tips have their own Posts now ¸.•*¨)★ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.★

5 thoughts on “Q&A: iManage FileSite, WorkSite, IDOL, EMM.”

  • In case anyone is wondering – it turns out that the profile window was appearing off-screen, and it was necessary to move it to a new location so that it could be seen. Once that was taken care of, all was well.

  • I am having a problem with Filesite. When I try to change application type (right click on file-select properties) Outlook freezes up and I have to CTRL-ALT-DEL and end task. I can change any other field with no problem. I’m in IT and no one seems to know why as I supposedly have full security rights. Any ideas?

    • Odd, I have not seen that before either. Try to eliminate as many variables from the situation as you can.
      Have another administrator, and then a non-admin connect to FileSite on that same machine with your windows login. Try different machines, different windows account, different before/after file types. Does the problem happen only with one file or with all files? Take ‘refresh’ out of the equation by ensuring that you have no large workspaces/folders active when you attempt this. What’s the machine doing while Outlook is frozen: memory/processor/disk/network…

    • You may have a problem in your application types themselves (listed in DBAdmin). If there are conflicting application types or ones with bad settings then this can cause problems in very unexpected places.
      It may be worth getting your Worksite support vendor to check them over.

      D.

      • Good point David.
        The server (dbAdmin) has those application types mapped to installed programs. On the other hand, if Melissa (or Melissa’s machine) is the ONLY instance that hangs when switching type, the conflict may be that those server settings don’t match with what that machine has installed/configured.