DocIDs, OpenDocIDs, and Unique IDs

An ODWEK ODHit can generate two types of document IDs: standard and open.

About this task

Standard and open document IDs have the following characteristics:
  • Standard document IDs (DocIDs) are obtained by calling ODHit.getDocId() and are ideal for standard usage. This DocID is encrypted and can be safely passed over the network without compromising sensitive information about the ODHit. The standard DocID can then be used to restore an ODHit with the ODFolder.recreateHit(docid) method by the user who searched for the ODHit from the same Content Manager OnDemand instance and port combination. The recreated ODHit can be used to retrieve data, resources, mime type, document properties, and so on.
  • Open document IDs (OpenDocIDs) are obtained by calling ODHit.getOpenDocId() and are ideal for passing ODHit information to a different user than the one that searched for the original ODHit from the same Content Manager OnDemand instance and port combination. An example of this is one user emailing an ODHit reference to another user. An OpenDocID is also encrypted and can be used to restore an ODHit with the ODFolder.recreateHit(opendocid) method. The recreated ODHit can likewise be used to retrieve data, resources, mime type, document properties, and so on. In order to validate that the second user has permissions to the ODHit, the ODFolder.recreateHit(opendocid) method submits an additional query to the Content Manager OnDemand server.

Standard and open DocIDs are not intended to be persisted outside of the application’s runtime environment. Some examples of persisting DocIDs are inserting DocIDs into a database and writing DocIDs to a file.

If you need to persist a unique "marker" to an ODHit, consider using the Content Manager OnDemand application group field option called Unique ID. If your application group includes a Unique ID field, a unique string value will be generated and stored to the database at load time and can be queried to produce an ODHit. If you need to retroactively generate Unique IDs for previously archived data, contact IBM Expert Labs for assistance.

See Unique ID fields overview and setup for more details on Unique ID fields.