Attachments Overview

The Attachments tab is available from the Navigation Pane. It allows you to add, view, and manage attachments to the items in focus on the content pane. Each attachment can be associated with one or more document instances or sub areas of a document instance, including attachments to sub documents that are based on non-persistent document structures, like Expense or Unit detail lines and fields.

In addition, attachments can be viewed from inquiries when a document instance included in the displays results or data has associated attachments.

The Attachments pane always functions in the context of the content pane. There are several different contexts for the content pane, e.g. a workflow document open like Project, Vendor, Prebill, Voucher... or the same workflow documents accessed through inquiries. When workflow documents are accessed through inquiries, they can be accessed in two modes: split pane is not open or split pane is open. When the split pane is not open, the user does not have access to the full workflow document and can only view the attachments assigned at the document root level. When the split pane is open, the user has access to the entire workflow document and has access to all attachments through the split pane across all sub documents.

Inquiries are also used to select and list non-workflow documents and related data such as Project Detail, GL Summary, Receivable Aging... and the Attachments pane interacts with these type of inquiry results as well. In this case, the attachments pane displays attachments if the results have drill paths, and the attachments pane displays the attachments at the selected drill path level.

Finally, there are contexts where the Attachments pane is designed not to function; such as Dashboards, Reports, and Inquiries where attachments are not configured to be included. In these cases, the Attachments pane is disabled and a message that attachments are not supported is displayed.

Once attachments have been added to a document instance, the number of attachments displays in parenthesis in the header area of the Attachments tab and under the attachment icon on the tab.

Also, access to attachments is controlled by security for the document instance you are viewing. If you have access to view a document instance, you can view any associated attachments. In addition, if you can edit a document instance, you can also add and edit attachments for the document instance. When you do not have access to the attachments functionality for a document instance or area of the system, the options on the Attachments tab are disabled.

Types of Attachments

The Attachments tab supports two type of attachments: file and path.

File Type Attachments

File type attachments are associated to a physical file in BST11 attachment file repository. The available file types that can be attached and the maximum file size are controlled by your System Administrator. However, by default, the system restricts you from uploading executable, command, and batch files.

For file type attachments, the following restrictions apply:

• Allowable File Types: Only allowable file types can be added. By default, some file types, such as executable, command, and batch files, cannot be added as attachments. In addition, your system administrator may have defined additional excluded file types that cannot be uploaded. If you attempt to add a non-allowed file in a batch, all files in the batch will not upload.
• Max File Size: Your system administrator may have defined a max file size that can be uploaded.

Path Type Attachments

Path type attachments are the attachments associated with a URL or a network file path. This type of attachment is not a physical file that is stored in the BST11 attachment file repository.