Custom Objects

Custom Objects allow Vault administrators to use an extensible system to create new Vault entities to meet the needs of their team, organization, or company. Right out-of-the-box, the administrator can create a Custom Object definition and assign it categories, lifecycles, and properties. Once the Custom Object definition is created, users can create instances of that custom object directly through the user interface. As with files and folders, users can perform many common Vault tasks with custom objects.

Custom Object Definitions vs. Custom Object Instances

There are two concepts to the Custom Objects entity class. They are Custom Object definitions and a Custom Object instances.

Custom Object Definition

• The Custom Object definition is the type of entity that is being created. For example, an administrator can create a custom object definition called Contacts or Tasks.

  Custom Object Definitions are created, edited, and deleted on the Configure Custom Objects Dialog. You can access the Configure Custom Objects Dialog through the Custom Objects Tab on the Vault Settings dialog. You must be an administrator to create and modify custom object definitions.

Custom Object Instance

• When the user creates a new custom object based on a definition, this is considered an instance. For example, an administrator creates a custom object definition called Contact. A user could then create an instance of that custom object called Bob Smith.
• Users can attach files, folders, and other Vault entities to a custom object with a link.

  For example, if a custom object definition has been created called Tasks and a user has created a task called Review John's Design, the task (Review John's Design) can be linked to John's design in the vault.

• Custom Object instances can be checked in, checked out, undergo a change state, and managed with many common Vault commands. Similarly, linked objects are also affected, depending on the user's settings for the Vault function.

  For example, if a user wants to check out a custom object and the custom object has links to files, folders, items, or change orders; the files associated with that linked data are gathered and checked out as well.