Understanding the document repository object

The AMDocumentRepository object is the central object in the Meridian Enterprise API. It defines the view that a user has on the data in a vault. It also controls the database transactions. When programming for Meridian Enterprise, you will make frequent use of the AMDocumentRepository object. To best understand how to use this class, it helps to understand its relationship to several other important entities.

• Database and streams: All information about documents and other metadata is stored in a database. The document content is stored in the streams folder structure. This low-level storage is managed by the Meridian Enterprise service named AutoManager EDM Server and is not directly accessible for programming.
• Vault: Together, the database and streams constitute the physical vault. During programming of Meridian Enterprise, the vault is identified as a combination of the server Machine, the DataStore, and the Section described below.
• Machine: The server machine is the computer that is running the AutoManager EDM Server service. Meridian Enterprise uses a DCOM server. Therefore, client applications need to know the machine name in order to connect to the server that contains the correct vault.
• Datastore: The Meridian Enterprise server can host multiple databases. These are referred to internally as datastores. All datastores are listed in the registry of the server. For each datastore, the registry contains information such as the name and location of the database and streams.
• Section: A section is a logical unit inside a datastore that defines a vault. Meridian Enterprise currently does not support multiple sections in a single datastore. By default, the section name is the same as the datastore name. When imported into a new vault, the existing section is copied to the new datastore. The section will keep its original name. Therefore, the section name can be different from the datastore name.

Related information

AMDocumentRepository object

About the document repository instance

About opening a vault

About closing a vault