A. Purpose:
TechDoc is intended to provide an easy way to manage documents of any type while being web-based, ISO 9000 compliant, NPG 2810.1 compliant, standards based, security customizable to the document level, inexpensive even with thousands of creators and tens of thousands of readers, and portable across hardware, operating systems, databases and browsers.
Description:
TechDoc is a distributed, portable document management system designed for the management of any type of document or file. The system is web-based and provides for an electronic means to:
Manage documents through their entire life cycle; creation, modification, distribution, and deletion.
Provide extensive per-document security and access controls.
Provide full history tracking of every document's life cycle.
Provide electronic notification of document events.
Provide ad-hoc reporting capabilities.
Provide revision control of approved documents.
Distribute released/published documents to the user community.
Provide full text search and retrieval of published documents.
Provide watermarked PDF versions of released documents.
Provide for on-line review and approval of documents (in Phase II).
TechDoc system is written in Java. It has the capability to store any electronic file type, such as audio, video, not just traditional documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, iGrafx Pro, etc.). It has a Windows Explorer like interface with folders and documents to allow for the hierarchical organization of documents. It also functions as a distribution system for those documents allowing them to be accessible to only one or two people with a valid username and password, to a group of people, or even globally to anyone who can access the server. The system has granular security down to the per-document level and to the privileges assigned to each user. The system provides full history tracking for audit and security purposes. The system also contains an ad-hoc reporting capability to create and run reports in various formats (HTML, XML, CSV). In addition, user-defined metadata is supported.
Functional Operation:
Document Maintainers use a web-browser to connect to the desired document manager where they perform operations on their documents (Create, Modify, etc). Typically, Document Readers will use a web-browser to go to the centralized search manager, instead, to locate and fetch their documents. Much like using Google® or Yahoo!®, the reader is able to retrieve documents without having to know where the documents are actually located. TechDoc Administrators can use a web-browser to connect to the desired document manager or search manager to perform administrative functions on them. To keep the search manager(s) up to date, whenever a document is created, modified, deleted, or released an update is automatically sent to the appropriate search manager(s).
The software is also configurable to support a large number of environments. Each server can be tailored to meet the requirements of different groups. Security settings, data entry masks, and document organization are just a few of the items that may be changed. Because the system is designed in a modular fashion using Java, the system can easily be modified, even given a whole new user interface, through programming. TechDoc could even be used as a background engine or API for a new application where document management is only a small piece of the over all application's functionality.
The security subsystem was designed from dealing with distributed organizations and the Internet. The system has the concept of individual users with unique usernames/passwords, and groups (Global, Community, Campus, and Local). As the name implies, the Global group consists of anyone on the Internet who is provided web browser access to the server. The Community group is defined by a set of IP address ranges, which are considered to be part of the logical "Community" for a specific server. The Campus group is defined by a set of IP address ranges, which are considered to be part of the logical "Campus" for a specific server. The Local group is defined as any user who has successfully logged in with a valid username and password from a computer located within the Campus group (or Community group or Global group depending on the server's security settings). On a per-document basis, access can be granted to individuals and/or groups. This makes it simple to give access, for example, to three specific individuals to update a document but allow anyone in the world to read the document.
In you have any questions, or would like more information on the TechDoc system, contact Tracy Bierman, NASA TechDoc Project Manager at 321-867-5149.
A. The NASA/KSC Technical Documentation Public Search Engine allows anyone, including the general public, the capability to search for and retrieve documents stored in the TechDoc system using a web-browser interface. Note: Only documents, marked as global documents, can be searched in this search manager. The Search Engine is a centralized Search Manager that has the capability to search one or multiple Document Managers. Much like using Google® or Yahoo!®, the reader is able to retrieve documents without having to know where the documents are physically located and controlled. To keep the Search Manager(s) up to date, whenever a document is created, modified, released, or deleted, an update is automatically sent to the appropriate Search Manager(s). The Search Manager retrieves results from TDARCHIVE, TDCOMM, TDELV, TDISS, TDKSC, and TDOPS. The search software provides full text document search for document retrieval.
A. Listed below are some of the features of TechDoc:
Document Storage
Any file type (MSOffice, binary, image, etc.) can be checked into TechDoc for management.
Electronic Notification
Document owner can define a list of users to be notified when system events occur. System events generated by creations, modifications, deletions, etc.
History Tracking
All document interactions are automatically logged by the system. The user, time, and reason for the action are captured by the system. This feature used in conjunction with the version control feature makes it possible to recreate, at any time, the complete lifecycle of a document.
ISO Certified
The TechDoc System is ISO 9000 compliant.
PDF Rendition
All documents that are released are automatically converted to PDF and every page of the document is watermarked. Note: There could be certain mime types or doc types where documents are not rendered.
Full Text Search and Indexing
All words in released documents are indexed for full text searching. Note: There could be certain mime types or doc types where the documents do not have their text extracted. For example: video, audio, etc.
Document Control
Document owners can define, at the document level, who can read, modify, delete, reserve/replace, and assign owner access to each document that they own.
Version Control
All generations of documents are retained. One or more generations of a document can be stamped with a unique revision name. TechDoc, by default, always delivers the latest released version of a document.
Document Status
The system provides a simple and intuitive web interface to determine the current status of a given document.
Move
Allows the user to move the folder or documents from the current cabinet or folder to a new cabinet or folder area.
Support / Help
System is available 24 hours a day except for scheduled outages and maintenance. On-line help is available. Customer support is available 8:00 - 4:30 EST Monday through Friday (except holidays).
A. The link Search all TechDoc systems for documents accessible to the world allows the reader to search by one or more fields for documents across all of the TechDoc Document Managers. The reader is able to retrieve documents without having to know where the documents are physically located and controlled. Note: Only documents, marked as global documents, can be searched in this search manager.
A. From the NASA/KSC TechDoc Search Engine home page, click on Whats New. This page provides information about the latest changes to the TechDoc search engine.
A. No. Instead of spaces use the underscore or dash. Or you can enter the first few characters or digits of the number and use the asterisk (wildcard). For example: when searching for document number KHB_1820.4 instead of entering the entire document number you can just enter KHB* which will return all documents where the document number begins with KHB.
A. The types of documents on each of the Host Computers are listed below:
Note: Only documents, marked as global documents, can be searched in this search manager.
TDARCHIVE - repository for the "As-Run" documents used to process payloads
TDCOMM - manages COMM documentation
TDELV - manages ELV Launch Services Contract documentation and historical documents
TDISS - manages Space Station and Payload Processing documentation
TDKSC - manages KSC NASA directorates documentation and ISO processes, agreements, etc
A. The Hits column displays the number of occurrences that meets the search criteria. The document number is displayed in weighted order. This means the document with the most hits of the search criteria is displayed first.
A. If your browser does not support JavaScript V1.1 or higher, select the "Help on searching" link at the top of the page. This page will list all the values for document types, organizations, and host computers.
A. This usually happens if your default browser is set to Netscape Navigator. This is a known problem with Microsoft Word. You can fix it by either setting your default browser to Internet Explorer or following the directions given by these websites.
These links take you to a Microsoft website. The TechDoc office does not provide any support regarding these documents or attest to the accuracy of these documents. This information is provided only for convenience.