20 Document Management System
The Laboratory Document Management System in Bika LIMS leverages the powerful content management capabilities of the Plone platform to help laboratories centralise, organise, and control their critical documentation
Background
The CMS features of Plone, the exceptionally reliable and secure enterprise CMS framework Bika is built on, are not available to labs looking to turn their LIMS into an administrative and marketing tool. It was depricated in the interest of performance and maintainability.
The workaround is to install a separate Plone site on the same Plone instance as the LIMS, and cross-reference one another
Plone's role-based authorisation and workflows, document management with version control, and ability to work on SOP development and accreditation administration in private project teams are all useful for promoting lab services on a public lab portal
Bika LIMS users wil find themselves at home with familiar UI and workflows
In future, when an instrument fails QC, the LIMS should be able to initiate corrective and preventative workflows in the CMS
By displaying QC control charts, maintenance records, and other information from the LIMS in CMS forms that are presented to auditors in their preferred formats, accreditation administration can be made simpler
Folder Structure
A portion of the website should be accessible to the public, usually promotional content and instructions, assuming the lab would use it as a marketing tool to attract new customers and prospects
Lab users can be granted access to private folders that house the training and e-learning materials, as well as project teams that handle SOP development and accreditation administration
Installing the DMS
Making use of unadulterated Plone
User Groups and Permissions
Autorisation per group
Adding and Managing Content
As per Plone manual
- Adding Content
- Using TinyMCE as visual editor
- Editing Content
- Cutting, Copying and Pasting Items
- Folder View and Contents
Workflow
Manage your documents form inception to publication
Document Versioning
Changes logged with precision