Tracker 4 Archives

From SymbiantWiki

When an issue has been resolved and is no longer required within the Tracker system it can be archived out. An archived issue is still stored in Tracker and can be included in all reports if required, it can be restored to full operational status at any time.

To archive a issue, as a administrator or manager with the relevant permissions, go to issues by clicking the [Issue] menu link. Locate the issue to archive and click the row to view it. Click the at the top right of the issue page to archive the issue.

Alternatively, to archive an entire audit report, go to issues and click on the top row of the issue grid to display the audit report selector. Select the audit report to archive and a will appear at the top right of the issue grid. Click this to archive all issues is the selected audit report.

A final alternative is to apply a filter to locate the issues to archive, again a will appear at the top of the issues grid. Clicking this will archive all issues returned by the current filter.

Archived issues can be viewed by administrators only by clicking the [Archives] menu link. Here the archives are displayed on a grid similar to the issues grid. The filter is always available to quickly and easily locate required items in the archive.

Restoring, exporting and deleting

Archived items are not operational, the only actions that can be performed on them is restoration to full operational status, exporting the archives to an XML document (in future versions these documents will be re-importable into Tracker at present however they can be imported into 3rd party tools) and finally a full and total deletion of the issues from the system (the system will automatically export the items to ensure that they can always be re-coved to some extent).

To restore, export or delete an archived item, go to archives by clicking the [Archives] menu link. Locate the archived item to restore and click the row. A detailed view of the issue including all associated actions and responses is displayed. To restore the issue in its entirety click the button. The issue will then be removed from the archives and returned to the issues grid where it can be edited and assigned like any other issue.

To export the archived issue to an XML document (including XSD schema file to assist importing into 3rd party applications) click the button. As mentioned previously all future versions of Tracker will allow these files to be re-imported into Tracker if they are subsequently deleted where they can be restored like any other archived issue and returned to full operational status so it is a good idea to safely store these files as they may come in useful in the future.

Finally to delete the archived issue from the system completely, click the button. Currently if an item is deleted it cannot be restored without a backup of the database itself. Before an item is deleted a backup will be made to an XML file as above, but no link will be returned for it and if it is required it will need to be manually located and retrieved from the defined exports folder.

It is also possible to restore, export or delete multiple issues at once. By checking the check-box in the left most column of the archives grid multiple issues can be restored, exported or deleted at once. Exported items will be stored in a single large XML file rather than numerous small ones as would happen if they were exported individually.

To select all the visible check-boxes on the current page click the check-box in the grids header. It is possible to select check-boxes on multiple pages so as to quickly and easily select all the issues to restore, export or delete. A cautionary note here, if issues are selected across multiple pages not all checked issues will be visible so it is important to double check all pages before proceeding.