You can use the following techniques convert active documents to records:
Manually declaring a document to be a record by using a Web site based on Microsoft SharePoint Server.
Defining a policy that declares a document to be a record or sends a document to a Records Center site at a specified time.
Creating a workflow that sends a document to a Records Center site.
Using a custom solution that is based on the SharePoint Server object model.
Creating records manually
If in-place records management is enabled for a document library, users can explicitly declare a document in the library to be a record by editing the document’s compliance details. When the site collection administrator enables in-place records management, the site collection administrator specifies whoshould be able to declare and undeclare
records, and whether users should be able to edit or delete documents after they become records.
If a connection to a Records Center site was created, users can manually send documents to the Records Center site by using the Send to command. When a farm administrator configures a connection to the Records Center site, this command becomes available on all active documents. Depending on how the connection is configured, documents can be either copied to the Records Center site, moved to the Records Center site, or moved to the Records Center site with a link to the document maintained. For more information about creating a connection to a Records Center site, see Add, modify, or delete a connection to a document repository or a records center (SharePoint Server 2010) (http://technet.microsoft.com/library/5f0402ca-90c6-4528-b1de- 04d4f28fb2a6(Office.14).aspx).
Although manually sending records to the Records Center site is not a practical large- scale solution, you can use it to supplement other methods of creating records.
Defining a policy
A retention policy specifies actions to take on documents at certain points in time. Policy actions occur automatically; users do not need to start the action.
Two policy actions relate specifically to managing records: transferring a document to another location, and declaring a document to be a record. If a connection to a Records Center site exists, you can create a policy that sends documents to a Records Center site. The policy also specifies whether to copy the document to the Records Center site, move it, or move it and leave a link in the document library. If in-place records
management is enabled for the site, you can create a policy that declares a document to be a record. You can also use the SharePoint Server object model to create a custom action.
A retention policy can have multiple stages. For example, you could create a retention policy that deletes all previous versions of a document one year after the document was last modified, and transfers the document to a Records Center site five years after the document was last modified.
If in-place records management is enabled for a site, the site can contain both active documents and records. In this case, you can specify different retention policies for active documents and records. For example, you could create a policy that declares an active document to be a record two years after the document was created, and create a second policy that deletes a record seven years after it was declared to be a record
.
For more information about defining information management policies, see Office.com
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=191521&clcid=0x409).
Creating a workflow
When you use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to create a workflow, you can add an action to send an item to a repository. By using this action, you can create workflows that send documents to a Records Center site. You can also include other actions in the workflow. For example, you could create a workflow that sends an e-mail message to a document’s author requesting approval, and then sends the document to a Records Center site. You could combine policies and workflows by creating a retention policy that runs the new workflow one year after a document is created.
You can also use the SharePoint Server object model to create a custom workflow that copies files to the Records Center site. A workflow that sends files to the Records Center
cycle, such as expense reports, you could implement a workflow that guides the
document through its various stages and, as a final step, sends a copy of the document to the Records Center site. The workflow could be triggered by creating a new document.
Using a custom solution
You can develop custom solutions that use objects in the
Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.OfficialFileWSProxy namespace to send content from other data sources to the Records Center site. For more information about how to implement custom solutions using the SharePoint Server 2010 object model, see the SharePoint Server 2010Software Development Kit
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166117&clcid=0x409).