Collections and Private Forms

There are differences in Private Field sites, Collections and Private Forms. They each have different purposes but are often used in conjunction with each other. It is important to understand their meanings.

Collections

Collections are secure groups of documents. Each collection is secured so that users will either see (have access to, be able to search, see the metadata, etc.) a set of documents, or they will not. Many clients use collections as a grouping mechanism, so that they can search collections individually.

In the situation where expert witnesses are involved, you may want to provide them with access to a set of document records, but hide the other collections from them. The records can be grouped into a secure collection in order to provide them with limited access to the population.

Private Forms

Private forms are another way to display information in a semi-private way. Forms are displayed in an opened document. Users only see the forms they are given rights to see. The form contains the document data on the right side and the user can enter information or make coding changes on the form.

Forms provide some security, because users see limited information in the forms of the opened documents, but they will be able to search any fields that are not private. Private Field sites contain private forms.

When a form is created, it is represented in the list of available forms in Roles Administration. Administrators can assign certain forms to certain users via Roles, and can keep forms hidden from a user or group of users, making the form private. Note that forms in one Security Group cannot be viewed by users in a different Security Group.