The Export Binder option allows you to export all documents from a binder, or a subset of those documents. You can also export different artifacts for the selected documents, including renditions, source documents, document fields, audit trails, and attachments. This feature can aid in regulatory submissions and support TMF transfer/archival activities.
How to Export Binders
To export documents within a binder:
- From the Actions menu for the binder, select Export Binder.
- Use the checkboxes to select the parts of the binder you wish to export.
- Click Next.
- On the Edit Details page, use the checkboxes to select the type of content to export. See details below.
- Under Define Document Naming Rule, select which document field to use for naming exported files. See details below.
- Click Next.
- On the Confirmation page, you will see a summary of your export. Verify all of the information is correct, and click Finish.
Note: Vault will not include the following characters in the file name of an export: <,>,:,"",/,\,|,?,*
Notifications
When the export completes, Vault notifies you via email and the Notifications page. The notifications include the number of files processed and downloaded, and list any documents that failed to export.
Click the link in the email or notification to download the exported ZIP file. This content is only available for 14 days.
Folder Path Length Restriction
Vault will truncate filenames and folder names for documents which would exceed the maximum size specified by your Admin. By default, this maximum is 230 bytes. This limit may impact exports for languages where characters are more than one (1) byte. The character count includes all characters from the top level (drive letter in Windows) through the file extension. For example, the folder path “C:/Docs/CC123.pdf” is 17 characters.
Related Permissions
| Type | Permission | Description |
| Security Profile | Documents: Download Document | This permission is required to download document source files and the Large Size Asset rendition type. |
| Security Profile | Documents: Download Rendition | This permission is required to download document renditions, except the Large Size Asset rendition type. |
| Document Role | View Document | This permission is required on the binder in order to export. It's also required on any component document in order to download document field values. |
| Document Role | View Content | This permission is required on any component document in order to download files. |
| Document Role | Download Source | This permission is required in the current lifecycle state for all documents within the binder. |
Export Artifact Options
For the component documents that you export, you can choose to include:
- Renditions: Use the drop-down to select rendition types. Viewable rendition, which exports the (typically auto-generated) PDF rendition of your document, is the most common.
- Source Documents: This option exports the source file for a document. Source documents can be any type of file (ZIP, DOCX, CSV, etc.).
- Document Fields: This option creates a single CSV file within the top-level binder folder listing each downloaded file and the associated document fields. If you download both viewable renditions and source files, the CSV file contains a separate record for each. (The fields export to TXT format if localization is enabled for the Vault.)
- Document Attachments: This option exports attachments that exist on selected documents. Use the drop-down to select either the Latest Version of the attachments or All Versions. When your Vault uses source version-specific attachments, the export file contains an Attachments folder for each document version to show the document versions to which each attachment belongs.
- Document Audit Trail: Select this checkbox if you want to export document audit trails. The audit trails include all document versions. Choose between exporting these logs as a PDF or CSV. TXT export is available if localization is enabled in your Vault.
Overlays & Signature Pages
Viewable renditions may export with or without their overlays and signature pages. This depends on your Vault’s settings.
File & Folder Naming
By default, Vault uses the following standards for naming files during export:
- Document file names: Selected document field (or Document Number if selected field is blank) plus the file type extension, for example, REF-0023.docx
- Binder folder names: Document Name, for example, CompliancePack CC-39
- Section folder names: Section name, for example, References
- Document fields file: “export_summary” plus date and time, for example, export_summary_2013_05_14_14_09_00_EDT.csv
If an Admin has enabled the Apply user-defined value as folder and file names in export option, you can manually enter folder and file names. For folder names, the Add Section/Edit Section dialog allows you to enter a value in the Export Folder Name field. For file names and the binder folder name, Admins must configure the Export File Name document field. If configured, this document field is editable on the Doc Info page for each document and for the binder itself.
Version Selection
If you export renditions, source documents, or document fields, you can select which versions to export. Vault adds the version number to each exported filename. You must have the correct permissions on a document version to export it.
Export Size Limits
You cannot export more than 50,000 artifacts and export ZIP files may not exceed 5 GB, by default. You’ll see an error notification if a requested export exceeds either limit.
When exporting document attachments, the attachment filepath, name, and extension cannot exceed 230 bytes. For example, an attachment located in Products/Cholecap/PrescribingInformation.docx/TrainingVideo.mp4 is 64 bytes. One character does not always equal one (1) byte. For example, the character “菌” is three (3) bytes.
Exporting Binders with Bulk Action
You can export binders using a bulk action. The Document Export bulk action provides the same options as binder export.