Document life cycle is a sequence of statuses (stages) of a document. On this tab, you can configure life cycle statuses and transitions between them.
To display the Life Cycle tab, go to the document type page- Description tab - Advanced Settings unit, and check the Use this lifecycle for this type of documents box.
Fig. 1. Life Cycle tab
Status
Life cycle statuses are stored in the Document Life Cycle Status object. You can find it in the Documents folder of the Objects section (fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Object section. Document Life Cycle Status object
Actions with statuses:
Create
There are two ways to create a new life cycle status:
create a new instance of the Document Life Cycle Status object in Web Application.
Click Add Status on the Life Cycle tab in ELMA Designer (fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Add Status button
In the opened dialog box (fig. 4), click and enter the status name in the Name field. You can add a description of the status. To complete creating a status click OK (fig. 5).
To select an existing status, click (fig. 4). The drop down list will display the statuses from the Document life cycle statusobject. The Used Statuses folder shows only the statuses used in this document type; the Unused Statuses contains all the others.
Click (fig. 4) to clear the status field.
Fig. 4. Dialog box for selecting the document status
Fig. 5. Window for creating a document status
Edit a life cycle status
There are several ways to edit a life cycle status:
edit the instance of the Document Life Cycle Status object in Web Application;
click Change Status on the Life Cycle tab in ELMA Designer (fig. 6)
Fig. 6. Change Status button
In the opened window, make the required changes and click OK (fig. 7).
Сlick on the status name in the list. In the opened window, make the required changes and click OK (fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Editing a life cycle status
Delete
You can delete life cycle statuses. However, the document type must have at least one life cycle status.
When you delete a life cycle status, it remains for those documents, where it has already been set but you cannot set the deleted status for other documents of this type.
There are several ways to delete a life cycle status:
delete the instance of the Document Life Cycle Status object in Web Application.
This way you can delete only the statuses, which are not involved in life cycles of any document types. In this case the document life cycle status is completely deleted from the system. When you try to delete a status involved in the life cycle of at least one document type, a notification will be shown: "Cannot delete a status involved in the life cycle of the document". In this case, you should first delete the status from the document type page, as described below.
click on the Life Cycle tab in ELMA Designer. In the opened window, confirm deleting the status by clicking Yes (fig. 9). In this case, the life cycle status will be deleted only from the document type page.
Fig. 9. Confirm deleting window
click Delete Status on the Life Cycle tab in ELMA Designer (fig. 10).
Fig. 10. Delete Status button
Confirm deleting the life cycle status in the opened window by clicking Yes (fig. 11).
Fig. 11. Confirm deleting window
Transition
Transitions define the sequence of changing the document life cycle statuses.
Actions with transitions
Create
To create a new transition:
click Create Transition in the top menu or in the context menu (fig. 12);
Fig. 12. Buttons for creating a transition
in the opened dialog box, enter the name of the transition, add a description, select the initial and target statuses (fig. 13);
complete creating the transition by clicking OK (fig. 13).
Fig. 13. Window for creating a transition
Edit
To edit a transition:
click Edit Transition in the top menu or in the context menu of the transition.
make the required changes in the opened dialog box.
complete editing the transition by clicking ОК.
Delete
To delete a transition:
click Delete Transition in the top menu or in the context menu of the transition.
complete deleting the transition by clicking OK.
confirm deleting the transition in the opened dialog box by clicking Yes.
and enter the status name in the Name field. You can add a description of the status. To complete creating a status click OK (fig. 5).
(fig. 4). The drop down list will display the statuses from the Document life cycle status 
(fig. 4) to clear the status field.
on the Life Cycle tab in ELMA Designer. In the opened window, confirm deleting the status by clicking Yes (fig. 9). In this case, the life cycle status will be deleted only from the document type page.
