Data storage and recovery of topics

I like to use Foswiki as a kind of project management in the company I work for.

Background:

A lot of departments and people are working on one project. At the moment all of them have their own "art of information storage". If a customer calls a few years later with a problem the projectmanager has to find out which department / person is in charge and hopefully this person ist availaible and is able to remind the details.

My Idea:

My Idea ist to hold all informations in topics. All our projects have a running nummer, the commission.

• Example: ProjectData12345

This topic will have a lot of attachments (order confirmation in PDF, emails between the customer and us in MSG-format and it will have a few subtopics.

Example:

• SubProjectData12345Electric - contains electrical informations
• SubProjectData12345Mechanic - contains mechanical informations

Now my questions:

According to the EC machinery directive I need to storage all project informations for at least 10 years (acc. to the product liability act 30 years).

• Is it possible to safe the project topic, all subtopics and attachments in one step (maybe with a new plugin) to a archive?
• Is it possible to restore the safed topics into a running wiki?
• If yes, what happend if I have to do the restoring in 20 years into Foswiki version 2.1.2? Is a topic file upward compatible?

• Is my idea a good idea or does somebody knows a better way?

Thanks in advance

Andreas

-- AndreasEllguth - 08 Apr 2010

If archiving is your only concern you could consider using PublishPlugin to convert a set of topics to html files. This will not automatically publish all attachments - there is an open enhancement Task for the plugin.

If you want to store the topics in original format, you probably need a new plugin.

-- ArthurClemens - 08 Apr 2010

My guess is that if the topic pages stay with simple markup and core plugin functionality you'll be fine for the long term. But really, it's a strength of Foswiki in that regard that each topic is just an RCS backed text file, and file attachments are in a folder. As long as you only want to read the latest version of a topic or attachment rather than an interim edit, you don't even need Foswiki running to read them (unlike a wiki with a database backend). If you were to stop putting data into Foswiki and archiving the whole thing on the shelf, you could simply include a VM alongside the same archive. You would then have a working portable instance to fire of in the version from the same timeframe as your data.

-- CraigBowers - 08 Apr 2010

Thanks for the quick answers!

Athur: The tool you suggest looks very nice. I will try it during the weekend. You don't know a tool what reads Outlook msg-files and import the text in a topic?

Craig: That was also my first idea but it don't fullfill the regulations for long term archives.

-- AndreasEllguth - 09 Apr 2010

IANAL, but how so? 2006/42/EC doesn't seem overly strenuous.

Page 43:

Custody

...shall keep the original EC declaration of conformity for a period of at least 10 years from the last date of manufacture of the machinery.

Page 48:

The Technical File

2. The technical file referred to in point 1 must be made available to the competent authorities of the Member States for at least 10 years following the date of manufacture of the machinery or,in the case of series manufacture,of the last unit produced. The technical file does not have to be located in the territory of the Community, nor does it have to be permanently available in material form. However, it must be capable of being assembled and made available within a period of time commensurate with its complexity by the person designated in the EC declaration of conformity.

Page 49:

Relevant technical documentation for partly completed machinery

The relevant technical documentation must be available for at least 10 years following the date of manufacture of the partly completed machinery or,in the case of series manufacture,of the last unit produced, and on request presented to the competent authorities of the Member States. It does not have to be located in the territory of the Community, nor does it have to be permanently available in material form. It must be capable of being assembled and presented to the relevant authority by the person designated in the declaration for incorporation.

I can't think of anything better in fact than a non-database backed wiki like Foswiki. To meet that simple requirement I'd just zip the whole Foswiki folder and put it on the shelf. Anyone can search through a directory of text files and pull out the data to be "assembled and made available". Worst case you'd do a search replace on wiki markup to something else 20 years later to make it pretty. Playing the odds I think you'll have less effort opening a text file in 20 years than an MS office binary, or even a MySql database (aka Mediawiki et al). I only hesitate to assume Foswiki won't be using a database backend in 20 years. Personally I hope not, but my crystal ball also hasn't yet arrived.

-- CraigBowers - 09 Apr 2010

I assume this discussion has run its course. Marking as answered; please change it back if necessary.

-- PaulHarvey - 08 Sep 2010