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User Guide
391 words
Jun 28, 2026

Records Management

User Guide

Manage a records-management file plan (classification scheme) and capture business email as records — the ahgRecordsManagePlugin. Use this to classify archival material against a controlled hierarchy of functions/series/files with retention and disposal metadata, and to bring email correspondence under records control.

Workflow Overview

┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│  Build the   │    │   Capture    │    │   Classify   │    │   Declare    │
│  File Plan   │ ──▶│   Email      │ ──▶│   to a Node  │ ──▶│  as a Record │
│              │    │              │    │              │    │              │
│ Function →   │    │ Upload .eml  │    │ Pick file-   │    │ Becomes an   │
│ Series →File │    │ to the queue │    │ plan node    │    │ archival IO  │
└──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘

1. File plan / classification scheme

Where: Admin → Privacy & Compliance dashboard → Field redaction neighbour, or directly at /recordsManage/filePlan.

The file plan is a tree of classification nodes. Each node has:

Field Meaning
Code Unique classification code (e.g. GOV-01)
Title Human-readable name
Type function, series, subseries, file, or class
Parent Where it sits in the tree (blank = top level)
Retention period e.g. "7 years", "Permanent"
Disposal action destroy, transfer, retain_permanent, or review

Add a node

  1. Open File plan.
  2. In the Add node panel, choose a Parent (or leave blank for a top-level function), enter a Code and Title, pick the Type, and optionally a Retention period and Disposal action.
  3. Click Add node. The tree re-indents automatically.

Edit / delete

  • Click the pencil to edit a node.
  • Click the trash to delete — a node can only be deleted if it has no children and no linked records (the system blocks otherwise to protect the hierarchy).

The Records column shows how many archival descriptions are linked to each node (by disposal class, or by identifier prefix match).

2. Email capture

Where: /recordsManage/emailCapture.

Bring business email under records control as a three-stage queue: captured → classified → declared.

Capture

  1. Export the email from your mail client as an .eml file (one message per file).
  2. On the Email capture page, choose the file and click Capture.
  3. The system parses the headers + body, stores the original .eml for forensic preservation, and adds a row to the queue. Re-uploading the same message (by Message-ID) is ignored as a duplicate.

Classify

  • In the queue, pick a file-plan node for the email and click the tag button. Status moves to classified.

Declare as a record

  • Once classified, click Declare as record. The email becomes a full archival information object (title = subject, scope note = from/to/sent + a body excerpt) appended to the catalogue, and the queue row links to it. The full lifecycle (retention, disposal) then applies like any other description.
captured ──tag──▶ classified ──declare──▶ declared (→ Information Object)

Permissions

All Records Management screens require the administrator credential.