Document Types Submitted by Instructors for Electronic Items Processing

Faculty can request and submit their reserves items in digital format two ways:

1. By selecting the File Upload and Free Text options under the Add Reserve Items options.
2. By choosing the "I will upload a file" option on the Reserve Item page when specifying how an item will be supplied.

Article, Chapter, Audio File, and Video File types can accept file uploads. The Book file type cannot accept uploaded files. 

The DocumentTypes table in the customization manager contains a list of all acceptable file types for your Ares system. All accepted file types and their extensions must be entered into this table to be recognized by Ares. If an uploaded item contains a file extension that is not in the DocumentTypes table it will not be recognized by Ares and will be placed in the Awaiting File Type Resolution status queue. From here, staff can review the item file type and either make the item available on electronic reserves or cancel the request. If the file is an acceptable file type, it should be added to the DocumentTypes table for future item requests. Office 2007 documents, while not compatible by default, can be added by following the steps outlined in Configuring Document Types.

The DocumentTypes Table

The DocumentTypes table is located in the System | General section of the Customization Manager. It contains the acceptable file formats that can be uploaded by instructors to Ares.

The extension of the uploaded file, as set in the Extension column of the table, denotes how the item will be supplied to the student user and determines the Document Type that is displayed in the client. If an instructor uploads a file with the extension .xls, the client records the Document Type as an Excel file because the DocumentTypes Table has assigned the extension xls to the DocumentTypeName Excel. Any file format not listed in this table will force the item to the Awaiting File Type Resolution status.

An Uploaded Item Request on the Web

Following a request submission, we can see the relationship between the DocumentTypes Table and an item request.

1. The Instructor submits an item request and will provide the item as an uploaded file.
2. The Instructor uploads the file, which is a photograph in the .jpg format.
3. The file is successfully uploaded and submitted to the client. The flower picture is used to represent the .jpg image file, because the default, image_16.gif, is listed in the Icon Field in the DocumentTypes Table.
4. The DocumentTypes Table shows the field values for the upload .jpg.
5. This image shows the relationship of the DocumentTypes Table values to the fields in the client, particularly Document Type (DocumentTypeName) and Ares Location (ContentType).

Awaiting Review by Staff Status

If the ForceReview value in the DocumentTypes table is set to true, the item request automatically goes to the Awaiting Review by Staff queue instead of to Available on Electronic Reserves.