Prevent to create new object when Documents have the same QR code- only add as attachment

Question

I checked on comumunity forum, but I havent found this use case so far. 
 
 We generate the document with QR code in other System (some information are stored in QR) and then import them to M-Files - so based on rights relevant people can see it in M-files. In some cases, we share this document with customers via email. Who can edit this document, sign it, or make some adjustments. Then we import this file to M-Files as well - by automatic import from email. 
 
 I wonder if there is any possibility in M-Files how to prevent to create the new object (if the second document content is different but it has the same QR code) - but instead creting new object only add this new document as attachment to the first file with the same QR code. (by import).

Thank you 
 Pavol

Craig Hawker · Accepted Answer

I don't think there's a built-in way. 
 I recall that I did something similar several years ago. When quotes were created they had a barcode on the footer containing details about the object in M-Files that they came from. Salespeople would often go out to the client, get a signature, then scan in the signed version. Obviously we didn't want to have two different objects in the vault. 
 I seem to remember that I set up the OCR module to read the barcode into a property. There was then some code that ran after the object was created which read the property, found the original document, added the scanned file do it, then removed the document for the newly-scanned version. 
 All that was done using some custom code, though. 
 The general idea worked well. Perhaps something similar would work here?

Craig Hawker · Answer

Slight correction: the code will have to be validated if it's going into a shared cloud environment. If it's going into a new isolated environment then it does not need validation. 
 The above applies to "new cloud", but new vaults go into there anyway now, and older vaults are being migrated.

Ne0Tr0n · Answer

Craig is absolutely right. We have several similar scenarios ourselves and proceed in a similar manner. 
 The import takes place through a helper class, where at a step of the work process, by means of code, we perform a search in the main class for a match with the value of QR Code. If there is one, we add the file in a multi-file document, if not, we create a new one. 
 At the end of the workflow, we delete the temporary object. 
 This begs the question - Is this an on-premise solution or will it be published in the cloud? 
 If it will be in the cloud, the code will have to be validated by M-Files.

Prevent to create new object when Documents have the same QR code- only add as attachment

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