Document status

All documents processed in Link will have a status. The status will automatically change as the document passes through Link, and it is important to understand what each individual status means.

This section covers each of the built-in statuses in Link. It is also possible to introduce custom statuses, which is an advanced topic that is covered in the “Developer” section of this document.

Inbox

The document has been received and is placed in the Link Inbox queue from where it will be picked up and processed.

Initialize

The document has been received and Link is now working on sorting out the basic context information, e.g. sender, receiver, document type, etc. This step is necessary to determine the document´s future path through Link.

Processing

Document has been picked up by Link and is being processed. It has not yet been delivered.

Batching

Sometimes multiple documents need to be merged into one big file - this is called a batch. This status indicates that the document is currently in the process of being added to a batch which has not yet been sent.

Awaiting Confirmation

The document has been delivered, but Link is waiting for a control message from the receiving system or an acknowledgement that the message has been received. This status will only appear if the option “Expect acknowledgement” has been selected on the document distribution.

Failed

The document has encountered an error during the flow. Link will have given the document an error code and the assigned stakeholder is notified. You can read more about error codes and stakeholders in the Error Handling section.

Ignored

This document will be labeled as “ignored” if a user has selected it and has selected the “Manually handle” or “Resend” button. (Resending a document will submit a new document in the Inbox status and mark the current with an ignored status). Link will do nothing further with this document.

Ready for test

This status indicates that the received document was marked with a test flag. In this case Link will not process the document as normally. The idea is to be able to receive test documents in a production system and then work with them manually to ensure everything works as expected.

Some document formats (e.g. EDIFACT) support this possibility and some don’t.

Outbox

The “Outbox” status shows that the document has been successfully processed, placed in the “Outbox”-queue and is now ready to be sent to the receiver via an asynchronous transport type.

This could be one of the native transport types (e.g. SFTP), but oftentimes, companies choose to let systems pick messages from the outbox-queue via the REST API.

Completed

The document has been successfully delivered to the intended receiver. Link will do nothing further with this document.