With SharePoint Server 2010 we got the ability to stamp our documents with a “Document ID”. We have also a couple of documentation about this, how it works and why enabling takes some time…
Document IDs and the DocID Service in SharePoint Server 2010 (ECM) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee559302(office.14).aspx
Details about how Document ID Service is activated http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chunliu/archive/2011/07/27/details-about-how-document-id-service-is-activated.aspx
New Document ID Feature in SharePoint 2010 http://blogs.technet.com/b/blairb/archive/2009/10/20/new-document-id-feature-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx
SharePoint 2010 – Activating the Document ID Feature http://miketangoblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/sharepoint-2010-activating-the-document-id-feature/
and much more…
The document ID is not Unique. It might happen that you have two documents in your whole SharePoint farm with the same number. Let us have a look how the number gets created.
I got: 6QXUVKASN27Z-9-8
6QXUVKASN27Z
Comes from a property in the root of the Site and is in my case a random ID also called as Prefix.
9
Comes from the “number” of that List and is also stored as a property.
8
Is the ID of that item.
You created a Site and enabled Document ID. You saved this site as a template without data. Now you created a new Site based on that template.
Later when some documents are stored two examples how such an URL with the Document ID could look:
http://SharePointServer/mastersite/_layouts/DocIdRedir.aspx?ID=6QXUVKASN27Z-9-8 http://SharePointServer/donesite/_layouts/DocIdRedir.aspx?ID=6QXUVKASN27Z-9-8
Both URL will work and will show you the particular document.
Could that work? http://SharePointServer/_layouts/DocIdRedir.aspx?ID=6QXUVKASN27Z-9-8
For me not and Search gave me an error.
Reason 2: We need to know the Site and with that we can use the DocIdRedir.aspx. Look for the two URL’s with mastersite/_layouts and donesite/_layouts.
Q: Why I got a random “Prefix” ?
A: You may did not set your own Prefix like me and when you changed it and expected to see the new one with your Documents:
This has been scheduled and may take some time like the first “Enable” of that feature.
Q: How to change the Prefix?
A: Go to Site Collection Administration and you will see a new entry Document ID Settings. The URL will be similar to http://SharePointServer/_Layouts/DocIdSettings.aspx.
With the next day I can see that all Document ID’s has been changed. The side effect with the site created by a template is still the same.
You are not 100% satisfied with this kind of solution and wants to prevent side effects by control it with your own code? Have a look into the SDK sample: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff521589.aspx