Project & Quote Archiving Time Period

We shy away from archiving projects for that very reason. So far storage space was not an issue because we hosted XTRF on our own servers. But we are considering a move to XTRF Cloud, which might bring us into the same predicament of having to archive projects. I'm also very interested in best practices for project archiving.

@XTRF: Best-practice webinars would be very much appreciated and seem like a logical extension of XTRF Academy. I have already registered for the reporting webinar!

@Sancho, I just learned via my helpdesk that there is no plan to add an unarchiving option to Smart projects. Also, I was told that the 30 day archiving is a policy (I guess it's new??) issue and not a technical issue. So there is no way to change this. So, if you're on Smart Projects, and if archiving after 30 days is problematic, then XTRF cloud isn't a good option for you. I'm disappointed to learn this to say the least. 

@XTRF Product Owner: Can you confirm this? How will this strategy work in practice? Does that mean that there is no way to unarchive and access Smart projects after they have been closed for 30 days? Please provide some clarity. I love the idea of XTRF Cloud, but would hate to be hamstrung.

Just to put a little more specifics here, here's the exact quote from my help ticket:

I have been advised by our specialist that at the moment there are no plans to implement the unarchiving option in Smart Projects and that the archiving delay in these projects is set to 30 days. The archiving limitation in our infrastructure is actually written in our Terms&Condition which can be found under this link: https://legal.xtrf.eu/2017/products/OnCloud.pdf.

I read through the OnCloud Terms & Conditions and I can't find anything about the archiving limitations. @XTRF, would you help me better understand this and point me to the exact place where this is stated?

Thanks.

@Sancho At the moment there is no plan for introducing the unarchive feature. But if you need to access the files, you can access the folder with archived projects via SFTP.

At the moment we'd be more open to extending the time period for the project archiving, than the unarchive option.

@Mark, I think that there was a mental leap in the statement above. In the quoted document there is an information about limited storage on the cloud and also that some settings/parameters cannot be changed there. Project archiving period is the setting that has probably the most impact on the size of your storage. And thus, the settings that influence the storage directly (archiving period, in this case) are limited.

@Marek, your reply to Sancho about the unarchive feature not being on the roadmap for Smart Projects is true for XTRF Cloud and on premise, correct?

I hear what you are saying, from your storage and development point of view, but the fact that not only can our customers not unarchive their own projects (currently true for all types of projects, and they find frustrating), but with Smart Projects, now PMs/AMs also cannot do it for them, makes Smart Projects not a usable feature for us (from what I am hearing, for others too). Using SFTP to get files and then manually send to Customers or use a separate file sharing system is cumbersome and defeats the purpose of why we use XTRF.

Regardless of the reasons why this is the case, it really means that this is not an enterprise solution, and hamstrings users into using Classic Projects, which are not getting new users. I know I sound like a whiner, but Mark, Sancho, others, wouldn't you agree?

@Marek, I'm just trying to understand. I've now been told 1) archiving is technically difficult and can't be done without significant changes, 2) then I was told that it's a legal/policy issue, 3) now I understand it's just an effort for XTRF to manage storage limits. I just want to know if I can change my archiving period from 30 days to a larger number - assuming that I have enough storage space of course. At a minimum, I really do need more flexibility in this archiving time period. This is a problem for us, and not only us.

@Marek & Sancho, I currently access my archived files via SFTP. It works. However, it's different than unarchiving. I can get the files and share them, but I can't reopen old projects or update project files if necessary.  If I need to tweak a project or add one more file to an existing but closed/archived project, I can't do that, I need to create a completely new project. I can make workarounds for this, but it's not ideal. 

While I understand where XTRF is coming from, what we are looking for are solutions. If our suggestions are shut down, please present other suggestions with associated time frames. The "does not work" or "not available" replies are deflating.

I'll second that using SFTP, while it works, it is cumbersome. I will not set PMs up with SFTP access - too many opportunities for errors or security issues - so that means I need to centralize that responsibility, and then have a separate process for PMs to be able to access their archived files. 

Also, remember that these archives are password protected zip files of all documents in a smart project with no structure. So, it's not like you can open the archive and filter for a category, or just pull out the translated document easily. It's just a long list of files. 

When we realized that there was no filtering or organization, we implemented a new naming structure to help us ID files once they are archived, but our earlier archives are pretty much a mess.

Cori, I agree that not being able to dearchive projects would be another blocker that would stop us from using Smart Projects.

We are trying to get our clients to use the Client Portal as their central access point to everything they need. If after 30 days they wouldn't be able to access the files anymore, that would defeat the purpose. Access through SFTP would not be a good workaround in this case.

Hello All

First of all, I want to confirm that currently on our Roadmap we don't have any feature related to de-archiving Smart Projects.

But at the same time, I'd like to point out that it doesn't mean that we won't add it.

I've already added this in the Product Development Ideas forum:

De-archiving Smart Projects

I'd suggest upvoting there, that will help us to evaluate the priority of such development in the context of other development suggestions reported by the UE community.

This discussion obviously shows that there is a need for such a development, but we'd like to better evaluate its priority.

Thanks Marek. I'll definitely upvote as well as reach out to our support.

Any update on v 8.1? We're eagerly awaiting a few bug fixes, as well as extending this archiving period.

Not surprised about this. A few months ago we got an email saying we were over storage quota. The standard storage quota is apparently 300 GB (???!!!! So small!), and we were notified that we were over (the email didn't say how much, just that we needed to contact our account manager about buying additional 100gb blocks. I contacted them to find out we had over 1.13 TB of used space. I did the calculations, and we would have surpassed the 300GB limit within our first years of use, which was 3 years ago, and had never been notified. I did confirm this was in our contract, we just didn't realize.

They also explained that additional blocks of 100GB cost 50 EUROS for the first one, and 20 for subsequent ones, per month. I expressed that this was a very steep price for storage in this day and age, and we did not understand this at all going into it (though it was indeed in the contract, so that's our fault). The suggestion was to either do on premise or to go in and periodically backup using FTP and remove project files in order to make storage.

Just like I explained in another thread, that is not a viable option. So we are paying the extra fee every time we exceed our current quota, since we don't want to transition to on premise yet. And XTRF kindly did not charge us for all the years we had been over quota. 

Part of providing a client portal is to provide ongoing access to files and project history, sometimes for years to come (Right? We all want clients that stick around longer than 30 days!). It seems the product owners and developers at XTRF view "translation management" as simply managing the finite task of translation. But we all are trying to use XTRF to provide a service to our clients, and to have to create an alternative way to provide access to files absolutely crushes any value XTRF brings in terms of workflow and process management. Translation is finite. Project and Account management is ongoing, and XTRF needs to support this better.

I was flabbergasted to find out that the reason my archive time period kept changing was because we have a cloud install and that is the policy. Why am I even able to change it? Where is the warning that it will change? My account and project managers get tired of unarchiving projects at clients request and complaint that they can't see the files (not sure, but I think to a client it just shows nothing, no warning or prompt to contact their account/project manager). Just like the quota, there is no documentation, just a policy that GREATLY effects us all.

We already are struggling to move to Smart Projects, which we WANT to because of the new features are only coming to Smart Projects, regardless of XTRF telling us that Smart Projects were not replacing Classic, just a different product. However, finding out now that Smart Projects cannot be unarchived means we will NEVER be able to use them.

@XTRF, I think you guys need to listen up, the comments from multiple people of "we have to consider our options" are getting more frequent. We love your product, believe in it's potential, but things are very rocky right now. Building a product like this is difficult.  But I don't believe communicating and listening to your users is.

I'm giving this one more try before archiving manually or getting a fix. We'll see. 

@sancho: Why are you considering moving toward cloud if you already have hosted? 

@XTRF: I second best-practice webinars. There is so much to learn, and more guidance would help experienced users as well and help bring along newbies.

Hosting your own server has its own issues (e.g. compatibility of patches and upgrades) and I would rather have one provider (XTRF) be responsible for everything related to the proper functioning of the software. We'll see how that goes. I had asked other XTRF Cloud users earlier and have not come across any negative reports yet.

There are limitations with the cloud, but it's been working for us. Know that we don't have to deal with a server and maintenance issues does let us focus on our core work. I do wish we were able to FTP to vendor files and some additional access to folders, but for the most part, it's working for us. Good luck with that transition. Hopefully, it goes smoothly.

It just did it again. I checked this morning and it defaulted back to 30 days. 

@XTRF, is this a support issue? Is this related to updates to our installation? I'd love your input.

I'm officially turning off the archiving because of this. Hopefully, it won't turn itself on...

If your on a hosted plan (SaaS), then the archiving is mandatory and has a constant delay of 30 days.

Is there a way to change it? In the Periodic job is give me the option on how many days, but it reverts back to 30. 30 is too short for us and is causing problems.

In classic projects, you can unarchive a project at any time, so the delay is not really a problem. I think you might be talking about smart projects, where unarchiving has not yet been implemented. I'm reluctant to change the archiving delay, as it has an impact on our infrastructure if increased globally, and customization is currently not an option. I believe implementing smart project unarchiving is the right solution here.

I am talking about Smart Projects. Unarchiving would be ok, but the current 30 day archiving time has been causing frustration for our staff recently. While I'd love an unarchive option, that strikes me as something that would take a long time to implement?  No?

Unfortunately I'm not the one with answer for this question. We will reevaluate the archiving delay after 8.1 finally gets deployed everywhere, as it contains some improvements in this area (mostly of internal significance).

I turned the archiving off so I can run the periodic job manually. Is it going to automatically get turned back on?

Yes, after next restart.