About Doctype Trigger Events

Doctype trigger events specify the type of data change that causes this trigger fire. For example, triggers can fire before or after create, update, and delete events. Create events are called INSERT in Vault Java SDK.

Available doctype trigger events:

BEFORE_INSERT
AFTER_INSERT
BEFORE_UPDATE
AFTER_UPDATE
BEFORE_DELETE
AFTER_DELETE

When reading about events in documentation, a BEFORE event refers to any event which includes BEFORE, for example, BEFORE_INSERT, BEFORE_UPDATE, and BEFORE_DELETE. Similarly, an UPDATE event refers to any event which includes UPDATE, for example, both BEFORE_UPDATE and AFTER_UPDATE.

Certain information about a document is only available to get or set during certain events. For example, you cannot set document metadata during a DELETE event, and you cannot get data during an INSERT event. Understanding data availability can help you pick the right event for your custom logic.

INSERT

INSERT events are create events, and fire whenever a new document or document version is created. For example, uploading a new version of an existing document.

UPDATE

UPDATE doctype triggers occur whenever data on the same document version changes.

A change to a document that causes a new document version is considered an INSERT event, not an UPDATE event. For example, uploading a new version of an existing document is an INSERT event, while updating the archive__v field on an existing document version is an UPDATE event.

DELETE

DELETE doctype triggers fire on delete events, either deleting an entire document or deleting a single version. When an entire document is deleted, Vault fires DOCUMENT triggers, but does not fire triggers for every subsequent deleted version.

If a user deletes a document version, Vault fires DELETE triggers scoped to DOCUMENT_VERSION. If that version is the last remaining version for the document, this instructs Vault to delete the entire document, which also fires DELETE triggers scoped to DOCUMENT.