Unfortunately, there is no native Android App to access SeedDMS. If somebody has some spare time and thinks this has to be changed, then please contact me at info@seeddms.org. I’ll support wherever I can. Well, in the mean time there is another way, which covers at least the basic access on documents stored in SeedDMS. A brand new extension makes SeedDMS behave like a Paperless-ngx server by adding its REST API endpoints. Consequently, the native apps for Paperless-ngx believe they are talking to a Paperless-ngx server while actually talking to a SeedDMS server. Not a perfect solution but amazingly good, which also makes uploads of files from your mobile phone into SeedDMS a lot easier.

Running a document management system has many advantages compared to a local file storage on your computer’s disc, but many of them don’t help if documents cannot be easily uploaded, downloaded, or generally accessed. The fact, that a web based DMS can be made available from all over the world, requires to cover many more scenarios when you need to add a document to the DMS or retrieve one from the DMS. The following sections will describe those scenarios. Some of them can be handled with features already build into SeedDMS others require an extension which isn’t freely available. It will not be an in depth description of each scenario but rather an overview.

SeedDMS uses a simple folder structure on disc which eases updates and even allows to switch between different versions as long as you stay in the 5.1.x or 6.0.x branch. It makes use of soft links which makes it somewhat harder to install it on systems which do not support them.

After unpacking the quickstart archive of SeedDMS 6.0.19, you will see a folder hierarchy like the following (it shows only those directories which are relevant to understand the concept). Of course, for a different version of SeedDMS the directory seeddms-6.0.19 will have a different name.

The history association VEKD uses SeedDMS to manage a digital archive of the local history museum. The association has set itself the goal of digitizing photos and documents from and about its home town and thus preserving it for posterity. The SeedDMS management system is ideally suited for this.

With the help of a structured index tree, photos can be assigned to historical buildings, clubs or even families and private individuals. The possibility of setting cross-references and thus creating connections between different data sets is particularly helpful. As with a jigsaw puzzle, more and more pictures are brought together and gradually complete the overall historical picture of the community.