Global Substitution

The Global Substitution tool can modify multiple documents. The tool performs a Global Replace, which is a part of a Global Find/Replace process.

You may encounter occasions when changes need to be applied to multiple documents. Using an editor Find/Replace tool is insufficient because the elements or text objects to be changed reside in different documents. The Global Substitution tool allows a user to make changes to multiple documents in a batch job. Objects other than document elements may also be processed and changes may also include altering metadata such as snapshot labels, custom attributes or annotations.

Permission to use the Global Substitution tool is provided only to users who are members of the Global Substitution Group. Users of the tool must also have access to and permission to revise the document. An error is reported when the user is not authorized to revise a document.

Document elements and text objects reside in locking units. The locking unit is automatically checked out to the user who submits a batch job for a substitution rule to change an element or any of its text children. An error is reported if another user currently holds a lock on a needed locking unit.

The substitution process involves identifying candidate items to change, then applying changes specified in an ordered list of substitution rules against the collection of candidates. When the process completes applying the last rule to the last document element of the collection, the substitution processor will optionally check in the relevant locking units using the version note specified in the job.

Note: No validation is performed. We recommend that you validate the change before checking in locking units of the affected elements. If undesired changes are made, the checkouts can be revoked and the substitutions are discarded.