documentsfrom

DocumentsFrom is a metadata concept used to indicate the provenance or origin of a set of documents within a digital repository, data pipeline, or document management system. While not a formal standard, it is commonly employed as a field name in data schemas to capture where documents came from.

Usage and purpose: The documentsFrom value identifies the source or sources from which the documents were obtained, such as an external application, a departmental system, a vendor portal, or a batch ingestion. This information supports data lineage, auditing, deduplication, access control, and quality assurance by enabling users and systems to trace documents back to their origin.

Implementation varies by system. In some schemas it is a simple string (for example, vendor_portal:INV-1001). In others it is a structured object containing elements such as source, sourceId, and ingestionTimestamp (for example, {source: "crm", sourceId: "CASE-6789", timestamp: "2025-01-12T08:00:00Z"}). In practice, documentsFrom is often paired with other provenance fields such as createdBy, createdAt, and license or rights information.

Limitations and considerations: Because there is no universal standard for documentsFrom, definitions can differ across platforms. Implementers should document semantics, data types, and allowed values, and consider privacy and access implications when exposing source information.

See also: provenance, data lineage, metadata, data governance, and the W3C PROV ontology.