The “DATE” field in Digital WarRoom is calculated from the metadata of the documents and designed to display the “best” date for the document. The DATE field is set for an entire family to make sorting more effective. Settings - Edit Columns to make specific date fields available to fit the fact pattern of the matter. Should the facts dictate the need to know when a document was last modified, turn on the Modified date field for review.
Because not all dates are present in all emails, there is a “hierarchy” of how the DATE field gets assigned. Imagine an email draft that has not been sent. Additionally emails containing appointments have different/ambiguous start dates and sent dates, etc.
The exact DWR date extraction sequence is to delivered date first, then sent date, then flag as unknown.
Specifically
- DATE is set to the client sent time
- if that does not exist, then
- DATE is set to the message delivery date,
- if that does not exist, then DATE is assumed to be "no date" (1/1/1900)
- next...
- The MODIFIED is set using the same steps as DATE above
- next…
- CREATE is set to the message created date (only if in header)
- f that does not exist, then CREATE is set to the MODIFIED date
- next...
- The SENT date is (always) set the message client send date (or 1/1/1900)
- The RECEIVED date is (always) set to the message delivery date (or 1/1/1900)
- Finally
- if the email also happens to be an appointment, then
- the DATE gets changed to the calendar Start Date (but MODIFIED remains the same)
Use Settings - Edit Columns to make specific date fields available to fit the fact pattern of the matter. Should the facts dictate the need to know when a document was last modified, turn on the Modified date field for review.
There are a lot of date combinations depending on what is in (or is not in) the email header. There are many ways to store dates and it depends completely on the program that CREATED the (mail) message as to which values are present. The program reading the message (DWR), it is at the mercy of the email creator’s conventions as there is no direct standard per se.