Portlet

Overview

The Portlet allows you to retrieve information from the WorkflowGen User Portal homepage.

The results received from HTTP are stored in XML RSS format and classified by category. This format allows the processing and presentation of the data with any language able to read and parse XML content.

URL and HTTP parameters

URL

You can reach the content generated by the Portlet module with the following URL: http://yoursite/wfgen/show.aspx?QUERY=SHOW_RSS.

Parameters

Parameter	Description
USERNAME	Retrieve data for this user. The current login is assumed if this parameter is missing. Example: wfgen_admin
CATEGORY	List of categories to retrieve separated by ; (semicolon). If this parameter is missing, all the available categories are returned. Example: REQUEST_RUNNING_NB;ACTION_TODO_NB
PROCESS	Allows content to be filtered by some specific processes. Specify the names of the processes separated by ; (semicolon). Example: LEAVE_APPLICATION
PROCESS_CATEGORY	Allows content to be filtered by some specific process categories. Specify the names of the categories separated by ; (semicolon). Example: HR
SHOW_NEW_REQUEST	Retrieve the list of processes that the current user can launch. Example: Y
XSL	Path of the XSL sheet used to transform the RSS content. Example: http://yoursite/portlet.xsl

Examples

Retrieve all categories for the user whose username is johnd:

http://yoursite/wfgen/show.aspx?QUERY=SHOW_RSS&USERNAME=johnd

Retrieve the actions to do (normal and overdue) for the user whose username is johnd:

http://yoursite/wfgen/show.aspx?QUERY=SHOW_RSS&USERNAME=johnd&CATEGORY=ACTION_TODO_NB;ACTION_TODO_OVERDUE_NB

Retrieve information relative to the HR category for the current user:

http://yoursite/wfgen/show.aspx?QUERY=SHOW_RSS&PROCESS_CATEGORY=HR

Security

Authentication

To connect to the Portlet module, you must use an account that has access to the WorkflowGen User Portal (e.g. wfgen_admin).

Username with or without a domain name

You must remove the domain name from the username when calling the Portlet module if the usernames are prefixed by the domain name (see User Management for more information).

RSS format specification

Official specification

Official information about the RSS 2.0 standard is available at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss.

Content example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
    <channel>
        <title>WorkflowGen</title>
        <description>WorkflowGen</description>
        <pubdate>Fri, 24 Oct 2011 15:19:42 GMT</pubdate>
        <language>en-US</language>
        <item>
            <title>Ongoing requests</title>
            <link>http://yoursite/wfgen/...</link>
            <description>15</description>
            <category>REQUEST_RUNNING_NB</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Actions to do</title>
            <link>http://yoursite/wfgen/...</link>
            <description>10</description>
            <category>ACTION_TODO_NB</category>
        </item>
    </channel>
</rss>

XML RSS nodes description

Name	Path	Description
channel	rss	Root node
title	rss/channel	Channel title Example: WorkflowGen
description	rss/channel	Channel description Example: WorkflowGen
pubdate	rss/channel	Channel content publication date
language	rss/channel	Channel language
item	rss/channel	Categories container node
title	rss/channel/item	Category title
link	rss/channel/item	Contextual link of the category in WorkflowGen
description	rss/channel/item	Category value
category	rss/channel/item	Category name

List of available categories

The available categories are as follows:

Name	Description
REQUEST_RUNNING_NB	Number of ongoing requests
REQUEST_RUNNING_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue ongoing requests
ACTION_TODO_NB	Number of actions to do
ACTION_TODO_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue actions to do
ACTION_TEAM_NB	Number of team actions to do
ACTION_TEAM_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue team actions to do
ACTION_TOASSIGN_NB	Number of actions to assign
ACTION_TOASSIGN_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue actions to assign
REQUEST_CLOSED_NB	Number of requests closed since my last visit
REQUEST_CLOSED_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue requests closed since my last visit
REQUEST_TOFOLLOW_NB	Number of requests to follow
REQUEST_TOFOLLOW_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue requests to follow
ACTION_TOFOLLOW_NB	Number of actions to follow
ACTION_TOFOLLOW_OVERDUE_NB	Number of overdue actions to follow
NEW_REQUEST	List of available processes that the user can launch

If a category is empty at runtime, it is not added to the RSS content.

Possible errors

When an error occurs, the HTTP status of the page is modified and a runtime error will be displayed with a custom number.

The following errors can occur during the execution of the script:

Error	Description	Number	HTTP status
Unable to connect to the database	The database is unavailable.	100	500
Unknown user	The username passed through the USERNAME parameter does not correspond to an existing WorkflowGen user.	101	500
Error during the execution of the request <CATEGORY>	An error occurred during the execution of the SQL request corresponding to the <CATEGORY> category.	102	500