EFORMASPX Workflow Application

Overview

The EFORMASPX workflow application lets you display and fill out the different fields of your electronic forms through a WebForm. A WebForm is the ASP.NET equivalent of an MS Windows Form and has similar programming characteristics.

Required parameters

EFORMASPX uses two required parameters: one is FILE type data called FORM_DATA and the other is TEXT type data FORM_URL. FORM_URL is used to display the ASP.NET form, which the users complete during the process execution or whose fields are populated with default values defined during the process development. FORM_URL (IN direction data)

  • This should contain the path/location of the blank form which may be stored in the process data or associated directly to this parameter and can be an absolute or relative path.

FORM_DATA (INOUT direction data)

  • This contains the data of the form: the dataset in .NET to store the data to/from the WorkflowGen XML file (see below for an example of this file).

  • WorkflowGen generates this file at every form submit and no default value is needed to be defined. WorkflowGen will create and update this file automatically.

Example of an empty FORM_DATA file:

An XML file formData.xml containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>  
<NewDataSet>  
    <Table1 />  
</NewDataSet>

Example of a FORM_URL:

/wfgen/WfApps/WebForms/MyFirstWebForm/v1/Form.aspx

Using additional parameters

Field initialization

You can pre-populate the fields of the WebForm form by specifying which values are to populate which form fields. This is done by providing the field name to an action parameter as an IN or INOUT parameter and by sending the value of a freeform text, a WorkflowGen macro, or a process data.

Example:

Rule: Display the requester’s name in the WebForm form field called REQ_NAME when the form loads.

Method: Associate the form field name with the Requester.Name macro.

Retrieving field values

You can store the various WebForm form field values in the process data by specifying which field values are to be stored to which process data. This is done by providing a field name to an action parameter as an OUT (or INOUT) parameter and by retrieving that field value to a specified process data.

Notes:

  • Process data may only be used to store one and only one field value per action.

  • TEXT type process data can only contain a maximum of 4000 characters.

Example:

Rule: Retrieve the Manager's answer/decision in process data called MGR_DECISION

Method: Associate the form field name with pre-defined process data

Additional parameters to change the form field properties

Overview

You can control the required, read-only, and hidden ASPX form field properties through the action parameters without developing any .NET code. The value of the parameter has to be set to a list of fields to set (or not) separated by a comma or a semicolon. This list supports the generic wildcard character * (asterisk) and the exclusion character ^ (caret). A standardized field naming convention makes it easy to set the various field properties per action.

List of available parameters

  • FORM_FIELDS_READONLY: List of read-only fields (IN)

  • FORM_FIELDS_REQUIRED: List of required fields (IN)

  • FORM_FIELDS_HIDDEN List of hidden fields (IN)

Examples of use

Rule: The fields EMP_NAME and EMP_DATE are required

Method: FORM_FIELDS_REQUIRED = EMP_NAME, EMP_DATE

Rule: All the fields are set to read-only except the fields with a name that begins with EMP_

Method: FORM_FIELDS_READONLY = *, ^EMP_*

Rule: All the fields are set to visible except the field DATE and the fields with a name that begins with SUP_ and ends with _APP

Method: FORM_FIELDS_HIDDEN = ^*, DATE, SUP_*_APP

The FORM_ARCHIVE additional parameter

Overview

This is a way to have a static copy of the form, so that the copy can be viewed, printed, or sent by email without having to create any additional WebForm code.

Parameter

FORM_ARCHIVE: HTML static copy of the ASP.NET form (OUT)

The value of the filename has to be set in the initial XML file:

<FORM_ARCHIVE>form_archive.htm</FORM_ARCHIVE>

As well, the dataset must have a field named FORM_ARCHIVE.

WorkflowGen handles this, so no extra work by the process or form developers is needed.

How it works

When the web form is submitted by the end-user, the EFORMASPX application will create a static copy of the form and store it within the WorkflowGen directory. WorkflowGen will then be able to link this static copy to the `FORM_ARCHIVE`` parameter.

The only things that the process developer needs to do are:

  • Create a process data to store the static form (generated by WorkflowGen).

  • Associate it to the FORM_ARCHIVE actions parameter.

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