Taskspace and Forms Builder: update an object? Impossible?

The challenge we are facing is using Taskspace to update an object - without writing a line of custom code - my team is very experienced in Java, but we want to see if the out-of-the-box tools can do what we're thinking of, especially to roll out to "power users" in our organizations, but not developers.

So the challenge is as follows:

We have a normal electronic form built in Forms Builder. This form was built based on a custom object type, call it patient_info.
We created an adaptor to read in data from the repository based on the "medical record number" attribute of patient_info. When the MRN field changes, the adaptor is executed to read in and populate the fields. We assigned the adaptor to all the other fields. (Side question: hopefully the adaptor is run intelligently - i.e. only once... is that assumption true??)
As part of the form fields, we created a field called r_object_id.
For the storage mapping, we mapped all the fields in the form to their corresponding fields in the object type (this is mostly done automatically). The mapping for r_object_id was not done automatically, so we did that (it initially showed mapped to --None--).
We assigned the form to a tab, and then the tab to a role.
We login... and try entering in an MRN of a patient in the repository, and it works: the data is pulled up.
We hit "Submit".... and the problem occurs: a NEW object is created.

The question is simple: how do we update the existing object instead of creating a new object?

Thanks in advance...

Ahmed

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Crink

I am not exactly sure what you want to happen. It sounds like you should be using a search form? Here is what I think your doing.

1. The use case is to have a UI which you enter a MRD number.

2. After entering the number, a bunch of fields update.

3. I hit submit. (What are you submitting?)

Are you trying to create a new object or update an existing one? Are you trying to update the record that the MRD number represents? If so, you will probably need to use a Search Template which queries your MRD Object. Your MRD objects are represented by a Form.

Does that sound right, please clarify.

Chris

aabdallah

Chris, thanks for the reply.

That sounds good, but what if we want to update the object in the repository? In other words - and I'm sorry I didn't make that clear in the original post - after pulling up the object via search, the fields update (and these are text input fields from a user interface perspective), and the user *changes* some of the fields, *then* hits submit...

Is there a way to make sure the same object is updated? Currently, when we hit submit, a new object is created.

However, we did not try a search template, we just used a generic form - will the behavior be different if we use a search template? We'll do a quick try pending your reply.

Again thanks...

Ahmed

Crink

You are looking for a search field that will populate a form with the unique result's data. The form data can then be updated and submitted which will create a new object if one doesn't exist or update the existing object if the object already exists.

So what you are asking for is probably not possible without coding. Here are two alternatives that you can do.

1. Create a post processing adapter that will update the specified adapter. I believe you could catch that exception as well but I am not positive.

2. Create a custom wdk component that does does everything you need. You can pin wdk components to a tab just like a form template.

3. You have a search template that returns a list of entries in a datagrid. The entries are form instances that can be edited and updated. No code required.

Let me know if you want more details on any of these methods.

Chris

aabdallah

I realize it's your job to be helpful, but still I want to thank you for working with me on this.

After your reply mentioning the search template, I went ahead and built a simple search template for the custom type we have. It worked fine, and lists the search results in a list - based on your last reply now, I understand that we can display those results even better.

But clicking "Open" on a result gave me an error at first saying there is no viewer associated with that type... so I created a document viewer to show that type, and then associated that view with the role we are using.

Now, if I open a particular result from the search template it opens the viewer... and lo and behold, after editing fields, if I click "OK", it saves the results in the same object without creating a new one.

So, tongue-in-cheek, it must be that magic "OK" button. But in all seriousness, it appears that the document viewer has some backend logic associated with it that allows saves to the same object, but the generic-form-for-custom-type-with-loading-adaptor does not have that option... I think. It would be nice to figure it out... but real world constraints like time and money are interfering!

It would be next if in the next version of Forms Builder, a new button type is added to supplement "Submit" and "Save"... "Update"?

Again, I do appreciate your help.

Ahmed

apriam_i

> The question is simple: how do we update the existing object instead of creating a new object?

Hi!

If form instance is created it could be checked out, edited and checked in finally.

Checkin invokes update of attibutes from XML file of form instance.

ACCGS

Hi Chris,

I am facing the following issues ,

1.As you mentioned in this post that we can assign a wdkcomponent to a tab, i tried to pin wdkcomponent 'doclist' or homecabinet_list , its displaying the my component homecabinet_list/doclist but when i click on any object/folder its throwing error onclickObject method not found. I have not modified this component , i am just specifying this wdkcomponent (doclist) available in the webcomponent layer. If i specify 'drilldown' wdkcomponent and assign it to tab its working fine. Does taskspace allow this type of function. i have attached the document containing screenshots of the steps i followed and error getting.

2. If i include Action button in foldercontent taskspace component , and specify my custom action, and i need the component to be opened in the tab(folder type) not in a separate window or pop window . Is this possible. As i cant see that option in the foldercontent taskspace form.

Crink

Ahmed- Good idea. You are right that submit, save and update all mean different things and I'll forward this along to Product management.

Crink

Hi ACCGS- this is kind of a different topic so I would recommend that you careate a new discussion for this but here are some answers.

1. So the issue that you are experiancing is a difference between Webtop and Taskspace that causes problems like this. Taskspace is using configurable actions while Webtop is using actions from a configuration file. I am assuming that this is the root cause of the issue. Eitherway, we have not tested all of the wdk components to work in this the generic tab so this type of error is not completly unexpected. Is there a reason that you want to use the home cabinet and not the folder component? You can set the folder component to point to a user's home cabinet.

2. I suppose it depends on what your custom actions is and compoent you are opening. I believe the taskspace components that open in tabs have a container that uses the open item container.

ACCGS

Hi Chris,

I opened this topic in a new discussion 'Taskspace and FormsBuilder-wdkcomponent'.

https://community.emc.com/message/454009#454009

Can you please look into that.