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FormAPI - Possibilities

Gregg Faus

After reading a bit about the new FormAPI available on TS 5.5.2, I was wondering if anyone has tried utilizing it beyond some of the basic features. Since you can write your own custom functions, would it be possible to do things like disabling the "Generate" button or automatically creating a filename from a field if the user clicks "Save As" or "Save". I would suspect the answer is "No", it only interacts with the data form.

Just kicking some ideas around and thought someone else might have some advanced ideas on manipulating input, etc...

-gf

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Comments

anilp

it would be possible to generate the filename from one or more fields in the DCT. not sure if you can create the save path (my guess is no). to my knowledge, it can not (yet) remove the 'generate' button from the form

Migrateduser

Not having looked at the docs yet, can FormAPI let me change the "Required" status of a field based on a user selection? For example, if the user selects a Radio button for "Restricted Access" can I then have the "Access List" field become required? We have a variety of situations where this would be very handy.

Gregg Faus

Yeah, automatting the DCR saving process doesn't seem to be an option. I can rename the dcr after the user has saved and submitted it, but they would be confused if they tried to edit the DCR again and find that it has been renamed. My thought was -- "Wouldn't it be cool if you could populate the filename field with a default value first?".

pejacoby: I'm sure you could do this quite easily. If Form API cannot recognize required fields in the datacapture.cfg, you could write a custom script to do this. I haven't read enough to give you an exampe, but I'm sure it is fairly easy.

JamJamT

pejacoby,

I haven't played with the FormAPI yet, however we've used something similar in the browser interface ver 5.0.1. By using the combination="or" instance you can develop a bit of a workaround, eg:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE datacapture SYSTEM "datacapture5.0.dtd">

<data-capture-requirements type="content" name="Internal News">

<ruleset name="Internal News Brief">

<container name="access type" combination="or">
<label>Select Access Type</label>

<container name = "general" hide-name="t">
<label>General Access</label>
<item name="general list" rowcontinue = "t">
<label>General default</label>
<select required="t">
<option value="general" label="General Access" selected="t" />
</select>
</item>

</container>

<container name = "restricted" hide-name="t">
<label>Restricted Access</label>
<item name="restricted list" rowcontinue = "t">
<label>Restricted List</label>
<select required="t">
<option value="hr" label="HR"/>
<option value="marketing" label="Marketing"/>
<option value="sales" label="Sales"/>
<option value="management" label="Management"/>
<option value="senior_management" label="Senior Management"/>
</select>
</item>
</container>

</container>

</ruleset>
</data-capture-requirements>

Adam Stoller

I'm not sure about disabling the buttons in the UI - however, if you get the examples from 5.5.2 loaded up - take a look at the example userscript/organization - It has a field within the DCT that determines the name of the file so if you click Save, you don't get prompted for a filename. Clicking Save As will still prompt you for a filename however...

I haven't personally had sufficient time to explore the possibilities, but I believe they are many ...

--fish

Gregg Faus

I took a look and yes, it seems that you can do quite a bit with the a save handler function. Seems to me that you can handle any of the button events: save, save & close, close, generate, and preview.

Part of the documentation gives an example of such a handler:


function saveHandler(button) {
    switch (button) {
        case IWDatacapture.SAVE_BUTTON:
        case IWDatacapture.SAVEAS_BUTTON:
        case IWDatacapture.SAVECLOSE_BUTTON:
            // User clicked 'Save', 'Save As' or 'Save and Close'
            ...
            break;
        case IWDatacapture.PREVIEW_BUTTON:
        case IWDatacapture.GENERATE_BUTTON:
           // User clicked 'Preview' or 'Generate'
           ...
           break;
    }
}

I need to test this out soon. I have to decide whether to use any FormAPI at all since it is IE 5.5 specific. I would definately use it if IE 6.0 was factored into the equation. But I have no proof that IE 6.0 works.

-gf

Gregg Faus

Just got the contact FormAPI example set up and it seems to be working in IE6.0 as well. Although the docs don't specifically say it, FormAPI is available in IE5.5 and above.

Migrateduser

I'm trying to get FormAPI to work for a simple test but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. In my DCT I have the following code segments:

<script language="javascript">
<![CDATA[
function sayHey(item) {
alert ("What up dog?");
}
IWEventRegistry.addItemHandler( "/dmd", "onCallout", sayHey );
]]>
</script>

AND:

<item name="dmd">
<hidden>
<cgi-callout label="Shout Out"/>
</hidden>
</item>

Yet when I push the "Shout Out" button, nothing happens.

Any clues?

David M. Doggette
Certified Interwoven Consultant

Migrateduser

Hello,

To get FormAPI to work we added
enable_formapi=true
in the [teamsite_templating] section of iw.cfg and restarted the server with
iwreset -a
(just 'iwreset' did not work).

Whether this is the 'official' way of installing FormAPI I don't know, the docs didn't mention anything about needing to reset the server with the -a parameter.

Hope this helps,

Hans.

Gregg Faus

One a side note: I was able to disable the "Save As" and "Generate" button based on both roles and users. This was done through a JSP hack that will work on a per DCT basis. The only limitation is that it is only supported with FormAPI. If you want more info shoot me an e-mail (gregg.faus@company39.com).