How to open an external form from Action form and return to the same action form

Sundeep Dornadula

Hi,

 

I want to open a form ( Form2 ) on a click of button from the Action Form(Form 2). Post submitting Form 2 the control should return to Form1.

 

Is it possible to do it in Metastorm. Please let me know if there are any such options. If not could you please let me know how can we acheive it.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Sundeep

Brian Mellert

I'm not sure this is what you are looking for, but one approach may be to chain the actions so that Form1 chains to Form2 which chains back to Form1.  You would  need a way to "break out" of the circular chain, but this could be handled by using a variable to determine which action to go to next -- the button could possibly set the variable.

 

If you mean form2 being more of a pop-up, it then depends on whether form2 is working on the same folder. Multiple actions cannot occur on the same folder at one time (hence the approach outlined above).  If its more of an admin form, its possible, but off the top of my head I don't recall how to pass data between the two.  (Others are more versed in that kind of fuctionality.)

Paul Denton

I have seen customer open a Admin Form from a folder action in a modual popup window...

 

But as BMellert states, it is not going to be another instance of the same folder... 

DSmith

Yes, the best way to do this is with Admin forms, that way your form can be outside the current process but still interact without also being an action.  You can actualy get very fancy with the behavior and sent and recieve data between the forms relatively easy via client script.  The same can be done for an external asp or .net form, though even with external forms I like to use an iframe on an Admin form to keep the basic controls behaving as they would within metastorm.

 

 

Something like this:

function OpenEmpSearch()
{
    sURL = "";
    // set path to server
    server = window.location.hostname;

    // build URL to access Admin Form
    txtBase = "http://";

    sURL = txtBase + server + "/Metastorm/eForm.aspx?Map=<MapName>";
    sURL += "&Client=External";
    sURL += "&Action=<FormName>"; //Since the Form is the action for an admin form

    // add folderid to URL - if needed - in v9 you cannot use FolderID as an extra parameter - the form will not //open if you do
    sURL = psBuildQueryString(sURL,"myFolderID",eworkGetField("txtFolderID",""));

    ///Include Attributes
    sAttributes = "edge: raised; resizeable: no; scroll: yes; status: no; center: yes; help: no; dialogWidth: 450px; dialogHeight: 600px;";

    window.open(sURL,"",sAttributes);
}

 

On the admin form - I would hide the Metastorm controls on form load, so you can better control the return behavior.

I find that in 9 it's best to set your return button as a cancel action and you can use client side scipt to return values back to the parent form

 

 window.top.opener.SetField("FIELDNAME","","VALUE");