<inline> and <callout>

I am confused with inline and callout remote server calls. I have taken following details from manual.

"The inline callout program should return well formed xml document. The document's outermost element should be "

Does it mean that when in the datacapture.cfg file, when tag is executed, it will be automaticaklly replaced by with as subelement ? Do we have to create any tag for ?

What does "command" do here ? It looks like two files "a" and "b" here. So the command will fetch values from both "a " and "b" ? After fetching values from these files, it will create an XML document with element and as its child element. Everything we have to do is put in datacapture.cfg.

Is my understanding correct ? If No, pls explain.
If yes, then when will the XML document wih element be executed ? Does the control stay at the beginning of the XML document after is executed or its at the end of the XML document ?
If control is at the beginning of the XML document, then it will be executed. But if control is at the end of the document, how does XML document get executed ?

How does work ? There is a loooong example given in the manual, but I cant even understand the basics by reading the manual. Pls explain these two remote server calls.

When do we use and when do we use

Thanks

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

moonkhanna

I am confused with inline and callout remote server calls. I have taken following details from manual.

"The inline callout program should return well formed xml document. The document's outermost element should be "

Does it mean that when in the datacapture.cfg file, when tag is executed, it will be automaticaklly replaced by with as subelement ? Do we have to create any tag for ?

What does "command" do here ? It looks like two files "a" and "b" here. So the command will fetch values from both "a " and "b" ? After fetching values from these files, it will create an XML document with element and as its child element. Everything we have to do is put in datacapture.cfg.

Is my understanding correct ? If No, pls explain.
If yes, then when will the XML document wih element be executed ? Does the control stay at the beginning of the XML document after is executed or its at the end of the XML document ?
If control is at the beginning of the XML document, then it will be executed. But if control is at the end of the document, how does XML document get executed ?

How does work ? There is a loooong example given in the manual, but I cant even understand the basics by reading the manual. Pls explain these two remote server calls.

When do we use and when do we use

Thanks

Niniti, try searching for in the manual You will get further details. Basically,, your inline should return values within the substitution element.

Antharix

Inlines are normally used to populate option lists.

Amit_LnT

niniti,
inline commands are used to populate some dynamic options at run time. So, in inline command you give a path to the external script in command tag. Once you open a DCT, the control will run the external script and the script will return the dynamic options in the substitution tag. So, according to me the control works serially for each field in the DCT.
So inline commands are basically inline... Smiley Happy

kaalraa

In a way you can say that Inlines are auto-populated as and when a form gets open, however in callout the user intervention is required and based on his/her selection the value can be populated.

Inline - Self populated.
CallOut - User populated.

HTH

Adam Stoller

I am confused with inline and callout remote server calls. I have taken following details from manual.

"The inline callout program should return well formed xml document. The document's outermost element should be <substitution> "

Does it mean that when in the datacapture.cfg file, when <inline> tag is executed, it will be automaticaklly replaced by <substitution> with <option> as subelement ? Do we have to create any tag for <substitution> ?

When the inline command is processed, the results of that command are read by FormsPublisher on STDIN and the outer <subtitution>...</substitution> tags are stripped away - the remaining content of the output provided on STDIN is then inserted in replace of the <inline ... /> directive in the DCT - as-if all of that code had been written directly in the DCT in the first place.

<inline command="bin/cat /tmp/a /tmp/b" />
What does "command" do here ? It looks like two files "a" and "b" here. So the command will fetch values from both "a " and "b" ? After fetching values from these files, it will create an XML document with <substitution> element and <option> as its child element. Everything we have to do is put in datacapture.cfg.

The assumption in the example above is that the contents of /tmp/a begins with <substitution> and the contents of /tmp/b ends with </substitution> -- it is, however, not a very realistic example IMO - more often then not there would only be one file given to /bin/cat - or you would have something like:

<inline command="iwhome/iw-perl/bin/iwperl iwhome/local/bin/my_inline.ipl"/>

on Windows, or just:

<inline command="iwhome/local/bin/my_inline.ipl"/>

on Unix.
iwhome would be the actual path to your TeamSite installation directory (the output of iwgethome) - there has long been a request to provide a token (e.g.: __IWHOME__) for this so that one wouldn't have to hard-code the path into the DCT -- but I don't believe that has been addressed at this time.

Is my understanding correct ? If No, pls explain.
If yes, then when will the XML document wih <substitution> element be executed ? Does the control stay at the beginning of the XML document after <inlin> is executed or its at the end of the XML document ?
If control is at the beginning of the XML document, then it will be executed. But if control is at the end of the document, how does XML document get executed ?

The command is executed, which results in sending XML output to STDOUT which, as I mentioned earlier, is then read on STDIN by FormsPublisher. The command is executed as the DCT is being processed at the time that the <inline> directive is encountered.

How does <callout> work ? There is a loooong example given in the manual, but I cant even understand the basics by reading the manual. Pls explain these two remote server calls.

When do we use <inline> and when do we use <callout>

Thanks

A <callout> directive results in a button being placed in the DCT form, that when clicked on, will execute the program referenced by the URL provided in that directive. These are usually used to populate fields that exist in the DCT.

An <inline> is an automated / non-interactive command used to provide additional structural components to the DCT form.

A <callout> is an interactive command used (usually) to populate the contents of one or more fields within the DCT structure.

Does that help?

niniti

Thanks guys, I guess I have got the clear idea. But still some confusion about how it works for which I will post another thread.

moonkhanna

please close this thread