Documentum D2: how to set a field value without user action?

ArthyTrip · 2021-11-15T16:06:36+00:00

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Hello to all,

I'm going crazy with a (rather) trivial D2 7.3 problem.

On a property page, I need to set a field with a specific value without the user having to set that value, by himself.

In other words: hidden (not visible) and empty field, when the user presses the "Ok" button, the field must be set with that new specific value.

I'm pretty sure this is trivial (and a little ashamed :-)), but I can't reach a solution quickly.

Some idea?

Thanks in advance.

Arthy

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Pedro Maia

In the D2 'Creation Profile' you just need to point to a 'Default Value Template', and in the 'Default Value Template' you define the default values.

ArthyTrip

Thank you so much Pedro for your quick reply.

Yes, I too use the Default Value Template but ... let's say that this is not a real "default" value; just think of a field used to indicate one or more actions to be performed on a document. The field I am talking about is like a sort of "Status" or - better - a "To Do" field. So, its default value is usually blank but when the user asks for a particular Mass Update, I need that this field contains a particular value, which indicates the actions to be done on the document. And, yes, the Property Page that I'm using is mentioned in a Mass Update definition.

So, in this case, I don't think the Default Value Template could be useful to me.

ArthyTrip

Maybe the solution is to put something like

my_field='needed-value'

in the "Action executed after the property save"?

If so, I apologize for the banality of the question.

Pedro Maia

I am not sure I fully understand your question still:

What exactly is the business requirement?
Do you want your field to be a document property, or just a temporary field on the Property page?
How are you going to read this field?
Is it the case that, when the Property Page is invoked from the Mass Update, you want to mark somehow that a Mass Update was invoked?
Where is the configuration you mention "Action executed after the property save"?

There are very simple requirements that can take many hours of effort to configure in D2 (if at all possible ), while a coded solution would be very straightforward. I suggest that you look at the world of possibilities opened by the D2 Plugins, in this particular case by the D2DialogServicePlugin.

ArthyTrip

Ok, I apologize for putting the question in a too general way.

I have had the opportunity to work on different ECM platforms and I am used to a very straightforward solution but, again, I am probably missing something trivial.

I try to explain in more detail.

I need to allow users to promote multiple documents at the same time with a Lifecycle.

I am using D2 7.3 and I am not aware that there is this possibility natively, so I am adopting a solution involving Mass Update and Lifecycle Batch.

The Lifecycle to be used is already correctly working on single documents.
I set up a Mass Update associated with a Property Page in which I set a field called "Mass_Promote", which exists in the Type used for the involved documents, with the value of the "a_status" field to be reached with the Lifecycle (to simplify, it could be only a boolean flag but this is not impacting our reasoning and I want to generalize the solution in a second step).
The user can select multiple documents and the context menu for the Mass Update.
When the user press the "OK" button, the "Mass_Promote" field of the selected documents is updated to an appropriate value, not blank.
I then set a Context that selects the documents with the "Mass_Promote" field set (not blank) and is associated in the D2 Matrix with a Lifecycle Batch which calls the Lifecycle and cleans the "Mass_Promote" field.

Everything works if in the Property Page invoked by the Mass Update I use - for example - a combo type field associated with the "Mass_Promote" field and allow the user to set it independently.

However, I must not allow such freedom of choice, because only a certain promote is allowed and not - for example - a demote. So I have to set the "Mass_Promote" field silently to the user.

In other ECM environments I would have set a "Mass_Promote" field with the value I want but hidden in the user interface (the Property Page invoked by the Mass Update of D2); in D2 I can't do it.

So I'm one step away from what I need to get, but with a trivial problem to solve.

I hope the situation is clearer now. 😅

ArthyTrip

P.S. For the "Action executed after the property save", see the picture here below, from the box "Structure" of a Property Page.

Pedro Maia

Before trying to help you with your approach, I would challenge that it is not possible to promote several documents at the same time in D2. If you can select those documents, you can promote them in one go:

P.S. The option "Action executed after the property save" is obsolete, as far as I know (it was for D2 3.1, as the Administration Guide says). I agree... this is just confusing.

ArthyTrip

I'm a little confused ...

You said "... it is not possible to promote several documents at the same time in D2", but you showed a shot with two documents selected and the Lifecycle context menu still available.

In my D2 4.7 (sadly a bit old, I know ...) there seems to be no way to have the Lifecycle context menu if more than one document is selected.

Anyway...

I solved by following the above hypothesis and using a Property Page related to Mass Promotion, with a drop-down "Mass_Promote" field to allow the user to select the next status from a specific and limited Dictionary.

The "Mass_Promote" field is then updated on all selected documents and an ad hoc Context (based on the "Mass_Promote" value) starts a Lifecycle Batch, clears the "Mass_Promote" field and performs the promote/demote of the Lifecycle.

There are two main caveats:

first: the user cannot simultaneously choose two or more documents with different a_status,

second: only a single-step promote/demote is possible (i.e. it's not possible to promote/demote between non adjacent statuses).

It seems to me a reasonable mediation...

Pedro Maia

You misunderstood what I said: "I would challenge that 'it is not possible to promote several documents at the same time in D2'", meaning that it is possible to promote several documents at the same time in the newer versions of D2, as I show in the image.

Unfortunately, I don't have a D2 4.7 environment to check for sure if this also works in this version.

ArthyTrip

Oops, sorry, I misunderstood.

As far as I know, this functionality was introduced in D2 16.4 (see Release notes for D2 16.4 in chapter 2.1.2).

In the old version I'm working with, it just doesn't seem like there is this possibility.