How to Prevent Auto‑Generated ADN Numbers When Assigning Categories via WebReports?

nidula_m

I’m working on a project where I need to generate custom ADN numbers (starting from a specific sequence) and assign them to placeholder documents. The ADN format is:

Site‑Field1‑Field2‑Field3‑00001

The ADN is dependent on a category that contains several attributes (Field1, Field2, Field3, etc.).Currently, the category is configured to auto‑generate the next available ADN number based on the prefix.

I cannot change the category’s ADN creation option to “freestyle” because that would require a global update across a very large system.

What I’m doing now

Using a WebReport, I:

1. Retrieve the document that needs the ADN
2. Update the category attribute values
3. Commit the category assignment
   • At this point, Content Server automatically generates the next ADN number (this is the problem)
4. Capture that auto‑generated ADN ID
5. Use ADNACTION:CATASSIGN to assign my own custom ADN number (e.g., sequence 200 → Site‑Field1‑Field2‑Field3‑00200)
6. Dissociate the automatically generated ADN ID from the document

The issue

This workaround is:

• Tedious
• Error‑prone
• Risky when multiple jobs run in parallel
• Not scalable

What I need

Is there a way—without modifying the category configuration—to:

• Prevent the ADN auto‑generation from triggering during a WebReport commit, or
• Assign the category without committing until after I set my own ADN number, or
• Use a cleaner method to generate and assign a custom ADN sequence?

Any guidance, or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated.

appuq

If you do this, does it not stick? I remember the code to accept that, if not, you can also update the category value

1. Use ADNACTION:CATASSIGN to assign my own custom ADN number (e.g., sequence 200 → Site‑Field1‑Field2‑Field3‑00200)