Trigger delete DCR/output files and workflow

The client doesn't want to train users to execute list modified and submit deleted file(s) after deletion, or to start workflow before deleting the files, or to attach the DCR and potentially other templated output files related to the workflow that is started for deletion. When a user deletes a templated output file it should prompt them to select whether they want to delete the other output files generated from that DCR and the DCR itself, and whether they want to start a workflow for all of the deleted files. I assume this means replace another Interwoven custom menu item (delete) with one that works correctly.

Does anybody have a solution that does anything like this?

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Adam Stoller

... I assume this means replace another Interwoven custom menu item (delete) ...

The File > Delete menu item is not a custom menu item.

What you / your client is proposing would be a custom menu item.

...I assume this means replace ... (delete) with one that works correctly.

The crack about working "correctly" is incorrect and unnecessory.

The Delete menu command works exactly the way it was intended - so it is "correct". This means it takes care of deleting files and directories, and/or workareas and branches (if you have the administrative ability to do so).

If you want to create a trigger to look for these events, I suggest you look at documentation for the iwat CLT and KB 1458 regarding enabling additional event tracking.

As for the rest of the description - this is clearly a custom desire as, by default, it would be wrong to assume that deleting the output of a templated file means you want to also delete the source of that generated file too.

Deleting the DCR and then deleting all the files generated from that source is more reasonable as default (or configurable default) behavior (I believe there is actually an effort underway to try to make this simpler in the out-of-the-box functionality).

There is a way to launch a specific workflow when a DCR is deleted using the Delete Data Record menu option, but you indicated a desire to skip workflows so ...

The initial generated page has an extended attribute that points to its PrimaryDCR - so that direction should be pretty easy to handle.

For the other direction, basically you need someway to set up references from the source (DCR) to all of its generated files. The simplest way is probably using a DB or flat index file that gets updated with path references and Extended Attributes (something like DataDeploy's DAS should work nicely here) such that you could query for all generated files that have a PrimaryDCR of **** and thus retrieve the list of files to be deleted once deleting the DCR.

I do not have any code on hand to do this, sorry.

--fish
(Interwoven Senior Technical Consultant)

Migrateduser

I think if the customer considers it broken, then it is broken, whether that is the intended behaviour or not (the customer is always right). I can't believe I would have to train users how to do this - that it isn't even an intuitive configurable item somehow. It doesn't make sense to remove content from TeamSite but not remind the user that the content needs to be removed from the webservers. I don't want to train users on what DCRs are, where they are, how they relate to output files, etc. I just want users to edit content.

I don't think iwat can be configured to launch something in the browser when the trigger is hit. It could start a workflow, but I want the user prompted right away, not sent an email that they may want to workflow their deletion, or worse, have to check their todo list to be reminded. Anything to simplify the process and reduce steps.

So it sounds like it has to be something custom. I am sure someone has done this before. It's so frustrating to write from scratch what I think should be standard functionality, especially when I am confident someone else has (or should have) hit this issue. Having two items named something like Delete on the file menu confuses non-technical users. New File confuses non-technical users; what they generally want is new templated record, and they don't even want to select a category/type. My goal is to make it as easy as possible for the non-technical users to do their work. This means replacing New DCR (to default category/type), Unlock (to unlock the DCR as well), Revert from history (to revert the DCR as well), and now delete. DAS seems like a lot of overhead and doesn't seem to support all requirements; I think setting one or more extended attribute(s) on the DCR to indicate the output file(s) makes more sense, and storing the DCR version as an extended attribute on the output files.

Right, replace another TeamSite menu item with a custom menu item. I never assumed they wanted the DCR deleted, I wanted to prompt them that they might want to delete it and it's variants, and not just from TeamSite, but from the customer facing sites. But I did want to workflow it; I don't want to train the users to do a list modified to start a workflow, or start a workflow before deleting.

Migrateduser

What is the command that will be seen by available_templates.cfg when Delete DCR is executed? Is there a list of these commands somewhere?

Migrateduser

The command is tt_deletedcr. These commands are listed in the Workflow Developer's Guide in the section "Workflow Template Type Constraints".

Brinko Kobrin
Interwoven Staff Engineer