Calling external form from workflow

I need to start a workflow from .net application and during workflow execution, in one of the activities, i need to show one web form and collect the data from the user, should store the data in the sql database and then should proceed to the next activities in the workflow. I understand that, we can write workflow methods with in the documentum using docbasic/java/c++ and call that method from the workflow activities. But, i need to call our web form from the activities, which may not be possbile with documentum methods. Please help.

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Chris_Campbell

I see the basics of your problem, could use a few more details to know how best to tackle the problem. Is the workflow being run within Documentum (if so what version?) or is the workflow being run by some other application?

In the meantime, let's go with the basic question: can you use an external web form in a Documentum workflow? If I shake my Magic 8 Ball, the answer is "Doubtful" because to pull it off is going to depend on a few things. First, your external form has to be XForms 1.0 compliant so that the Documentum methods can properly parse the form.

Second, you're going to need to be able to display the form. Normally, you'd use Process Builder to tell the activity to display a particular form; but if you had that, you'd also have Forms Builder. Using Forms Builder is the easiest way to guarantee that your external web form will work by either importing it and installing it into the Content Server or reconstruct it from scratch.

If your scenario is just the ability to read an external web form, that isn't a problem as long as the form is XForms compliant. Then you can just use standard XQueries to pull the information you need. If the form has already stored the information in a SQL database, then you don't really need the form at all (unless you need them to be in sync) and can just query the database directly.

ajaypediredla

Chris,

Thanks for the response. I'm using documentum 6.5 version and i need to run workflow from an external application. I'm new to Documentum and ofcourse new to Forms Builder. I will work on builder to create the form and will let you know, how far i able to reach my destination. One more query, from documentum forms, is it possible to connect any RDBMS and save form data to the database table?

Thanks & Best Regards

Ajay

Chris_Campbell

Yes, you can connect to any database and perform any type of queries or updates that you need. All that is required is to set up the proper JDBC adapter. See page 287 of the Forms Builder User guide for detailed instructions.

One other thing that you may want to look into is using Process Variables to store form data. If you don't need to permanently keep the form data and only need it during the workflow, Process Variables perform the same function without the clutter of customizing an adapter. All process activities can read process variables and if you have BAM, you can then store those variables in the BAM database and do performance reports off of that data.

Good luck.