iw_first_time

System

I am porting a workflow from TeamSite 5.0 on Solaris to 5.5.2 on Windows. The .wft contains the following code:

iw_desc => [ html => '<textarea rows="4" cols="50"></textarea>',
error_msg => 'Please enter a Job Description.',
is_required => 'true',
label => 'Job Description:',
valid_input => '$iw_first_time ne "true" && $_ ne ""',
label => '',
],

I have never seen code like the valid_input before and the .wft does not define an $iw_first_time variable so I have to assume that's something provided by Interwoven, but I don't see any hits on iw_first_time in WorkflowDevelopers5.0.1Guide.pdf. I remember a problem from some time ago that when selecting "New Job", if the user entered a job description and chose from a list of templates, if there were no other mandatory fields in the instantiation form they would never see the instantiation form - it would start the workflow without giving them a chance to select an optional approver, etc. I am wondering if this could be what the above code is trying to avoid? Can anyone tell what this code is doing?

james1

Probably trying to do something like this, which can be found in the example external task TechNote and the example CGI task TechNote:

# Make sure that this form gets displayed at least once, even if all
# required values are already available.
if (!defined(__VALUE__(iw_first_time))) {
    TAG_info(
        first_time_hidden_placeholder  =>
             [ html  =>  "",
               is_required => 'true',
             ],
    );
}

Hope this helps.
-- James

--
James H Koh
Interwoven Engineering