CGI callout on metadatacapture screen for TS 6.0L

Hi,

I just migrated my dev machine from TS 5.5.2 to TS 6.0L
While I'm able to reuse my old datacapture.cfg for METADATA for most of the data items, the CGI call-outs are not working properly.
When I click on a callout button for calendar, it shows the calendar GUI, but when I click on a date, its not returning the value back to the form. The window remains as it is.
When I try to print the value of iw_form_name from my callout program's javascript, it doesn't show anything.
I'm using following statement to print the value

In the perl code,
my $form_name = $cgi->{'form'}{'iw_form_name'};

In the javascript,
var calloutForm = eval($form_name);
alert("Formname = " + calloutForm);

The program doesn't execute any statements after above alert statement.

The same script when called from the DCT works fine.
TIA

Edited by ashish_deshpande on 02/18/04 02:32 AM (server time).

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Comments

Adam Stoller

Does the Perl part work and the javascript part not work? or do both fail to retrieve a value?

You might start with borrowing some code from the show_env.cgi to display ALL the form variables in the CGI window [at the Perl level] to see if the form variable you're looking for is there...

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Migrateduser

I'm able to print the form_name etc from the perl code.
Its the JavaScript where I'm not able to assign the formname in a perl variable to a javascript var.

thanks

Adam Stoller

Well, having just spent a bunch of time on a callout - I believe the code you're looking for is something like this:

...
my $form_name = $cgi->{form}{iw_form_name};
...
print qq(<script language='javascript'>
         <--
         ...
         var calloutForm = eval($form_name);
         ...
        // -->
         </script>);
...

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

Migrateduser

Hi Fish,

What I'm doing is similar to what you have suggested.
My callout is working for TS 5.5.2 SP3 but not working for TS6.0L

Please look at the attachement. I've attached the CGI script that I'm calling.

Below is the config for calling the cgi from the metadata capture (from $iw-home/local/config/datacaprture.cfg)

<item name="Launch Date">
<description>Enter date in dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss format</description>
<database data-type="DATE" data-format="dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss" />
<text required="t" maxlength="19" validation-regex="^[0-3][0-9]-[0-1][0-9]-[2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] [0-2][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]$">
<default>DD-MM-YYYY HH:mm:ss</default>
<callout type="cgi"
url="/iw-bin/iw_cgi_wrapper.cgi/launchdate_calendar.ipl"
label="View Calendar"
window-features="width=200,height=230,resizable=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,titlebar=no"/>
</text>
</item>

Can you please take a look and see if anything is wrong there.

Adam Stoller

Most of my time right now is spent working on 5.5.2 SP2b + patches. Although I have access to a 6.0 system, I don't have time currently to play around in it. Perhaps someone else can verify whether or not such code [should] still work in 6.0 - and if not, what changes need to be made to make it work in 6.0...

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

deeps

try using opener.top to get hold of the calling form.. i'm not sure whether it will work

Migrateduser

Hi,

I got the solution.
I need to comment the refreshForm command from Javascript.
Also for getting the formname, i need to use opener.$form_name instead of just $form_name.

Thanks for your help

gzevin

Ok, I've tried myself, and also, it worked.

the main point =

$form_name = 'opener.'. $cgi->{'form'}{'iw_form_name'};

and, commenting out the form refresh statement.

Now - the question to IWOV - is this going to be documented or we still should do it for the chance of winning an iPod?

sajiddc

Greg,

Currently, devnet authors have the options to write an article and submit it. I think everyone will benefit from it Smiley Happy

However, if you prefer, I can write one too. Let me know

~S

gzevin

Ok,

even provided that the chances of winning an iPod are very slim, I'll give it a go

Already sumbitted an article. Watch this space to find out when it is available.

However my question was - why Interwoven itself does not include these important issues in their upgrade guide?

Gregg Faus

When I migrated some of my callouts -- like in this situation -- I never had to modify a thing because my code already had the "opener.formname" syntax. When I was a rookie doing the callout stuff for the first time, I grabbed code straight from the sample and it has worked ever since. It might be that the examples for MetaTagger didn't include the window target (opener).

In my opinion there are too many low priority circumstances for Interwoven to document. This is a case of bad coding for all those Javascript newbies.

Blob_PrjPackage.dcpackage

gzevin

well, I don't really know what kind of callouts you are talking about - but even the ones that come with IWOV manuals did not have opener in the code. And the calendar code that we are talking about also came from IWOV.... Were your callouts written from metadata DCT or for templating DCTs? Actually, if we take templating callouts - I already menationed that URI::Escape has changed - and if someone, like myself, relied on the old functiionality, they will have to change this code as well.

and.. this is not a 'little thing'.. as these things, combined, pose a serious problem in terms of time and money spent by companies moving to 6

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

Gregg Faus

I'm only referring to callouts within DCTs. I have never looked at a metadata DCT callout, but I've seen plently of examples with the proper "window.opener" syntax.

I never stated it was a little thing -- just that after 10 months of the 6.x product being out this is the first of heard of this issue. I would think it would have come up a bit earlier wouldn't you say?

gzevin

Gregg,

once you mentioned window.opener, I'd say that you are referring to a different piece of code in the callout - yes, there are places, where window.opener is used, but in the form name iself opener was not used before.

DCT callouts do work unchanged (unless one uses URI::Escape, and also some other stuff) - I am talking MDCT callouts. They were not in such use because the current MDCT form came previously only for MetaTagger customers.

now - once you are mentioned about 10 months since 6.X - this is exactly my point, it indirectly proves what myself, john and some other guys are saying - not THAT many customers have moved to 6.X as yet, and, therefore, IMO we are yet to see the slew of customers moing to 6.X.

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

previewOptions.PNG

Adam Stoller

In some other thread, don't remember which or how far back right now, I mentioned that there are problems doing cgi-callouts in the MDC DCT because certain code that many customers used in the old OOTB MDC DCT does not work in the new OOTB (MT) MDC DCT.

If you want to see what's available, add something like this to your script:my $cgi = TeamSite::CGI_lite->new();
$cgi->parse_data();
my $tmpfile = "/tmp/callout.txt"; # replace with whatever works for you
if (open(OUT, ">$tmpfile")){
print OUT "form{$_} = $cgi->{form}{$_}\n" foreach (sort(keys(%{$cgi->{form}})));
print OUT "cookie{$_} = $cgi->{cookie}{$_}\n" foreach (sort(keys(%{$cgi->{cookie}})));
print OUT "ENV{$_} = $ENV{$_}\n" foreach (sort(keys(%ENV)));
close(OUT);
}You'll find that all the field names are now identified by "propxxxx" rather than by the name of the actual DCT field (this is one of the problems), and you'll also find that there is no entry that refers back to the file being tagged (this is the another problem). As has already been stated, one needs to verify the code in the script (that was posted a while ago) uses window.opener.**** (this would seem to be consistant with 5.5.x callout code - not entirely sure why some of the posted code doesn't use the window. prefix)

Not sure what other problems were being had with this callout, as I've indicated there are at least two problems that have prevented me from making much headway in preparing to upgrade my customer's environment, and so I haven't pursued it too much since finding that.

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

gzevin

Adam,

this is what I was talking about - not about window.opener, but about the presence of opener in the form name.

anyway, the article is live now:

here

with these two changes I've fixed the MDCT callouts that we have had.

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU