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Modifying DCR content via Workflow

System

We are running TS 5.5.2

We have a simple Workflow. Author submits content. Editor Approves/Rejects it. If Approved, submitted to Staging, else Author is emailled and must review content.

I need to extend the Approve functionality. When a piece of content is approved, I need to write the name of the Approving Editor into the DCR file. The file contains an XML element called <Editor>, which is blank by default and this is the element I need to write to.

I have 2 questions:
1) How do I get hold of the name of the Editor?
2) How can I write the information to the DCR file?

I am very new to TS Workflow so all help will be most appreciated!

Thanks

Mark

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Comments

Adam Stoller

1) How do I get hold of the name of the Editor?
Generally speaking, you would have the review task (usertask or grouptask) followed by an externaltask which would extract the owner of the review task (see TeamSite::WFtask and TeamSite::WFworkflow modules for functionality).

If you are using a usertask for the review - such that the owner of the review task is known at instantiation time, you can make this easier by having the externaltask owned by the same user and just use the GetOwner() method on the current task's object.

If you are using a grouptask for the review - the externaltask script will need to know the name of the review task so that it can do a GetTaskByName() to retrieve the task object associated with the review task and then use that object's GetOwner() method to retrieve the userid of the person who approved the work.

2) How can I write the information to the DCR file?
Following on from the above, you would probably make use of TeamSite:CRnode or TeamSite::XMLnode modules (though some folks find other less-Interwoven-specific modules or XSLT or just plain regex sufficient) to parse the DCR, set the appropriate field's value, and then write out the DCR again -- all within the confines of the externaltask script as described previously.

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

LooseCannon

as ghoti said there many ways to manipulate the xml (dcr)

a simple and effective approach is to use the perl module, TeamSite:CRnode

the following code will update a dcr field named status with the value "inactive"

my $rootnode = TeamSite: Smiley Very Happy

CRnode->new($xml);
$rootnode->set_inner_xml('general-information.status', "inactive");

my $new_xml = $rootnode->get_dcr();

open (WRITEFILE, ">$dcr") || die "Can't Open $dcr : ($!)";
print WRITEFILE $new_xml;
close WRITEFILE;

Migrateduser

Just be aware there are some bugs in those modules. Also, whoever owns the externaltask that modifies the DCR will show up as having last modified the file, not necessarily the real user who modified the DCR. On Windows this will always be SYSTEM, which is pretty annoying.

Migrateduser

Thanks ever so much to all for your help.

I think I can see how to get my editors username now and beginning to understand your code regards writing to the DCR file. I guess I need to pass the Editors name across to the external file by adding it to the variables => as a key/value pair.

How about the dcr itself? How do I get a reference to it to pass to the externaltask script?

When I said I'm very new to TS Workflow, I mean I started looking at for the first time today! Not at all hot on PERL either, yet!

Migrateduser

The DCR, if it's attached to the job, is available from the workflow XMLor the TeamSite::WFtask module (there is a function getfiles or something). If the DCR is not attached but an output file is you would get that from the module, then read it's extended attributes to get to the DCR.

Adam Stoller

I'd suggest going through some training - Using TeamSite, Perl, Workflow, and possibly Templating. There are both classroom (lecture/lab) courses and web-based (WBT) courses availble (click on the Education link near the top of this page for more details).

Anything else is basically asking for completely free customization consulting - and while I tend to be reasonably giving of my time/knowledge/etc., that's a bit too much for me to think about trying to provide within the context of a free forum. (sorry).

Otherwise - do a lot of RTFM on your own, and you should be able to figure it out. If you hit specific issues with specific pieces of code - post again, and someone is likely to assist.

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

Migrateduser

Here's some code that I created to edit the DCR during portions of the workflow. We use it to capture the users comments when they start the job, approve, and reject content.

It's sloppy, but it has everything you need.

Migrateduser

Thanks again to all.

Ghoti, I totally understand and agree with what you say and I apologise. I would like to get some training on Workflow and PERL at some stage, once I get an opportunity to do so, (I have been working with TS Templating for a little while now and have that sorted). I'll have a look at the WBT's to start with.

Thanks again.

Mark

Migrateduser

Thanks ever so much Taalgaard. I'll have a look through.