Configuring VisualFormat Editor by User

Hi everyone,

T6.5 - Win2003

I understand that you can control the menu items available on VF, and I read in the manual that this can be controlled based on the user. So far I haven't been able to get this to work.

Essentially in my test, I ask whether the user is Server\Dude and if yes is I get VF to use config-dude.xml, otherwise stick with config-default.xml. Using FormAPI, I can perform the test case. I encounter problems when I try to change the configuration file of the VF form:

<ruleset name="Simple">
<script>
<![CDATA[
function init() {
if (IWDatacapture.getUser() == "Sever\Dude") {
// Change the configuration file for "vfuser" to config-dude.xml"
}
IWEventRegistry.addFormHandler("onFormInit", init);
]]>
</script>
<item name="vfuser">
<label>VisualFormat By User</label>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-default.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on"/>
</item>
</ruleset>

My question is, how do I reference the VF editor and change it's configuration file?

If someone can tell me how to do this on a user group basis instead, that would be great too.

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Comments

JonathonG

Actually, I don't know that this is possible in FormAPI, but its straightforward in the item declaration using the "allowed" tag:

<item name="vfuser">
<label>VisualFormat By User</label>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-dude.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on">
<allowed>
<cred user="Server\Dude"/>
</allowed>
</textarea>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-default.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on"/>
</item>

This should give Server\Dude the config-dude.xml configuration and all other users the default.

Unfortunately, the allowed/cred mechanism only support users/groups (at least as of 6.1, I haven't seen 6.5 yet)

Jonathon
Interwoven Developer
Allstate, Inc.

Migrateduser

You know - I haven't tried it yet (and probably won't get to until at leats next week), but shouldn't the same basic paradigm for the unsupported workaround that let's you change the initial-dir attribute on a browser element work for this as well?

Migrateduser

I just couldn't resist - I had to try to it. I added an item named vfeconfig to a test DCT I had laying around, set an onItemChange handler on it, and used it to dynamically switch out the config file on one of my textboxes on the page. It's a little flaky on the redraw - sometimes I had to click in and out of the textbox a couple of times before it would load the new VFE, but I suspect that's only because it already had one loaded in it (that's what I was trying to fix with the redraw). If you are just doing it by user, that shouldn't be an issue. Just put the logic in your init handler. If you want to do it by group, you'd have to execute a server call to get the groups for the current user, then take appropriate action.


function changeConfig(item) {
    var configName = "/iw/foo/" + item.getValue();
    alert("Config is" + configName);
    var paragraph = IWDatacapture.getItem('/webpage/body/paragraph');
    paragraph.itemImpl.attributes.values['external-editor-config'] = configName;    //looks like I have to redraw
    paragraph.setVisible(true);

}

Let us know how it works

g_sal

I don't know why, but I couldn't get JonathonG's code to work. The first textarea always popped up, despite the <allowed> clause, no matter which user I logged in as.

I'll try robhuffstedtler's suggestion next.

g_sal

Hey Rob,

Based on your code I wrote the following below. Unfortunately I coudln't get it to work. The visual format box still uses the config-default.xml file, event when I login as Dude. I know the attribute has changed when I use an alert statement, but the change in the attribute does get reflected on the vf box itself.

<ruleset name="Simple">
<script>
<![CDATA[
function init() {
if (IWDatacapture.getUser() == "Server\\Dude") {
var editor = IWDatacapture.getItem('/vfuser');
editor.itemImpl.attributes.values['external-editor-config'] = "config-dude.xml";
//looks like I have to redraw
editor.setVisible(true);
}
}
IWEventRegistry.addFormHandler("onFormInit", init);
]]>
</script>
<item name="vfuser">
<label>VisualFormat By User</label>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-default.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on" />
</item>
</ruleset>

Migrateduser

I'll give your code a try sometime this week, probably Wednesday, and see if I have the same result. If I don't, then we may be looking at browser specific behaviour, which would not be a happy thing...

JonathonG

I don't know why that doesn't work either. It seems that whatever "external-editor-config" directive appears first in an item wins. I did discover that if you omit that directive for the first one, then override it for the second, things work. Not sure if that will help you or not. Another option that you probably don't want to use would be to use 2 items. This will yield different vf configs, but will also yield 2 different fields that you'd have to try to sync up with FormAPI or something. If you think you want to go down that path, here's the dct items you'll need:

<item name="vfuser">
<label>VisualFormat By User</label>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-dude.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on">
<allowed>
<cred user="Server\Dude"/>
</allowed>
</textarea>
<hidden/>
</item>

<item name="vfuser2">
<label>
<textarea cols="75" external-editor="visualformat" external-editor-config="config-default.xml" external-editor-inline="f" required="f" rows="10" wrap="on">
<allowed>
<not>
<cred user="Server\Dude"/>
</not>
<hidden/>
</item>

Again, this approach could cause you more problems than it solves. This does end up creating 2 distinct items in the DCR. So, you'd need some way to sync those 2 fields up. I think an onSave handler in FormAPI may be able to do that, but it would probably be ugly.

Hmm....a post that tells you something you probably don't want to do. Maybe I'm not being very helpful

Jonathon
Interwoven Developer
Allstate, Inc.

Migrateduser

Actually, maybe there's a possibility to do what he wants to do by doing what he doesn't want to do. You could have two textareas with two different VFE configs and set the visibility on them based on the user. Then, in your save handler, based on the user, you could copy the value from one of those to a hidden item that the PT would actually display.

The amount of duct-tape used in potential solutions seems to be increasing exponentially....