topic HistoricFormProperty don't store the transformed value by the FormType in Alfresco Archive

HistoricFormProperty don't store the transformed value by the FormType

mikedias — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 20:06:35 GMT

Hi,Sometimes we need to store big variables in a process instance. Knowing that ACT_RU_VARIABLE.TEXT_‍ is a VARCHAR(4000), we create a BinaryFormType to store the big string as a byte array. But, when history level is AUDIT, the engine tries to insert the unprocessed big value at ACT_HI_DETAIL.TEXT_

Re: HistoricFormProperty don't store the transformed value by the FormType

pmsevestre — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:39:19 GMT

If you use a recent version of MSSQL or MSDE, you can redefine those columns to a VARCHAR(MAX) type. For small sizes it will behave just like an ordinary varchar(), but large values will be handled as TEXT columns.

More information in the following link:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/4d9c6504-496e-45ba-a7a3-ed5bed731fcc/varcharmax-vs-varchar255

I've used this approach with activiti 5.12.1 and could not find any side effects. Even search by variable value continues to work (SQL SERVER 2008 R2)

Re: HistoricFormProperty don't store the transformed value by the FormType

mikedias — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:55:13 GMT

Hi pmsevestre, thanks for the answer!

We are using the same approach to save attachments as process instance variable, so we really want to store the value as a byte array. Moreover, we want to use the HistoricFormProperty to keep a record of what was submitted in completed tasks.

But is good to know about this feature. Can be useful in another use case.