topic Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules in Alfresco Archive

Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

fbehfar — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:06:45 GMT

Hi,I want to create a rule, with the "execute a script" actions. I want to start the advanced workflow with the help of the rules.Actually I want to automaticly start the workflow by adding a new content.for example:a user adds a contentthe (whitepaper) workflow starts in backgroound and send a task

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

mikef — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:03:27 GMT

The following example JavaScript starts the out-of-the-box adhoc workflow, assigns the task to the 'admin' user and sets the due date to 3 days time. You will obviously need to substitute workflowName and bpm:assignee with the details for your worklow.

var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:adhoc";
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = "The attached document has been uploaded to Alfresco. Please review within 3 days.";
workflow.parameters["bpm:assignee"] = "admin";
var futureDate = new Date();
futureDate.setDate(futureDate.getDate() + 3);
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDueDate"] = futureDate;
workflow.execute(document);

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

fbehfar — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:08:21 GMT

Thank you Mike,

I could start my workflow with the help of your code.
but I don't want to hard code the value of the aspects, for example I want the 'bpm:assignee' be stable, and when the workflow starts automatically, at that time I wanna be able to assign the person, or any other values, like dates, Description or any other values.

How can I do that???

Thank you,
FSB

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

mikef — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:45:39 GMT

It depends on how you want provide the value for these variables. Are you looking to provide UI that the user needs to fill in.

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

fbehfar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:08:31 GMT

Hi,
ya, exactly, I want to provide a UI for getting that values from the user.
Is there any other solution, except UI, and also hard coding?
and for assigning a task to multiple user, should we write like these??


workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = "admin, X, Y";‍‍

Thank you again,
FSB.

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

mikef — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:57:58 GMT

There are at least 3 ways you could implement the UI:

1) Write your own JSF UI component that displays a form to capture the data and execute your workflow.

2) Call a custom HTML form that captures the data and posts it to a web script that uses the form data to execute the workflow.

3) Capture the relevant workflow data on the document itself. i.e your document could have a 'reviewers' property (maybe defined by an aspect that is applied to document). Your 'start workflow' Javascript rule could read this data from the document properties and use this as the parameters to execute the workflow.

The best approach depends on your use case, Alfresco and Java knowledge. Option 3 probably requires the least amount of coding….

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

claudio_martins — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:43:35 GMT

You could also create your own Wizard/Dialogs to request data from the user and use it on your workflow.

Have a look at the following wiki page:

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Dialog_And_Wizard_Framework

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

fbehfar — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:36:55 GMT

Thank you so much Mike and claudio.

Mike's help was usefull and Claudio's completed it!

Thank you again
FSB,

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

wps07032 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:06:39 GMT

Hi,

In the sample script posted here, it uses "document" object directly. For some reason, I keep getting error of "ReferenceError: 'document' is not defined". I was told that 'document' is one of the root object that is not available to web script JS scripts. Is there some other way to provide a file to the execute() method. I'm hoping to achieve passing a file that is already exist in the repository.

Much appreciate any suggestion.

Thanks.

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

cyberheap — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:16:16 GMT

Hi

I'am trying to create an JS script to start a paraller review work flow.

This is my JS:

var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:parallelreview";
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = document.name;
workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = "admin,psvent";
var futureDate = new Date();
futureDate.setDate(futureDate.getDate() + 7);
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDueDate"] = futureDate;
workflow.execute(document); ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Here is the error log:

09:00:31,638 ERROR [org.jbpm.graph.def.GraphElement] action threw exception: Sourced file: inline evaluation of: ``wf_requiredPercent = wf_requiredApprovePercent; wf_reviewerCount = bpm_assignees . . . '' : Error in method invocation: No args method size() not found in class'java.lang.String'
Sourced file: inline evaluation of: ``wf_requiredPercent = wf_requiredApprovePercent; wf_reviewerCount = bpm_assignees . . . '' : Error in method invocation: No args method size() not found in class'java.lang.String' : at Line: 1 : in file: inline evaluation of: ``wf_requiredPercent = wf_requiredApprovePercent; wf_reviewerCount = bpm_assignees . . . '' : bpm_assignees .size ( ) 
‍‍‍

So it looks like the bpm_assignees notation is not correct:

workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = "admin,psvent";‍

Can anyone help me with this? Does someone know the correct notation for the bpm:assignees param?

Tnx,
Primoz

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

mikeh — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:30:14 GMT

The error would indicate that the code is expecting an array, rather than a string.

Thanks,
Mike

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

mikef — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:50:33 GMT

In reponse to wps07032 post above. You can pass in a nodeRef to you Web Script and then get a handle on the node using something like:

var document = search.findNode(yourNodeRef);

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

cyberheap — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:17:27 GMT

Hmmm…

I've also tried to assigne the paramater like this:

var users = new Array(2);
users[0] = "admin";
users[1] = "cyber";
workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = users;‍‍‍‍

…still no effect.

No error but the workflow doesn't get assigned.

Does anyone have a working example of assigning a workflow via script action to multiple assignees?

Would appreciate very much.

Primoz

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

fbehfar — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:43:03 GMT

Hi cyberheap,
I've done it with the parallelReview, but it's working.
pay attention on the names, cause as I've understood they are case sensitive.
and check your workflow exact name, in workflow console,
and also check if the workflow has a mandatory aspect, if it's mandatory you should assign it in your script. I guess parallelReview has an aspect called requiredPercent. but you haven't assign it in your script.
I'm not sure about this, but put a space between comma and the next username. :!:
mine is working without arrays, just like this

workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = "admin, X, Y";‍

hope these help

FSB

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

cyberheap — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:11:15 GMT

Tnx for the replies…

Now I have a "wierd" problem. I've listed the assignees as suggested: workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = "bana, psvent";

…what happens now is this,

the first user get's the task assigned and everything works, but the second user listed doesn't see the task on the "My Task To Do" list, but sees it in the "All Active Tasks" list. If I then try to save changes or approve or reject the task, I get the error allready written in the previous post.

Any more clues from anybody?

Tnx, Primoz

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

cyberheap — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:36:47 GMT

I finally managed to make it work.

Here's the sample code:

var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:parallelreview";
workflow.parameters.requiredApprovePercent = 100;
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = "Please review and approve: " + document.name;
workflow.parameters["bpm:assignees"] = [people.getPerson("admin"), people.getPerson("cyber")];
var futureDate = new Date();
futureDate.setDate(futureDate.getDate() + 7);
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDueDate"] = futureDate;
workflow.execute(document);‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

So the bpm:assignees parameter has to be an array of cmerson type nodes.

And here's a sample for the group review (It took me a while to figure it out and that I finally noticed that I have to put a GROUP_ prefix before the actual group name).

var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:parallelgroupreview";
workflow.parameters.requiredApprovePercent = 20;
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = "Please review and approve: " + document.name;
workflow.parameters["bpm:groupAssignee"] = people.getGroup("GROUP_MyGroupName");
var futureDate = new Date();
futureDate.setDate(futureDate.getDate() + 7);
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDueDate"] = futureDate;
workflow.execute(document); ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Regards,
Primoz

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

poptarts — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:03:41 GMT

This is extremely helpful. Thank you!

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

renzf — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:16:10 GMT

Hi, I found useful the code written above:
var document = search.findNode(yourNodeRef);
to link the workflow to a document, but can I start a workflow (using a script) without linking it to a document?
thanks, bye

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

witho — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:16:34 GMT

Hi,

I am using this JavaScript to start my advanced workflow and I get a NullPointerException at last line (workflow.execute(document);), because document doesn't exist. I see that I have to use the code written in this post:
var document = search.findNode(yourNodeRef);
to link the workflow to a document. But how can I write the NodeRef of my document, or my space?
And, if I want to start the workflow executing this Javascript with a rule every time I upload a new file to one of my user spaces how can I call the procedure execute of the workflow?

Thanks a lot and excuse my poor english.


var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:parallelgroupreview";
workflow.parameters.requiredApprovePercent = 0.0001;
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = "Please review and approve: ";
workflow.parameters["bpm:groupAssignee"] = people.getGroup("GROUP_aprobdocscomercial");
var futureDate = new Date();
futureDate.setDate(futureDate.getDate() + 7);
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDueDate"] = futureDate;
workflow.execute(document);
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Start workflow via JavaScript with the help of rules

witho — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:47:25 GMT

I finally could start my workflow and configure my own review workflow editing the file "review_processdefinition.xml" and changing the following property on the XML "bootstrap-context.xml"

bootstrap-context.xml


    <bean id="workflowBootstrap" parent="workflowDeployer">
        <property name="workflowDefinitions">
            <list>
                <props>
                    <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
                    <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/review_processdefinition.xml</prop>
                    <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
                    <prop key="redeploy">true</prop>
                </props>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

My script finally looks like this:


var workflow = actions.create("start-workflow");
workflow.parameters.workflowName = "jbpm$wf:review";
workflow.parameters["bpm:workflowDescription"] = "Revision de documento.";
workflow.parameters["bpm:assignee"] = "p.user";
workflow.parameters["bpm:aproveDestination"] = "THEINIT/CLIENTES/APROBADOS";
workflow.execute(document);
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

And the "review_processdefinition.xml":


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<process-definition xmlns="urn:jbpm.org:jpdl-3.1" name="wf:review">

    <swimlane name="initiator" />

    <start-state name="start">
        <task name="wf:submitReviewTask" swimlane="initiator" />
        <transition name="" to="review" />
    </start-state>

    <swimlane name="reviewer">
      <assignment class="org.alfresco.repo.workflow.jbpm.AlfrescoAssignment">
         <actor>#{bpm_assignee}</actor>
      </assignment>      
    </swimlane>

    <task-node name="review">
        <task name="wf:reviewTask" swimlane="reviewer">
            <event type="task-create">
            </event>
        </task>
        <transition name="reject" to="rejected" />
        <transition name="approve" to="approved" />
    </task-node>

    <task-node name="rejected">
        <task name="wf:rejectedTask" swimlane="reviewer"/>
        <transition name="" to="end" />
    </task-node>

    <task-node name="approved">
        <task name="wf:approvedTask" swimlane="reviewer"/>
        <transition name="" to="end" >
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.workflow.jbpm.AlfrescoJavaScript">
           <script>
               var dest = companyhome.childByNamePath(bpm_aproveDestination);
               for (var i = 0; i &lt; bpm_package.children.length; i++){
                  bpm_package.children[i].move(dest);
               }
           </script>
        </action>
      </transition>
    </task-node>

    <end-state name="end" />

</process-definition>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

I hope this helps.