topic Re: Aikau forms in workflow in Alfresco Forum

Aikau forms in workflow

nickchase — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 22:24:43 GMT

I would like to create a complex form in a workflow where various field visibility depends on inputs in other fields. I believe the best approach to do this is in Aikau. I have looked for information but I dont understand how to do this - or if it is even possible. I have seen that there is an Ai

Re: Aikau forms in workflow

afaust — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 10:10:16 GMT

The default Share workflow form UI does not support Aikau - not natively and not via the (suspended) development effort you read about. You are correct in your understanding that the forms engine work was focussed on transforming the existing XML configuration into a usable Aikau form. This feature was meant to be used within Aikau components / pages.

If you want to configure your forms using JavaScript, then the best option is to simply write a custom UI for your workflows and use the base Aikau form widgets to create your form(s). You can completely ignore the feature that turned the XML-based form configurations into runtime forms, and thus don't have to rely on an experimental component that is no longer being actively developed.

Re: Aikau forms in workflow

nickchase — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:49:37 GMT

Hi Axel

Your clarity is very valuable and much appreciated.

I understand how to make a custom FTL based template which I can include in an XML form definition. I dont understand how to make a complete custom form - are there any blogs/documentation you are aware of. Once again thanks for your time.

Re: Aikau forms in workflow

afaust — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 13:03:14 GMT

If you were to create a custom form based on Aikau you wouldn't really have to bother with FTL and XML form definition anymore. Take a look at the AIkau examples / tutorials that exist, e.g. Aikau Mini-Examples - Simple Form or Tutorial Chapter 7 and 16.

Re: Aikau forms in workflow

nickchase — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 22:05:49 GMT

Apologies for making this a long conversation. I have created forms in

Aikau about 4 times so have no issue here. But....I have no idea how to

display these forms when a user selects a task from their task list.

If we can understand this point then worlflow becomes amazingly powerful.

Re: Aikau forms in workflow

afaust — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 22:14:13 GMT

Oh - so the actual question then is how you can extend the default Share UI for workflows to show Aikau forms. That was not apparent to me from the beginning. Well, that is actually the tricky part because the legacy YUI 2 UI for workflows in Alfresco Share is one of the most annoyingly fidgety things to customise - no one had ever put any effort into making that easily customisable.

You might want to consider to add make a customisation to the "Alfresco.component.TaskList" widget (found in task-list.js which is part of the "My Tasks" page) and its function "renderCellActions" which will render the page links for task details / edit forms. You could - for specific types of tasks - substitute the link with an URL to your Aikau-based task form page.