Any plans to allow XML Placeholder Values to be passed in via Property Bag?

[Tony_Rush]

Are there any plans or existing SCRs requesting the ability to allow XML Placeholder Values to be passed in via Property Bag? Or really the ability to pass values into XML Placeholders by a means other than the API.

I envision a scenario where we could populate a Property Bag in Workflow with an XML string and then call the 'Compose Document' Action. It would be nice to use the 'Compose Document' Workflow Action even if the Template contains XML Placeholders. This would also give end-users the option to preview the document, since generated documents can't be previewed when composed from a Unity API script.

In this same regard, are there any SCRs that would allow us to paste in an XML string for when Testing a Template? If so please let me know as I would like to get added to these SCRs. These are just a few limitations when using XML Placeholders that would be great to alleviate.

[Tony_Maimone · Accepted solution]

Hi Tony,

Thank you for using Community. I agree with the limitations you mentioned when working with XML placeholders and we are working on resolving them. What OnBase version are you currently working with?

In OnBase 16, SCR 210167 was completed for the Template Builder's Composition Preview to include an XML sample for testing purposes that should solve your issue. Please review the Document Composition v16 Modular Reference Guide on pages 97-101 for additional information.

SCR 218564 exists to create a new placeholder type for Workflow Property Values but this is not expected for OnBase 17. We envisioned this new placeholder type would interact as a key value pair allowing Workflow to directly supply data based on rules and expressions to augment composition. As a development team, we have not discussed how XML placeholders and the property bag would interact, but I welcome all feedback and will track information in the SCR.

When you get a chance, you should review Document Composition in the OnBase 17 Release candidate. There have been a number of changes that we will be highlighting on our Document Composition blog in the coming weeks. There may be a few changes for XML placeholders as well.

Thank you,

[Tony_Rush]

Thanks for the reply, Tony. I'm currently in OnBase 15 Demo system but will work to stand up the latest demo system so that I can check out the updated Composition Preview.

That's also great news with SCR 218564. Once that SCR is complete this should address 99% of scenarios. The only feedback I would add is what I mentioned in my original post. That being, allow an entire XML string to be passed into an XML Placeholder via a Property Bag. So currently where you configure the External Data Source Placeholder and have the options for 'Database Query' and 'XML Path (from Script)'. I would suggest making the options 'Database Query' and 'XML Path', then when a user selects 'XML Path' give them the option to enter the name of the Property Bag. Then from there the admin can either use the Unity API to pass in the XML as they do today -OR- they can set the Property Bag XML string value prior to calling 'Compose Document'.

The reason I give this as feedback is that on a recent project we have an E-form and are taking many fields from that E-form to compose a document. We unfortunately had to create tons of Keywords to accomplish this. What would be awesome is if we could have serialized the entire E-form to JSON/XML and store in a single Property Bag and just use JSONPath/XPath, instead of having to create tons of Keywords or tons of Property Bags (as SCR 218564 would allow).

Thanks again! I look forward to the new functionality in a future build. It will no-doubt save a lot of time and make for cleaner OnBase systems going forward.