How do you create or customize workflow task types? or - Customizing tasks for projects

[BearCherian]

AEM has a Product Photo Shoot Project, with a Product Photo Shoot workflow. I want to edit/customize the dialog for the tasks in this workflow. For Example, I'd like to add fields/tabs to the Upload Photo Shoot task, or create my own custom step. I've tried overriding some code, in apps, but I can't get the workflow wizards to point to the right places.

I can't seem to find proper documentation on how to edit/override the existing one or create a new tasktype such as 'dam:uploadnewshoot'. Any help or pointers on this?

[shekhardhiman]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to Adobe Community.

The below articles can be of help:

https://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/developing-cq-custom-workflow-steps.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/creating-custom-aem-workflow-steps.html

Thanks!

[BearCherian]

Not quite what I was looking for. See the Documentation of the Product Photo Shoot workflow (https://docs.adobe.com/docs/en/aem/6-1/author/projects/managing-product-information.html#Workflow Tasks Details). Specifically, there is the "Upload Photo Shoot Task". You can see a screenshot of the dialog that appears. I want to customize that. So far I've found that the contents for that dialog are at /libs/cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/uploadtaskdetails/jcr:content/body/content, but I don't think I can simply override it in /apps.

[smacdonald2008]

This is different from overlaying a component. This workflow is part of a built-in worflow product feature.  If you want to try and modify it - i suggest installing CQ on a dev sandbox machine (on a box where if you make a mistake, it will not affect anything - you can re-install). Then code the under changes under libs. What you are looking for would not be documented as its not a typical use case.  

Or you can try and re-create the workflow and then develop the dialog to meet you business requirements.  

[BearCherian · Accepted solution]

I figured out how to accomplish what I needed. And I guess my title wasn't completely on point.

The overlay in /apps does work. I thought it wasn't working initially, but turns out I wasn't editing what I thought I was editing. Anyway, here is more detail on what I was trying to do and how I did it.

Customize an Existing Task Dialog

In this case I want to add a new button to control the task next to the 'Complete' and 'Update' buttons. This is assuming I've already created a client library with JavaScript to handle the button click.

• Create an overlay in /apps for cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/uploadtaskdetails
  • I created a package in my local instance of /libs/cq/core/content/projects and copied it into /apps in my Maven project
• Open /apps/cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/uploadtaskdetails/.content.xml for editing
  • This is just editing Granite Touch UI nodes.
• In the XML, edit jcr:content > head > clientlibs and add your client library to the 'clientlibs' attribute.
  • This will load your custom JS for this task.
• Now go to jcr:content > body > content > header > items > default > items.
• Copy the 'update' element/node, paste it at the end of the parent element 'items'. This should make a new sibling element to update and complete.
• Rename the new element 'stepback'.
• Change the text and title attributes to 'Step Back'
• Update the icon attribute to 'coral-Icon--undo'
• Update the formId attribute to a form that you will be using (defined elsewhere or maybe by your clientlib).

You can deploy this and will now have a Step Back button in the action bar. This will update existing workflows/tasks as well. [img]ProjectsCustomButton.png[/img]

Create a New Task Type

Not going to get into too much detail. The workflows for projects have a script that defined the tasktype. It usually looks like this:

task.setProperty("taskTypeName","dam:uploadphotoshoot");

In this example, we're creating a new task type of 'dam:customtaskitem'

• Create an overlay in /apps for cq/core/content/projects
  • I created a package in my local instance of /libs/cq/core/content/projects and copied it into /apps in my Maven project. 
• Open /apps/cq/core/content/projects/.content.xml for editing
• In the XML, navigate to jcr:root > tasktypes > dam
• Create a new element called 'customtaskitem' as a child of the 'dam' element.
  • It is easy enough to copy an existing element, paste it and rename/edit it.
• Update the url attribute for your new element to have a value of '/apps/cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/customtaskitem.html'
• Now create '/apps/cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/customtaskitem'
  • Copy one of the other nodes in 'showtasks' and rename it
• Open /apps/cq/core/content/projects/showtasks/customtaskitem/.content.xml and edit the UI as described in the 'Customize...' section above.
• Go to the Product Photo Shoot workflow model.
• From the Projects category in the sidekick, add the 'Create a Role Based Project Task'
  • The non-Role Based option will work too.
• In the Advanced tab of the dialog, in the 'Script' field, add 

  task.setProperty("taskTypeName","dam:customtaskitem");

Now when you start a new Photo Shoot Workflow to a project, your new custom task will appear with your customized dialog.

This is what I got to work, and it didn't seem to have any negative side affects that I could see. I'd be open to any better/cleaner solutions if any.