Attachments in and out of forms

[yodadobe]

I have a form which I want to gather the attachments off of and render into another form at a later step. I have gotten quite far with this, but have a few issues. The first form submits as PDF and the initial step of the workflow is a processFormSubmission from FormsService. That brings the attachments in as a list. The next step is a script step to convert the list of attachments to a map.



import java.util.HashMap;

import java.util.List;

import java.util.Map;

import java.util.Iterator;

import com.adobe.idp.Document;



List attachmentList = patExecContext.getProcessDataListValue("/process_data/lsAttachments");



Map attachmentMap = new HashMap();



Iterator it = attachmentList.iterator();



while(it.hasNext()){

Document attDoc = (Document) it.next();

String name = (String) attDoc.getAttribute("name");

attachmentMap.put(name, attDoc);

}



patExecContext.setProcessDataMapValue("/process_data/attachments",attachmentMap);

attachmentList.clear();

patExecContext.setProcessDataListValue("/process_data/lsAttachments", attachmentList);



The first problem that I run into is that the description seems to be missing from the document objects. I verified it is right away by looking at the variable contents with Record and Playback. If no ones has a simpler solution, I am looking at looping through the attachments in a preSubmit event on the form to save off the Descriptions. Then I have to figure out how to merge them back in within the code above.



The next problem that I run into is if there is only one attachment, the call to the render where the map variable is passed fails with a coercion exception trying to convert a Document to a Map. It seems if there is only one item in the map, it gets passed as just that item.

[Jasmin_Charbonn]

How are you adding your attachments? Manually or through code?



I just tried the following script:



getDocAttribute(/process_data/@inDoc, "name")



and I got the name of the file. In my case I added the attachments manually.



Jasmin

[yodadobe]

I added them through code. It is Description that was missing, not name. In the attachments window, there is name and description. Name is path on the objects. I thought Description in the window was name. It seems Description displays name if you don't set a description. By explicitly setting description in the code, it gets passed to the workflow. When rendered into the next form, it still appends a timestamp to the end of both name and description. In an initialize event in the form, I am looping through and clipping off the 28 characters that are appended. Name is not RW though and what is used to access them through code. I am using code to launch the attachments. I am looking at creating a cross reference table in the initialize as a work around.



The biggest issue left for me is the error when there is only one attachment in the map.

[Jasmin_Charbonn]

You could add a step at the beginning of the process to get the size of the list. If the size is 0 go one way which is to use a document variable. Otherwise just use the list and loop.



Jasmin

[yodadobe]

0 isn't a problem, 1 is. It isn't in the main workflow, but in a call to a Render. I added an input variable of type Map to the Render. In the Advanced tab of my Document Form, I pass the main workflow variable of type Map to the Render. I suppose I could create 2 variables in the Render, a Map and a single document. In the script step that moves the data from the List to the Map, if there is only 1, put it in the document variable instead. Then I would have to deal with it in the Render.



I just ran it again with 1 attachment and it worked. I haven't changed anything in the Render or Advanced tab of the variable, just adding in the description, I guess I won't complain unless it starts breaking again later.