In Forms, is it possible to Lookup the LF Repository and look for data from Meta Data of a certain document?
The field value are all in the propval table. Each row represents a value and is identified by the document and field IDs. The field names and definitions are in the propdef.
In short, yes, but it's not intuitive. Our SQL guru spent time to figure out the tables in the LF database enough to craft a specific type of query to retrieve a specific type of file that told us a vendor had paid an invoice and we returned that back into forms through a lookup. Very powerful for sure so if you have the patience to comb through the tables and "reverse engineer" them you'll have success.
That is what I have been afraid of - any tips for rest of us which table might contain metadata or are the tables kind of dispersed?
The field value are all in the propval table. Each row represents a value and is identified by the document and field IDs. The field names and definitions are in the propdef.
You could use the 'Set Business Process Variables' activity in Workflow to find and return this information. However unless the workflow is also initiating the form I don't believe it would be possible to have the metadata available in your starting form. It could be available to secondary forms such as an approver or other actions in your forms biz process. Where in your form process do you need this metadata information?
In the Starting Form unfortunately because the Form process needs to know which way to go based on Laserfiche Repo document.
So I have not tested it but you could try it.
The Starting Form is submitted and the workflow that finds (or not finds) your documents runs. It then uses the Set Business Variables to pass back the result to the same Form.
Process Diagram:
Start -- Workflow -- UserTask (startform) -- Gateway
Maybe if you do not have any Submit buttons or anything on the UserTask and you have the Automatically assign task checked it would just start and instantly finish?
Since the info is now on the form you can check it in your Gateway?
Thanks Chris, great idea!!!