Question

Using Custom Action to Invoke Workflow?

Laserfiche Cloud Web Customizations

Updated June 3, 2020

asked on June 3, 2020

Is it possible to use a custom action to invoke a workflow? I'm seeing some documentation about how custom actions work in on-prem LF, but am not finding information about custom actions in LF Cloud.

My goal is to be able to generate PDF/TIFF images from Word documents. Since Generate pages cannot be run on Word documents, my current idea is to the use "Update Word Document" workflow activity to generate a PDF/TIFF. However, for this to work I would need to be able to trigger the workflow from a custom action in the repository. Any advice/pointer to documentation would be appreciated!

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replied on June 3, 2020

Custom Actions allow you create custom buttons to add to the toolbar in the client that execute external programs or scripts. These Custom Actions do not create any custom functionality or calls within the repository itself so they would not help you in the workflow.

I think your best bet may be to apply a tag or field that triggers your workflow and at the end of the workflow, remove the field or tag.

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replied on June 3, 2020

Great idea Bert, I went with the tag method. It was easy to build and I was already able to implement it.

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replied on June 3, 2020

Can you clarify what you mean by a custom action in the repository? Workflows can be triggered automatically by change events, they can be initiated as Business Processes from within the repository, started by a Forms process, or other more complicated ways as well.

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View 2 previous replies

replied on June 3, 2020

Hi Jason! I'm talking about the custom actions options located under Options, Tools, Create Custom Action:

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replied on June 3, 2020 • Show version history

I'm not too familiar with the Custom Actions, however, I'm not sure if that is the way to go since there is already a mechanism for triggering workflows from a repository.

Workflows have the option to be configured as a "Business Process" and once a workflow is published with that setting enabled, users with access to run the process can do so from the repository.

I'm not sure what it looks like in the cloud, but in the on-site version of the workflow designer the settings look like this:

In the web client, you can initiate those processes under "More Actions > Start Business Process" or "More > Processes"

Users should also be able to add these buttons to their toolbar for quicker access. See Robert Strickland's post on the following thread:

https://answers.laserfiche.com/questions/93899/Web-Access-Customize-Bar

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replied on June 3, 2020

Thanks Jason! Unfortunately starting business process from within the repository is only available in LF on-prem and not LF Cloud.

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replied on June 3, 2020

Ah okay, in that case Bert's suggestion is probably your best bet.

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replied on June 3, 2020

Thanks again Jason!

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