How do I Retrieve Business Process Variables from a form in Laserfiche cloud Laserfiche workflow.
Hey Jason,
Having played around in Laserfiche Cloud a bit at this point, I thought I'd give you a quick guide on how to accomplish this (expanding on what Jared said above).
The 'Retrieve Business Process Variables' and 'Set Business Process Variables' don't exist in Workflow in Laserfiche cloud.
Instead, start on the Workflow side of the equation. As Jared mentioned, make sure to select from the right hand pane "Allow this workflow to be started by other processes." Then select "View Parameters directly below it.
There, type in anything you want for an Input name (example I used is FirstName). This is also where you could configure output parameters from that workflow back to the Form's process (unfortunately the ability to launch a new form from this doesn't sounds like it'll be available until sometime next month).
Make sure when you're finished with these parameters that you Save and Publish that task, otherwise, the input / output parameter options (or the workflow itself) won't appear on your Forms process diagram.
Then, navigate to your Forms process, and create a workflow task. Provided you've published your workflow, it'll appear in the list available for you to launch. Hit "Add Input Values" to take whichever variable you want from your form and use it as an input value to the workflow. Again, this is also where you would take any output variable you have or create from the workflow task and place it into your Form as a variable as well.
Hope this helps!
It works a little bit differently on cloud. On the WF side, in the right pane with nothing selected, you need to turn on the option to "Allow this business process to be invoked", and at the bottom, define input and output parameters to the WF. Create an input parameter for any variable you want to pass over from the business process and create an output parameter for any value you want to pass back to the process. Once that's done, go to your business process and open up the workflow service task. When you select that workflow, you'll see the input parameters there ready to be filled by variables.
Instead of retrieving business process variables and setting business process variables from workflow activities, you create input and output parameters and kick the workflow off with the values.
Hi Jared,
We envisage a lot of processes where there would be a high number of variables, and having to first set input/output variables for every cloud workflow it seems quite laborious compared to the self-hosted workflow's 'retrieve business process variables' which just lets you select all variables in each Form.
Is there a reason why 'retrieve business process variables' couldn't be added to Cloud workflow?
Thanks.
Thanks Guys
Hi All,
To follow up on this post, it appears there is a distinct lack of functionality between the Retrieve Business Process Variables activity vs the Cloud approach. For example, Signature fields seem to be a big gap. I'm currently trying to merge a Signature field from a Form into a Word Document, but I am unable to map the Form Variable into the Workflow Parameter - it simply doesn't show as an option in the Process properties.
Am I missing something? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Screenshots of Signature variable and inability to select in within process properties.
Hello Morteza,
No, I have not yet come across any way to move the 'Signature' variable around in a Workflow. To my knowledge, it's still undoable.
You can pass variables through from a Business Process to a workflow by mapping them all as Input Parameters, but I haven't seen a way to map/move/use the Signature piece. I imagine it may have something to do with the legal requirements for digital signatures, as moving one after signing may be construed as invalidating it.
We have managed to work around this by placing signature blocks inside our Word Templates when creating letters/documents that way, and we've also begun using a third-party digital signing service that integrates with Laserfiche Cloud as well. These seem to work well, but I'm curious if Laserfiche has any plans to expand on the Signature fields flexibility/usage in other automation pieces.
Does Laserfiche have an update on this?
Hi Arvin,
If you really need this feature, There is a workaround.
You can use jQuery on the classic form to get the "data:image" from the signature field and store it in text field and pass that value to the workflow.
You can embed this value into the word file using Mergefield "Image:image".