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Question

Move form attachments with starting entry

asked on April 14, 2015 Show version history

I have an application form that allows users to attach documents.  Once the user submits the application and attachments are stored in the Lasrfiche Repository.  A workflow watches for entries to be placed into the folder. It then uses "Retrieve Value"  to retrieve the user's name and DOB from the "starting Entry".  Then it uses "Move Entry" to move the "starting entry" to a folder with a name that consists of the retrieved name and DOB.  Problem is, the attachments are not being moved into the folder with the application. I would like for the application and all of the associated attachments to be moved into the same folder.

I am using version 9.2.

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Replies

replied on May 19, 2015

Fay, I'm not sure if you've gotten an answer to this already but I've done something similar to what you're looking for.  

It's pretty similar to what these other people have been suggesting as well.  What I've done instead is that I've created an "Instance ID" field in Laserfiche.  Forms assigns the instance ID to the starting entry as well as the attachments.  Whenever I need to move this group of documents, I run a search for all documents that have that Instance ID but not that Entry ID of the starting entry.  For each of the entries that it finds, I can move it wherever the starting entry is going.  It does require a little bit more setup but it's worked for me so far.  

Let me know if you have any questions and I can clarify too.  :)

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replied on May 20, 2015

Shelby, I think your solution is what I need. Please tell me how to go about creating and assigning the "Instance ID" field.

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replied on May 28, 2015

I've used the same method that Shelby is talking about in multiple situations. Here's basically how I do it.

 

- Create a Field on your form and give it a default value of {/dataset/_instance_id}

- Make sure you are saving all of your attachments somewhere in the repository and either assigning a field with that instance ID or your are naming the files with the instance ID.

- In your workflow that you run from the Application form you can now retrieve that Instance ID value and search the repository for all the attachments that have that instance ID.

 

***Some things I have noticed though... you have to have more than one step in your forms process, something that would go from the initial form submission to a user task. Also if that isn't working I've had good luck with making a copy of the form and renaming it while leaving everything else on the form the same just so it changes forms. 

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replied on May 29, 2015

Sorry Fay, I had subscribed to this question but didn't receive any notification until Eddie's reply yesterday.

If you need additional clarification, feel free to email me at schung@ecsimaging.com since I'm not getting the notifications from Answers.  

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replied on April 14, 2015

I have a few similar processes that do what you are wanting to do.

I have done it a couple different ways but probably easiest to include a repository search that finds all the documents in the "watched" folder that are associated with the application and then have a Move activity that moves the output entries to the new folder you are creating.

You could do it other ways too:

You could create a new parent folder first inside the watched folder and put the application and attachments in it and then just move the parent folder entry instead of the individual documents.

Or you could use a Find Entries activity and then find all entries inside the watched folder based on it's entry ID path. Then move all the entries found to the new folder you are creating.

 

Either way... you just need to identify all the documents that are related or move the parent folder entry they are all stored in.

 

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replied on April 14, 2015

The attachments can be named anything. How do I identify all of the documents related to the starting entry?

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replied on April 21, 2015

There's a few solutions to have your application and all of its associated attachments be moved to the right folder.

 

One way would be to use the name and date of birth fields to find that folder right in Forms.  See the screenshot below to see how you'd use those fields to direct where the form and attachments are being saved:

 

Another way would be to bundle the form and attachments all into their own unique folder.  You can do this by changing the folder path, as seen in the screenshot above, to make a new folder.  This way, your workflow will only have to move one folder instead of each individual document. 

 

Forms has quite a few features to make naming, sending, and saving forms into the repository easy and dynamic, and I recommend checking out our help article here to see all of its features and capabilities.

                                                  

I hope this helps, and please feel free to reply if I can assist further!

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replied on November 19, 2015

Thanks for all the suggestions.  It turns out I had a twofold problem.  The main problem was that for some unknown reason, it was taking exactly two minutes before any of the attachments were showing up in the folder that forms was sending them two.  By that time workflow has already completed its processes. Therefore, the attachments were being left behind.  Never found out why the delay was happening.  But, I went into all the forms and workflow configuration settings and resaved them.  Had to go in and out of the setting a few times. Then, the delay went away.  After that I put a loop in  workflow to search the folder specified in forms for entries until something was there. Just in case the delay issue returns.  Then I move all the files to the appropriately name folder. I wasn't able to figure out how to just move or rename the folder.  Then wait two minutes before deleting the original folder, provided it is empty.

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replied on November 20, 2015

Forms and attachments are saved asynchronously, so how long it takes depends on the complexity of the form and the load on the Forms server.

Please add a delay in your Repeat to keep it from causing performance issues from running the search over an over.

The more efficient solution would be to have Forms only save the form to Laserfiche and have Workflow start from that document creation. Retrieve Forms Content also provides the attachments, so Workflow can download them from Forms, create documents for them and attach them. This will give you more control over the files and their location and you would be guaranteed to process all attachments.

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replied on November 20, 2015

The delay was an actual problem in the system.  The delay was exactly two minutes (no more, no less) regardless of the size or complexity of the form.  Once the issue was resolved, the documents appeared within seconds.

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