Question

DB Lookup in Forms Process Modeler

Forms Workflow Ideas

Updated May 18, 2016

asked on February 12, 2016 • Show version history

Hi All,

We have a situation where a conditional decision needs to be made in the Forms 10 process modeler, based on a database lookup value. The submitter should not be able to see this lookup value.

We cannot use workflow to do the lookup because as far as I'm aware any values from workflow have to be passed back into a field on a form, but since there is no other form before the decision (as shown below) we can't pass the value back into the process modeler.

The only way I can think of doing this is to have a lookup rule on the starting form which populates a hidden field. Is there a better way of getting this data? Ideally the lookup would be done within the process modeler but I don't think this is possible.

Cheers! Dan

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Replies

replied on February 12, 2016

I am not sure if i understand you correctly but why cant you use workflow. you don't need any other form for workflow to pass back values. use workflow activity between start and decision.use wait for workflow to be finished which will populate hidden filed value and use that value in your decision.

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replied on February 15, 2016

Hi there,

Use the Workflow Service Task in between Start and Gateway to set the lookup result to a Forms business process variable.

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replied on February 15, 2016

Thanks Abbey,

This is what we originally planned to do, however when looking in Workflow don't you have to select fields to retrieve before you can set them in the "set business process variables" activity? (see below)

I get an error if I don't select a field that exists on the starting form, and there doesn't seem to be a way to retrieve variables - only fields

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replied on February 17, 2016

The activity sets variables. The user interface shows both fields and variables, it just makes fields stand out more because that's how most users think of the form data.

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replied on February 17, 2016

Thanks for your reply Miruna! However I don't see all the variables that exist in my process? The below are screenshots of a test form and workflow I have made.

In workflow I can only see the variables that are actually fields on the form (i.e. that are greyed out in the forms variables pane), the variables that aren't fields (i.e. all 3 date fields) can't be accessed - is this expected behavior?

Thanks for your help! Dan

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replied on May 18, 2016

Sorry for the super late reply, I didn't see this post until today. Yes, this is expected behavior, only variables associated with form fields are available for use in Workflow. Since the rest of variables cannot be set or used in processes unless they are associated with a form, there was no good reason for us to expose them in Workflow.

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replied on February 17, 2016

Hi Guys,

The ability to perform a decision based on a DB lookup seems pretty standard stuff and I'm surprised you can't do this easily in the forms process modeler already. Can this be raised as a feature request?

Cheers!

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replied on February 17, 2016

Hi Miruna,

In the same way that full blown LF Workflow handles it? You can set the option of return first row only. That aside, the issue is I can't see any option of how to do a DB lookup in the process modeler.

Basically the customer wants to setup a form to check an account balance. If the form total value is less than the account balance, there is sufficient funds. If not, then it's denied.

Cheers!

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replied on May 18, 2016

Hi Miruna,

Do we know if this functionality will be included in Forms 11? This request has come up again today.

Cheers!

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replied on May 18, 2016

I don't have a timeline for it. I would recommend passing the value to Workflow for evaluation and having the workflow return a Yes/No field to be used in the condition evaluation.

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DB Lookup in Forms Process Modeler

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