Question

Feature Request - Launch only one Business Process when multiple documents are selected

Workflow Business Processes Ideas

Updated October 24, 2019

asked on March 4, 2016 • Show version history

Hi,

I am trying to do the following but I have not really found a clean way to do it yet. Here is what I would like to perform.

The user will select many documents from within the Laserfiche Client or WebAccess. The user will launch a Business Process that will perform specific tasks to each document but at the end, will need to process them all at once and prepare a report.

In the above example where a user select multiple documents, actual Business Process behavior will be to launch as many WF in parallel for each and everyone documents that was selected and will run independently. The challenge will be to launch another single WF at the end where it will perform the remaining of the task which is to consolidate the info of the selected documents and prepare a report.

The ideal scenario (functionnality) would be:

Can there be a setting in the WF BP that will only get a list of EntryID that are selected and, when launching that BP, only one WF will be launched and all EntryID will be passed to that BP, then I can build my WF to iterate throughout the list of EntryID and do the work?

I thought of building a small Client module using the SDK and using the Client Integration function but this will only work with the Laserfiche Client and will not work for WebAccess.

I think it would be nice to have that feature available, unless it's already there and I have not seen it.

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Replies

replied on March 4, 2016 • Show version history

Is it possible to run the business process on the folder the documents are in? Then do a Find Entries/Search to get the documents and do a For Each?

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replied on March 4, 2016 • Show version history

It's not possible to select one folder because documents are the result of a search and they make the document selection from that search result.

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replied on March 4, 2016

Is it always the same search? What type of search is it?

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View 2 previous replies

replied on March 4, 2016

Users are searching for specific document types within specific projects. From that result, they need to select only some of the documents within that list that will be part of the process I am implementing.

This is the reason why I have made this request for a new feature. If WF can behave like the Client Integration does, where it gan get the list of selected document, then if thsi can be implkemented into the client/webaccess to pass to the BP the list of documents that are selected, this could allow more powerful integrations using Workflows.

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replied on March 4, 2016

It sounds like it's a pretty specific search. So you could have WF run that search for the user. So it wouldn't really matter which document they start the business process on as long as it has the type and project accessible to WF as field values or document names or something like that. WF can ignore the starting entry, run the search and process all results.

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replied on March 4, 2016

Hi Miruna,

I don't think I can apply what you are refering to. There are no search that will get the exact list in the search result pane. So the user will always need to select some documents and not all. The project and document type are only a main filter for this search but the final selection has to be a user selection. The BP / WF need to process only selected documents.

Technically, I may be able to do it but this would be very hazardous and not really a clean process. I would require that all BP that were launched for each selected document will require making copies of the document to a centralized location (but need to coordinate with all WF the temporary common location, and that needs to vary in time). pausing for a few minutes guessing that document WFs have all finished processing, then imagine a way to trigger one single WF to perform the remaining of the process, and once completed, delete that folder where it contains all temporary documents.

Many peoples may launch this at the same time. Also, one person may have to launch that process, then do another one a few seconds after, and another one... so if the background WF processing for previous jobs are not yet completed, I have to manage many temporary processing folders which may become complex to properly handle. I can then categorize this alternative process to be "not very clean".

This is the reason why I am asking for this new feature as this would be clean.

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replied on March 4, 2016

Ok, thank you for the use case. Passing a list of entries to a workflow is a fairly big architecture change.

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replied on March 4, 2016 • Show version history

Hi Miruna,

In a way, it may not be such a big change after all. Both the Client and WebAccess are already passing one EntryID "Starting Entry" to the Workflow. The modification that should probably take place is a new setting on the Workflow side that says it may receive multiple EntryID "Starting Entries". If this is enabled, the client & WebAccess will only launch one WF and push selected entryIDs instead of only one (if that BP is launched).

I know it's easily said but this might not be that big of a change. Also, this is the time to implement such a feature as there is a major product change for Workflow --> "BMP Server" by the end of this year.

Thanks for listening and considering this request.

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replied on May 14, 2019

Is there any update on this request or is it not viable due to the scale of the change to the architecture?

Cheers

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replied on October 24, 2019

I also have a requirement for this feature now. I just need a Workflow to run on request i.e. Business Process. The workflow just searches for all documents with "prepare" set in a field and applies the next Job Number from a SQL query.

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replied on October 24, 2019

Why does the user select multiple documents in this case? If the worry is about accidental selection of multiple documents, then you could enable "single instance mode" on this workflow so only one can run at any given time. That way you'd also be protected against 2 users launching the business process at the same time.

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Feature Request - Launch only one Business Process when multiple documents are selected

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