Does the email message change depending on whether it's the first notification or not?

What are the search criteria?

The email message is the same.

The Initial notification day search criteria is:

The Yes, subsequent reminder day criteria is:

Are you going to suggest that I combine the two criterias and lead to a single email?

Then I think we can do it in one workflow without needing conditions.

I'll use the example with 30-, 60-, 90-day so it's easier to read but the workflow would be the same for everything up to 360.

For example, today, 6/17/2016, we'd need to get contracts with NotificationDays set to 90 and Expiration Date of 9/15/2016 (today+ 90 days).

For expiration dates 60 days out from today, we'd have 2 cases:

• NotificationDays = 90 and Expiration Date = 8/16/2016 (second pass for contracts we started sending notifications last month)
• NotificationDays = 60 and Expiration Date = 8/16/2016 (first pass for contracts expiring 60 days from today

For expiration dates 30 days out from today, we'd have 3 cases:

• NotificationDays = 90 and Expiration Date = 7/17/2016 (third pass at contracts we started notifying 2 months ago)
• NotificationDays = 60 and Expiration Date = 7/17/2016 (second pass for contracts we started sending notifications last month)
• NotificationDays = 30 and Expiration Date = 7/17/2016 (first pass for contracts expiring 60 days from today

So today, we'd need to run 3 searches:

• NotificationDays = 90 AND Expiration Date = 9/15/2016
• (NotificationDays = 90 OR NotificationDate = 60) AND Expiration Date = 8/16/2016
• (NotificationDays = 90 OR NotificationDate = 60 OR NotificationDate = 30) AND Expiration Date = 7/17/2016

So I'm going iterate over all possible values for how far ahead you want to send notifications: 30, 60, 90. Then for each one of them I'm going to calculate the date I need to run the search.

Where it gets slightly complicated, it's the search for the NotificationDays field. For 90, it would be easy, it's {[]:[NotificationDays] = "90"} . For 60, I'd have two criteria: {[]:[NotificationDays] = "90"} | {[]:[NotificationDays] = "60"}. And for 30, we'd have 3. So I'm going to iterate through the values in reverse order so I can append to the search criteria as we go.

To do that I'm going to use a multi-value token and append the entire search criterion at each pass using {[]:[NotificationDays]="%(ForEachValue_Current Value)"}

That will give me just one value for 90, 2 for 60 and 3 for 30. Then we can flatten them out into an "or" search by indexing the token in Search Repository with "|", which happens to be the "or" operator in the Laserfiche advanced search syntax.

You can set Search Repository to retrieve any fields you might need in the email along with the documents.

Let me know if anything else needs more explanation.

The section labeled "Assign Token Values 2" is confusing.

If I use "90" as the value for the 1st iteration of the For Loop.  The date token calculator assigns 90 days to today (6/20/2016).  So current expiration date equals 9/20/2016.  

In my example of using "90" as NotificationDays search,  what happens in the "Assign Token Values 2" area?

Thank you for the assistance.

That one is building the search. So for the first iteration, with "90", it will end up as {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"}, which we need in the search.

What is being appended?   Doesn't NotificationDaysSearch already the values of 90, 60, 30 assigned from the Assign Token Values at the beginning of the work flow?  I feel like I'm missing something here.

No, the token starts out blank. You can't start out with the token fully populated with all 3 values because your search results would be wrong.  A search for NotificationDays in (90,60,30) and Expiration Date 9/15/2016 might bring up a document with NotificationDays = 60. In that case, you'd be emailing a month too early.

So the search has to be built as we go. For 90, we need just NotificationDays = 90, fo 60, we need both 90 and 60, for 30, we need 90, 60, and 30. That's why I'm going through the values in reverse order: each iteration adds another search criterion.

(Side note: 90 days from 6/20/2016 is 9/18/2016. If the day is supposed to stay the same, we'd need to add 3 months instead of 90 days.)

As you can tell, I'm pretty new to the laserfiche workflow process.  I appreciate the assistance.  Do I have the following correct?
 

No worries. You want to append the whole search criterion for the field search for the NotificationDays field:

Here is my search:

Could you explain how this logic works?  I had to insert spaces into #[ | ]# or Laserfiche returned an error.   

Thank you.

What is the best way to limit which folders are searched? I don't need the whole laserfiche database searched.  I have typically started my workflows with a "Find Entries" pointed to the folder I wish to search.

Sure.

So on the first iteration ("90"), NotificationDaysSearch token has one value:  {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"}. Current expiration date is today + 90 days, so 9/20/2016. At this point we're searching for {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"} & {[]:[Date] = "9/20/2016"}. Which gives us the documents that will expire in 90 days and need the first email sent.

On the second iteration ("60"), NotificationDaysSearch token still has the first value {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"} and gets a second value appended to it: {[]:[NotificationDays]="60"}. Current expiration date is today + 60 days, so 8/21/2016. Formatting the NotificationDaysSearch token with " | " gives us {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"} | {[]:[NotificationDays]="60"}, so our search becomes ({[]:[NotificationDays]="90"} | {[]:[NotificationDays]="60"}) & {[]:[Date] = "8/21/2016"}. This gives us documents that expire in 60 days and are either on their first email (for 60) or on their second notification (for 90).

Same way, for 30, we get a third criterion for the search, so we end up with documents that expire in 30 days and are on their first notification (NotificationDays = 30), on their second (60) or their third (90).

You can add a {LF:Lookin="path"} to narrow down to a specific part of the repository.

Ok.  The search keeps returning 0, when I use this structure:

{%(NotificationDaysSearch#[ | ]#)} & {[]:[Date]="%(DateTokenCalculator_CurrentExpirationDate)"}

So, I attempted to recreate the search directly in Laserfiche to see if I was missing something.  If I use the following search, I get the appropriate records returned, however I can't find a way to say Notification Days = 90 OR 60.   If I insert | then it tells back and tells me undefined character.

{[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk", [Notification Days]="90"} & {[Contracts]:[ExpirationDate]>="08/13/2016", <="10/01/2016"} & {LF:LOOKIN="TownOfBrighton\Town Clerk\Contracts"}

I figured if I could get the search to work with hard coded values, then I could go back to re inserting the variables.

"|" is used to represent "OR" in between search criteria, not in between values. So it would have to be ({[]:[NotificationDays]="90"} | {[]:[NotificationDays]="60"}). Or, since you seem to be using the "Contracts" template, ({[Contracts]:[NotificationDays]="90"} | {[Contracts]:[NotificationDays]="60"}). The parentheses are there so the other criteria are considered together with the results of this OR search.

This is working:

({[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk", [Notification Days]="90"} | {[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk", [Notification Days]="60"} )
& {LF:LOOKIN="TownOfBrighton\Town Clerk\Contracts"}

How do I replace the 90 and 60 with NotificationDaysSearch ?

When I change the search to the following, it returns 0 results.  I have a contract that expires 60 days from today (6/23/2016) on 8/22/2016 and one that expires 9/20/2016 (90 days from today).

({[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk", [Notification Days]="90"} | {[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk", [Notification Days]="60"} ) & {[]:[Date]="%(DateTokenCalculator_CurrentExpirationDate)"}
& {LF:LOOKIN="TownOfBrighton\Town Clerk\Contracts"}

In an effort to troubleshoot the process, I disabled the lower portion of the work flow and sent myself an email just after the Assign Token Values 2 step.   In that email I sent myself the following values:

GLobal Date: 6/23/2016

NotificationDaysSearch = {[]:[Notification Days]="90"}

For each current value = 90

CurrentExpirationDate 9/21/2016

As you can see the NotificationDaysSearch value is not as I would expect.  Is this correct or do I need to modify something?

Thank you.

Update:  I found I needed to change the syntax in my email to get all the values to display.  Are these values correct?  Each value starts and ends with { }.

NotificationDaysSearch = {[]:[NotificationDays]="90"}
{[]:[NotificationDays]="60"}
{[]:[NotificationDays]="30"}

Further Update: I modified NotificationDaysSearch to Append Values; Token Value of  %(ForEachValue_Current Value)

I now have the values of 90, 60, 30 being stored correctly.

Ok, I'm feeling like I am close to figuring this out.  I think my biggest hurdle lies in the way NotificationDaysSearch is storing the values.   

I can run a "test search query"  with the following search and have it return the correct results to me 

{[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk"} & {LF:LOOKIN="TownOfBrighton\Town Clerk\Contracts\_Dummy Contracts for testing"}

When I try and run this search query it pulls back no results.  

(%(NotificationDaysSearch#[|]#) ) &
{[Contracts]:[Department]="Town Clerk"} & {LF:LOOKIN="TownOfBrighton\Town Clerk\Contracts\_Dummy Contracts for testing"}

Do the contracts in the "_Dummy Contracts for testing" folder match any of the NotificationDays values? Or are the contracts in subfolders of that folder?

Yes, there are contracts that match the NotificationDays values in the " _Dummy Contracts for testing folder".   There are no subfolders in that folder.