User Defined Documents

kklosson

I've re-read the documentation and reviewed past forums. I guess I still don't get the UDD concept. I've set up functions for a user to upload a Word document. Embedded in the document is a tag, such as <<SomeObject.SomeAttribute>>. I have an action on a form that calls a process:

Pick From UserDefDoc Where...
DISPLAY DOCUMENT UserDefDoc.UDD_Template

Goes as planned but the document just displays the tags with as they were when uploaded.

tford

We make extensive use of UDDs for merging with selected records.

Below is the query

The "Merge with students" operation called a process with the selected UDD as a Process Input.

The process is:
DISPLAY DOCUMENT UserDefDoc.UDD_Name USING 'Student Merge - Selected Students' MERGE INTO ONE

A very powerful and helpful tool!

kklosson

So I must use a query? It seems that if the document is not receiving the data, the <<...>> will just be gone. Why is it displaying the tags instead of replacing them?

tford

Oops .. hit submit too quickly.

The query 'Student Merge - Selected Students' referred to in the DISPLAY DOCUMENT is:

FIND Student WHERE Student IN LoggedInRegularUser.Students_MailMerge ORDER BY Student.Name_Last,Student.Name_First

Note that in my case the user has selected a instances of the Student BO that they want to receive a certain letter & have inserted them into LoggedInRegularUser.Students_MailMerge

kklosson

I must have a fundamental misunderstanding. Here's what I want to do...

End user is able to configure a Word document with various tags
End user can create a User Defined Document and upload said document to the object
User can call the process enabling selection of one of the User Defined Documents
Document is created with tags replaced with with object attributes.

kklosson

For this exercise, I am running a trial version of AwareIM (Enterprise Edition) on a virtual machine. I see certain UDD aspects are missing. Perhaps this is my problem?

tford

1. End user is able to configure a Word document with various tags

End user can create a User Defined Document and upload said document to the object

User can call the process enabling selection of one of the User Defined Documents

Document is created with tags replaced with with object attributes.

Re: #2 -- Correct assuming you mean upload to UserDefDoc BO

The one step I don't see in your process is putting in context the BO that is in the merge doc fields. In my case, the merge doc has various fields like <<Student.Name_First>> and <<Student.Name_Last>>.

I happen to use method of storing selected students in the LoggedInRegularUser, then the instances of Student are put into context for use in the UDD by the query "'Student Merge - Selected Students' in the process below

DISPLAY DOCUMENT UserDefDoc.UDD_Name USING 'Student Merge - Selected Students' MERGE INTO ONE

You don't have to use my method of putting Student into context, but you have to have some method of putting an instance of the BO you want to use in the merge doc into context.

kklosson

In my case I launch from the form object so the Object is in context.

tford

Pick From UserDefDoc Where...
DISPLAY DOCUMENT UserDefDoc.UDD_Template

Have you tried UDD_Name instead of UDD_Template?

kklosson

It does not allow. I thought it was funny that the user guide said that but the configurator did not allow it. Need to move to Developer environment to give this a fair test.

tford

From the User Guide:

Sounds like you are on the right track.

kklosson

Yes. I thought you got developer edition when you download the trial.

kklosson

Okay, done this in the developer edition - exact same outcome. Can anyone shed some light on what I might be doing (or thinking) that is wrong?

weblike

Hi kklosson,

While ago I have struggled with this and I've cumulated kind of experience playing with documents (html, doc, docx, PDF's..converting, etc).
Here is a demo BSV which I hope could help you.

Steps to use it:

decompress zip file (contains the bsv and a MS Word document as template)
import BSV file
When going in test mode, the BSV will automatically create a folder on your pc -> C:\InvoicePath (without this folder, my method is not working)
In test mode: Create UDD Template (with Word document from #1)
Create Invoice
In Home query -> display invoice with process from right of the record

The bsv is not good looking (forms, queries, etc), but the processes are working (this is about here)...
There are other methods to accomplish this, but from my method is kind easy to integrate an external software to convert the .docx file in PDF or other format.

Hope this helps.
If I can be useful with further infos, please let me know...

Nice day.

uddtest.zip

48.29kB

uddtest.zip

48.29kB

hpl123

Nice share George, thanks 🙂.

kklosson

Got it. In my process I was using DISPLAY Document UserDefDoc.UDD_Template instead of UserDefDoc.UDD_Name (as stated in the User Guide). The reason is that the context assistant only offers UDD_Template as an option but it does accept UDD_Name. So there you have it.

tford

So on Saturday afternoon, when you said:

It does not allow. I thought it was funny that the user guide said that but the configurator did not allow it. Need to move to Developer environment to give this a fair test.

it was based on what the config tool was telling you?

kklosson

Yes. If you type that into a process statement with the context assistant on, UDD_Template is all that is offered and it didn't occur to me to just type UDD_Name. Dang me!

tford

Gotcha. I sent a note to Vladimir to report the small bug in the Context Assistant.