The „Add attachment” action

Applies to version 2019.1; author: Konrad Wojtycza

Introduction

In WEBCON BPS there is the option to add attachments to the workflow instance by using the standard action. This action works in two modes:

1. Adding attachments from other workflows of the current WEBCON BPS content database, selected based on the instance workflow ID – the “Based on instance ID” mode
2. Adding attachments from other workflows from the external WEBCON BPS content database or external attachment databases selected based on the SQL query – the “Based on SQL query” mode

The workflow

The simple Invoice workflow has been created on the “Copy PO to attachments” path, the action of adding attachment has been configured.

Fig. 1. The "Ivoice" wokflow

The Invoice form allows you to select a PO document (in the “Select PO” field) from the “Purchase order” workflow (Fig. 2). If you select the “Based on instance ID” query, the attachment will be downloaded from the document selected in the “Select PO” field.

Fig. 2. The Invoice form

Configuration of the "Add attachment" action

Go to WEBCON BPS Designer Studio to configure the action.

Fig. 3. The configuration of the "Add attachment" action

a) Based on the istance ID mode:

> Instance ID - indicate the instance ID from which the attachments must be copied/downloaded. The system will look for attachments within the content database to which the currently edited form belongs. In the presented example, this field contains the ID of the PO document selected in the “Select PO” picker field from the “Purchase order” workflow, which is also the system identifier of this instance.

FIg. 4. The configuration of the attachment selection based on the instance ID

> Source file selection - define if attachments assigned to the indicated instance should be filtered.

• Category - if you select the “All” option, attachments will not be filtered based on the category, and if you select the “Custom” option you must select the category
  • Custom - indicate the category in the form of ID#CategoryName (formatting according to the formatting of values from data sources or just the category ID). This value can be set using the editor.
  • Select - this field can be set independently of the “Category” field. Define if the oldest attachments, the newest attachment or all attachment assigned to the instance are to be selected (Fig. 4).

Fig. 5. The constant item list as a data sorce for the attachment category list

• Regular expression – attachments are filtered based on the regular expression; in this case, all attachments with names beginning with PO and Purchase_Order will be selected.

Fig. 6. The regular expression configuration

b) Based on SQL query mode:

In the “SQL query” field enter the SQL query to select the appropriate attachments.

Fig. 7. Attachment selection based on the SQL query

There are two work mode:

• If the sources of attachments are the existing attachments from workflow instances, the query should return the attachment ID (ATT_ID) from the WFDataAttachments table from the external WEBCON BPS content database.

Fig. 8. The query returning the attachment ID from the WFDataAttachments table

• If attachments should be created when execution, the query must return the FileName columns with the file extension and the Content column that contains the binary file content. Additionally, the query may also return the Description and Category columns.

Fig. 9. The query allows you to add the attachment from the external database

The attachment can also be created directly from the binary file content. This content should be converted to the image type of data that is used to store the attachment content in the binary form.

Fig. 10. The query that can be used to add the attachment from the binary file content

Further configuration

After configuring the method of selecting attachments, in the “Source files” field select:

• Copy attachments – attachments from the selected (based on the ID) instance are copied to the currently edited instance
• Move attachments to the current instance – attachments from the selected (based on the ID) instance are transferred to the current instance (and are deleted from the source instance)

Fig. 11. The configuration of the copying/moving attachments

In the “Destination files settings” you can add a category of copied/moved attachments. Selecting the “Overwrite if attachment with this name already exists” option allows you to overwrite the attachment if the attachment with the same name already exists. If this field is unchecked, a new attachment will be added each time.

Form view

Below there are forms with the added attachments:

Fig. 12. The form view with the attachment added based on the instance ID

Fig. 13. The form view with the attachment added based on the instance ID

Summary

The action of adding attachments allows you to copy/move attachments from any workflow instance in WEBCON BPS. Attachments can also be created based on data selected from the external database or based on the binary file content.