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BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

  • 1.  BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Fri January 10, 2020 04:36 PM
    ​Hello,

    New to IBM BPM. 

    Upon completion of final step of a workflow, is it possible to add a system step to generate a PDF out of a coach view (with data including approval history) and archive the PDF, attachments to a document repository for future reference.

    Thanks
    Srini

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    srini kachala
    sr. it specialist
    northern natural gas
    omaha NE
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  • 2.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    IBM Champion
    Posted Mon January 13, 2020 02:24 AM
    Edited by Atanu Roy Mon January 13, 2020 02:24 AM
    Hi Srini,

    You can definitely generate PDF files in a system service but I dont't think the functionality is availalbe out of the box. You need to write custom Java code by implementing any PDF generation libraty i.e. iText, Apache PDFBox etc. and implement that in system service. After generating the document, you can use ECM integration (create document) to store the document in either BPM or external document repository.

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    Atanu Roy

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  • 3.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Mon January 27, 2020 06:08 PM
    Sirni,

    You could also use Apache FOP.

    - Manish Poddar

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    Manish Poddar
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  • 4.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    IBM Champion
    Posted Tue January 28, 2020 11:11 AM
    Hi Srini,
    one additional note if you plan to use iText: it's distributed under AGPL (or commercial license).
    Apache PDFBox is distributed under Apache License. So you are more flexible.

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    Christoph Sünderkamp
    Senior Consultant
    ISR Information Products AG
    Münster
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  • 5.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Mon January 13, 2020 09:13 AM
    Hello Srini,

    Previously we had a similar kind of requirement where we have to generate a pdf at the end of process, based on user enter information during different stages of process flow.

    For that we built HTML Element consisting of required information, and this element is passed through a jar that converts html into PDF. 
    I haven't done from a coach view but there should be some java script libraries available that can help you perform similar action. 

    Regards,
    Adithya Adavalli

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    Adithya Adavalli
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  • 6.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Mon January 13, 2020 04:01 PM
    ​Thanks for the responses.

    With suggested approach, concern is there will considerable effort to make the PDF layout consistent with user (coach) interface especially for 50+ workflows. May be there is some out of the box feature already available as most customers will need to retain approval data required for audits.

    Is it feasible and not against best practices, to leave approved workflows at a step with user interface (coach) includes all data so users (and auditors) can do view only. Have a backend process to automatically delete workflows after the retention period.

    ------------------------------
    srini kachala
    sr. it specialist
    northern natural gas
    omaha NE
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  • 7.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Tue January 14, 2020 08:47 AM
    Sounds like your requirement is to be able to show exactly how the user interface with the case data looked like at the moment the user made his decision.

    In the case the retention period is short enough (so that you don't need to keep process instances alive and in the process database for a very long time) you could add a final activity to the workflow that makes it possible to view the coach with its data read-only. To make sure the coach looks the same, you could create all of it as a coach view and use the coach view in both coaches.

    As an alternative, a screen shot would probably do it. There is no such feature in the product so you would have to investigate if there is a service or a class library that does this. And then some custom java script to make use of it. E.g. if you have a "Submit" button in your coach, you could use some java script in the button's On click event to call the service/code that captures the screen/window image and saves it to a content store, and finally use e.g. a navigation event to complete the task.

    /Jan

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    Jan Andersson
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  • 8.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Tue January 14, 2020 08:47 AM
    Sounds like your requirement is to be able to show exactly how the user interface with the case data looked like at the moment the user made his decision.

    In the case the retention period is short enough (so that you don't need to keep process instances alive and in the process database for a very long time) you could add a final activity to the workflow that makes it possible to view the coach with its data read-only. To make sure the coach looks the same, you could create all of it as a coach view and use the coach view in both coaches.

    As an alternative, a screen shot would probably do it. There is no such feature in the product so you would have to investigate if there is a service or a class library that does this. And then some custom java script to make use of it. E.g. if you have a "Submit" button in your coach, you could use some java script in the button's On click event to call the service/code that captures the screen/window image and saves it to a content store, and finally use e.g. a navigation event to complete the task.

    /Jan

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    Jan Andersson
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Tue January 14, 2020 09:59 AM
    ​Thanks.

    ------------------------------
    srini kachala
    sr. it specialist
    northern natural gas
    omaha NE
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: BAW 19.0.0.2 - capturing data to PDF upon completion

    Posted Mon February 05, 2024 09:53 AM

    i need to add the library and toolkit to generate  pdf and reports form coach views



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    hossam omara
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