ALBPM:Polling of folder and create a process instance.

Question

Hi, everyone.
I am quite new to ALBPM, but I want to make everyone a question:
I have a requirement where i need to poll or view a folder at particular location and in the folder search for the files.
And
If the files are present i need to create a process instance.The polling is done after every 30 minute interval.This is a kind of scheduler.
Please help me on this.
Thanks a lot to everyone!!!
Prakash.

Answer 1

Hi Prakash,
You can poll a folder using a Global Automatic activity.
Once added, right click the activity -> "Properties" -> "General" -> "Polling by Interval". Enter a value like "20m" for 20 minutes or "3h" for 3 hours or "1M" for one month.
The logic inside the Global Automatic can poll to see if a file exists in a certain folder on the server. In the logic shown below, I specified the "HOT_FOLDER" as a business paramater and set it to a valid directory that I knew files (XML files in this case) would posted to. When the Global Automatic hits a file that it's looking for, it reads it and moves it into another folder ("DESTINATION_FOLDER") so it's not read again the next time the Global Automatic automatically polls again.
Here's the logic:
// See if there are files in the hot folder
logMessage "Checking the hotfolder " + HOT_FOLDER + " for new files"
using severity = DEBUG
goodFile as Boolean = false
fileType as String
fileName as String
files as Fuego.Io.File[] = Fuego.Io.File.listFiles(sourcePathFile : HOT_FOLDER + "\\", silent : true)
// Are there file(s) in the directory?
if length(files) > 0 then
for each file in files do
if not file.directory && length(file.name) > 4 then
     fileType = substring(file.name, first : length(file.name) - 3, last : length(file.name))
     fileType = toUpperCase(fileType)
     logMessage "File type is: "+ fileType using severity = DEBUG
if fileType = "XML" then
     goodFile = true
else
goodFile = false
end
else
goodFile = false
end
if goodFile then
// initialize object that will be passed into process
questionaire as Business.Questionaire = Business.Questionaire()
questionaire.question = Business.Question()
// Ignore any sub-directories
logMessage "A new file was found (name: " + file.name + ")"
using severity = DEBUG
logMessage "A new file was found (fullName: " + file.fullName + ")"
using severity = DEBUG
newFileName as String = DESTINATION_FOLDER + "\\" + file.name
Fuego.File.move(sourcePath : file.fullName, destinationPath : newFileName,
silent : true)
          questionaireXML as Business.QuestionaireXml = Business.QuestionaireXml()
fileContents as String = ""
xmlFile as TextFile = TextFile()
open xmlFile
using name = newFileName,
lineSeparator = "\n"
for each line in xmlFile.lines do
fileContents = fileContents + line
end
close xmlFile
logMessage "loading Questionaire"
using severity = DEBUG
// Generate PDF
load questionaireXML
using xmlText = fileContents
contents as String[] = []
          templateNode as Any[] = selectNodes(questionaireXML, xpath : "/questionaire/template")
          for each t in templateNode do
          template as Integration.Questionaire.Template = Integration.Questionaire.Template(xmlText : t)
          logMessage "storing template info" using severity = DEBUG
          contents[] = "Template ID: " + template.id.children.first
          contents[] = "Report Name: " + template.reportName.children.first
          contents[] = "Date: " + template.reportDate.children.first
          contents[] = "Report Type: " + template.reportType.children.first
          // set attributes used in object passed into process
          questionaire.templateId = String(template.id.children.first)
          questionaire.templateName = String(template.reportName.children.first)
          questionaire.templateType = String(template.reportType.children.first)
          end
          customerNode as Any[] = selectNodes(questionaireXML, xpath : "/questionaire/customer")
          for each c in customerNode do
               customer as Integration.Questionaire.Customer = Integration.Questionaire.Customer(xmlText : c)
          logMessage "storing customer info" using severity = DEBUG
          contents[] = "Customer: " + customer.name.children.first
          contents[] = "Address: " + String(customer.street.children.first) + ", " + String(customer.city.children.first)
          + ", " + String(customer.state.children.first)
          + ", " + String(customer.zip.children.first)
          questionaire.customerName = String(customer.name.children.first)
          questionaire.customerStreet = String(customer.street.children.first)
          questionaire.customerCity = String(customer.city.children.first)
          logMessage "State is: " + String(customer.state.children.first) using severity = DEBUG
          if length(String(customer.state.children.first)) = 2 then
               questionaire.customerState = getStateName(questionaire, stateAbbreviation : String(customer.state.children.first))
          else
          questionaire.customerState = String(customer.state.children.first)
          logMessage "questionaire State is: " + questionaire.customerState using severity = DEBUG
          end
          questionaire.customerZip = String(customer.zip.children.first)
          end
          questionNode as Any[] = selectNodes(questionaireXML, xpath : "/questionaire/questions/question")     
for each q in questionNode do
question as Integration.Questionaire.Question = Integration.Questionaire.Question(xmlText : q)
logMessage "storing question info" using severity = DEBUG
contents[] = question.id.children.first + " " + question.questionText.children.first + " ("
+ String(question.questionType.children.first) + ")"
ques as Business.Question = Business.Question()
ques.id = String(question.id.children.first)
ques.text = String(question.questionText.children.first)
ques.type = String(question.questionType.children.first)
ques.answerA = ""
ques.answerB = ""
ques.answerC = ""
extend questionaire.questions using
question = ques
end
newFileName = substring(file.name,0,length(file.name) - 4) + ".pdf"
generate(PdfGenerator, outputFilename : DESTINATION_FOLDER + "\\" + newFileName, contents : contents, logoImageURL : null)
// Create the instance
params as Any[String]
params["xmlFileContentsArg"] = fileContents
params["questionaireXmlArg"] = questionaireXML
params["questionaireArg"] = questionaire
params["fileNameArg"] = newFileName
logMessage "Creating instance" using severity = DEBUG
Instance.create(arguments : params, argumentsSetName : "BeginIn")
end
end
else
logMessage "No files in directory: " + HOT_FOLDER using severity = DEBUG
end