OAI and Workflow - Setting Attributes to use in Notifications

Question

Does anyone know how I go about getting at attributes in a message that goes through the Workflow Adapter?
What I am trying to do is to create a notification, which is more meaningful by adding some of the details I've passed through in the PARAMETER_LIST attributes of the Workflow message.
Any ideas?
Ian

Answer 1

Kavitha,
I've managed to do it, but using a simpler method (I think).
In iStudio
My Common View contains the attributes as follows:-
EMPLOYEE_NUMBER (String)
START_DATE (Date)
LAST_NAME (String) and
FIRST_NAME (String)
My subscribing Workflow Event maps these Common View values into the PARAMETER_LIST array in the Workflow message. The mappings are as follows:-
PARAMETER_LIST[v1].NAME=SetConstant (EMPLOYEE_NUMBER, "EMPLOYEE_NUMBER")
PARAMETER_LIST[v1].VALUE=CopyFields (EMPLOYEE_NUMBER)
PARAMETER_LIST[v2].NAME=SetConstant (START_DATE, "START_DATE")
PARAMETER_LIST[v2].VALUE=CopyFields (START_DATE)
PARAMETER_LIST[v3].NAME=SetConstant (LAST_NAME, "LAST_NAME")
PARAMETER_LIST[v3].VALUE=CopyFields (LAST_NAME)
PARAMETER_LIST[v4].NAME=SetConstant (FIRST_NAME, "FIRST_NAME")
PARAMETER_LIST[v4].VALUE=CopyFields (FIRST_NAME)
I also created the publishing Workflow Event. To get the values out of the PARAMETER_LIST array, I simply used the 'TrueConditionalCopy' transformation. For example,
EMPLOYEE_NUMBER=TrueConditionalCopy (PARAMETER_LIST[v1].NAME, PARAMETER_LIST[v1].VALUE, "EMPLOYEE_NUMBER")
In Workflow Builder
I created 4 additional ATTRIBUTES in the Workflow:-
EMPLOYEE_NUMBER_ATT (Type - Text)
START_DATE_ATT (Type - Text)
LAST_NAME_ATT (Type - Text) and
FIRST_NAME_ATT (Type - Text)
I then created my MESSAGE (Called 'Approve Update Employee'). I added 4 new MESSAGE ATTRIBUTES to this message:-
EMPLOYEE_NUMBER (Type - Text, Default Type - Item Attribute, Value - EMPLOYEE_NUMBER_ATT)
START_DATE (Type - Text, Default Type - Item Attribute, Value - START_DATE_ATT)
LAST_NAME (Type - Text, Default Type - Item Attribute, Value - LAST_NAME_ATT)
FIRST_NAME (Type - Text, Default Type - Item Attribute, Value - FIRST_NAME_ATT)
In the Message Body I used the '&EMPLOYEE_NUMBER' notation to bring back the values into the message when the Workflow runs. For example, "This message has been created to tell you that Employee &EMPLOYEE_NUMBER has changed some details. Details are First Name is &FIRST_NAME, Last Name is &LAST_NAME and their start date is &START_DATE. Please Approve or Reject this change by using the buttons below."
In the Workflow Diagram
After the START node (Subscribe Maintain_Employees.Update_Employees) I added a series (4 in all) of "Get Event Property" Standard Workflow functions (GETEVENTPROPERTY) in order to find out the values from my parameter list.
As an example, here is the one I did to get the Employee Number.
In the 'Node Attributes' tag (when you double-click on the "Get Event Property") set the values as follows:-
Name = Event, Type = Item Attribute, Value = OAI Message
Name = Property, Type = Constant, Value = Event Parameter
Name = Event Parameter, Type = Constant, Value = EMPLOYEE_NUMBER
Name = Item Attribute, Type = Constant, Value = EMPLOYEE_NUMBER_ATT
(Note that the 'Event Parameter' is the name you set it to when you did the SetConstant mapping i.e. EMPLOYEE_NUMBER. The 'Item Attribute' is the target ATTRIBUTE that the result of calling the GETEVENTPROPERTY will be put.)
I finished off the Workflow by creating a NOTIFICATION called 'Update Employee Notification' which uses the 'Approve Update Employee' message, and added the Result Type of 'Approval'.
If the message is APPROVED, then the workflow calls the Publish Event (END node type), if REJECTED then the Workflow goes to an END node (and not processed any further).
My Workflow looks like this.
START (Subscribe Maintain_Employees.Update_Employees)
GETEVENTPROPERTY (to get EMPLOYEE_NUMBER_ATT value)
GETEVENTPROPERTY (to get START_DATE_ATT value)
GETEVENTPROPERTY (to get LAST_NAME_ATT value)
GETEVENTPROPERTY (to get FIRST_NAME_ATT value)
Update Employee Notification --> REJECTED --> END
APPROVED
END (Publish Maintain_Employees.Update_Employee)
I'm not sure whether this is a good approach or not. The biggest upside is that I didn't have to do any additional coding. I only used standard OAI and Workflow functionality.
Thanks again for your help.
Ian