Boundary between Modeling and Custom Code for Document Creation

Modeling
1

Continuing the discussion from Form Modelling: CDM, several relationships and abstract models:

Use Case: In an interactive workflow, a user makes a selection in a form, and new linked documents should be created automatically based on that selection.
What A12 modeling can do:

  1. Forms with multiple screens (Multi-Screen FM with #next/#previous navigation).
    1a. Navigating through screens makes the ui feel like a workflow, especially when you partially validate each screen to ensure it’s complete before you move forward.
  2. Show/hide fields based on a selection (Dependent Fields/Groups in FM)
    2a. Sections of the form can be displayed in response to data entered by the user. For example, after a (to-1) link to a document has been made, the fields of that document can be shown directly in the form.
  3. Display data from related entities (CDM + CFM)
    3a. Bindings in CFMs allow the creation of new linked documents.
  4. Workflow Delegates can be used in a Process to:
    4a. Create a new document.
    4b. Link existing documents with known docRefs.

What requires custom code:

  1. Creating new documents in a CFM and offering the Controls but not offering a Binding to select/add/edit the document.
  2. Linking documents in Workflows if one or more of the documents was created outside the process (and therefore the docRef is unknown to the process).

A12 Modeling has UI Patterns that allow new linked documents using either CFMs or Workflows. However, moving away from these UI patterns can lead to custom code being required.

2

Thanks for the answer @paul-tall-kernel

Workflows have provided specific delegates for creating and linking Documents since the 2024.06-ext2 release.

You can find more information in the Documentation or in the Modeling Release Presentation from 2024.06-ext2

Link for Partners
Link for mgm’ies

3
  1. Forms with multiple screens (Multi-Screen FM with #next/#previous navigation).
    1a. Navigating through screens makes the ui feel like a workflow, especially when you partially validate each screen to ensure it’s complete before you move forward.
  2. Show/hide fields based on a selection (Dependent Fields/Groups in FM)
    2a. Sections of the form can be displayed in response to data entered by the user. For example, after a (to-1) link to a document has been made, the fields of that document can be shown directly in the form.
  3. Display data from related entities (CDM + CFM)
    3a. Bindings in CFMs allow the creation of new linked documents.
  4. Workflow Delegates can be used in a Process to:
    4a. Create a new document.
    4b. Link existing documents with known docRefs.

We can mark this as solved.