Use __meta fields as normal fields e.g. in validations

Modeling
1

Hi the “new” __meta fields are somewhat between normal fields like includes and special hidden fields.

It’s possible to use them in the UI, UUA rules and they can be used in back-end.

We would like to create validations e.g. document has been created > 2 weeks ago please update.
the current user is not the creator (warning), Last update is to long ago.

And we would like to put (model specific) annotations on them for some special mapping.

Are there plans to move them in the directions of normal fields?

Cheers
Julian

2

Hi @julian-typed-spruce

There aren’t any concrete plans that I am aware of to extend or adapt the Document Metadata but there are lots of ideas.

  • A12-16029 has the idea to allow the Metadata to be extended. This might include adapting the model so that the fields have the annotations that you need.
  • A12-16247 aims to be able to use Document Metadata fields in Computation Rules.
  • A12-11467 looks at computations that depend on Now or Today. Using the Metadata in this context would allow you to create validations that a document is older

If you or your project wants to support any of these ideas, please let us know so that we can integrate your use-case.

That being said, you could solve at least some of your use-cases by using Workflows. You can add a timer to your BPMN model that can automatically trigger tasks in the process. For example:

  • Send an email if the document has been sitting around for too long
  • Use a different form model if the document is “old” compared to “new”
  • …

Does our project use Workflows at the moment?

3

To expand on what Malcolm said,
it is also possible to add validation rules with custom validation logic (i.e. implemented by a developer) that refer to meta data fields.
At runtime, those fields are always available. Keep in mind though that those fields might not always be filled since, for example, there are no docRefs, timestamps etc. for newly created documents yet.

The same is not possible for computations yet, though.

4

Thank you for the answers.

I will take a look into the A12 tickets and see how they map to our requirements.
But from the first look we don’t have any new requirements.