Capture Web Manager Workflow

This example is both a more involved workflow for Capture, and an interesting implementation of an HTTP Workflow. Before looking at this example, it would be best to become familiar with both PlanetPress Capture Workflow and HTTP Server Workflow.

The example is too complex to display as images in this guide, so it is rather available for download. It infers two different files:

This example is compatible with PlanetPress Workflow 7.4 and higher and will not work in older versions.

Installation

  1. Download both resource files

  2. Create a folder on your disk called c:\PlanetPress

  3. Import the invoice.pp7 Design document into Workflow, or open it in PlanetPress Design and send it towards your local PlanetPress Workflow server (localhost or 127.0.0.1).

  4. Open the configuration file CaptureExampleProcess.pw7

  5. Click the PlanetPress Workflow button (File menu) and go in Preferences.

  6. In the HTTP Server Input 2 section, check the Serve HTTP resources option, change the Resource action name box to static , and the Resource folder to c:\PlanetPress\http . Then, click OK.

  7. Send the configuration to your local PlanetPress Workflow server.

  8. Start PlanetPress Workflow services (see Start and stop PlanetPress Workflow Service).

  9. Open your browser and point it to http://127.0.0.1:8080/documentlist , assuming you have not changed the default HTTP port in the HTTP Server Input 2 section.

Explanation

You can follow along the process by looking at the comments available in each process of the workflow file. Each comment explains both what the following plugins do, but also how it integrates into the workflow in general and what to keep in mind when doing an actual implementation of such a process.

Considerations

  • The workflow itself is a standalone system that does not interact with any third-party systems, which of course does not correspond to real customer implementation. A client will most likely need to communicate with both an ERP system that generates documents as well as an archive software to store completed documents.
  • The HTML, CSS and data file are generated whenever the process starts, in a specified location, in order to avoid having to distribute multiple static files which would need to be extracted and moved to a specific folder. In an actual implementation, these files would probably be edited externally and loaded from a location on the hard drive. However, the method of using a template to generate output is not so alien to PlanetPress Workflow so it is not condemned to do so.
  • The example doesn't use any advanced coding such as JavaScript, Ajax and caching. It's easier to follow, but is less optimized in its use than a complex workflow that would use such features.