Conditional Validation in K2 SmartForm

I have to admit that currently K2 SmartForm is lack of built-in validation functionality, you can only specify which fields are required to be specified before the form is submitted.

In this post, I will show you a trick how to create a custom validation based on a condition.

Our form (or view) is very simple:

It contains:

• 2 Text boxes which have names: Amount Text Box and Comment Text Area
• 2 Labels for field header (I ignore the control’s names).

It is a petty cash request form. User can request for specified amount of money and specify notes if needed. Here is the condition:

• If Request amount >= 1000000 (above or equal to 1 million), user must specify notes.
• If Request amount < 1000000 (below 1 million), the notes field is optional to be specified.

If we use common validation condition in SmartForm, we can only specify whether field Notes is required or not, we cannot validate Notes based on certain condition.

Here is my trick;

1. Add a text box to Form or View, give it name: Notes. Clear Visible check box in its property. This new text box will act as fake “Notes” text box:

 

2. Create some expressions, click the Notes text box (the invisible textbox), select Expressions in property window, click Add to add new expression, give it name Comment is Blank:

Create a new expression again and give it name Request Above 1M:

Create again a new expression and give it name Notes Validation:

Value 9 is random value, you can use any value other than 9.

Make sure the last expression is selected before closing Expression window:

 

3. Create rule for click event of Submit button, add validation to the rule:

 

4. Specify validation configuration:

See validation configuration window above: mark Amount Text Box and Notes (text box) as required. Note that Comment Text Area does not need to be required and do not activate “Do not validate hidden…” option, and activate “Show validation message…”.

Then add Show a Message action if validation passes:

Click OK and then click Finish to close message configuration window and Rules Wizard Configuration window.

Click Finish to save the Form / View.

Let’s try to run the Form / View:

If I specify 500000 in Request Amount text box and I do not specify any comments, my request can be submitted:

However, if I specify 5000000 in Request Amount text box, the validation will occur:

I have to specify something in Notes field (it is Comment Text Area) :

You can make the Notes text box becomes visible to see how this trick happens and yes, building forms using K2 SmartForm is very tricky

Creating Running Number in K2 SmartForm

This post will show you how to generate running number using K2 SmartForm. Running Number is a common feature in transaction forms, such as Invoice Number, Purchase Order Number, Quotation Number, etc. It is always incremented by 1 for each saved entry.

In this post, I will show you an example how to generate request number for Room Booking Request. Room Booking Request can be used for requesting a room for a purpose such as meeting, interviewing, and so on.

Let’s create our Room Booking Request SmartObject, give it name as Booking:

Request Number will contain running number which we’ll develop later in this post.

Let’s create Auto Number SmartObject:

Current Number will contain a number which is always increment by 1 for each new booking request.

Then, using SmartObject tester, insert a default row to Auto Number SmartObject:

Give the value 1 to Current Number and RO for Request Type, then click Execute to create a new row.

Now, we will generate a view for booking request data entry, right click on Booking SmartObject, then click Generate Views, click Item and give it name as Booking Item:

Click OK to generate the view.

Make a view layout to be neat looking as follow:

Delete Create, Delete, Load buttons as we don’t need them, change Save button text to Save as Draft. Then add two text boxes to the view, give them name Current Number Text Box and Increment Number Text Box, we can place them anywhere since we will make them as invisible to users. In my example below, the two new text boxes is placed next to Save as Draft button.

Switch to Rules tab and inspect when Save Button is clicked rule, K2 Designer has created a default behavior for Save:

Add a new action Execute SmartObject method before Execute the Save method.

In the newly added action: select Auto Number SmartObject, and select Load method.

Click configure option of the newly added action:

In Request Type input mapping type RO:

Click Next, then map Current Number property to Current Number Text Box:

Add a new action again of Execute SmartObject method after Execute the Save method, select Auto Number Smart Object and Save method:

Click configure option:

Map Increment Text Box to Current Number and type RO in Request Type:

Click Finish to close configuration window.

Add a new action again of Close browser window:

Click Finish to close Rules Wizard Configuration window.

Switch back to Layout tab, then select Increment Text Box, select Expression property, click Add to create a new expression. Drag Current Number Text Box to expression details area , drag Plus operator from Operators tab – Operators node, and type 1 after Plus operator. Click Validate to verify the expression.

If the expression validation passes, click Finish twice to return to view layout.

Select Request Number Text Box, then select Expression property, click Add to create a new expression. Give it name Running Number Format as expression name. Drag Concatenate function from Operators tab – Text node, and drag Pad Left function as follow:

Click Finish twice to return to view layout. Make the Current Number Text Box and Increment Number Text Box invisible by unchecking Visible check box property.

Click Finish again to save the view.

Now we can try to run the view. Click on Booking Item view at the tree node, you will see Runtime URL at right panel, click the Runtime URL, the browser will create a new window/tab:

Click Save as Draft to save entry and the view will be closed after saving.

To view the request data, switch to SmartObject Tester, select Booking SmartObject, right click and select Execute SmartObject, change Method to Execute to GetList and click Execute button:

Why my request number starts from 7 ? Because I had tried to create data before I wrote this blog post  and I deleted them all. But if you follow steps in this article, your request number must be started from 1 (RO001).

Extract PDF file from K2 PDF SmartObject

In K2 workflow, we can create PDF file using PDF SmartObject, located in System node:

PDF Converter is a built-in SmartObject in K2 to create PDF and save it in PDF File SmartOject. The PDF is saved as BLOB. Actually it is a column contains XML and in the XML contains PDF as binary content.

The problem is, I have to extract the PDF and copy it to the file server using Windows File Sharing. K2 does not have built-in feature to extract PDF to physical file, thus I have to create it.

The following code utilizes SmartObject Client API to communicate with PDF File SmartObject in K2 Blackpearl server.

   1:  public void ExtractPDFWithSmartObject(int snapshotID, string fileName)

   2:  {

   3:      var smartObjServer = new SmartObjectClientServer();

   4:   

   5:      using (var connection = smartObjServer.CreateConnection())

   6:      {

   7:          connection.Open(k2WorkflowServer);

   8:          //smartObjServer.Connection.Open();

   9:   

  10:          var pdfSmartObj = smartObjServer.GetSmartObject("PDFFile");

  11:          pdfSmartObj.MethodToExecute = "Load";

  12:          pdfSmartObj.Properties["ID"].Value = snapshotID.ToString();

  13:   

  14:          var result = smartObjServer.ExecuteScalar(pdfSmartObj);

  15:          var file = (SmartFileProperty)pdfSmartObj.Properties["PDF"];

  16:          byte[] data = Convert.FromBase64String(file.Content);

  17:          File.WriteAllBytes(fileName, data);

  18:      }

  19:  }

Add reference to SourceCode.HostClientAPI.dll and SourceCode.SmartObjects.Client.dll

Parameter snapshotID is an ID created by Create* method of PDF Converter and parameter fileName is a physical file name to be created in file system.

In line 7, we have to create string variable named k2WorkflowServer, this variable will be populated as connection string to K2 Blackpearl server.

The complete code can be downloaded from here, it is a .NET DLL file and can be referenced from K2 workflow.

 

Call this DLL from K2 Workflow

To use this DLL (PDFHelper.dll), open your K2 workflow (.kprx) using K2 Designer for Visual Studio, add Code Reference Event and add reference to PDFHelper.dll

In Code Reference Event, add call constructor and pass the K2 Connection String as parameter.

then call instance method ExtractPDFWithSmartObject and pass snapshot ID and filename as parameters:

Do I have to use Visual Studio to use this DLL in my K2 workflow?

If I use K2 Studio to add reference to this workflow, strangely I cannot call constructor and call instance method, it seems K2 Studio cannot load PDFHelper.dll. But if I use Visual Studio, I can add reference, call constructor, and call instance method smoothly.