LiveCycle ES Workspace Extension - Enquiry Tool

h1. Enquiry Tool Key Features

Enquiry tool extends the functionality of LiveCycle ES Workspace with the following key features:
* Allow user to search on processes using custom fields or custom criteria set up in a process.
* The search is NOT restricted to only user who has participated in the process for the user to run the search/enquiry. However, the administrator would need to set up for such user to have READ permission on such process for he/she to run the search.
* The search result shows the matching processes according to the search criteria, displaying custom fields of the process that have been configured to be visible. Thus making them sortable fields as well should the user wish to sort the search result by them.
* The search result at a glance, shows the status of the process, and the current active operation/action(s) of the process and the status of the operation itself, allowing user to find out where this process is at in its execution, and point out if there is any breakage or bottleneck in the process.
* User can also further drills down the search result to find out the form(s) in the process and download a read-only copy of it.
* User can also drills down the search result to get all its operations. By default it shows User related operations only, with option to show all operations.

 

* Only English version is currently supported. But it is extend-able to support another language if required.

h1. Installation


h3. Workspace Enquiry Tool consists of 3 parts:

# Enquiry DSC - Which performs the nuts and bolts of the Enquiry feature implementations.
# Modified Workspace Client - Containing the standard Workspace client PLUS Enquiry pages. This is an EAR file: avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear.
# Modified adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear/adobe-workspace-runtime.war - This WAR file serves between Workspace Client and relay Enquiry related requests to Enquiry DSC. These contains: avoka-enquiry-runtime.jar, avoka8utils.jar, services-config.xml and web.xml.

To download all the parts required, please go to our website: www.avoka.com
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h2. Installation for LiveCycle Update 1 and later

The Enquiry Tool now has an installer. To run, simply double click on the Avoka Enquiry Tool-2.1-installer.jar file.

If you do not have java associated with the .jar extension, you may need to run the following command line: java \-jar "Avoka Enquiry Tool-2.1-installer.jar"

The Installer performs two steps:
# It modifies your existing adobe-workspace-runtime.war and adobe-livecycle-xxx.ear. You will need to tell the installer where these files are currently located. Ensure you keep a backup of the previous versions.
# The installer deploys some new components to the running instance of LiveCycle.

h3. Installation steps for LiveCycle 8.0.1:

# Unzip the downloaded WorkspaceEnquiryToolx.x.zip into a folder in your hard drive.
# Install Enquiry DSC (avoka-enquiry-dsc.jar) using LiveCycle ES Workbench (through the "Components" view) and start it. The license for running this Enquiry Tool is set on the Enquiry DSC component, which will be explained in the next section. Upon installing Enquiry DSC, it will also deploy two processes to assist for Form loading feature.
# Deploy avoka-enquiry-workspace-client.ear found in the folder in step 1 to your application server.
# Do either one of the followings:
## Provided that you have 7zip program installed, do these:
### The unzipped folder contains a batch file, called build.bat. Edit the first few lines so that it points to your server deploy directory and specify the directory for the 7zip tool, and save it.
### Run the build.bat and it should create a deploy folder containing the updated livecycle.ear file ready to be deploy to your application server. Remember to undeploy the previous one before the redeployment.
## Alternatively, manually editting the livecyle.ear to inject in new files to it.
### Undeploy adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear. Browse the content of this EAR file to locate adobe-workspace-runtime.war. Browse the content of this WAR file, under WEB-INF overwrite the existing web.xml with one downloaded under config/WEB-INF/web.xml; then under WEB-INF/flex, overwrite the existing services-config.xml with one downloaded config/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml; and finally copy avoka-enquiry-runtime.jar and avoka8utils.jar found on config/WEB-INF/lib into WEB-INF/lib. Make sure that your WAR file is propertly modified and saved, and in turn the outer EAR file is also modified and saved reflecting all the changes you just made and added. Redeploy this modified adobe-livecycle-<appserver>.ear.
# Restart application server.
# Enquiry Tool is accessible via: http://<server_host>:<port>/enquiry, while the original ES workspace if still deployed, is still on http://<server>:<port>/workspace.

h1. Enquiry Tool Configurations


h2. Configuring License on Enquiry DSC

The evaluation licence for the Enquiry Tool limits you to in both usage and time - it will stop working after 6 hours or 100 invocations. For an extended evaluation license, or a production license, please contact [mailto:sales@avoka.com]


For how to configure license information for Enquiry DSC, please click on the following link:
[Avoka LiveCycle ES Component License Configuration]&nbsp;

h2. Enquiry Tool Admin Configurations

For the Enquiry Tool to function and showed up on your Workspace client, administrator will need to run through these following steps:
# For users/groups that require access to this Enquiry Tool, the administrator needs to assign INVOKE PERMISSION to the users/groups using ADMIN CONSOLE (adminui) under Service Management for Service, called Enquiry.
# Assign READ PERMISSION on process(es) to respective users/groups if you want them to be able to run enquiry about such process(es).
# Enquiry Tool allows user to also claim task, but the process designer is responsible to determine who has the right to claim task on a particular process. Appropriate error message will be shown should the claim task fails due to permission issue.

h2. LiveCycle Process Setup for Enquiry Tool

Each process intended to be looked up by this Enquiry Tool needs to have its process variables set to be "Searchable", and in order for the matching process result to show custom process information, those information will also need to be stored in process variables set to be "Visible in UI". Both the UI visibility and search-ability of process variables can be set in Workbench on editing the variable settings via double-clicking it on "Variable View" of your Workbench.

In LiveCycle ES, by default, every deployed process is set to be secured, i.e. apart from Super Administrator, everyone else unless granted has no permission on the process to query or invoke. In order for the Enquiry Tool to work for a certain process for a certain user, that user needs to be granted READ permission on such process via Adminui. As an administrator, you can choose to grant READ permission on a process to a group of users instead of each individual.

h1. Known Issues

* Workspace Source rebuilt add note to task no longer works. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.3{_}{color}.
* Running Enquiry Tool on Client with Flash Player 9.0.115 has problem with showing pop-up menu when selecting a process instance. It only works once, but the subsequent navigation away and back causes the pop-up menu not appearing anymore. Applicable to both IE and Firefox. This problem does not exist on ealier version of Flash Player (e.g. 9.0.47 and 9.0.45). {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.5{_}{color}
* Enquiry Tool version 1.5 has issue running with LiveCycle SP2. PDF forms cannot be rendered when opening up task via Enquiry Tool-enabled Workspace with IE browser. Firefox does not have the problem. This issue does not affect LiveCycle ES SP1b. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.6{_}{color}
* Unable to sort by "Initiator" in the Enquiry search screen. This problem will be fixed in the next release. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.7{_}{color}
* Search screen should set the combo operands to "skip" by default. This is intended to be in the next release. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.7{_}{color}
* When running on WebSphere Application Server, Enquiry Tool is unable to download task attachment. This problem is not present on JBoss. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.7p2{_}{color}
* Via Enquiry Tool MS Word document attachment is viewed as plain text on IE browser instead of an option to save attachment. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.7p2{_}{color}
* Initial Enquiry Processes load after the server is rebooted takes quite some time, about 2-3 minutes. But subsequent processes load is very quick. {color:#3333ff}{_}This is now resolved in version 1.8{_}{color}
* Render PDF process when attempting to load form of a process throws exception. This can be fixed by replacing the enquiryGeneratePDF process with this [process xml|^process-genPDF.xml]. This is affecting version 1.8 and earlier version.

h1. Future Enhancement

* Ability to store the search filters values and re-run it next time, without having to retype the values for the search filters, just run it.

h1. Screenshots

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