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The Data API Feeds
There are various different types of resources that can be viewed and manipulated by the Data API. Most of these resources are things that a designer sees when creating new forms and navigating the application using the UI, for instance users, applications, form, themes, schemas, etc. So before delving into the API specifics it is a good idea to understand these different types of resources and how they relate to each other.
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Although our APIs are based on the Atom Publishing Protocol and the Atom Syndication Protocol and can be accessed on any language/platform that can interact with HTTP end points and can process XML documents, we provide a Java Client and a .Net Client that can be used to easily connect to from Java and Windows or Mono, respectively.
You will need to install a client library in order to use the API. See Installing the Client Library and Dependencies below.
Java Client API
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The Design-time Integration tutorial is a very good place to get a quick overview of how to use the Java API. |
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Javadocs
If you installed locally, the installation includes the Javadocs .jar file. The com.frevvo.forms javafiles are located in the <installdrive>:\frevvo\ext\client directory. Many IDE's let you view Javadocs.
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... String tenantAdmin = getUsername() + '@' + getTenant(); String tenantAdminPwd = getPassword(); String username = getAsUsername(); List<String> roles = new ArrayList<String>(); roles.add("frevvo.Designer"); FormsService s = new FormsService(getProtocol(), getHost(), getPort(), null); s.loginAs(username, tenantAdmin, tenantAdminPwd, true, roles, null, null,null,null); ... |
.Net Client API
TBD
.Net Client API FAQ
For a list of Frequently Asked question about common tasks using the API with server, please see the API .Net Client FAQ topic.
Logging In and Out of the Forms Server
When interacting with , an application first needs to establish a session using the Data API. See the C# code snipped below for an example.
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FormsService service = new FormsService("http://localhost:8082", "yourappname");
service.Login("myuser", "mypassword");
// interact with frevvo
service.Logout(); |
Since there is some overhead associated with logging in and out, you need to keep the FormsService instance around for as long as you need to interact with before logging out. Logging out ensures that will release any unneeded resources and the user count will be decremented, as the number of users is affected by your license.
Browser URL API
The client libraries are built on top of the browser API. However since these URLs can be used directly from your browser, it is a great way to experiment with the API before you start writing code.
This section describes the basic protocol used to interact with Data APIs including examples of what Atom requests may look like, what kind of responses to expect, and so on. It is intended for anyone wanting an understanding the general idea of the format and protocol used by the Data API and it assumes that you understand the basics of XML, The frevvo .NET API is a .NET language-specific wrapper around frevvo's core GData API framework. Refer to the browser URL APIs and java APIs discussed in this chapter for a list and explanation of the methods exposed in the frevvo data API framework.
Visit the Data API Client Libraries Releases compatibility matrix to download the proper library version for your installed server.
The download is a zipfile containing the following files:
- <version>_dotNetApiRelease.zip - frevvo .NET client library
- <version>_help_html.zip - HTML documentation
- <version>_help.chm - chm formatted documentation
.Net Client API FAQ
For a list of Frequently Asked question about common tasks using the API with server, please see the API .Net Client FAQ topic.
Browser URL API
The client libraries are built on top of the browser API. However since these URLs can be used directly from your browser, it is a great way to experiment with the API before you start writing code.
This section describes the basic protocol used to interact with Data APIs including examples of what Atom requests may look like, what kind of responses to expect, and so on. It is intended for anyone wanting an understanding the general idea of the format and protocol used by the Data API and it assumes that you understand the basics of XML, namespaces, Atom feeds, and the main HTTP requests GET, POST, PUT and DELETE, as well as the RESTful concept of a resource. Using the API at this level your client application can interact with the Server using any programming language that lets you issue HTTP requests and consume XML-based responses.
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If you click on the RequiredFieldPrompt link and either open or save the XML file, you see the XML for the control, which is shown below.
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control, which is shown below.
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<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:fd="http://schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008" xml:base="http://localhost:8082"> <id>_bjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david</id> <title type="text">RequiredFieldPrompt_</title> <summary type="text">Message 39</summary> <category scheme="http://schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008#controltype" term="OutputControlType"/> <category scheme="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008#displaytype" term="Message"/> <updated>2011-07-25T13:52:22.017-04:00</updated> <fd:required value="true"/> <fd:readonly value="false"/> <link xmlns:fdrel="parent" type="http://schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008application/atom+xml" xml:base="http://localhost:8082"> <id>_bjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg href="/frevvo/web/tn/monahan.com/api/controltype/_fQoD8a4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david</id>david" <title type="text">RequiredFieldPrompt_</title> <summary typetitle="text">Message 39</summary>This entry's parent control type"/> <category<link schemetype="http://schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008#controltypeapplication/atom+xml" term="OutputControlType"/> <category schemehref="http://schemas.frevvo.com/fdata/2008#displaytype" term="Message"/> <updated>2011-07-25T13:52:22.017-04:00</updated>/frevvo/web/tn/monahan.com/api/controltype/_bjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david" <fd:required value="true"/> <fd:readonly valuetitle="falseThis entry"/> <link rel="parentself" type="application/atom+xml" href="/frevvo/web/tn/monahan.com/api/controltype/_fQoD8a4rEeCMGZK99v93jwbjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david" title="This entry's parent control type"/> <link type="application/atom+xml" </entry> |
Logging In and Out of the Forms Server
When interacting with , an application first needs to establish a session using the Data API. See the C# code snipped below for an example.
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FormsService service = href="/frevvo/web/tn/monahan.com/api/controltype/_bjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david" title="This entry"/>new FormsService("http://localhost:8082", "yourappname"); <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"service.Login("myuser", "mypassword"); // interact with frevvo href="/frevvo/web/tn/monahan.com/api/controltype/_bjLLYbIIEeClr-dcvjFaZg!_fNScEK4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!_W0jPga4rEeCMGZK99v93jw!david" title="This entry"/> </entry>service.Logout(); |
Since there is some overhead associated with logging in and out, you need to keep the FormsService instance around for as long as you need to interact with before logging out. Logging out ensures that will release any unneeded resources and the user count will be decremented, as the number of users is affected by your license.
Calling the API from a JSP Page
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The reset task API makes it possible to restart a completed submitted workflow. For example, imagine a sales person has reviewed a product order form on their task list and signed it and submitted it. This is the final form workflow step and the form is submitted to a document management system (ECM). All the form data as well as the PDF order form image is stored in the ECM. While the order is processed someone notices that a product is out of stock and wants to return the order form back to the sales person's form workflow task list. The reset task API feature makes this possible. The demo.war contains a api/resetTask.jsp that demonstrates how to use this API feature:
- Copy <frevvo-home>/ext/demo.war to frevvo<frevvo-home>/tomcat/webapps. It will auto-extract.
- Edit frevvo/tomcat/webapps/demo/api/resetTask.jsp
- Set the host:port to your frevvo server
- Set the username and password and tenant to the designer user how is the owner of the workflow you want to reset
- Enable the flow's save property so the flow data is stored in frevvo's submission repository. This is critial as frevvo needs to access this data in order to reset the workflow back to a task list.
- restart Restart the frevvo server.
- Use the flow and complete/submit it.
- Save the frevvo.form.id POST parameter. It will be a GUID such as _udowHBy0EeCJpdjaAfsaSA
To reset the completed/submitted flow back to a task list, send a POST from your system to the resetTask.jsp. You must pass the flowing Url parameters to resetTask.jsp:
- frevvofrevvo.form.id - The GUID sent in the worflow submission POST to your back end system (ECM in the example above).
- frevvo.reset.activity.name - The actually name of the activity you want to reset the task to. See workflow activity properties in the flow designer. Note that is is simpler to have no spaces in the activity name.
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