This document provides an overview of Alfresco Forms including: 1. The architecture of Alfresco Forms including the Form Service, Form UI Component, and Forms Runtime. 2. Details on the Form Service Java API, Form Processors, and Form Filters which are used to customize forms. 3. How the Form UI Component works including the web script, options, event sequence, and FreeMarker templates used to render forms.

1. Alfresco Forms Part 2: Deep Dive 1 Gavin Cornwell Services Team Lead, Alfresco twitter: @gcornwell

3. Debugging

5. Form Service Overview 4

8. FilteredFormProcessor

9. Node, Type, Workflow & Task implementationspublic Form generate(Item item, List<String> fields, List<String> forcedFields); public Object persist(Item item, FormData data); public booleanisApplicable(Item item); public booleanisActive();

10. Form Service – Form Filter 7 Similar to Servlet Filters Recommended way to customise Each FormProcessor has a FilterRegistry Filter is called for every item Do conditional checks in your filter Examples in RM

11. Form Service – Form Filter 8 public void beforeGenerate(ItemType item, List<String> fields, List<String> forcedFields, Form form); public void afterGenerate(ItemType item, List<String> fields, List<String> forcedFields, Form form); public void beforePersist(ItemType item, FormData data); public void afterPersist(ItemType item, FormData data, PersistTypepersistedObject); public booleanisActive();

12. REST API /api/formdefinitions Request 9 POST /api/formdefinitions Returns form definition JSON passed in JSON response POST /api/formprocessor Persists form data JSON or multipart/form-data passed in Response matches request type Examples of JSON will be seen in the demo

13. Form UI Component Overview 10

14. Form UI Component – Web Script 11 Java backed UI Web Script as of 3.4 <@region id=“metadata" scope="template” protected=true /> <component> <region-id>metadata</region-id> <url>/components/form</url> <properties> <itemKind>node</itemKind> <itemId>{nodeRef}</itemId> <mode>edit</mode> <submitType>json</submitType> </properties> </component>

16. itemId

17. formId

18. mode

19. destination

20. redirect

21. submitTypejson multipart (default) urlencoded method submissionUrl showSubmitButton showCancelButton showResetButton showCaption

22. Form UI Component Event Sequence 13 Asks ConfigService for list of fields for item Sends list of fields (if any) to FormService FormService response “combined” with configuration for item “form” model is set (demo will show example) FreeMarker template is rendered Custom template used if configured FTL for each control is #included Forms Runtime initialisation code generated

23. Form UI Component FreeMarker 14 <#if form.xxxTemplate?? && form.mode == ”xxx"> <#include "${form.xxxTemplate}" /> <#else> <#if formUI == "true"> <@formLib.renderFormsRuntimeformId=formId /> </#if> <@formLib.renderFormContainerformId=formId> <#list form.structure as item> <#if item.kind == "set"> <@formLib.renderSet set=item /> <#else> <@formLib.renderField field=form.fields[item.id] /> </#if> </#list> </@> </#if>

26. Form Persistence 17

28. Create a custom form control (YUI Slider)

29. Create a custom form template (tabbed form)

33. Repeating field and group support

34. Upload support

35. Improve association support

36. Improve error handling (validation feedback)

37. Dependent field support

38. Form level validation

40. Learn More 22 wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Forms blogs.alfresco.com/wp/gavinc/

41. Appendix – Demo Config 23 <config evaluator="node-type" condition="devcon:session"> <forms> <form> <field-visibility> <show id="devcon:code" /> <show id="cm:name" /> <show id="devcon:abstract" /> <show id="devcon:presenter" /> <show id="devcon:duration” /> <show id="daysAway" /> <show id="devcon:when" /> <show id="devcon:level" /> <show id="devcon:prerequisites" /> <show id="devcon:approved" /> <show id="devcon:rating" /> </field-visibility> <edit-form template="/devcon/tab-edit-form.ftl" /> <appearance> <set id="" label="Details" /> <set id="time" label="Time" /> <set id="feedback" label-id="set.label.feedback" /> <field id="devcon:approved" set="feedback" /> <field id="devcon:rating" set="feedback"> <control template="/devcon/progress.ftl" /> </field> <field id="devcon:when" set="time" /> <field id="devcon:duration" set="time" /> <field id="daysAway" set="time" /> </appearance> </form> </forms> </config>

43. In the meantime have a look at the FDK for more examples