Document Import Actions is a functionality that lets you define an "action" that should be executed after a document has been imported using the Create Documents dialog (this dialog is opened when importing documents through the Office Add-In, Lotus Notes Plug-In or by drag and drop of files on the Document Revision and Document Revisions forms.) Currently, actions are only available when documents are created from this dialog.
An "action", in this context, currently means to open an IFS Applications form, sending in the information about the imported documents. The form used for the action can then either just show the imported documents or "extend" the process, perhaps asking the user for more information before the flow is complete. An example of this could be to have an action that opens the Create Business Mail assistant (form name dlgEmailAssistant) where the user can fill in certain details relevant to CRM. An action has a name, a configured form name and some other settings that controls how the system should handle the action. More on this below.
The action name should be something that tells the user what will happen after the document has been imported, so that he can understand what action that he should select, if more than one are presented. For example, the action name could be something like "Open Document Revisions" to tell the user that the Document Revisions form will open, or it could be something like "Import Business E-mail" to tell the user that the document will be handled by the e-mail import assistand in the CRM component.
The form to be opened must be configured for each action that is defined. Any IFS form can be used as the action but for it to work, the form that is used must be able to receive a data transfer of one or more documents. For e-mail imports, the form also receives extra data like the sender and subject of the e-mail.
Note:When the user is presented with a list of actions, the actions will also be filtered on the forms the user is allowed to open. So if an action has been granted to a user but the form defined for that action is not available to the user, the action will not be listed.
The Additional Parameters field is an optional field used to send in extra parameters (apart from the document and e-mail information that is automatically sent in) to the action form that the form needs to decide how to continue the flow. A form might have support for a certain parameter that controls its behavior, and you might want to use different values for those parameters, for different actions that you define. An example could be a form that opens documents after they have been imported and that takes a parameter to release the documents after they have been imported (right now, no form in Document Management has a parameter like this.)
In order to be able to selection on action, a user must have been granted it, either directly using the username or by using a user group (defined in Soluton Manager). The action must also be enabled (see more below.)
An action is allowed to be skipped if Allow to Skip Action is selected. If there are multiple actions available to a certain user, and if all these actions has been defined such that they cannot be skipped, then the user must select an action to be executed when he imports a document. If there is only one action available and the user cannot skip it, the user will not even be able to select the action; it will be executed automatically.
Actions must be enabled to be available to users. This can be done either on the action level or per user or user group. This provides full flexibility for the adminstrator while working with the actions. He can prepare the actions and even all users and user groups that should have access to it, but enable it at the last moment.
An action can be configured such that the Create Documents Dialog is not shown at all to the user. This will make for a good user experience where the user does not need to think of more details than necessary. For example, if the system is setup with an action to import e-mails into CRM as business e-mails, the user might not have to think about selecting a class and format and will instead end up in a form where he will do the main task of taking care of the business e-mail.
An action can control the default document class and format for documents that are imported. This is a very useful option to have since different users can get different values for default class and format depending on what action they have selected. For example, when working with correspondence (e-mail), the class might be set to CORRESPONDENCE and when working with other documents it could be something else. These values are optionally in some scenarios and mandatory in others. If the setting to display the Create Documents dialog is not selected, the system must be able to figure out the class and format (if mandatory) to be used. Even if the Create Documents dialog is shown, for a certain action, it is useful to provide a default class for the user, to make the import easier.
As mentioned earlier, the Create Documents dialog is used when importing and creating documents from various places. It can also be opened manually, from the IFS navigator. When opened from here, actions are not available by default. This is by design but there is a way to enable actions here as well. To do it, either modify the properties of the existing IFS navigator item Create Documents or create a copy and modify that. In the properties for the navigator item, in the field Parameters, enter the following text and click OK:
APPLICATION=OTHER&ACTIONS=TRUE
By doing this, the next time you open the form through the modified navigator item, actions will be available if the current user has some enabled.