Develop Process Automation

The custom development of Process Automation is restricted to four areas:

• Communicating with external systems from an application.
• Extend the Digital Workspace interface for end users.
• Develop a custom user interface using the Application Development Framework (ADF).
• Implementing custom form fields.

External systems communication

Communication with an external system should use the REST connector or the Lambda connector.

Important: The REST service and the AWS Lambda account and function need to be hosted outside of the Alfresco hosted environment.

Both connectors can send and return JSON payloads from a process. The REST connector can also be configured as a trigger for webhooks.

Extend the Digital Workspace

The default end user interface provided with Process Automation is the Alfresco Digital Workspace.

Note: The Digital Workspace can be extended to customize the branding and components. If your requirement is to customize large parts of the Digital Workspace then consider developing a custom user interface instead.

Setup

To start developing Digital Workspace customizations:

1. Request the source code from Support.

2. Unzip the source code into your development environment and create a .env file in the root folder.

3. Insert the following contents in the .env file:

   # GENERAL
   AUTH_TYPE="OAUTH"
   PROVIDER="ALL"
   LOG_LEVEL="TRACE"
   ACA_BRANCH="develop"
   
   # ADW + APA
   API_HOST="https://..."
   API_CONTENT_HOST="https://..."
   API_PROCESS_HOST="https://..."
   OAUTH_HOST="https://..."
   IDENTITY_HOST="https://..."
   
   PLUGIN_PROCESS_SERVICE=true
   
   APP_CONFIG_APPS_DEPLOYED="[{"name": "..."}]"
   

4. Update the contents of the .env file with the following:

   Property	Description
   API_HOST	The API host for the environment in the format https://alfresco.com.
   API_CONTENT_HOST	The API host for the content services in the format https://alfresco.com.
   API_PROCESS_HOST	The API host for the process services in the format https://alfresco.com.
   OAUTH_HOST	The authentication host in the format https://alfresco.com/auth/realms/alfresco.
   IDENTITY_HOST	The identity service host in the format https://alfresco.com/auth/realms/alfresco.
   APP_CONFIG_APPS_DEPLOYED	The name of the deployed application to extend the Digital Workspace against. The name is set when the application is deployed, for example [{"name": "invoice-approval-application"}].

5. Run the following command from the root of your local Digital Workspace: npm run start content-en-cloud.

6. Your local Digital Workspace is now connected to your hosted Process Automation application and can be extended, tested and debugged.

Develop

The Digital Workspace is built using the Application Development Framework. There are a set of content components and a set of process components that can be extended.

Note: Process Automation uses the Process Services Cloud components.

Upload

Once the extended Digital Workspace has been fully customized and tested it can be deployed.

1. Remove the .env file from your source code.

2. Upload your source code to your Alfresco S3 bucket.

   Note: Please contact Support if you do not have the details of this bucket.

3. Raise a Support request with this information:

   • A link to the source code in S3.

   • The name of the application to update.

     Note: This should match what is configured in the app.config.json for the interface.

   • The environment the application is deployed in.

   • When the application should be updated with the new interface.

Develop a custom user interface

The Application Development Framework (ADF) can be used to develop a custom end user interface from scratch.

Setup

The Yeoman generator can be used to develop custom user interfaces for Process Automation.

1. Clone the Yeoman generator project.

2. Open apps/utils.js and remove the following two templates from being excluded:

   const excludedTemplates = ['adf-cli-activiti-template', 'adf-cli-activiti-acs-template'];
   

3. Run the following command from the root of the project: yo alfresco-adf-app.

   1. Give the project a name.
   2. Select the option Content and Process Services with Activiti to develop an application using process and content components, or Process Services with Activiti if developing only with process components.
   3. Install any required dependencies.

4. Configure the security in the app.config.json of the generated application:

   "$schema": "../node_modules/@alfresco/adf-core/app.config.schema.json",
       "ecmHost": "http://{hostname}{:port}",
       "bpmHost": "http://{hostname}{:port}",
       "identityHost": "https://{hostname}{:port}/auth/realms/alfresco",
       "providers": "ALL",
       "appName": "invoice-approval-application",
       "application": {
           "name": "Alfresco ADF Application"
       },
   
   "authType": "OAUTH",
   "oauth2": {
       "host": "https://{hostname}/auth/realms/alfresco",
       "clientId": "invoice-approval-application",
       "scope": "openid",
       "secret": "",
       "implicitFlow": true,
       "silentLogin": true,
       "redirectSilentIframeUri": "{protocol}//{hostname}{:port}/assets/silent-refresh.html",
       "redirectUri": "/",
       "redirectUriLogout": "/"
   },
   

5. Add the property "alfresco-deployed-apps" to the app.config.json with the name of the deployed application you are developing an interface for. For example, "alfresco-deployed-apps": [{"name":"invoice-approval-application"}].

6. To develop the interface locally, CORS will need to be bypassed. Edit the proxy.conf.js replacing the {hostname} and {realm} with those relevant to your environment and realm:

   module.exports = {
       "/auth/admin/realms/{realm}": {
           "target": "https://{hostname}",
           "secure": false,
           "pathRewrite": {
               "^/auth/admin/realms/{realm}": ""
           },
           "changeOrigin": true,
           "logLevel": "debug"
       },
   
       "/auth/realms/...": {
           "target": "https://{hostname}",
           "secure": false,
           "pathRewrite": {
               "^/auth/realms/{realm}": ""
           },
           "changeOrigin": true,
           "logLevel": "debug"
       },
   
       "/": {
           "target": "https://{hostname}",
           "secure": false,
           "changeOrigin": true,
           "logLevel": "debug"
       },
   
       "/alfresco": {
           "target": "https://{hostname}",
           "secure": false,
           "changeOrigin": true
       }
   }
   

Develop

There are a set of content components and a set of process components that can be used to develop the custom user interface with. The content components can only be used if you selected the option Content and Process Services with Activiti when generating the application.

Note: Process Automation uses the Process Services Cloud components.

Upload

Once the custom interface has been fully developed and tested it can be deployed.

1. Upload your source code to your Alfresco S3 bucket.

   Note: Please contact Support if you do not have the details of this bucket.

2. Raise a Support request with this information:

   • A link to the source code in S3.

   • The name of the application to update

     Note: This should match what is configured in the app.config.json for the interface.

   • The environment the application is deployed in.

   • When the application should be updated with the new interface.

Custom form fields

To include custom form fields within a form, the form field customizations must be included in the customization of Digital Workspace or the development of a custom user interface.

Note: The custom field can be included in a form before the custom interface has been deployed.