Generating custom-form documents from base-form plus XML?

Question

Hi all, this is my first stack overflow, and it's a complex one. Sorry.

My task is to generate custom documents from a basic template plus some XML without having a custom form design element for each case.

Here's the whole picture:

• We are building a Lotus Notes (client, not web) application for world-wide application access control; the scope is something like 400.000 users being able to request access to any of 1000+ applications. Each application needs its own request form -- different number of approvers, various info required, that sort of thing.
• We simply can't have a thousand forms in a database (one per application), and anyway their maintenance really needs to be pushed from the developers to the application owners.
• So instead of custom forms, we'd like to create a generic "template" form that stores a block of basic fields, but then allows application owners to define another block of fields dynamically -- "I want a mandatory plain-text field named 'Name' here, and then a date field named 'Due' here that must be later than today's date, and then ...". I hope this makes sense (if not, think of it as a generic questionnaire application).
• I pretty much have the structure in place for designing the dynamic fields (form builder GUI -> XML-encoded data -> pre-rendered DXL for injecting into a form), including mark-up for field types, value options, and rudimentary field validation instructions.

My problem is generating a document with this dynamic content injected at the proper location (without needing a custom form design element for each case).

• Doing the dynamic content via HTML is out. The Notes client web rendering is simply way too poor, and it would be quite a challenge to implement things like field validation instructions, date selectors, and name look-ups.
• DXL, on the other hand, would allow us to use native Notes fields and code.
  • As a tech demo, I've managed to implement a custom form generator that injects the pre-rendered DXL for the dynamic content into a base form; but as I said, we don't want a ton of custom form design elements.
  • I've tried to implement a way to create a document with the "store form in document" flag set, but once I've created the document from the base form, I can't get DXL access to the stored form design, and so I can't inject my dynamic content.

I know this is not something Notes was ever intended to do. Has anyone ever tried something like it (and gotten away with it)?

Thanks for reading this far.

With a boatload of thanks in advance,

Jan Gundtofte-Bruun

Answer 1

I don't really have an answer for you, but some thoughts:

I know you mention that the app must be for Notes client and not web - is that an absolute? A Domino web app would give the flexibility to do what you need with less effort than forcing this into the Notes client. (Perhaps a hybrid app - where request forms are filled in via a browser, but the reporting / workflow is done via Notes clients?)

Assuming that is an absolute, then I would revisit the DXL option - yes, you may end up with 1,000+ forms (or, better, sub-forms) in the database, but is that really a problem? I don't know of any upper limit on number of forms (either defined or practical). And, you wouldn't be "maintaining" these (sub)forms manually - your code would just detect the change to a configuration document, and then rebuild the appropriate form note.

To limit the actual number of design elements, perhaps you could implement a "template" concept - so multiple "applications" in your system could use the same access request "template".

Answer 2

I ended up doing it a bit differently.

I will still use the "store form in document" option to make sure that each submitted request can stand alone; but "request" documents will be based on hundreds/thousands of individual forms (yes, that's thousands; research and testing suggests it shouldn't be a performance issue). These many forms, then, will be programmatically generated.

I'm setting it up so that "template authors" can create "request templates", which are normal documents with a block of xml in them. A background agent then takes all these documents and processes each block of xml, and a base form, into new custom forms. These custom forms are presented to users to create their "request" documents from.