Ability to store attachments as reference data

[Johannes Lehtinen <johannes.lehtinen@rossum.fi>]

Hello!

While doing some FFMII related development today I noticed a problem with the latest version of the specification.

One use case for Reference Data was for multiple Work Requests to be able to refer to shared set of large data entities, such as attachments, stored as reference data. However, currently the specification does not allow DataAttachmentValues or DataMatrixValues to be stored as reference data. Both the specification document and XML schema disallow this at the moment. Primitive data types and other composite types that are used for Data Element values, such as MLText and Location, are already supported.

This could be fixed by the following change to the spec and XML schema.

In Section 8.3.2.2 Reference Data Item

First paragraph after the Table 48, ReferenceDataItem, lines 1402-1405 in FFMII-SPEC-v1.0-csprd01.pdf.

Current text:

Type of Values of Reference Data Items in custom repositories MUST be primitive data type, derived data type MLText (see Section 6.3), Location (see Section 7.5.2) or MultiChoiceAlternative (see Section 7.5.3). Allowed type of Value in system repositories MAY additionally include class data type; the allowed Value type is specific to a particular repository and subject to constraints of the repository.

Fixed text:

Type of Values of Reference Data Items in custom repositories MUST be primitive data type, MLText (see Section 6.3), DataAttachmentValue (see Section 8.5.9), DataMatrixValue (see Section 8.5.9), Location (see Section 7.5.2) or MultiChoiceAlternative (see Section 7.5.3). Allowed type of Value in system repositories is specific to a particular repository and subject to constraints of the repository (see Sections 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11).

In XML schema file FFMII_v1_0_rdm_model.xsd

Complex type AnyReferenceDataItemValue

Current XML:

<complexType name="AnyReferenceDataItemValue">

<choice minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">

<element name="String" type="string"></element>

<element name="Integer" type="int"></element>

<element name="Double" type="double"></element>

<element name="Decimal" type="decimal"></element>

<element name="Boolean" type="boolean"></element>

<element name="Date" type="date"></element>

<element name="Time" type="time"></element>

<element name="DateTime" type="dateTime"></element>

<element name="Duration" type="duration"></element>

<element name="Binary" type="base64Binary"></element>

<element name="MLText" type="ffmcm:MLText"></element>

<element name="Location" type="ffmcm:Location"></element>

<element name="MultiChoiceAlternative"

type="ffmcm:MultiChoiceAlternative">

</element>

<element name="WorkTypeSpecification"

type="ffmwm:WorkTypeSpecification">

</element>

<element name="UserProfile" type="ffmrmp:UserProfile"></element>

<element name="FieldInitiatedRequestSpecification" type="ffmfm:FieldInitiatedRequestSpecification"></element>

</choice>

</complexType>

Fixed XML (added two lines marked with bold):

<complexType name="AnyReferenceDataItemValue">

<choice minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">

<element name="String" type="string"></element>

<element name="Integer" type="int"></element>

<element name="Double" type="double"></element>

<element name="Decimal" type="decimal"></element>

<element name="Boolean" type="boolean"></element>

<element name="Date" type="date"></element>

<element name="Time" type="time"></element>

<element name="DateTime" type="dateTime"></element>

<element name="Duration" type="duration"></element>

<element name="Binary" type="base64Binary"></element>

<element name="MLText" type="ffmcm:MLText"></element>

<element name="DataAttachmentValue" type="ffmcm:DataAttachmentValue"></element>

<element name="DataMatrixValue" type="ffmcm:DataMatrixValue"></element>

<element name="Location" type="ffmcm:Location"></element>

<element name="MultiChoiceAlternative"

type="ffmcm:MultiChoiceAlternative">

</element>

<element name="WorkTypeSpecification"

type="ffmwm:WorkTypeSpecification">

</element>

<element name="UserProfile" type="ffmrmp:UserProfile"></element>

<element name="FieldInitiatedRequestSpecification" type="ffmfm:FieldInitiatedRequestSpecification"></element>

</choice>

</complexType>

BR, Johannes

--
Johannes Lehtinen
gsm +358 40 734 7049
Rossum Oy