Buttons and processes

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Availability

This feature is available with Orbeon Forms 4.2 and newer.

Introduction

This documentation describes how to configure the behavior of the buttons that appear at the bottom of the Form Runner detail page, whether in new, edit or view mode. Here is an example of such buttons:

What is a process?

A "process" consists in a list of actions, or steps, which are executed by Form Runner, typically when the user presses a button. For example, a process might say: "when the user presses this button, validate the form data, then save it to the database".

With Orbeon Forms, processes are configurable. They are defined separately from buttons, but can be linked to buttons. Orbeon Forms comes with predefined processes for some common tasks, such as saving form data, but you can write your own processes.

Associating a process with a button

A process is automatically associated with a button by name when using the following properties:

oxf.fr.detail.buttons
oxf.fr.detail.buttons.inner
oxf.fr.detail.buttons.view

For example:

<property as="xs:string" name="oxf.fr.detail.buttons.acme.order">
    summary clear pdf save-final wizard-prev wizard-next review
</property>

Here the following buttons get associated with processes of the same name defined in separate properties:

refresh
summary
save-final
wizard-prev
wizard-next
review

The clear button is not implemented as processes but handled directly by Form Runner. This is also the case of the pdf and tiff buttons, until Orbeon Forms 2016.3. [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2017.1] The pdf and tiff buttons are implemented using the open-rendered-format action.

Customizing existing processes

So how do you customize processes? Say you want to specify a couple of buttons on your "acme/hr" form. Like above, you define a property:

<property as="xs:string" name="oxf.fr.detail.buttons.acme.hr">
    save-progress send
</property>

This places a save-progress and send button on the page. (Prior to Orbeon Forms 2021.1, use the save-draft button/process name instead of save-progress.) Their default labels are "Save" and "Send". Each button is automatically associated with processes of the same names, save-progress and send. These particular button and process names are standard, but we can customize them specifically for our form. Again, this is done with a property:

<property as="xs:string" name="oxf.fr.detail.process.send.acme.hr">
    require-valid
    then email
    then send("http://example.org/")
    then navigate("/success")
    recover navigate("/failure")
</property>

With this, we have overridden the functionality of the "Send" button specifically for the "acme/hr" form, here, amongst other things, to send an email on form submission using the email action.

Button labels can be overridden as well:

<property
  as="xs:string"
  name="oxf.fr.resource.*.*.en.buttons.send"
  value="Fancy Send"/>

With this, we have overridden the label of the "Send" button in general for all forms which are displayed in the english local.

Another approach would be to create an entirely custom button instead of reusing the name send. Just pick a button/process name, say foo, and then:

add foo to the list of buttons for the form
define a button label for foo
define a process for foo

NOTE: With Orbeon Forms 4.5.x and earlier, the property must be oxf.fr.resource.*.*.en.detail.buttons.send. With Orbeon Forms 4.6 and newer, the detail token can and should be omitted.