Hello Harm,

Yes, you can do that using a deeplink to a process flow. From the process flow you can do anything you’d like.

For your specific goal, I think this information would be helpful: https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/product-updates/release-notes-universal-gui-2022-2-17-0-3557#Deep+link+to+process+flow. Following this approach, you can create a URL that directly points to a process flow and then you can embed the deeplink into your HTML control. In this way, when the deeplink will be clicked, it will be opened in Universal.

You can use the syntax from “Improved HTML with a deep link” (https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/product-updates/universal-gui-2024-2-14-5313#Improved+HTML+control+with+a+deep+link) indeed. That just uses the deep link to process flow in the HTML field.

Thank you,
Alexandra 

Hi Alexandra,

Thanks, this looks like exactly what I need, I will try it later this week and keep you posted about my experiences.

@Alexandra Egri,

I believe it must be possible, but I am now running into an error. 

Behind the scenes I have tried these hyperlinks:

<a href="/application=:application/processflow=pf_open_document_observation?obs_guid=' + inc_obs_guid + '">' + obs_custom_id + '</a>'  

'<a href="/application=:' + CAST(SESSION_CONTEXT(N'tsf_appl_id') AS VARCHAR(10)) + '/processflow=pf_open_document_observation?obs_guid=' + inc_obs_guid + '">' + obs_custom_id + '</a>'

both didn’t work, I had to change the URL like below, because the application runs as child application, and without hashtag it didn’t work

/universal/#application=:' + CAST(SESSION_CONTEXT(N'tsf_appl_id') AS VARCHAR(10)) + '/...

Result:

But using the hyperlink results in this error/message:

While I am sure about the existence of the process flow and the process variable

Do you have more suggestions?

I am one step further now, it seems to work when a application alias is set.

One thing which doesn’t work as expected is the fact that the document which I like to open via the process flow opens in a new browser tab. This can result in many open tabs, especially on a mobile devices.

By default the document should open in the same browser tab, if not then the user can indicate this explicitly…

Is there a workaround to play with this behavior? Or is it an idea to make this optional in the process flow actions of type Open document?
 

One more additional question... What happens if the application runs as a progressive web app (PWA) on a mobile device? Then it is not possible to open multiple browser tabs?

Hello, Harm.

I think the first issue might be because of the extra colon symbol 

Can you try and update the URL without the colon?

For your second issue, if the URL is correct, it should open the link within universal tab. Can you show us the HTML that you used and also the resulting URL?

@Alexandra Egri , Aren't the examples mentioned in the release notes then incorrect?

origin + /application=:application 
Example: https://16098.thinkwise.app/#application=1286
Takes the user to application 1286

(Universal GUI (2024.2.14) | Thinkwise Community (thinkwisesoftware.com))

The colon symbol was used to emphasize that the “application” is a variable. As you can see in your example, “1286” doesn’t have colon symbol in front.

I got it working without a colon in the URL and adding the hashtag.

This works now for us:

/#application=' + CAST(SESSION_CONTEXT(N'tsf_appl_id') AS VARCHAR(10)) + '/processflow=pf_open_document_...

This differs from the release notes, but is fine with us.

The only thing we are not completely satisfied with now is the fact that a new tab is opened every time. This is not desirable in most cases, we want to be able to control this behavior in any case, preferably with an input setting in the process flow.

@Harm Horstman, for your third question regarding the case when application runs as a progressive web app, I tested your scenario and it worked to open multiple browser tabs. Let us know if you have the same result or need extra details.

Thank you, 
Alexandra

​​​Hi @Alexandra Egri, 

I can verify that it works smooth when the application runs as PWA on a mobile device. So opening multiple browser tabs is not an issue when the applications runs as installed PWA.

Only one thing to mention, in that case, is that the tile menu screen is no longer completely visible after the hyperlink is used.

/#application=' + CAST(SESSION_CONTEXT(N'tsf_appl_id') AS VARCHAR(10)) + '/processflow=pf_open_document_...

Just to double check your expected behavior, you would like the links to be open within the same Universal tab? If that’s the case we need more details to identify the issue. (the inserted HTML , the origin and the resulting URL)

​​​Hi @Alexandra Egri, 

I can verify that it works smooth when the application runs as PWA on a mobile device. So opening multiple browser tabs is not an issue when the applications runs as installed PWA.

Only one thing to mention, in that case, is that the tile menu screen is no longer completely visible after the hyperlink is used.

 

 

 

This seems to be a bug. Could you create a ticket for this in TCP? 

The expected behavior is to open another table/screen that has a URL like this:
origin + /#application=stt/subject=vw_observation/subjectVariant=observation_as_main 

And than go to a specific row

Hello, Harm!

Your expected behavior sounds possible, but in order to ensure we assist you effectively, could you provide a few more details?

• What is the inserted HTML
• The origin
• The resulting URL

Hi Alexandra,

Nice, I hope this makes it clear...

• Inserted HTML / Hyperlink   (this triggers a process flow)

  https://.../#application=stt/processflow=pf_open_observation?obs_id=123

• The origin

  https://.../#application=stt/subject=vw_incident

• The resulting URL

  https://.../#application=stt/subject=vw_observation

  In the last step the cursor should go to record with obs_id = 123

Hi!

A potential issue might be that the anchor tag has ‘target=_blank” attribute added. Can you check if that’s the case?

If not, we still need more information about the setup:

• The inserted HTML (like the one sent in the previous messages):

Has the code above been changed?

• The origin: 

Is this the origin that was used?

• The resulting URL, like the one sent in the previous messages: 

Hello Alexandra,

This is how the actual link look like:

<a href="/universal/#application=stt/processflow=pf_open_document_observation?obs_guid=AB7DBF4C-22B9-479C-84D4-B5BCA2B8027A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OBS-2436-0004</a>

The anchor tag seems to be overruled by the platform, because this is the field expression currently in the view:

'<a href="/universal/#application=stt/processflow=pf_open_document_observation?obs_guid=' + inc_obs_guid + '" target="_self">' + obs_custom_id + '</a>' 

Could you insert in your DB the link without prepending it with “/universal”?

When using only the route(without origin), the routes should start with “/#aplication=…..”

I could do that, but I don’t want that.

To keep good overview all applications are setup like this:

Hi Alexandra, thanks for your support.

I think it is now clear that the functionality is working properly, the documentation about this subject might be optimized a little.

Opening a record in another table by using a process flow which is triggered by a deep link works fine in grids and card lists, but not in forms.

I will create a support ticket for this in TCP.