Rendering a Form for a Work Item

The Forms Runtime Adapter is a JavaScript API provided as part of the BPM runtime. To display a TIBCO form, a client application must load and use the Forms Runtime Adapter in the browser control containing the form.

Note: See the TIBCO Business Studio Forms User’s Guide for detailed information about the Forms Runtime Adapter.

When a work item is opened, the client application must display the work item data to the user, using either:

  • a TIBCO form, which provides a web-based user interface to the work item data.
  • a custom form. Development and use of custom forms is entirely the responsibility of the client application, so is not covered further in this guide.

BPMTestApplication displays work item data as a TIBCO form. The ViewWorkItem method (defined in ViewWorkItem.cs):

  • creates a web browser control to hold the form.
  • calls Adapter.OpenItem to open the work item and fetch its associated data.
  • calls ShowItem (which works with FormRedirect.htm) to render the form and display it to the user. 
    public ViewWorkItem(Adapter adapter, string guid, WorkItem workItem)
{
   InitializeComponent();
   webBrowser1.AllowWebBrowserDrop = false;
   //webBrowser1.IsWebBrowserContextMenuEnabled = false;
   webBrowser1.WebBrowserShortcutsEnabled = false;
   webBrowser1.ObjectForScripting = this;
   this.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterParent;
   _adapter = adapter;
   _guid = guid;
   _workItem = workItem;
   try
   {
      _item = _adapter.OpenItem(_guid, workItem);
      ShowItem();
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
      MessageBox.Show("ERROR: Failed to open item: " + ex.Message);
      throw ex;
   }
}
public void ShowItem()
{
   Text = "Viewing item: " + _item.presentation.activityName;
   HtmlDocument doc = webBrowser1.Document;
   string pathToHTML = Environment.CurrentDirectory + "/FormRedirect.htm";
   StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(pathToHTML);
   string htmlText = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
   streamReader.Close();
   htmlText = htmlText.Replace("%%SCRIPT_LOCATION%%", _adapter.GetJSURL());
   // Now create a temporary file for the HTML page with the correct host location
   string tempFile = Path.GetTempFileName();
   FileStream File_Stream = new FileStream(tempFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
   StreamWriter FileWriter = new StreamWriter(File_Stream);
   try
   {
      FileWriter.BaseStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.End);
      FileWriter.Write(htmlText);
   }
   finally
   {
      FileWriter.Close();
   }
   webBrowser1.Url = new Uri(tempFile);
}